Training Log Archive: biggins

Eastern Sierra Double Century

Much fun. Pretty sweet course, much better than the one two years ago when they moved it south due to lots of snow. It basically breaks down into three parts:
0-35: warmup around town. doesn't count.
35-65: up to mammoth. 4000 feet in 30 miles. suck it flatlanders.
65-145: high rolling stuff to mono lake and then a long easy climb over Sagehen Pass. suck it lowlanders.
145-192: downhill omg headwind, which the crew guys said they clocked at a steady 35 mph, gusting to 50. suck it tall people. oh wait.

It was already gusty and windy when I got up at 4, which didn't really bode well, but after the square loop around Bishop we got to the sheltered west side of the valley and it wasn't too bad at all. The first long climb up to Lake Crowley was long, but a steady grade and never too steep, I did the whole thing in the saddle except a few sharp switchbacks (compared to northstar where you have to stand for the last mile or you fall over). Steadily passing people the whole way. The part through the bottom of the canyon towards the top was especially awesome looking. Met up with a random guy at the second CP (mile 50) who got dropped from the lead pack and was waiting around for somebody to ride with, so we were together for the next 50 miles. The next section along 395 was flatish and dirty and rumble stripped, but its two lanes each way so everybody moved over for us anyway. Then a long climb up through Mammoth, and a sexy descent on brand new pavement back down to 395.

Another little climb over Deadman's Summit, then we cut west into the June Lake Loop. There had been a wall of angry looking clouds hanging right at the eastern crest of the mountains, but we had been far enough out that we hadn't gotten any rain yet. But this cut straight into it, and between Gull lake and the start of Grant lake we had a pretty steady wind driven rain. I thought I saw some snow in there a few times, but it was cold all the same. Right at Grant lake it stopped and turned into a tailwind, so we had a fast and dry ride back out to 395. Then up to the far end of Mono Lake for the 'lunch' CP, but it was windy and sprinkling, so nobody was really hanging around. We showed up just as a pack that dropped off the lead group was about to leave, and my random guy knew most of them so he took off with them. I stopped for a potty break and to refill the water bottles, then took off on my own.

Bit of a headwind going south, but nothing the aerobars couldn't handle, and once we turned the corner onto 120 that first straight section was a ridiculously sweet tailwind. Then a long climb up to Sagehen Pass, which wasn't too steep, and went through some pretty cool looking pine forest. Kind of monotonous though, I knew it was long but I've never been out there before so I had no idea where the top actually was. Got to the cp at the top and stopped to refill the bottles, and another solo guy came up behind me, he'd started late and had been on his own the whole time. We set out down the hill (crazy crosswinds!) and then straight into the wind on the the long flat on 120. He was a big guy too, and we were doing ok fighting into the wind, so we caught three people (my first random guy) and then two more a little later, then went down the insane downhill into Benton.

Hit the last CP right before rt 6, then the seven of us headed out for the last flat 30 miles, which we'd been dreading all day. As soon as we turned the corner onto 6 it was a steady and ridiculous headwind, and even the first part where we were sheltered by the mountains a little bit we were only doing 15. We dropped one guy right away, and then his buddy dropped back for him. It was so windy we couldn't talk or hear anything, and a third guy just disappeared, he must have dropped off and nobody saw him and then its hopeless. The fourth guy dropped off just a little, so I went back to try to pull him back up, but every time he caught up he's lose it again. Finally after three or four tries he just gave up and stopped, so then I was all on my own in the middle of a giant howling dust storm, which was pretty awesome. The last two guys were a little bit ahead at this point, but just couldn't do it on their own, so they just stopped and waited for me. After a couple miles we picked up two more solo guys from the front, and with five it was at least someone possible, switching leads every 20 or 30 seconds. Seriously, when I was in the lead I'd be down as low as I can get on the aerobars, in my smallest gear, going downhill, doing 7mph. It was ridiculous. It took us three hours to do the last 30 miles; I'm pretty sure I did it two years ago in about 1:20, and some of those guys said they've done it before with a tailwind easily in under an hour. We rolled into Bishop a pretty miserable sight, I was toast for the last five miles, and all I wanted to do was slow down and drop off, but I knew I'd never make it back on my own in any reasonable time. In fact two of the guys we dropped with about 15 miles left finally came in about 50 minutes after we did. My moving time was 13:23, total elapsed time was somewhere around 14h.

We were actually the second pack to finish, they said the lead group was maybe an hour ahead of us, which was the slowest winning time for this course than anyone can remember. And they said it was probably the second hardest conditions in recent memory, the worst being two years ago. What can I say, I attract the best. Despite that, it was a really nice ride for most of it, and the scenery for the first 3/4 of it was gorgeous.

Had no problems with food or water, lots of water at all the cps, and stuffed down lots of dense tasty munchies. The best being either those Nature Valley carmel covered granola bars, or the Star Wars gummy candies. Which were especially awesome because having candy apple Yoda stuck in your teeth makes the next 15 miles very yummy.

Neither of the gpses lasted the whole time, but the garmin came pretty close at 13 hours. The qstars tracker supposedly has 24 hours of battery life, but apparently not when you leave it on 1 second recording mode; that one only made it about 10 hours.

Oh yeah and I broke a pedal about 30 miles in. My bad. Who needs bearings anyway.

C • Awesome! 6

in Bishop. holy headwind batman. tomorrows gonna suck.

still snowing a little bit, but not windy at all today, so pretty nice out.

put a foot calf deep into one of the early creek crossings and then was super chilly for the next hour.

snowing enough for a rest day. I hope it doesn't do this on saturday.

Easy ride to loosen up after a morning of quality time with airplanes. Felt very good to be back on the proper side of 40F. Blue sky, puffy clouds, and "ridge gusts to 90mph". Which were fun for the tailwind section along the lake, but not so much otherwise.

TT Middle
Couple mistakes here and there, but nothing too exciting. Stopped short on the last one and blew a couple minutes, but the rest was straightforward and blah.

quickroute

Not a bad weekend. The runs were no better nor no worse than I was expecting, so it was a pretty good trip. Except the weather. wtf.

C • FTW 2

Blue - Splits

TT Long
Crazy hot and humid, and long. Ok run for the first part, then I started getting pretty dehydrated and tired. I was having some serious disagreements with the map over the big cliff line vs small cliff line, which seemed to be used mostly randomly. Got totally fubared at 15, including several times of standing on top of both cliffs it was between, but never actually looking down into the crack. Blew lots of time and got all dehydrated and dizzy and lightheaded every time I went uphill on the next couple, then unfolded the map and saw the long leg to 19, so I bailed and stumbled back.
quickroute