100 Miles of Nowhere

Hours Sleeping	6	Body Weight		Body Fat
Pulse (waking)		Pulse (rising)		Difference
Time of Day	9:00 AM	Distance	100.18 miles	Power
Time (total)	2:54	Time (moving)	2:48:29	Time (stopped)
Speed (overall)	34.54 mph	Speed (moving)	35.67 mph	Speed (max)	43.33 mph
Total Ascent	At least a couple of feet based on everyone else with a GPS. I know, I know, not sure how that is possible unless we're all so not smooth on the rollers that the bouncing accounts for this.	Max Elevation		Gradient

Breakfast	6:30 AM - cereal
Lunch	3 beers, veggie bratwurst, bun, pasta salad, Tabouli salad, beets, garbanzo beans, nuts
Dinner	pizza
Workout Food	2 large bottles each with 2 scoops HEED, Fig Newtons, 1 beer at 50 miles
Injuries
Therapy
Workout Type	Rollers, what else would you ride on a gorgeous day…?
Weather	upper 60s to low 70s, dry, sunny, light breeze
Course
Results	I finished, 'nuff said.
Equipment	Road Bike
Clothing	bib shorts

"OMG, did I really sign up for this…?!" is what I'm thinking as I wake up. A good friend Tom W talked me into doing 100 Miles of Nowhere today and I think I'm having buyer's remorse before we even get started.

We (Chance R, Aaron L, Brent C and I) all arrived at Tom's place a bit before 9 and proceeded to lug all our crap up to what seemed like the 9th floor of his house. Yes, he has a deck outside of the kitchen but no, we had to go to the roof deck. Truth be told, the view from up here is pretty freaking incredible and on a day like today you could see Mt Rainier, the Olympics, all the drunks on Alki Beach, you name it.

We filled out bottles, applied liberal amounts of chamois cream, positioned our rollers and trainers, turned on the music and started riding. To nowhere.

The banter was super lively as we made our way to the first 10 miles. People were cracking jokes, teasing each other and doing all the usual guy stuff that seems to spontaneously occur when a bunch of dudes do things in the absence of members of the opposite sex. Good times basically.

Then I rode off of rollers. Shit. I almost flipped over the chair I was using to start myself but brushed it off and tried to act all casual. Not. Within 10 more miles I bailed in the other direction and almost took out Tom. Thank goodness he was next to a solid railing and was able to fend me off.

The bonus of having someone with such mad skillz along is that it gives everyone in the group lots to talk about… Consider it my contribution guys. That's right, all totally intentional.

Around 40 miles in I had been off the bike four times, twice intentionally, just to give my crotch a break. At 50 miles I had to have a beer. Damn, it really hit the spot. The only problem was it made me pine for the finish and it was a tiny mental challenge to get back on and ramp it up after the break.

By the time we had covered 70 miles I had ridden off my rollers two more times (crushing my supply of Fig Newtons in the process) and the lively, sarcastic banter had almost totally died out.

Tom had said that the last 20 miles would be rough because all we would be able to think about was the finish. I got that way with 25 to go. With 10 to go I climbed off one more time, did some stretches, had a long drink and then got back on for the final push home.

Brent, Chance and Tom kept asking each other how far they had ridden. I was keeping my towel over my cyclometer on purpose and trying hard not to check the odometer too often. With about 10 miles to go that strategy stopped working and I ended up checking almost every mile. With five to go I had to wind it down for a bit and pedal really slowly for a few seconds to give my knees a break; the tendons behind my right one were starting to feel kind of tight. I thought that would do it but with two to go I had to slow down one more time. But then it was over.

I quit at exactly 100 miles. The extra tenth was just me coasting to a stop. :) YES. It was such a relief to not need to climb back on. I grabbed a beer from the cooler and hit a chair.

I had taken off my jersey within the first 10 miles as it was a warm day and I wanted to get some sun. As usual, the first few times Martin 'get's some sun' he overdoes it in dramatic fashion. I checked out my back and it looked pretty red and you know that if it looks red right after you get out of the sun, it's going to be flaming in a few hours. :( So I just made sure to turn 180 degrees and keep the sun on my chest. :)
ASIDE - salt stain city! Man, I am not usually the guy that has big, white, crusty lines on his helmet strap or shorts but after this ride I had BIG salt crystals on my back, thighs and shins. Impressive stuff.

After dividing all the swag, toweling off a bit and moving the bikes and trainers downstairs, Tom fired up the grill and cooked up some brats. Then Brent's girlfriend came by with some pasta salad and Shelley and Kari showed up with more food and beer. Nice.

I finally made it home and took the progressively colder and colder shower followed by the full body dip in aloe gel.

Good times. Will I do this again? Don't ask me for a while.

Here are some pictures.