Iron Bridge Road

Plenty going on this week, coming off a really hectic weekend. A pair of rides totalling almost 7.5 hours in the saddle, both sets of grandparents, and a graduation party. Damn Monday morning got here faster than usual and I am behind the 8 ball already.

Saturday morning was a rough start to the weekend as Julia woke me up at 3:30 and I was never able to get back to sleep. Ouch. Because of this I toned down my expectations for my ride at Chimney Rock. Just planned to keep a nice tempo pace and do my thing. Well I had a real good ride and at the end I felt really strong. Almost no stopping and a .4 mph increase in speed over last time I was there:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3033114

OK the downside. After dumping 371 dollars into the bike shop bill the goddamn thing still has major problems. Gary said there was one creak he couldn't find but he failed to mention it was the source of almost all the noise coming from the bike. In the first hour it was louder than I've ever heard it. My only guess is the bottom bracket does need to be switched out so fine, that's going to happen but I'm not dropping another 100 clams for them to do it.

Next is one of the mounts on the pivot arm is toast. I felt this almost immediately, got off the bike and yup, sure enough there's a new click sound when I pull the bike up by the saddle. This happened so early I have to conclude that they never put it back together properly. When I got home I could *see the bearings with my naked eye*. Ok more on this as the week goes on but let's just go with this:

371 dollars

The rest of Saturday was my parents hanging out at the house for lunch. Then we went to Woody's for a graduation party for someone we didn't know. Julia was beyond thrilled to stir the dog's water for an hour with a wooden spoon. She's happy = I'm happy.

Sunday was the big ride again, another colossal loop out to Whitehouse, Pittstown, towards Bloomsbury, Asbury, then Cokesbury, and Oldwick. This one is 2 links because the GPS is quirky:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3044696

and

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3044697

I went up Iron Bridge Road which clearly proves the existence of Satan. Never have I been on a road so brutally steep. I was climbing it in my granny gear, standing, at a speed of 3.2 at one point. This is touted as one of the 2 hardest climbs in New Jersey with good reason. It's brutal.

So it was an OK ride but I really tailed off at the end. There was a bit too much vertical on this route and by the end I was crawling to get home. When I was done I was still 6 pounds lighter than when I started, which is well into dehydration at nearly 3% of my body weight. But I still had to piss badly which suggests my sodium levels are really low. Seems like endurolytes don't deliver enough of it though it's hard to say really what exactly is going on. I may bag the caps for the time being and go with straight salt on my next long ride which, for those scoring at home, is a hell of a lot cheaper.

I guess it's possible I'm just not built for these endurance bike rides. I took in 28 ounces of water an hour on the bike. That should be plenty but some combination of hydration, food, and salt and/or electrolytes isn't working. I'm right up against the theoretical maximum amount of liquid I can assimilate an hour, which is 32 ounces. So who knows.

Anyway at least I didn't cramp like Jake.

In conclusion, the work in progress continues. A little frustrating at times but then if I figure it all out it takes away some of the puzzle. A guy I know has nailed it down entirely, and then he quit 24 hour racing because he said it was mundane. After you get the nutrition details down all you do is go round and round, on and on, almost like a machine. I suppose it's possible there's no magic combination that works for me, and I'm fine with that. Life goes on.

In any event this week may be sporadic because I can feel myself getting sick in a rapid way as I sit at my desk at work. It probably doesn't help that I haven't eaten much today and the past 3 weeks has seen me do my best "eat like a horse" impression. I mean nothing is safe in the house including sicks of butter and Crisco. Julia picked up a cold and I can feel it crashing down hard right about now. I'm in a pretty colossal hole after yesterday's effort so it's not surprising. Oh well if I need to rest week this week I will. I'll sort out KVSP later in the week. I just hope this runs through me fast.