Late last year I decided that David and I would ride the metric century (100K/62 miles) at the TourdeLOU that is part of the Kentucky Derby Festival. I thought it would be a good way to start riding around Louisville some. But with the weather this spring, April 30th came pretty quick as far as outdoor riding goes. Pretty sure 37 miles on Easter was the farthest either of us had ridden in a single ride this year. We both got some good wind training on Wednesday as David was out on City Loop with Phoenix and I was on a solo ride from Westfield to Sheridan and back when the wind associated with a storm front rolled in.
The weekend was pretty full with the Ordination and Consecration of the 11th (Episcopal) Bishop of Indianapolis on Saturday and I was serving in one of the processions, so I needed to be there pretty early. But with the storms Saturday morning (noticing a theme?) and the Y not opening until 7 to treadmill run I thought I would be able to get my run in later...but I didn't get home until 2 and we didn't get to Corydon for the night until 5...it started feeling like it was too late to be able to run and eat, and too close to ride time for the morning...so I missed a run. That hasn't happened in a long time.
Sunday we got to Louisville and got our packets. I put a race sticker/number on my new bike for the first time...we took some pictures at the start and then waited for the call to post and starting gun.
It was a SLOW start even though we were with all 100K riders (the 35 and 20 mile riders had separate starts). Then it seemed like people were making up time and took off...I hung back, knowing there were lots of mile and hills left. There was a big gap between the pack in front of me (where David was) and me...and then a big gap between me and the pack behind. Over the course of a few traffic signals there was some regrouping. Then we hit Iroquois Park. I know enough people who have run the Derby full marathon and/or the Papa John's 10 Miler that I know about the hills in the park. I made it through them pretty well. It started raining while we were in the park, but it was a light rain and not bad. Coming out of the park we had a red light and I was behind a few guys. I knew we were turning right after the light, but I didn't realize it was an uphill from a stop and I was in the wrong gear. Fortunately I was able to hang on to the back of these guys and one of them pulled us up the hill. Then we got on the Louisville Loop where it is on the Levee. Normally that would have been awesome and fast because there was no stopping for traffic...but it was straight in to 15-20 mph winds. Averages were not pretty for how open the area was. But since it's higher than anything around we were fully exposed.
Coming off the Levee we were looking for a SAG stop to refill water bottles - this was about 2 hours into the ride and it was time. But there was no stop. Passed a park, but no stop there. We were back to outside Iroquois Park on New Circle when there was a stop. We did talk to one of the event people about how much distance was between the stops since this is only the second year they have done the 62 mile route.
Then we were back in downtown. We hit EVERY. RED. LIGHT. I mean ALL of them. It became a joke with the group I was riding with. But it was also starting to hurt my glutes with all the stopping and starting. Then we headed out to one final park in the last few miles - which had two more climbs. These ones were slow and uncomfortable because of the fatigue from the starting and stopping downtown. But the downhill was fabulous. We cruised back into the finish. My time was around 4:10 for 62.88 miles. I had been hoping to be under 4 hours, but with the wind this wasn't the day for it. The stopping and starting probably didn't help either. But the good news was that even in tough conditions I averaged over 15 mph.
So I consider that to be "on track" for IMLOU. For now.
The weekend was pretty full with the Ordination and Consecration of the 11th (Episcopal) Bishop of Indianapolis on Saturday and I was serving in one of the processions, so I needed to be there pretty early. But with the storms Saturday morning (noticing a theme?) and the Y not opening until 7 to treadmill run I thought I would be able to get my run in later...but I didn't get home until 2 and we didn't get to Corydon for the night until 5...it started feeling like it was too late to be able to run and eat, and too close to ride time for the morning...so I missed a run. That hasn't happened in a long time.
Sunday we got to Louisville and got our packets. I put a race sticker/number on my new bike for the first time...we took some pictures at the start and then waited for the call to post and starting gun.
It was a SLOW start even though we were with all 100K riders (the 35 and 20 mile riders had separate starts). Then it seemed like people were making up time and took off...I hung back, knowing there were lots of mile and hills left. There was a big gap between the pack in front of me (where David was) and me...and then a big gap between me and the pack behind. Over the course of a few traffic signals there was some regrouping. Then we hit Iroquois Park. I know enough people who have run the Derby full marathon and/or the Papa John's 10 Miler that I know about the hills in the park. I made it through them pretty well. It started raining while we were in the park, but it was a light rain and not bad. Coming out of the park we had a red light and I was behind a few guys. I knew we were turning right after the light, but I didn't realize it was an uphill from a stop and I was in the wrong gear. Fortunately I was able to hang on to the back of these guys and one of them pulled us up the hill. Then we got on the Louisville Loop where it is on the Levee. Normally that would have been awesome and fast because there was no stopping for traffic...but it was straight in to 15-20 mph winds. Averages were not pretty for how open the area was. But since it's higher than anything around we were fully exposed.
Coming off the Levee we were looking for a SAG stop to refill water bottles - this was about 2 hours into the ride and it was time. But there was no stop. Passed a park, but no stop there. We were back to outside Iroquois Park on New Circle when there was a stop. We did talk to one of the event people about how much distance was between the stops since this is only the second year they have done the 62 mile route.
Then we were back in downtown. We hit EVERY. RED. LIGHT. I mean ALL of them. It became a joke with the group I was riding with. But it was also starting to hurt my glutes with all the stopping and starting. Then we headed out to one final park in the last few miles - which had two more climbs. These ones were slow and uncomfortable because of the fatigue from the starting and stopping downtown. But the downhill was fabulous. We cruised back into the finish. My time was around 4:10 for 62.88 miles. I had been hoping to be under 4 hours, but with the wind this wasn't the day for it. The stopping and starting probably didn't help either. But the good news was that even in tough conditions I averaged over 15 mph.
So I consider that to be "on track" for IMLOU. For now.
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