2010 Triple Bypass Ride Report

Well we did it! We conquered the Triple on July 10, 2010 and I had my longest day in the saddle ever! I had my doubts, and tho i cant say i felt like it was a race, I sure had that frame of mind that i wanted to get it done ASAP:) While of course admiring the scenary. But when yourpretty steadily climbing around 8mph you do have time to look around:)

The boys got started early, bikes in giant truck, they took off thru South Dakota, the Badlands, and had a great time riding some trails along the way.

Pre-departure they were all set. Our rides were well secured and they left me with plans to meet met at DI on friday. Worked just great. I flew in ( heck, that is a nice flight, about 90 min from MSP) and to be travelling with a knapsack and no bike, was the best. Thanks guys. As we know, flying with a bike, especially on the BHA's is no fun. ( Bike Hating Airlines, not you Southwest, the others)

JH always has us do a pre-race routine to get our legs going so i did that in downtown Golden on our way to dinner:

Hope it helped.

We had a nice dinner, nothing exciting, and went back to the hotel to get our gear ready. We had no idea what to expect other than this: rain, sun, wind, mountains, hot, cold, gravel ( yes they warned us that there was a stretch of unpaved road for about 4 miles), I 70 riding ( that was icky) and well..since i wasnt riding with paniers and wanted to carry all my stuff I had to really be creative with pocket stuffing. I even put a Bento Box on my bike, and i really really hate those. My legs rub on them espcially when i stand up. But desperate times mean desperate measures and i was glad to have it, truth be told.

We woke up too early ( at least on MTN time i got an extra hour) and i was all ready for my altitude headache and took an aleve. I had packed my gels and bars and more stuff ( sunscreen, chapstick, little packs of chamois butter and a new one called DZnuts. ha, Dave Zabriske has his own line of chamois products.) I know this is boring but it amazes me i carried all this stuff over 122 miles and 10k of climbing. We started in full leg warmers and toe covers, and truth be told at 6 am it felt good. Climbing i got a tad hot but when you get to the summit, you cool down mighty fast. I Was too lazy to keep putting them on and off so i just kept em on.

Base layer on top, jersey, vest, arm warmers and yes full fingered Gore Gloves. My hands did get hot, but again, it was amazing how quickly the temps would change. Plus i had a Salsa rain slicker ( what i called my sausage casing) in my back pocket and a full beanie, short gloves, and also a headband for descending. Oh and 5 bars. Oh and my phone and money and...

that's alot of stuff!! And yes i actually did use it all at one time or another.

Ok so now that you know I added about 10lbs to my frame :) plus a powertap hub, I was ready to get up those mountains!

So here are the mileages:

Juniper Pass: 16 Miles

Idaho Springs: 32 Miles

Georgetown: 44 miles

Loveland Ski Area: 57 Miles

Loveland Pass: 61 Miles

Summit CO H.S: 77 Miles

Copper Mtn: 87 Miles

Vail Pass: 92 Miles

Vail: 106 Miles

Avon: 120 Miles

July 10, 2010

The first climb was ok, it wasnt too bad and just felt like Lemmon. I think i bored Rich and Scott bc i kept saying "this is like Lemmon, this is harder than Lemmon, this is easier than Lemmon." If I hadnt spoken in a bit, One of them would say "how does THIS compare to Mt. Lemmon?" I will say that i did set down one hard rule, DO NOT consistently say " Oh great, 20 miles down, 100 to go." etc.. I cannot stand it when we are doing a long ride and someone has to say " So how far have we gone?" GEt a computer if you dont know. It's just that mental thing for me. I want to suffer in silence:) ha, no I just figure it makes me head crazy bc a ride like this hurts and if you are like me, I dont need to know that i am hurting like a dog on climb 1 and i still have 100 more miles of this to go, oh and yeah lets recall that i did NOT get that altitude tent i posted in the last post. ha, So anyways....we all bantered about but luckily nobody was ticking off the mileage for me.

