Ultraman training is now in full swing. Just wrapped up a tough 4 day weekend that started at 5:37 am on friday morning when I hit the water at the RBAC. 10,000 yard swim workout. Then, in the evening a little trainer session to get me ready for a big saturday--the El Camino Real Double Century ride. http://planetultra.com/portfolio/camino-real-double-century-poker-run/
Saturday morning rolled around too early. Left the house at 5am and got to Irvine by 5:45, checked in, strapped on as much food as I could carry and started off with the main group at 6:15am. A little cold the first 20 miles through Irvine and down Newport Coast and up Laguna Canyon. Then it was down to Oceanside, up to Fallbrook, back down to Oceanside and then up to Foothill Ranch, Coto de Caza and Santiago Canyon. 9000 feet of climbing and riding in dark. I finished around 8pm, for a total ride time of 13:44 and moving time of around 12:30. A ton of traffic lights made it even tougher, but got to ride on roads I'd never been on. The weather was friggin' awesome. It had to be close to 70 degrees when I finished. Best weather I've had in ages for an event.
Probably the best part of the ride was getting to the 171.4 mile mark (Day 2 of Ultraman) in one piece and well under 12 hours. The last rest stop was about a mile later, and the group I was in had been riding with our lights on for the past 90 minutes. After pounding two cokes and inhaling a sandwich, and filling my bottles with coke, I took off for the last 29 miles in total darkness, save the light on my bars. We were up at the top of Santiago Canyon near some steakhouse (could I get someone to pick me up there and drive me to my car?). I think I was just too tired to think about riding in the dark. My good friend Brent loaned me his lights, which worked awesome. Fortunately, the last 29 miles only had another 1000 ft climbing, hardly any cars, and a very wide bike lane almost the entire way. You gotta love the OC.
And the worst part of the ride (besides my aching butt) was at Mile 150 when I was 200 yards away from my in-laws' house. Hmmmm, if I could make it up Beach road hill (at dana point), I could have them drive me to my car. What made it tougher was we had to stop at the traffic light, so I had plenty of time for devil Barryman to pop up on one shoulder and angel Hillary to pop up on the other--you know the conversation. Hillary won, and I motored on--oh, I could so have used a motor.
Great ride and would be fun to do with a group. Riding solo was tough, but that's how it is in a race, but everyone out there was so helpful and when you found yourself in a small group, everyone was very friendly, pointing out the directions and hazards. Wheelbuilder Rich asked me the next day "you aren't going to become one of those endurance old guys who does a double century every two weeks, because if you are..." I may do one again, but that distance is checked off my list! I did a double metric at Cool Breeze years ago--130 is not 200.
Sunday had some fun stuff, as did monday. Today is a rest day. Afraid to look at what the rest of this week has in store for me...
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