Boulder Sunrise Century ride

Today was one of my longest training days before the race. It was supposed to be even longer, but I cut the swim out. I had planned to swim at 6:00am before the ride and set the alarm for 5:00. Luckily before I left, I thought I might want to double check when my gym actually opens on a Saturday, and it turned out not until 7:00. A quick scan of all the Boulder pools showed that 7:00 is the earliest. So out of deference to my sweet husband and riding partner (who needed to go into work at 3... on a Saturday??? a whole 'nother can of worms...) I skipped the hour long swim.

Since the forecast was calling for a high of 95, we decided to do a ride up on the Peak to Peak highway. I remembered seeing a flier for the Boulder Sunrise Century and since 100 miles was my goal today, we did that. Obviously, we started from out house, but here is the gist - Hygiene to Lyons up St. Vrain to the Peak to Peak to Nederland, back to Ward and down Lefthand.



7,000 lovely feet of climbing:



A difficult century (having only done E-Rock and the Triple, I can say subjectively yes, it is somewhere in the middle):



The climb up St. Vrain was longer than I remembered. I used my power tap today (instead of last week when I just rode how I felt like riding). I tried to keep my climbing power at 140 watts, which was much easier to do at the beginning of the ride, than at the end. My 140 corresponds to Jeremy's 230, which makes me feel better about my numbers - it's hard being a small girl and talking power with the big boys.

At the bottom of the canyon, a girl came flying by without saying anything. We kept at our constant pace and a couple miles from the top of the canyon, we passed her. Apparently she had a bit of a competitive streak, because she had to repass us. As we were getting close to Raymond, we saw that we were gaining on her, keeping at our 140 watt pace. At one point she looked back at us and saw we were there and sprinted! It made my day!!! Anyway, the point of this story is that the 140 watts was a good effort for me and I think it helped me stay consistent today.

I forgot how much of a climb it is on the Peak to Peak to Ward, and we went down to town to get more water and snacks. Then we had to climb that little nasty hill back to the Peak to Peak and headed to Nederland. On the second down hill, I ran over a giant roofing nail and got a flat tire. Jeremy was ahead of me and didn't hear me yell, so he went on without me. Luckily I am a modern woman and fixed my own flat, in under 10 minutes. But I am a weak modern woman and could only get about 20 lbs of air in my tire with my frame pump. Jeremy did eventually stop when he realized that I wasn't back there and a woman who went by me carried the message that I was stopped. We rejoined and got to Nederland, where we found a floor pump to get my tire back up to happy pressure.

The climb back up to Ward was probably the toughest part of the ride, we were at about 65 miles and feeling it. Lefthand Canyon was a great relief. There wasn't too much of a headwind up the canyon and we kept up a good pace. Jeremy made me go in front in case I fell into trouble again and there was a car that wouldn't pass him, and by the time we got to the fork for Jamestown we had a whole line of cars behind us. Oh, and I ran over a mouse. I didn't want to hit the guy, but I have learned from experience that it's never a good idea to swerve while going 25 mph.

Our total riding time was 6:58 but I think we were out from 6:30-2:30 (the tired changing and subsequent hunt for a floor pump took more rest time than we had anticipated). Back in 90 deg Boulder, I cranked out a 50 minute run. My legs felt surprisingly ok (and I wore the Newtons) but my stomach started complaining after about 30 minutes. I was drank 6 Infinit water bottles on the bike and took 20 oz on the run. I may need to experiment with just gatorade on the run.

All in all, I was out 9 hours today. I'm ok with missing the swim.