So Aid station #1 was just past Squaw and Juniper pass. The fans were great, I mean volunteers, but heck i felt like i was at the TDF! I didnt know we would be greeted with so many great people and cheers and food. Yummy. I had geled along the 1st climb and i had little packets of infinit ( yes we were accused of putting coke in our bottles, lol) but that was so nice to have our own drinks, and you could just put water in and you were good to go. They had lots of orange, bananas, bars, peanut butter sandwiches, yum! I also saw my good buddy Darcy at the 1st stop. We knew we were going to be both be there but figured that the post ride beer maybe where we met up. Just like old times we gabbed long enough that i got the LETS GO, from Rich, and i said goodbye to Darcy! Oh and BTW this studette lives in Snowmass, we played tennis togehter thru juniors and high school, and she had just done the Ride the Rockies WEEK LONG tour last week and jumped into this on a whim when her brother came out. Rockstar!

So from Juniper and Squaw we headed on...We didnt stop long at Aid #2, it was basically at the base of the descent ( and um, i had alot of thoughts about how i was happier climbing than descending. Ouch, my hands got soo cold and i lost feeling in my fingers) I was NOT riding the brakes but i still topped out at 41 mph, call me chicken, but when i dont know the line of the road i pull up.

We rode on...and before we could even get TO the road to climb Loveland pass we had to ride on I-70 ..that was a bummer. Of course you had some of those guys ( yes sorry, no gals) that had this need to hammer on the highway. And do you know how to say LEFT? In a few instances there were some narrow misses and with traffic screaming by about 10 feet away i was pretty content to be cautious and just ride and get off that freeway. Then we got to the climb, and it was brutal. At one point we stopped to re-group and then we realized that Rest #3 was about 100 feet away. But when you looked up you knew that we were actually just at the BASE of the Loveland Climb. Oh Crap.

This was the scene at most rest stops....A bike sit-in.

Once again turkey sandwich and pb was inhaled. Porta pottie lines were waited in, it rained, we all got dressed to warm, the sun came out, we undressed, etc...repeat repeat repeat.

So anyways we went up Loveland. HardA$$ climb. I was super glad when that was over, and i really did feel like i was on the top of the world.

I kept asking Scott and Rich about the map bc I really really did NO recon on this ride at all. Luckily we were all blissfully ignorant:) Darcy had told me that she thought Loveland was the hardest and i trusted her. Phew. Down we went, thru Keystone and then we knew there was a little blip ahead, Swam Mountain. Maybe 2 miles. I got to the top and waited for the guys ( Scott climbing, my bad camera skills)

but decided to go ahead since they beat me down all the descents. It was a short one, that would end us at Summit Co High School in Frisco. I got down, Scott appeared soon after, and there was no Rich. We waited. I got nervous. I went to get water, and then we saw it. The sag with the Moots on the back. Honey had crashed. I knew exactly where, I just knew it. There was one corner that was tight, and even i had overcooked it going 30 mph. I knew that was the corner he had hit too fast. He got out and was holding his arm, ( his bike looked ok, actually!) and his helmet was cracked. I teared up. He said " I think i broke my arm." I cried.

We woke up the EMT's in the med tent and they did a thorough triage job of the vitals, and what not, and at this point it appeared visually that is clavicle was intact, he had full ROM of his shoulder joint, and his elbow and wrist ROM and strength was 5/5, strong and painfree. He had no pain with palpation of his radial-ulnar joint and resisted muscle testing into supination and pronation was fine. Those EMT's were busy asking him what he ate last " a gel" and told him his BP Was high. Um 120/80? high? ok. Anyways....he has a sore hand but he was cleared to go, no headaches, etc...and if his helmet hadnt busted i knwo he would have finished. ( um, smart or not, he would have) At that point i knew I had to finish. I am just so relieved that he is ok, he has had so much stuff to deal with and trust me, he does not need more stress in his life right now. We sent him in a sag and Scott and i were off. ( After Scott's wife got me on the phone to promise to lasso him in on the descents, LOL) I said i would try:)

