The goal was to keep the pace steady and start slow, spin up hills as much as possible, eat & drink when & what I felt like and most importantly just keep going!

About 3 miles in I caught a quick changing light and a lady right behind me wasn't paying attention and fell over - she hit my left leg, but basically missed me - what a way to start! She was okay, admitted she hadn't been paying attention because she was diddling with her computer, and we both continued on... With these large organized rides you have to be extra vigilant because they tend to attract more inexperienced riders.

The goal was to ride the first 40-50 non-stop and go rest stop from rest stop from there as I was only carrying an aero-drink and 1 dt bottle and a couple of lara bars & gatorade packets.

The first 13.7 went by quickly and I took in my first & only gel and skipped the first rest stop. The next 9 miles was killer hill (I got passed/unicyclked by a guy in a green zentai suit riding a giant unicycle how embarrassing!) - took in a half a lara bar during this section and just kept peddling. Hit 39.9 on the mightily fought for downhill - and overtook the unicyclist and never saw him again til the finish! HA HA take that - downhill aero-revenge complete!

I ended up stopping at the 2nd rest stop to hit the toilet and top off the bottles. Good thing I brought those last minute Gatorade packets because all they had for electrolytes was Heed powder which I find completely unpalatable.

The next 20 was lots of rollers and I stopped again at the 40.6 stop - bathroom break again, top off the fluids and started the sugar cookie nutrition regime. Here's the nutrition schema for my ride in lurid detail, I probably ate more than I should have (~300 cals/hr) but felt great energy wise the entire ride:

Food:
1 sample hammer gel @ mile 13
1/2 lara bar @ mile 20
1/2 lara bar @ mile 30ish
~10 shortbread type cookies after mile 40 over course of rest of ride
1 tiny banana
2 just fruit bars
1/2 pbj sandwich
1/2 chicken salad sandwich

Drink:
~3 bottles of water, 1 was flavored with ginger honey crystals
~3 bottles of gatorade

I don't think I drank enough, but wasn't thirsty either... just felt dehydrated after the fact. My energy levels felt good the entire ride. There were a couple points on the ride where I didn't feel so hot though. The first was around mile 32. I just felt flat and didn't want to continue - I chalk this one up to fatigue from lack of sleep. I pushed through it - ate cookies and felt better (this is where the cookie thing worked to my advantage, I wanted to eat them and had to ride more to get more!). The second time I didn't feel so hot was around miles 60-70. My shoulders and lower back were really starting to fatigue and were sore from a lot of riding the hoods instead of aero. Some of the roads were rough - and sometimes there were packs of 15-20 people in mini-pelotons passing very close -very quickly!- that made riding in aero a little scary.

Fortunately this section was fairly flattish and I found a group of 5-6 riders that were going my speed to hang off of for 45 minutes or so which put me in a comfortable pace in aero to relieve some of the pressure. I stopped at mile 76 for a good 20-30 minutes for some food and to sit in a different position for a bit.

The other rest stops were in & out bathroom/cookies/fill bottles get back on bike. Taking a little more time at 76 worked great because the last 28 miles were a breeze - and this is where I had expected to fall apart completely.

The hill up the coast range was gradual enough that I was able to keep a decent pace, except for one short evil hill section that I watched several people fall over from muscle cramps and others ended up walking up (it was about 10-15 degrees colder nearer the coast). I had to stand for about half that section to keep peddling but I did it! It also helped my fatigue levels that the last section was all downhill and I was mashing at 25 mph for about 6 miles (gorgeous awesome section of road winding through coastal forest).

Ride into town was amazing. Finish! YES!

Post ride dinner on the beach, a cream ale from the local brew pub, and a temporarily lost bag ended the day. Some stretching while I had to wait for the car to get me, then we drove to the campground set up camp and went to dinner down the road. Good times.

The ride was spectacular - definitely would do it again.

Drink more fluids, do a few more 80+ rides on the tri bike so I could skip a couple more of the rest stops. Be able to hang off some of the larger pelotons to take better advantage of drafting - I just couldn't hold onto any of the larger groups without feeling like I might blow up later on down the road.

Beach - Beer - Bicyclists.


Speed and stamina - wasn't too concerned about pushing the speed on this one - just getting to the distance without blowing up.


First century+ in 2 years - YES!
Longest ride on tri bike.

In retrospect one thing that I think really worked for me was the lack of caffeine - I had none the whole day. I really wanted a coffee at the start (there wasn't any). I really wanted a coke mid-day (there wasn't any). I didn't have any caffeinated gels either. I did the whole day with no caffeine. Crazy. But I never had any huge fatigue issues either - felt fairly even keeled most of the ride. Will have to explore further on longer training rides.

The only soreness I have now is some sunburn on the back of my left leg and in my shoulders. Feel heavy and fatigued, but otherwise just fine - should be back to normal tomorrow! Thanks tri training - you're doing my athleticism right :)