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2016 Solvang Spring Double Century
A few weeks ago I posted ride notes for 2016 Southern Inyo Double Century and Joshua Tree Double Century. Next up is Devil Mountain Double, then Central Coast Double, the Eastern Sierra Double, then Alta Alpina 8-Pass Challenge.
Solvang Spring Double Century went better than either, with more consistent power and much less of a power sag, though one can be seen around the 7:00 mark or so. I was far stronger for the last 30-40 miles than either of the previous doubles, so the training has paid off.
I’m going to abandon solid food (sandwiches and such) for all future efforts. It’s now pretty clear that solid food is a Bad Idea for me. I had only a small sandwich at Solvang, but even so the dropoff always comes 45 minutes or so after solid food like that. I’ll stick to liquid food, licorice and mountain dew (sparingly, 1 or 2 late in the ride).
As usual, I soloed (no drafting), and I did pull the lead pack for the first ~10 miles or so, starting at 7:00 AM with the fast pack. The fast guys are really fast and don’t waste energy when they don’t need to. So when they wanted to push the pace after the roundabout turn, I dropped back, not wanting to take the draft, watching the pack disappear at a rate of 1-2 mph faster. I am pretty sure that most of those guys that finish ahead of me only because they draft and can save huge amounts of energy by doing so. I’d like to see a double century time trial event held sometime.
Of immense frustration is my body refusing to lose weight (fat); after three double centuries my body weight has not even budged. I think my sleep issues and whacked microbiome from the metronidazole nightmare are working against me and somehow I need to fix both of those things. It just doesn’t add up; my gut physiology is off is my informed guess.
