July 11th 2010, East District CC. Getting up at 4am was not as bad as feared. I even made it to start of race with plenty of time. The start of the race was encouraging, I did the first 25 miles in 53.14 and the first 50 miles in 1.48.77. At that point I was really enjoying it, especially the tailwind section. I really thought I was going to do very well! But, after 50 or 60 miles, I slowed down, it may have been dehydration, and the last two laps were really tough. Also, another problem was that my new Cateye Strada computer was incorrectly calibrated. Despite putting in the recommended circumference, it was exaggerating my distance. At the end of the 100 mile race, my computer said I’d done 103. (It was a good job I didn’t stop when computer said race over). It’s a pain having to do another 3 miles when mentally, you think you’ve finished. So my split times were not quite as impressive, as it was more like a split time for 48.5 miles. But, even so, it was a good first half of the race.
My final time for 100 miles was 3.52.18. (25.8mph) It was a personal best, but, a little disappointing after good start, but, that’s a 100 mile race – you have to keep going for four hours.
The wind was quite strong. On the last lap, when I was pretty tired, I got down to 14mph on one section into headwind. On tailwind section I was doing 38-40mph and spinning out of my 53 chainring. Even on last lap when I felt cream crackered, I was still cruising along at 30mph with wind behind.
Riding into a headwind is a funny thing, on first two laps, I was riding strongly into headwind and maintaining a very good speed. But, when I lost energy, it was really tortuous riding into headwind, you hardly felt you were moving. And then Michael Hutchinson came flying past. His was a very impressive ride (average 29.5mph for 100 miles). Surely he would have got a competition record if it hadn’t been so windy (but, then wind didn’t seem to affect him much). Julia Shaw is in great form and she set women’s record with 3.45. Hopefully both riders will be racing in Commonwealth games later in year.
I took 1.7 litres on the bike (one litre bottle and 0.75l bottle ) I left two spare bottles at a roundabout, but, was attached to not picking them up. So I made do with the two bottles, and didn’t even finish them. But, when I finished, I realised how thirsty I was. I drank an awful lot on the return. I also did the ‘living room colour test’ – a polite way of testing colour of urine after race. Suffice to say, I would have been better off drinking more. If I’d been chosen for a dope test, I wouldn’t have been able to give very much.
At the end of the race, my first thoughts were ‘I’m definitely not doing a 12 hour – I couldn’t cope with this times three!. However, I would like to have another go at a 100 mile TT this year. I think I could do a faster time.
I’ve probably written hundreds of times on this blog about not getting dehydrated e.t.c. But, sometimes you just have to learn from experience. My last 100 was five years ago.
I will make a note of temperature (21 degrees) water consumed 1.6 litres and make sure next time to consume more water.
Good thing is legs feel good today.
Maybe you only need to add a back hydration vest to give you that edge or would this interfer with air resistance so much to defer any fluid beneifit…
Well done!
(Also if you lost fluids through dehydration, your blood volume may decrease and thus your heart has to work harder, use more energy to raise blood pressure).
I know its 4hrs but you need some friends or family if allowed- to pass you drinks (I hate carrying bottles but have used up 2x 750ml on sportives easily) you must have been really pushing yourself to get that time in a headwind!
Good stuff. I guess the only answer to the headwind problem is do more hills (you already like them!) in a bigger gear, and get used to it. Then spin more when you are on the track
And another well done from me – I’d be happy to do 100 miles in 10 hours – as much as I think I could manage
Well done, Tejvan, that was a hard event. I packed after 75 miles – pretty much spent.