2011 Up The Creek - Century

RidewithGPS Data  (Good source to see the profile data)

Garmin Connect Ride Data

Ride Summary (totals):

Distance: 101.32 mi (Route was changed this year) (Previous Years: 99.2)

Elevation Gain 4,690 ft (Previous Years: 4,478)

Moving Time: 05:49:31 (2009: 05:53:10)

Avg Moving Speed: 17.3 mph (2009: 16.9 mph)

Max Speed: 37.5 mph (2009: 36.5 mph)

Group:

"A" Group - Paul and Alan (it sounded like the two of them were the front group this year)

Also attending in various groups and mileage options - Jamie, Matt, Peter, Glenn, Neal, Edgar, Cristi, Jack, Derek, Rod, Tim, Richard, Margaret and a few hundred others

Goal: Survive and not put myself into a recovery hole

The Event:

I am starting to lose track of how many UTC rides I have attended. This may have been my fifth year in a row and I always enjoy going. This year was no different for wanting to attend, but I was concerned with the new start location and was really concerned about the century route. I know the world does not revolve around me, but I always like coming to UTC as it typically follows the next weekend after 3 State 3 Mountain. I like it because the route in the past was fast and was a nice change from all the climbing the previous week. More about this later.

This year they seemed to really step up the number of police officers to control traffic and quite a few EMT's seemed to be out on the road. Unless the cars were unmarked I did not notice any support vehicles the entire day. I stopped a couple sag stops and there was enough available and well stocked. The post ride meal was salad, pasta, some deserts and drinks. Plenty of friendly volunteers from the host cycling club, Armuchee High School staff and students.

Sufficient parking at Armuchee High School provides a nice venue for pre and post ride rest rooms and showers were available as well. I did miss coming into the mall like in previous years with more people still hanging around eating and chatting about the ride. We came in today and most were already gone. Kinda missed the post ride Chick-fil-A :(

Great Job for all those who made our (cyclists) day a very pleasurable day on the bike.

The Ride: 

I wondered if the new route would impact speed posted in previous years by other cyclists. It seemed as if it did, but the details, such as, elevation indicate that the route was not much more difficult. However, to me if felt more difficult and that may be due to a few reasons. I was worn out from 3 State 90 mile ride last week, caught a nasty cold between that ride and this one and just simply did not feel like I was at the top of my game for today. So it may not be the route as much as it may have just been me having a tough day. The route had Little Sand Mountain included this year and that sure enough slowed me down to a crawl at one point, but fortunately it was a short climb and a great descent with some nice "S" curves to make it more exciting.

The mass start sure did not look like the mass starts of past years with what looked like hoards of Cat level racers lined up to roll out for a fast century. I was up in front with Alan, Paul and Derek and it did not take long for a small cluster with Paul and Alan included to hit a brisk pace. I was in another small group a couple of hundred feet behind them with a slightly less intense pace, but still pretty brisk for the first few miles.

I overheard that most of the guys in my group were only doing the metric route and their pace was starting to pick up. A little too much heat on that pace since I was doing the century so I bailed out. I was riding solo when Glenn, Matt, Rod, Jamie, Peter and a few more caught me at Little Sand Mountain. Their pace was also a little more than I wanted so I dropped off. I did a lot of miles solo and many of those in a head wind. That sure took some spunk out of my legs.

I lost track of time and miles, but I found the group at a sag stop and Jamie talked me into trying to hang, but this time Neal, Edgar, Jack and Derek were there. I rolled out with Neal, who I ended up sharing the remaining miles with. It is always nice to roll along and enjoy the ride with Neal. Neither of us were looking to give our legs a good thrashing for the day, but we did catch on the back of a group that included Edgar and Jack. We held with that group's pace to the end. Jack and Edgar looked solid for their first 2011 century.

I got to enjoy the post ride meal with just about everyone on my group list above. A few mentioned that they also felt as if the course felt harder this year. Comparing profiles it looks like there are a lot more sharp rollers this year, I like to call them stingers, as compared to my 2009 data.

I did not bring my video camera today because it was in the forecast as a 40% chance of rain. I also used my heavier rain bike today, but the weather turned out to be awesome for this event. We had dark skies that kept us cooler for many miles and then sunny skies later in the ride. I never even felt a drop, but I sure enjoyed the clouds.

Nutrition Intake During and after the Course: ~52 oz.of water with Hammer Heed, Glutamine (1) Hammer gel (2) Cliff Bars (3) fig newtons at the sag (1) 40 gram Whey protein post ride recovery drink .  Plus a post ride pasta meal

The Weather: cloudy @ 66 degrees, Sunny End @ 78 degrees

Bike: Cannondale six13, Garmin 705, Powertap wired

Power Summary: (Based on Coogan's Levels)
Summary Table of Minutes of Duration in Each Training Zone

  Level   Minutes       TSS

      1      8.19      1.41
      2    140.93     79.56
      3    186.31    202.64
      4     11.00     15.66
      5      0.00      0.00
      6      0.00      0.00
      7      4.10     13.89

Overall Power Data: (I added some comparisons to 2009 for the old route)

Entire workout (121 watts):
    Duration:      5:53:19 (6:10:46) (2009: 5:55:31)
    Work:          2541 kJ (2009: 2453 kJ)
    TSS:           313.4 (intensity factor 0.735) (2009: TSS 256.6 (IF 0.661)
    Norm Power:    151 (2009: NP 149)
    VI:            1.25
    Distance:      101.961 mi (2009: 99.54 mi)
        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    709    121     watts
    Speed:           0    38    17.3     mph
    Pace             1:35    0:00    3:28     min/mi
    Hub Torque:      0    42    6     lb-in
    Crank Torque:    0    906    135     lb-in