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Another Sequoia Century... wonder how many over the years? Sunday's Sequoia was a very different matter, of course. Having done the same route a couple of years, there are no surprises, no opportunities for wrong turns (between maps and road markers and pre-programming the course into your Garmin, the only time for mild confusion is when the course doubled-back on itself in Pescadero). Instead of driving to the start, Kevin and I essentially start & finish the ride from home (just a couple miles off the course) and pass through the official start at Foothill College. That warm-up on Moody, followed by Page Mill, well, that's just plain mean! At least we were well warmed up at that point, having already ridden 18 or so miles, vs maybe 2 for those starting at Foothill. This year I was 21 seconds slower than last year on the Moody climb, and just under a minute slower on the Page Mill section. Haskins, 25 seconds off last year. Tunitas, about a minute 20 seconds slower than last year. What does it all mean? Overall, about a 5% loss in speed, which just happens to correspond to the 5% lower average power for the ride as a whole, according to Strava's analysis of my power meter data. That's actually not that bad, since this time last year I was just a couple weeks into my mild bone cancer diagnosis (Essential Thrombocythemia) and taking about 1/3 of the amount of red-blood-cell zapping medicine I'm taking now. Not because I'm worse off now than then, but because they start you off on a pretty low dose until they figure out what works best for you. The good news is that it's *only* a 5% loss, despite also being a year older. And the even-better news is that I'm going to be switching shortly to a different medication for my breathing issue, and if that works out, I could potentially gain back a lot more than that 5%! But getting back to the ride, it was, as always, wonderfully well-organized and included a mechanic station at the top of Tunitas manned by my brother Steve. Not too much work for him; by that time in the ride, most bikes that were going to fail, had already likely done so. The weather was very nice, although a bit of a surprise to see it very quickly kick up to 80 degrees for the climb up Page Mill!!! I just as quickly kicked back down to the low 60s once heading towards the coast. A bit of a headwind on the run north from Gazos Creek to Tunitas, but the part on the coast was perhaps the only time I felt just a bit stronger than Kevin, able to pull him for a bit. The rest of the way, I was trying to stay on his wheel (not too successfully once the road tilted upward). I am really hoping my breathing gets fixed so I can get back some of my power though; Kevin is leaving quite a bit in the tank on these rides, and I'd like to see him challenged more than I can presently give him. I still have endurance and towards the end of the ride I can still put on miles while he's thinking about short-cuts home, but I hate that he can't really "play" on the climbs without being concerned he's ditching me and leaving me in a bad place. |
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Post date: 2018-06-05 00:59:54 Post date GMT: 2018-06-05 07:59:54 Post modified date: 2018-06-05 00:59:54 Post modified date GMT: 2018-06-05 07:59:54 |
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