Pre COVAC training ride - 8/30

My checklist of things to prepare for and stuff to bring on a Century or Century training ride:
Pre Ride:
1. strong coffee
- double check
2. Eat a good breakfast, blueberry pancakes with nice Vermont medium amber syrup (Oatmeal and Egg whites are probably better, but no where near as yummy!)
- check
Stuff to bring for the ride:
1. GU, Hammer drink mix, cliff bars, stuff to sustain
- check
2. Lots of water
- check
3. stuff to fix a flat, including a couple inner tubes and co2 cartridges
- check
4. miscellaneous stuff - cell phone, money, allen wrench set, road id, credit cards
- check
5. toilet paper
- damn, missed that one!
Post ride:
6. Carbs in the form of beer
For today's ride there are 2 reports, the first is Greg's report:
According to Greg's computer:
79.14 miles
15 minutes
Average speed: 140 MPH -
In short, balls to the wall for the entire ride. Average HR 155 Max HR 320, Average watts (for those who use power) 550W Greg's ride was so fast it was over before it began.
For the rest of us:
79.19 miles
239.5 minuets (call it an even 4 hours)
19.8 average speed
4089 feet of climbing (sportracks s/w was like 1000 ft less)
My 45 year old average HR: 122bpm
My 45 year old Max HR: 175 (climbing up towards Crotchet Mtn and riding a 3 man break with Ken and the kid in the NEBC kit for the last 5 miles (not really a break because we went a different route than the rest of the group) - damn those miles hurt))
It was nice to ride with a lot of people I haven't seen on the Tuesday night ride this year, Elaine, Lee, Ken and his wife from Florida, (sorry I suck at names and can't remember, blame it on the sangria), Greg and Susan (although I was riding with them on Saturdays earlier this year).
Starting temp was around 54, it had to be in the 80s when we rolled back onto Charlie's street.
We started slow as we headed from Charlie's onto 119 up through Willard Brook, no attacking, everyone riding single file, in zone 1 - 2 as we made our way up to 31. When we arrived at the top, thankfully Charlie took the right up 31 to Turnpike which skipped the 1.5 miles of climbing up 119 into Ashby Center. Not to worry, there was climbing to come.
We rode along 119 at a slow tempo, everyone warming up, but I wasn't warming up, I was freezing, it was cold! Finally 10 miles into the ride Andrea made a nice move by pulling to the outside and moved to the front and get things moving things along.
I skipped in front of her and started setting a tempo to meet Greg's expectation of a 23mph average for the ride.
From there we began moving at a 20+ pace along 119.
This is the point in the ride where #1 and #2 from the top of the report started kicking in, making me wish I had thought to bring #5 because things were happening. This shows how dumb men can be (or me anyway), I can remember #6 post ride carbs but forget #5 which should be a staple in everyone's saddlebag - good lesson learned. But like George Harrison once said, All Things Must Pass, and thankfully this did to.
After some serious sweating, and it wasn't from the tempo we were riding, we hit the downhill leading to 202 in Ringe, took a right and headed off up 202 into Jaffery.
Once in Jaffery we stopped at the right aid, refueled and continued down 202.
This is where the weather started to get real nice, I love that stretch out of Jaffery into Peterborough, guessing we averaged about 25mph all the way into Peterborough. I think we were all feeling pretty good about then, good enough to do 100, 125, 300 miles.
But there was sangria and beer waiting back at Charlie's so we needed to prioritize things (alcohol > riding).
By the time we were in Peterborough the sun was out, it warmed up nicely as we headed across 101 into Peterborough and up to Happy Valley, Greenfield and Bennington. Somewhere along this stretch we took a quick stop to regroup, peel off armwarmers/ leg warmers and cool down.
Once we started again we headed for 47 up towards Crotchet Mountain.
This is where the climbing, and the pain and suffering began. It seemed as if that entire road all the way into Francestown was one continuous climb, I jumped out front on one of the climbs, but quickly got swallowed up by those behind me and then struggled to stay on the back wheel.
Once past the mountain, we cruised down 47, 2nd NH turnpike all the way into Francestown.
Stopped to regroup, we caught up to Greg who was enjoying a Dovebar and Cherry Dr. Pepper - I thought for sure he would be in need of #6 after that combo.
A quick pitstop at the Francestown FD and then cruised down 136 into New Boston, regrouped at the end of the road before turning right towards Mt Vernon.
For those who like fast, this was it, flying down the hill reaching speeds upwards of 50mph, I was getting vertigo feathering my breaks as others went screaming down that hill. Once at the bottom, probably around mile 60 there was the unmistakable sound of a flat - of course it had to be the only guy on the ride riding tubulars. But I will hand it to Bruce, he was faster than a Mark Martin pit stop tearing the tire and glue from the rim and quickly replacing it with his spare. Less than 10 minutes and we were back on the road catching up with the rest of the group waiting for us at the store/ pharmacy.
From there we rode 13 into Amherst and Milford, John Roche ditched us along the way, he did his work and his day was over, the rest of the group stayed together moving right along 13 through Milford, Mason, Brookline, everyone taking their pulls, keeping the train moving - good fun until we took the left onto Townsend Hill Road.
Now I don't know about everyone else, but me? I don't like roads that have the name "Hill" in them unless it's preceded by "Down" (as in "Down Hill Rd) - this is where the pain and suffering really started, less than 10 miles to go, several of the climbers started up the hill, I did my best to hang on, but somewhere along the way I lost the wheel in front of me and fell off into "no man's land", the lead 2 riders 100 meters in front of me, a bunch of people behind me, I kept my tempo and eventually caught onto the front 2 riders.
For those who haven't done COVAC, here's my take on it - everything will pretty much stay together, fun, laughter and camaraderie for the first 75 miles - but after that 3rd SAG stop everything changes - it gets fast and you want to do everything you can to hang onto wheels, do some work, hang on some more until you reach the 90 mile mark where for those the last 10 miles it's every man, woman, child, for themselves; and this is kind of what it felt like for me trying to hang on to Ken and the kid in the NEBC kit riding the Cannondale for those last few miles of today's ride - in short, it's friggin' hurt as we apparently took a different route than everyone else coming down Wallace Hill taking a right on Highland, out to 13, we breifly saw the rest of the group behind us, Ken and the kid did a good 90% of the work while I held on and took a couple pulls trying to help our cause of getting to Joyce St before the rest of the group.
I don't know who got there first, it doesn't matter - it was the best ride of the year!
Afterwards we all enjoyed each other's company, the sangria, chips, refreshments, pizza were all great. Hats off to our gracious host Charlie, he put together the perfect day of riding and post ride party anyone could wish for.
14 more days to COVAC! Get ready for those last 25 miles, they are a blast!
And the post COVAC dinner - more post ride carb replenishment!

Edit:
I thought of this today, one of the funniest moments of the day, for me at least, was when we stopped at the store in Francestown and someone came out with a muffin and Paul Skerry explained the Seinfeld Episode with the muffin tops, if anyone hasn't seen this, it truely is a classic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHtWEH0euh4