The race ran from 6:30am til 6:30pm so it started in the dark and ended at dusk. Since we would be starting in the dark the race began on the Sebring International Raceway. It is a road course with a total of 17 turns on the flat 3.7 mile course.
We would be on the raceway for 3 laps and that would give us just enough time that the sun would be starting to rise and then we would head out onto the road. The Raceway was awesome to ride on. It was really fast and it was fun to ride on a closed course. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you could maintain 22-25mph on the raceway with barely any power output because of how smooth and flat it was. By the time we headed off of the raceway I was already the first double diamond bike in the 12 hour race. There was a guy competing in the 24 hour race who was off ahead of me and there were about 8 recumbent. I can understand that the recumbent bikes were more aero than I, and figured that they would be out front by themselves but the guy riding the road bike with clip-on aerobars was just a machine.
He stayed ahead of me for the entire 12 hours and was still going strong into the night. After we finished the 3 laps on the race way we had to complete a large 89 mile loop in the surrounding countryside. The course was extremely well marked and there was never a question if you were headed in the correct direction. It was rolling hills through orange groves and there wasn't much traffic to speak of.
There was very little wind in the morning, which was unfortunate because it would have been at our backs the whole way to the first checkpoint/turn-around point. I had 4 bottles of Accelerade and a whole bunch of Gel so I didn't need to stop at the turn-around, just gave them my number and kept moving. I figured I could make it to the second checkpoint (at 80 miles) in about 4 hours and that would be right about when I needed a bottle refill.
The checkpoint only ended up being at the 76 mile point and I was ahead of schedule so it only took 3.5 hours to get there so I ended up with Accelerade to spare. After a quick bottle change I was back of the bike and straight into a headwind. It started off weak and then eventually picked up a little. I ended up riding into it for about the next 10-15 miles or so. I had to keep telling myself not to try and fight it too much because I still had 8.5 hours to ride. The nice thing was that after we made the final turn of the first large loop we got to finish the loop with 5-10 miles of tailwind. After completing the large loop we returned to the entrance to the raceway which would serve as a turn-around point for the shorter 13 mile laps that we would be riding for the rest of the day.
I decided that I would head out for one lap on the 13 mile loop and then do a bike change to a road bike, just to allow myself to stretch and change the muscle groups that I had been using. I used the road bike for the following 2 laps. These 2 laps were a dark time of the race for me. I felt horrible and questioned whether I would even be able to finish. It was at this point that the guy on a recumbent, with whom I was riding earlier in the day came by and reminded me that there were always bad times in ultra cycling events and that I just needed to ride through it and eventually I would feel better. I guess that is true since eventually you will either feel better on the bike or the race will be over and then you will feel better off of the bike.
Then decided that the wind was getting to be too much and that my TT bike was much better suited to the task of the gently rolling course. When I mention that there were hills on the course I feel that I should explain that these are only hills by Florida standards. With a little effort you could ride up them 23-25mpg and were never slowed below 15mph even if you soft pedaled the hill. The wind became a much bigger problem than the hills ever were. The switch back to my TT bike was the last bke switch of the day for me. first, because it was better suited for the job at hand; second, because I didn't want to have to keep changing timing chips between bikes; and third, because I was so tired that my arms felt like Jello and resting them in the aerobars felt nice. After this point I was figuring in my head how many laps I would be able to complete before the end of the race and I was just counting down to the finish. At some point I switched from Accelerade to Gatorade just for some variety and I made the change from all gel to some oranges, bananas and grapes. After 5 short laps I made the decision only to stop every other lap because this saved me some time and it gave me something to look forward to. At one pit stop my mother was dumping water on me to cool me down and I kept yelling at her that it was freezing and she kept answering that it was lukewarm water so I guess my perception of reality was gone by that point. On lap nine I knew that I could easily complete 2 more laps but there was no way I would have enough time for 3 so I rode with a guy on a hand cycle who was out to break the world record for distance in 24 hours. I let him draft off of me for the whole lap but it took longer than expected so I had to hammer the last lap and that would prove to be my downfall. After riding for 11hours and 35 minutes it was in my last 15 minutes of riding that my stomach shut down and it would remain that way for the next day and a half. At the pit after I finished my last lap, I had to have one person hold the bike and another person hold me because I couldn't lift my leg over the bike by myself and I almost did a face plant into the dirt or the palm tree we were standing beside. Waiting just over an hour for the award ceremony was torture because I was nauseated and freezing (in 60* weather, it had cooled down from 85* during the day). I ended up finishing first in my age group and first double diamond frame with a total of 232.5 miles on the day. I don't care if Florida is flat, that is still a long way. It was fun (sort-of) and now it is check off of my to do list. I don't think I'll be attempting anything like this again anytime soon.
(Ahhhhh, finally finished)
Here I am with my great pit crew
Look mom, I won!
It's finally getting to the time of year that we can start riding outside again. Maybe not every day(yet) but soon enough. I got out for about 2 hours this morning. Temps were in the 60's and the sun was shinning. There was a 15mph wind from the south west that made the trip home a bit more challenging than normal. 
It was a nice ride and there were lots of people out on bikes. I think today was the first day the parkway was reopened for cars. I must have seen 25 cyclists (8-10 pros) and only 10 cars. All of the riders were going the opposite direction so I had no one to ride with. I guess maybe I need to switch my loop so I go the same way. If I did that and started riding with those guys they may reverse their loop to get away from me.
