Sunday, April 20, 2008

Tierra Bella Hell...

I wimped out!!! I decided NOT to ride the ~94-mile Sea Otter road tour in Monterey today. I was plain tuckered out from the 99.64 mile Tierra Bella ride on Saturday. Little did I realize that Tierra Bella means 'Hell on Earth' :-) This ride was a lot harder than I had expected. It wasn't necessarily the eight mile climb up to Henry Coe Park. It wasn't necessarily the killer headwind that we seemed to be riding into the entire friggin' day, or that it became incredibly strong in the afternoon which made peddling into even more hellish. Rather the icing on top of the cake was the DUST the wind kicked up. I swear I sneezed for 40-miles straight, and that was on top of that 2,000 some odd feet climbing Henry Coe and the headwind. I was one tired bicyclist at the end of the day and once horizontal on the hotel bed was not moving till well past day break. Feeling a little bit wimpish right now because my legs are fine, my sinuses are fine, and I feel rested. I probably could have riden today, shhh.

Above: David and Jerome at the first rest stop still smiling, little did we know what lied ahead.
Below: Jerome at the fire pit on top of Henry Coe.

Above: Gratuitous butt.
Below: The line waiting for the porta potty. It was so cold on top of Henry Coe that the pavement was the best source of heat.
Above: David just getting to the top.
Below: David, Topher, and Jerome, comparing notes on the climb.
Above: Diane in Monterrey.
Below: More gratuitous butt (Trevor's pic from when they were waiting my return from hell).
route and data:

Total Time (h:m:s) 9:33:05, 5:44 pace

Moving Time (h:m:s) 7:30:20, 4:31 pace

Distance (mi ) 99.70

Moving Speed (mph) 13.3 avg., 32.9 max.

Elevation Gain (ft) +6,995

Heart Rate Data Avg, Low, High

Heart Rate (%max) 77, 46, 101

Heart Rate (bpm) 142, 85, 187

Temperature (°F) 54.7°F avg., 60.8°F high

Wind Speed ( mph) SW 12.1 avg., SW 18.4 max.

2 comments:

David said...

Larry,

I blew off the Sea Otter also! :-)

Besides a bit of a tweaked knee, and the cracked rear hub on the new bike, the old bike that just didn't feel right, so I talked myself into not doing it overnight, although I may have been ok. Will know better after the bike refit tomorrow.

Had a great time riding with you, at least when I caught up at rest stops. See you at D.O.T.R.

Do you have a user name on MotionBased?

Larry L said...

hey David,

my user name on MotionBased is llitalien. I've been keeping my rides private, give me a few days and I'll make them public. Don't really have a reason not to other than I found when I wanted to find routes there were just too many to browse through.