We soldiered on, and it was all on a bike path which after mario's crash was fine by me. The clouds rolled in and we knew our luck with scattered drops was over. So on went the rain slickers. I seriously LOVE my Salsa slicker, but man that thing does NOT breathe, and even tho we were wet and it was raining HARD we were still climbing. So you can imagine that slicker around me ( with all my pockets stuffed to the gills) i seriously said to scott that i felt like the jacket was sausage casing and i was the little dumpling inside. Finally it stopped raining and at the first chance we had to jump off the path we got those jackets off and the greenhouse heating was over! Phew. We continued up the Vail pass climb( on the path) and tho it was easier, in some ways there were all these little switch backs where you had to get out of the saddle and make a quick 20-50 feet pitch to the top. ugh. At no time did i really think i needed anymore gearing. I rode a 12-25 the entire way and think it was fine, but these quick short rises made me wish i had a 27.

Of course the photo people were conveniently at places like this. "SMILE. YOu look like you are dying:)"

NICE. Not sure i want to go find those pics!

When we finally go to the aid station at the top of VAIL we were done! Or so we thought.

the crowds had thinned out. Rich later said that the sags were full from Summit HS to Avon, the finish. We blew thru this one at the top and kept rolling. Gels in hand.

The descent was also on a path, and it was WET. Very twisty and turny. we later learned that after we had gone thru this two other men had wrapped themselves around a guard rail and were taken by ambulance. Ok. well. that is really too bad. But we made it into Vail and were SO ecstatic. Everyone was yelling and clapping and cheering and saying "Almost there!" Yeah. I was getting READY to be done. I looked at my watch and said to Scott. IT IS 4:00!! we have been on our frickin' bikes since 6am! I had not looked at my watch at all. And sadly my PowerTap computer had died at the top of Loveland pass. In looking at the data to that point i had ridden 6 hours, and 74 miles. And put out some good watts, all staying in zone 2! woot! But now, at 4:00 I was ready to be done. I had phantom foot pains, where i felt this burning in my arch, not a morton's neuroma but just a cold wet foot. My crotchal region needed some air, and my neck stung in that trigger point area betwn my shoulder blades. MY triceps hurt and my wrists and forearms were tight and ready for a break. I was bonking in Vail. I needed another gel to get me to Avon which i told Scott, felt like we were riding to Idaho:)

15 miles later, we rode into the finish, Rich cheered for us and we hit the finish line. I laughed bc in Vail they had a sign up that said "Watch for bike RACE" on the road. I told Scott that this changed EVERYTHING. RACE? really? so i rolled into the finish line at about 6 mph, out sprinting Scott by at least a bike length. Ha! He owed me a beer:)

In hindsight its good to look at how i did that. I always wuss out on 80+mile rides. I think the extra food was the key. I had 5 gels, 6 bottles of Infinit ( at 230 KCal bottle) plus some water and 2 powerbars on the bike....Then..,5 pb and banana or J sandwich halves, 3 turkey and cheese sandwich halves, and various random things like orange slices and pretzles at stops. I tolerated the orange slices better than the watermelon for some reason that watermelon made me burp and there is no way i could have run on that . ( Not that i had to, but good to excperiment)

And there you have it. Alot more post race, but will either save that for later or forget about it and move on. I will say this...I have been going back and forth about doing an IM, and tho the entire time i was riding i kept thinking "Julia, this is great, you dont have to run!! when you are done" Now hindsight is 20/20 bc when i did see a guy running afterwards, and yes there were alot of people training for IM there, I did feel lucky to be drinking a beer and eating a burger.

But what was sore sunday after our meager 4 hours of sleep and today, monday, is not my legs....

Ok that is off the bucket list.