Solvang Spring Double Century

The day after a double century is far, far less painful than the day after an Ironman.

Saturday turned out to be a lot more successful than I expected it to be. Well, not that I had a lot of expectations, just that it was going to be a long day. The short way to summarize is that my legs hardly felt tired the entire 200 miles and the day after there wasn't any leg soreness (some back soreness but that's to be expected). There was a lot of drafting, hence why my average heart rate was below 140 BPM, but I did do my share of pulling or at least not sucking wheel.

EDIT: Here's a map that does a better job of describing where we rode.

The Solvang Double Century starts and finishes in Buellton, CA, about 3.5 miles away from its namesake, Solvang. It has just over 7k feet of climbing over the 193 miles which, considering the areas I ride in, is pretty low. However, to substitute for the lack of hills, there is wind. From what I can remember, we went through vineyards, fields with no wind protection, alongside Highway 1, coastal towns (including Morro Bay with its shitty pavement), and in and out of some canyon thing (which compared to around here, wasn't that much up or down except the road surface was also really bad).

I will do my best to try and remember all details for this ride, but it WAS 200 miles over a course of 15 hours.

The "adventure" actually started Friday midday when myself and three of the guys I was riding with began the drive down from Folsom. My friend (and former manager) loaded up his pickup with 4 bikes and all our gear (I of course got made fun of for being the smallest person with the most amount of gear, but hey I'm a girl) and we made the six hour drive down I-5, random country roads, and finally onto 101. Got to the hotel, which although being rather pricey for a hotel in a small town in the Santa Ynez Valley, was also the host hotel for the double meaning check-in and ride start were all there and we wouldn't have to spend extra time driving around.

Ride morning started at 4:30am, and I wasn't able to sleep much the night before (like what seems to be the norm lately) so I wasn't all that well-rested but I felt awake. The four of us from Folsom plus one guy from SoCal who knew one of us head out at precisely 5:32 am. Being that it is only late March, it is still completely dark so everyone has their red taillights and front lights. And, since the previous day was clear, overnight is clear, and there was a not-so-gentle breeze, it is absolutely freezing. I hadn't wanted to carry extra stuff, so all I'm wearing is a short-sleeve jersey, base layer tank top underneath, arm warmers, shorts, and knee warmers. By the first rest stop at 40 miles (which included a pit stop to change a flat tire) I am so cold I am shaking. I'd actually say the first 3 hours of the ride were the most uncomfortable since I was fucking freezing!

The sun was up by 7:30 and it began to warm up. Most of the first several hours was a descent, which made it colder, but ironically once the sun began to warm everything up, the downhills turned into rollers. Not that I'm complaining, since I do prefer uphills to descending any day. Most of this time was spent passing through vineyards like Zaca Mesa in Foxen Canyon (involved a very welcome climb and than a chilling descent) and open fields. The open fields involved the crosswinds, which threatened to blow myself and my riding companions on their deep rimmed 404s over. I remember going along in the back and watching everyone in front of me sort of leaning over.

The humorous part of the first few hours was that we came along a group of all women riders. They asked me to take their photo at the first rest stop but since the iPhone camera button does not work with gloves, another guy in our group took it. Just after we left the stop one of the women offered that I could ride with them. I guess she thought it was a bit strange I was riding with 4 guys. And then later on after we came up a climb, the women were stopped at the intersection peeling off their layers. As we passed them one of the guys commented that it was time for an underwear change.

Bikes at second rest stop

I was able to peel off my layers at the second rest stop at mile 86. At this point, everyone remained in good spirits.The sun was up, and we were almost to the halfway mark. The next 30 or so miles were probably the longest, as one of our group began to bonk along with the wind. We rode along Highway 1 for most of this part, which wasn't actually along the coast. The mid-point check-in was in the town of Morro Bay, along the coast. Sadly, being with a group of guys who just want to move along doesn't leave much likelihood for photo ops, so was not able to get a photo of the huge green mountain dome on the other side of the bay. We rode through a park type thing along the coast and then back along the Pacific Crest Highway and past farms to get to the lunch stop at Mile 118 in San Luis Obispo.

Lunch stop!

Lunch was Subway sandwiches (I removed the cheese and just ate the bread mostly) and a random assortment of food at the stop. I have come to realized I eat a lot of stuff on organized rides I would normally never eat. Less than a mile out of the rest stop we had to stop as the earlier flat tire resulted in a tire with an actual hole in it. Luckily the SAG wagon was able to supply him with a replacement tire and we continued on. Less than 80 miles remained to the hotel/stop point. 

There was finally a decent hill to climb and we went up, and then managed to hook onto a large paceline that continued for awhile. This may have been the highest my heart rate got the entire day. Rollers always require a little more work to stay with the pack. The fourth rest stop came at Mile 146 in a small park. Ate some more in order to have energy for the final climb which would come in the last 20 miles of the ride. 

Skyline in the park

As we left the fourth rest stop it was taking the guys a bit of time to start. The group of women from earlier passed us (I would like to mention that they made it in and out of a rest stop faster than four guys did) and shouted about an underwear change. Sadly, at this point the guys did not remember the joke or the women but it made me laugh. 

Between the fourth and fifth rest stops I wondered if my body was not digesting food any longer. Continued trundling along, me and two others in our group continued along at a decent pace that wasn't too fast. The fifth and final rest stop was at mile 176 in the town of Los Alamos. There was Cup O Noodles at that stop, or Cup O Salt as I deemed it - first time I have had ramen since junior high school I think. We were preparing for the climb, and that also required putting back on some of the clothing we had removed earlier.

Leaving the rest stop we asked the volunteers and other riders if they knew how long it was and how steep it was. The route sheet said Drum Canyon Road was 10 miles long, but we all knew we wouldn't be climbing the entire way. So we rolled out in anticipation of a hard climb. Turns out that was for nothing, as all 5 of us easily rode our way to the top. The biggest challenge to navigate was the choppy pavement. The climb ended up being about 3 miles long with maybe 800 feet of ascent.

Top of the Drum Canyon

We finished re-dressing (or "underwear change" as it was dubbed that day) and began the descent down the same choppy road surface. The veteran of our group said this was the first time he's been able to do it in light, and that it would be so much better. Honestly, I cannot imagine doing the descent in the dark and coming out unscathed. The neat part of the descent was by this time the moon was high in the sky, and it was nearly full.

Once on flat group we pretty much flew back into town. I got to pull a lot here, and as we went up a slight incline the group passed a guy and one of them said "Wow" when we flew by. It was great. By now it was dark and all you saw ahead of you was red taillights with bright white light surrounding you from the back. It was 192 miles at the hotel/stop point. I of course was still feeling good and the veteran of the group came with me as we rode 4 miles out to Solvang and back. I got called crazy, insane, and just nuts. Yeah, kind of already knew that. 

It was a nice cool down spin, though sadly the veteran told me the story of his friend who was killed in a hit-and-run incident while cycling on an early December morning. It just makes me sad, and sort of scared.

Overall though it was a successful day. I think my new goal for 2010 is to get the California Triple Crown, which is three doubles in one year. It's a lot less stressful, and more entertaining, than Ironman I think. I'm just tired of racing, I just want to have fun!