I started the ride doing intervals for the first hour and then did tempo for the rest. Overall I rode for just about 2 1/2 hours on a beautiful day.
I was really looking forward to the race today because I love any excuse to use all of my TT "stuff" and a TT is the only race where I actually stand a chance. The day started off cold. 40* and cold. On my way to the race the temperature went up to about 48* but it started raining. Finally, the rain stopped about 20 miles from the race location and the wind that was in the forecast was almost nonexistent. I had to be at the race by 11:30(that's when packet pick-up ended) but my start time wasn't until 13:00 so I lots of time to waste. I ended up arriving even earlier thanks to Google maps giving incorrect travel time, maybe it's just how I drive. So needless to say I had lots of time to stand around in the cold. I warmed up for 30 minutes on the stationary trainer and stopped at 12:45 to get make all of my final preparations and get to the start line for my start. While I was on the trainer the wind had begun to pick up a bit and by the time I took the start it was just plain windy. The course was on back roads with little traffic but there were some rough sections of broken up pavement. We had a tail/cross wind on the way to the turnaround and a head/cross wind on the way back to the finish. With the tail wind on the way out, I did the first 12.5 miles in 27 minutes 10 seconds. I knew I was going good because I was holding back to save my energy for the head wind on the return trip and I was still 40 seconds faster than I was last year. It's a good thing I was saving something because the return trip didn't disappoint. The wind was tough and it was evident by all of the riders that I ended up passing that they had gone out too hard and were dieing in the headwind. I ended up finishing in 59 minutes 35 seconds at just over 25mph. Not bad for such a windy day and it was my first 40k in under an hour. That's right boys, I'm in the hour club! (but just barely) It was good enough for 5th place in the cat 1,2,3 race on this day. So I'm happy with the result. I improved on my time from last year by 3 minutes 35 seconds.
We would be on the raceway for 3 laps and that would give us just enough time that the sun would be starting to rise and then we would head out onto the road. The Raceway was awesome to ride on. It was really fast and it was fun to ride on a closed course. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you could maintain 22-25mph on the raceway with barely any power output because of how smooth and flat it was. By the time we headed off of the raceway I was already the first double diamond bike in the 12 hour race. There was a guy competing in the 24 hour race who was off ahead of me and there were about 8 recumbent. I can understand that the recumbent bikes were more aero than I, and figured that they would be out front by themselves but the guy riding the road bike with clip-on aerobars was just a machine.
He stayed ahead of me for the entire 12 hours and was still going strong into the night. After we finished the 3 laps on the race way we had to complete a large 89 mile loop in the surrounding countryside. The course was extremely well marked and there was never a question if you were headed in the correct direction. It was rolling hills through orange groves and there wasn't much traffic to speak of.
There was very little wind in the morning, which was unfortunate because it would have been at our backs the whole way to the first checkpoint/turn-around point. I had 4 bottles of Accelerade and a whole bunch of Gel so I didn't need to stop at the turn-around, just gave them my number and kept moving. I figured I could make it to the second checkpoint (at 80 miles) in about 4 hours and that would be right about when I needed a bottle refill.
The checkpoint only ended up being at the 76 mile point and I was ahead of schedule so it only took 3.5 hours to get there so I ended up with Accelerade to spare. After a quick bottle change I was back of the bike and straight into a headwind. It started off weak and then eventually picked up a little. I ended up riding into it for about the next 10-15 miles or so. I had to keep telling myself not to try and fight it too much because I still had 8.5 hours to ride. The nice thing was that after we made the final turn of the first large loop we got to finish the loop with 5-10 miles of tailwind. After completing the large loop we returned to the entrance to the raceway which would serve as a turn-around point for the shorter 13 mile laps that we would be riding for the rest of the day.
(Ahhhhh, finally finished)
Here I am with my great pit crew
Anyway, less than a week until I race at Sebring, FL. I'm doing the 12 hour race. Since my longest ride this year was only 112 miles and 5.5 hours long, 12 hours may be a bit of a stretch but it should be fun. I'm sure it will make for good stories in nothing else.
I just got back Tuesday from being in Florida for 2 weeks. It wasn't really a training camp but it may as well have been. I really had no plans so basically all I did was ride and rest. On Sunday I got to ride the Tour de Cape (tour of Cape Coral). It wasn't a race, it was a 100 mile bicycle tour of the city. Someone should have told everyone else that it wasn't a race. I started in a really fast group and we covered the first 44 miles in 1hr 40min. We had a really nice pace line going until some guys on recumbents got in. The fact that they were was really no problem except that I got stuck behind them in the pace line for about two trips through so I basically had no break from the wind, and POP there I go off the back. Then I was on my own and that was a bad thing because the course wasn't marked correctly. So, I got lost and ended up making a big circle and would have done it again but I ran into another group being led by a police man in a Dodge Charger. I rode with them for a while but they were moving a little too slow for my tastes so I powered on ahead. The Charger stayed with me and the rest of the group was left with another cop on a motorcycle. Then at some point I was joined by another police SUV. So for the last 30 miles I had my very own 2 police car escort. I was really cool, they were stopping traffic at all of the intersections and I got to blow right through. I ended up riding 112 miles in a little over 5 hours. Riding in Florida is alot different. You get to ride faster because of no hills but I sure did miss resting on the downhills. Anyway, It was a great time and I'm ready for my next trip to Florida in February.
