Triple Bypass 2008

Saturday morning started out early with a 3:10 am alarm. My dear spouse would be supporting me on the ride and we left Boulder at 4 am to drive down to Evergreen, Colorado for a 5:30 am start. Some friends from Club Hypoxia were to meet us at Bergen Meadow Elementary for the start of the ride.

We met Howard and Baltic Tiger from Club Hypoxia and bikejournal and the ride began at about 5:40. The first climb was up to Squaw Pass. We started at about 7800 ft altitude and crested at about 11100 ft for 3300 ft of climbing. The climb was continuous and I did it without stopping. The challenge was more difficult than expected as I could only ride at 6 or 7 mph to hold my heart rate 150 and below. Was this due to lack of training above mile high altitude? or due to jet lag, having had to be overseas and arriving in Colorado just on Thursday night? or just due to the challenge be a bit too much? I don't know.

In any case, the first climb was successfully mastered and after refueling at the rest stop, I flew down the descent to Idaho Springs at a high pace, peaking above 40 mph.

My wife met me at Idaho Springs. I had told her I would arrive about 2.5 to 3 hours after starting and I got to her at nearly 3 hours. To do just a mere 32 miles. So I warned her it could be a long day. And indeed it was.

The next portion of the ride was a continuous uphill that eventually would end up at nearly 12000 ft at the top of Loveland Pass. However first we had to cover the ground between Idaho Springs at about 7500 ft and Loveland Ski Basin at 10800ft, another 3300 ft gain.

This time it got to me. Headache. Burning quads. Achilles issues. Squirally hamstring. I got to Loveland Basin and told my wife "I'm done". I put the bike in the car. Went for some food. Caught up to my Club Hypoxian friends who came up afterwards. They gently advised me that we had completed well over half of the climbing. A mere 3.8 miles up to Loveland Pass and a glorious downhill awaited.

They saved my ride. The bike came out of the car after a fairly long rest. I rode up Loveland Pass to about 12000 ft elevation. I was riding about 4 to 6 mph. But I got it done.

The downhill was glorious. I had a double bypass done, could I do the triple? The third climb is the easiest of all, although with fatigued legs I had to stop several times to rest. But I got it done. After reaching Vail Pass after a climb of about 1500 ft,it was mostly downhill from there.

So I reached the finish at about 6 pm, over 12 hours since the start. I completed 122.3 miles on the day at an average speed of 11.8 mph, so I spent over 10 hours in the saddle. Gallons of Accelerade consumed along the way. Pictures to come in a couple of days.

I thought I was a solid cyclist but people were passing me all day. This event is not for the casual cyclist, it is a serious challenge.

I am so happy to have completed the ride. Compared to marathoning, cycling is much more forgiving on the body and I am nearly recovered fully 24 hours later. I would have greatly regretted throwing in the towel.

Today I celebrated with a triple platter breakfast this morning and triple margaritas tonight.

Why do we do this? Well perhaps as testosterone levels in males fall with age, they are partially replaced for a time with "foolishterone". Foolishterone causes men of a certain age to behave erratically. Look at Elliot Spitzer, who at age 49, managed to damage a successful career due to his erratically foolish behaviour. Deciding to be an endurance athlete at 49 is not nearly so damaging to ones career and home life (phew), but I do wonder if the root cause of the erratic behaviour is the same.

120 miles, 10000 ft of climbing at 8 to 12k altitude - my foolishterone level is out of control. I have used it all up for the time being, so until it builds up again, there is nothing seriously hard on my future calendar. So far.