So I rode Blue Mountains with the Gearshifters today. We were averaging around 35kmph most of the way. From Whitemans Valley we went via Mangaroa rather than riding out to Te Marua.
Coming back down SH2 into the Southerly headwind we were again sitting on around 35kmph. I had to put in a couple of spurts to catch up after being left at lights, twice ending up doing 39kmph on my own into that wind to get back onto the guy at the back of the pack's wheel. I was having a blast, feeling great, and then ...
A few kilometres before the turnoff towards Pharazyn Street on the way back into Lower Hutt I bonked. big time. It was instantaneous. One minute I was sitting on 35kmph quite happily, the next I was being passed and dropped. When we regrouped at Pharazyn I swallowed 5mg of Hydrocortisone, just in case that was the reason for the crash, and skulled a Leppin. No dice.
I staggered my way back to town at around 25kmph. Yes, we had a headwind, but not THAT much of a headwind. There was just nothing left in the tank.
Sitting in Bordeaux afterwards (the national triathlon champs were on in Oriental Bay so we met on Thorndon Quay) I had a bit of a think. We rode 86km in total. Before I crashed I'd eaten a sum total of one muesli bar and had drunk one and a bit bottles of Peak Fuel. By the time I crashed we'd been riding for around three hours.
Gee, do you think I might perhaps have not eaten enough? My cycle computer estimates I burned around 1,660 calories and I replaced them with a few hundred at most.
After sitting in Bordeaux for a while managed to convince myself to head back to the car and put my running shoes on. I ate a little more muesli bar before I set out. Dave's plan had me running thirty minutes, but then Dave's plan had me riding two to three hours, not 3.25. I compromised by running for 20 minutes and to my surprise was still managing sub-6 minute kilometres. To add to the puzzle, I wasn't feeling that bad. I could have run the whole thirty. Did the Hydrocortisone kick in?
To confuse matters even more, I really wasn't feeling that hungry. I went grocery shopping, came home, ate a pie and drank a cider (yes, I know), but at no stage did I have that "feed me now" feeling.
Experiences like today are, although frustrating, probably valuable in the end. I'm still working out the whole Hydrocortisone dosing issue, obviously, and today was also a salutory lesson in fueling on the bike. It's not like I haven't had that lesson before!
I've also had a full week of running, but that will have to wait for another post. It's after 3.00pm and I still haven't made it into the shower. Time to go get clean ...
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There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be. - George Sheehan
About Me
- Pip
- Wellington, New Zealand
- I'm a runner and a mum to far too many cats and two spoiled greyhounds. I am of late a very occasional writer. I live in Wellington in a ramshackle villa on the side of a hill. During office hours I do the public servant middle management thing and formulate my ten year plan to move to Central Otago to run the family vineyard.
2 comments:
Wow! I can't imagine riding that long on that little fuel and not being "bike hungry" (which is what we call the crazy ravenous feeling after riding here at our house.) Hope you get the hydrocortisone stuff figured out!
I think in all honesty I got so low on fuel that my digestive system shut down. After heading home and having some food I did eventually kick into that "bike hungry" mode. I spent the rest of the day eating then getting hungry again. I think I caught up on the calorie deficit eventually!
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