Covington Century - 80 Mile Route

Garmin Connect Ride Data

I did not think I would go this year, but I did on the pretense that I would go as a training ride and keep my intensity level low. The last couple weeks I have doing solid blocks of 45 minute efforts each day in the "sweet spot" and then plan to do an endurance ride on the weekend. This weekend I decided to join Alan, Paul and Mike Quick at the Covington Century for the training event.

My goal today was to ride at 0.6 IF (intensity factor) for the 100 miles, but having my power meter hub batteries go dead this morning I could not record the ride and I had to use perception the best I could to keep my heart rate down. Kind of tough to use an organized ride to do this kind of training because there are a lot of cyclists using this event to set personal best in overall time. The big group normally made of Cat level racers will shoot for a sub 4 hour century. So it is hard not to get caught up in all intense efforts, but I was determined to stay with my goal.

I stayed with Paul, Alan and Mike until about 40 miles when the big group comes by at a good speed. I noticed at the same time the guys also pulling away from me, but without the power meter or a heart rate strap it was hard to tell if I was coming out of my zone. My heart rate was incrementally climbing and my breathing rate was increasing. I started to reflect back on my week of ramping up my training and was thinking fatigue was starting to surface causing these effects.

That is when I felt it necessary to make another personal decision and to break off at the 80 mile route turn off. My goal was to not dig a deep hole because it is important to me to continue these indoor training efforts while ramping up. Mike and Edgar also decided to break off for the 80 mile route with me, but it wasn't long before they were gone as well. For most of the remaining miles I was solo and felt every single pedal stroke. Very soon after the turn off I was pretty happy about the choice and figured I could finish the remaining miles and not put myself in a deep recovery hole.

About mile 65 a sheriff comes up in front of me with his lights on. I looked back and there was no one there but me. "Sweet", I humorously thought to myself at my slow speed, "I have my very own escort." About a minute later the escort car comes around me and I hear voices way off in the distance to hold my line. I knew the fast guys were coming again. It was inevitable to be passed twice by the fast guys. They finished the 100 miles faster than I did the 80. As the fast guys came by I picked up my momentum a bit because I was feeling the slip stream of the big group. I stayed in this group for a mile as my heart rate increased, but decided it would be best to stay at my goal. I dropped out of the fast group and was solo again.

Like Haley's Comet you see guys coming out of the fast train. I was about 10 miles from the end when I saw a victim of the 100 mile intense effort. I could tell the way he was stopped in the middle of the road he was cramping. I stopped and talked to the guy and found out he was indeed cramping bad and had no water remaining in his 3 bottles. I gave him 3 Endurolyte capsules, took a couple myself and headed off again. Turned out there was another water station just ahead a couple miles so the guy rolled in a minute after me. I refilled my bottles to finish the remaining miles and met up with Mike Quick as he was riding back toward me.

When Mike and I got back to the truck, we did not mess around. I was getting pretty hot by that point. So we loaded up and headed out for the 1 1/2 hour drive back to Woodstock. Thank the Lord for a good day and that we had clouds for several hours in the morning that kept the temperatures lower than last year. It is a bummer that I just have my Garmin 705 data and not the power meter data. I think I was definitely more tired today before riding because I had a 2 hour nap when I got home and struggled to wake up. I feel the exhaustion from a good week of training. I am just glad that I made a decision to change plans and go with the 80 mile route instead of the 100 mile route.