4/30/00
Ooof. I'm very tired.
In preparation for the State Road Race Championship next week, I went on a training ride with Brian, Joel, and Greg. I woke up at 7AM to get to Brian's house at 8AM. When I got there, I couldn't see anyone, so I made sure they weren't at the local Starbuck's. No one there either.
When I went back to Brian's house, there was an extra car there, with a bike in it. I knocked on the door, and Brian and Greg were inside.
After a few moments, Joel arrived. We loaded everything into Brian's car, and drove north toward Stanwood, which is about 1.2 hours north of Seattle by car. It's the usual riding area for Blake and Marshall, I think. Unfortunately, all the regulars who would have shown up for this particular ride were doing something else.
After we used the restroom at the local bike shop (managed by some nice people), we started on the ride. It's a very rural area out there. Soon, we were on some roads with only a few cars, and going real fast. As usual, I had trouble staying on after a while, and the rest had to slow down a bit. I think the first high-intensity event gives me problems, but after that, I do better. I probably need to warm up better.
The scenery was nice, and I was feeling alright after a while, and we were going pretty fast. Then I started having problems. First, another problem with not being able to keep up. But that cleared up after the road became smooth for a while. Greg also gave me some Clif Shots, which helped.
The rest of the ride was a giant cramp-athon for me. First, my left calf cramped up, but went away. Then my right calf cramped up, and went away. Soon, both calves started cramping. Near the end of the first half of the ride, I was able to control the cramping resonably well. On the ride back, it got steadily worse. Greg suggested standing up out of the saddle fairly often. I did this, but the first time, I felt a twinge of a cramp in my right thigh. Then I had a bad double-calf cramp episode, and for about 10 minutes, Greg had to push me to keep me going.
Eventually, I discovered that if I used a big gear and mashed the pedals instead of trying to spin the pedals, I could keep the cramps more-or-less in control. The ride back went reaaaaal fast, since Brian, Joel, and Greg formed a pace line with me tagging along on the back, trying to fight the massive cramps.
It was overall a nice ride, and I felt pretty good except for the cramps. I was able to keep up on the shorter hills pretty well, which I attribute to the longer cranks I'm using. But the cramps may have been partially caused by me trying to spin the longer cranks I'm not yet totally used to. Something I'm going to have to work on.
Another possibility was that I wasn't drinking the right kind of things. I thought I was fairly well hydrated, but I did have a tall mocha during the ride to Stanwood, which I'm not used to. That may have dehydrated me. Also, drinking a sports drink instead of water during the ride may have helped. I'm going to try all these things during tomorrow's ride.
After the ride, we had lunch up in the Stanwood area, and Brian generously drove home.