BRAG fall ride with hills and head winds

This century ride was like no other in that I did not have the complete belief that I was prepared physically to ride 100 miles. My last 60 mile ride a few weeks ago saw me black out in my wife's presence one hour after the ride. I felt fine after the ride, but after sitting in the recliner for an hour after my shower I tried to stand up and got intense leg cramps. When I finally stood up I got dizzy and sat back down. My wife told me later that I had blacked out and my body was shaking.

I have never experienced this after any sort of exercise activity. My my doctor's test and wife believes I have a deficiency in manganese. I believe that I can not ride with the 40 somethings at 20+ MPH for 30 miles and then ride another 30 miles st my normal 16 MPH pace.

My wife has been feeding me mineral rich foods including bone marrow soup with green leafy stuff like kale.   She has also been stuffing a few vitamin supplements in my mouth every evening.   All in all I have renewed my focus on being the NASCAR crew chief for my biological machine that powers my bicycle. 

So today was my chance to find out if I would pass out after a long bike ride. I decided to stack the deck in my favor. I purchased another water bottle. I took four on the ride. I put four scoops of Spiz on two bottles an I carried them on my pockets. I also had my usual bottles filled with two scoops each of Heed. I also took two is caps each hour of my seven hour ride.

During the ride I ate four bananas, eight Fig Newtons, one cheese sand which, one bag of potato chips. All of my water bottles are 24 ounces. I drank two full Spiz bottles (1000 calories) and 6 bottles of Heed and Powerade.

Post ride, no cramps, so far I have not passed out. I use to be this meticulous about what I fueled my body with when I was trail  running.  Looks like I will have to pay serious attention to fueling my body when I cycle.  I also did not ride fast. I avoided any pace lines. I discouraged anyone from following me. I rode solo as fast as I wanted. When I wanted to stop and take a picture I did.

The Garmin 810 is still not 100% accurate on following a route. I purchased a Garmin map. I used Garmin Base camp to create the 100 mile route from a cue sheet supplied by the ride president. I am glad the route was well marked on the pavement with yellow paint and each turn had a orange sign that you could see from 300 feet. My guess is that the Garmin tries to get you the most efficient route to your destination. I went off course once following the Garmin, but I did get back on the course. I ignored the Garmin when it told me to turn and it did not agree with the course directions.

All in all it was a fun ride. Leaves were blowing. Wound was blowing. My seat came off at the 63  mile rest stop. A fellow cyclist loaned me his multi tool so I fixed my seat. I took my multi took out of my bag right before this ride because I thought it was too heavy. I am putting it back in my bag. In fact I am going to replace the Trek seat bag that I have had for 15 years with a bigger one so I can carry four tubes an the multi tool.

I love my areo bars. I will list all of the cycling rules that I have broken.

Nice country mansion with horse farm mile 35.

+Lonnie Wormley at mile 75 gawking at Halloween decorations

 Halloween decorations at mile 75

Looking north on Chattahoochiee River  at the Thompson's camp site.

Richard and Sharon Thompson's tent on the Chattahoochiee River

Bike Fest campers next to the Chattahoochiee River

The Stats of the ride

I am posting the ride route from my Garmin.  I am relieved to see that I gained almost 5,000 feet in elevation.  I purposefully did not want to know the elevation before I rode this course.  I have driven in the area so I knew it had some hills, I just did not want to know any elevation before riding it for the first time.