El Tour Training Ride #1 9-28-08

Did the El Tour training ride with Chill and GABA on Sunday. I had never ridden in a pack before and it took some getting used to. A big upside was in always having someone to chase and set pace from. I still believe that drafting works but can in no way prove it. If I ride on someone's wheel I spend more time thinking about not crashing into them than riding.

We rode with some people Chill knew and I did what I could to keep up but the Craycroft hill climb dropped me badly. I am still learning about optimum gears to use and I think

Data

Up at 5 to have enough time to get dressed and have time for a bit of food. I take a silly amount of stuff on bike rides but I don't think there is any I would leave behind. Before I ate I weighed in at 257 (252 on the return).

I'm guessing I had about 280 calories right at an hour before exercise consisting of a small bagel and 3/4 cup of yogurt. I also probably had half a bike bottle (11 oz ish) during the morning.

I took a Camelpack with about 50 ounces of water of which I took in about 34 ounces during the ride. I had an extra 24 oz bottle just in case but didn't touch it.

I figured 3 hours for the ride (40 miles ~15 mph with some reserve) is 7.5 scoops of Perpetuem (per the chart for a @ 250 lbs. dude) and filled the bottle with about 10 oz. of water. It combined pretty well as long as I shook it up well before drinking it. I took a gulp about every 15 minutes and chased it with water. The taste was fine but the texture was a little gross. Chasing people faster than me throughout the morning was hard work but I never felt out of gas. I can compare this against the first time I went ~40 miles and took 0 calories during (yes, I am a moron) the ride and bonked badly at the end.

I'm happy with the overall pace I rode and definetly happy with the gear I brought in terms of water and fuel. In fact another 40 miles I could definetly do without the camelback and instead just fill the bottle at the turnaround point.







View Larger Map