Oops

I went out to dinner with my parents today. Took out my wallet to get my ID and it wasn't there. I'm a genius and left it in my jersey. Which means I went everywhere this week without my ID this week. It's a good thing I didn't need it (other than driving). And I learned a new lesson: When ordering a drink, I'm not going to get my ID out unless they ask for it.

High Sierra Century

Well... I completed my first century bike ride. It wasn't a race. All the training I did has paid off. The ride was on Saturday (the 6th) just outside of Mammoth. Lets just say 100 miles is kind of difficult. I thought about doing the metric century (64 miles) after nearly giving up on a metric century a week before the ride. Once I got up there though, I signed up for the century.

Here's the ride breakdown: The ride started outside Mammoth at the Whitmore pool. It went up the 395, east along the 120 past Mono Lake, through the mountains, south and more mountains, then around the back side of Crowley. There were 4 main climbs and 5 rest stops. There were a lot of smaller climbs not highlighted in the course profile. Food and drinks were plentiful at rest stops. Actually eating was the hard part. Lunch was at mile 55. My bike is an old Puegeot (made in France), with 12 speeds. In case you know nothing about road bikes these days... my bike is older than me and has 6 gears on the back sprocket, which makes any hill more difficult, especially steep ones.

Deadman Summit was first climb at 8032' and mile 21.4. It wasn't too bad. Mainly because it's only 2 miles long, and was towards the beginning of the ride. Sagehen Summit was the next big climb. At a whopping 8139 feet, it was the highest elevation during the ride. This was somewhat more difficult than Deadmans because it was at mile 47. I don't know how many miles the climb itself was, but it was gradual and lengthy. The reward of making it to the top was well worth it though. The views were amazing. And I felt like I had really accomplished something just making it to the top. And there was a sweet downhill. I broke a spoke on my back wheel during the first of two downhills after Sagehen. It kind of sucked. I ended having to take the sag for about 2 miles (of downhill!) to the lunch stop so I could repair my bike. After lunch there were some nasty whoop-dee-doos. They were rough, but not considered a main climb. Next came Wildrose Summit. This climb blew. The climb was steady and long for the most part, then hiked up to a 12% grade for a very short while. I took the sag for the 12%.. half a mile part 'cause I had already used my easiest gears just to get to the steep part. And I was going to just walk up it, but my mom insisted I not do that. Not to mention it was also around mile 71 and had been sunny all afternoon. Wildrose was a tough one because of its steepness... and I'd already gone 70 miles.. and I didn't have anymore climbing gears on my bike. The last major climb was Watterson Summit at 7496' and mile 81.5. Needless to say I was basically dead by the time I got here. I did make it up though. Unfortunately there was still another short climb to the final rest stop after Watterson. The final rest stop was at mile 83 or so. From thre it was one downhill, some flats, and 2 short climbs to the end. The only problem was the wicked headwind the entire way to the end from the last rest stop. I mean... it was a strong headwind. I had to pedal on the downhills to go forward.

I started around 7:30am. After being out for 9.5 hours and in the saddle for about 7.5 hours I made it. Success!! I was effin hot/tired/sore... There was a bbq afterwards too. I made myself eat a little, but all I really wanted to do was shower and sleep. Needless to say my quads were a bit sore for a day. I'm taking a week off, then it's back to the bike for more epic bike journeys (and possibly a metric century in oct or a full century in jan).