Tour of Napa century ride report

I started this season with the thought of doing a triathlon by the end of season but later realized that not knowing anything about 2 sports (biking and swimming) out of 3 wasn't an ideal way to go about it. I was better off building some base in all 3 sports this season before doing all of them at the same time. But by the time that realization had hit me I had already bought an awesome bike from my triathlete friend at work. So it was time to make some good use of the equipment at hand and build some good biking base..

My ride was ready for long day :)

Before April the maximum I had ridden the bike was 25ish mile and that too on sport shoes. I was scared of cleating issues. Though I had cleats from day 1 I was never comfortable wearing them because of the fear of fall. It was due to the constant encouragement from Jesse and Larry from TVTC that I eventually mustered enough courage to try them on. Sure I did had my fair share of falls (some on the middle of roads) but eventually I got use to them. Now it was time to do some REAL biking stuff :)

When I heard about riding 100 miles on bike in a single day it seemed ridiculous at first. Seriously, I don't even like driving 100 miles!! but at the same time it seemed that it would be something amazing if I was able to pull off. I was definitely up for the challenge

Training:
I started training for Napa century back in April end -May time frame. What I quickly realized was that unlike running, biking will require lot more training miles on the legs. This resulted in a training schedule consisting of 4 rides per week (in addition to 3 runs that I was already doing)...Weekends were dedicated to long runs (on Saturday) and long bike rides (with Asha gang) on Sunday...Weekday rides were broken into a recovery ride on Monday, 60-90 mins, depending on how hard weekend was. Wednesday were usually strength building rides, either doing max interval sets or doing sets of increasing cadence in ladder form (usually 60-90 mins) and then Friday were more aerobic base building rides with high cadence (60-90 mins).

Arun, me and Rohit before the riding on the golden gate bridge

On top of King Mountain

The most fun rides were definitely the weekend rides when I rode with Team Asha. It was definitely the most fun I had in a long time. Getting up at some insane times on Sunday morning (OK that was not fun), meeting the 100 miler gang, riding really early in the morning where the only other breathing soul around you would be your riding buddy :), all the banters and rubbish talks with Jayant, Venkii, Sunny, Sri ram, Arun and others,  crushing all the hills of south bay on each of our rides and then feeling that sense of accomplishment. Over the course of 15 weekend ride we tackled quite a few of the hills but ones I will most remember are Mt. Eden, Mt. Hamilton, King Mountain, Old La Honda, Going up Calaveras. Looking back I can see how well thought out this rides were organized and how strong each of us became with each ride.

Actual Ride:
Thanks to Prakash, everything was already planned for us. Hotel bookings, food etc. I went to Vallejo on Saturday afternoon, picked up my wrist band and checked into the hotel. Later we all gathered for a fun dinner at pasta pomodoro.  Surprisingly, I was quite relaxed the whole time. I was mentally prepared for a long day on Sunday. But thanks to all those long training rides this seemed no different. Also, this being a ride and not a race also helped a lot. Back from dinner and some relaxing at the room I was off to bed at 10:30. The plan was to start at 5:15 in the morning to get to the start point at 6 and start rolling out at 6. Surprisingly, this was one of the rare occasion where I did not get up single time at night..straight in the morning at 4:30. Once I was up, after some quick breakfast we went to start point of the ride. After some pictures we started at 6:40-6:50. Our plan was to stick as a group and if we get separated then regroup at the rest stop.

First 30 miles:

100 miler gang after the first major climb

With fresh legs and all energy stored completely charged those first thirty miles went really well. For 100 milers there were two major climbs. First one of those climb (the shorter but more steeper one) was in the first 15 miles. This was good since climbing is much easier with fresh legs. The climb up mount Veeder (I think) was definitely a tough climb. But having done so many hills in training it felt I was well equipped to tackle it. Slowly we crawled our way to the top. The cool part about the climb was a bag piper. Being an early morning you could actually hear the bag pipe from the distance.Pretty cool thing. We all regrouped near the top of the hill (the views from the top were spectacular). Rest of the miles were flat flat flat. We all rolled into the first rest stop. I was still feeling strong at the first stop which was a good sign for me :)

Miles 30-66--Things go south:

Doing the work

Out of the rest stop group decided to do pace lining for next 35ish miles since they were all flat miles (with some roller hills) through beautiful wineries of Napa with average head wind. I must admit I was not very keen on doing pace lining. For one I had never practiced pace lining with this group of riders and I had no idea at what avg pace everybody rides. Even though the effort level does go down when doing pace line I was not sure if my pace was high as other riders in the group and I was not too keen on pushing myself that early in the ride. So I requested them to go ahead and we decided to regroup at rest stop at mile 46. Within minutes the group disappeared and I was riding all alone in beautiful landscape. I was really enjoying the lone time on the bike soaking in all the pretty sights. But I guess I forgot that I have to finish the ride in that moment. Since the routes were well marked I did not carry a route sheet with me and it happened I missed a right turn. Ouch. I continued riding without knowing it and then suddenly I was just riding alone. The markers on the roads disappeared. And I realized I was off route. Luckily, there was a rest stop close by for 50k riders. So I quickly made it to that rest stop. Talked to the ride organizer. Looking at my really worried face he offered me to give me a ride back to finish location. HELL NO!! I had worked way too hard for it to end it like that. I requested him to give me his route sheet and point me in the right direction. Luckily, I had only gone 4 miles after the missed turn. So I quickly saddled up and in the haste forgot to refill my electrolyte bottle and off I went as hard as I could go. My initial plan was to regroup with the gang at mile 46 rest stop but again I missed that rest stop as well. Once I realized that my best bet was to regroup at mile 66 rest stop. Being a lunch break I knew group would be taking a slightly longer break and I had some time to catch up with them. By mile 50 both my electrolyte bottles were empty. Luckily, I had enough gels and chews for keeping me going. Finally, I rolled into mile 66 rest stop. Luckly, the group had not left (they were about to). I was completely exhausted. I had ridden 44 miles really hard without a break. I was definitely ready to get out of the saddle for some time. But I was really happy to see the group finally !!!

Mile 66-88--We conquer Ink Grade:

On top of ink grade..still 35 miles to go

100 miler gang at the top of Ink grade

Ever since the training had begun we were always told about ink grade. It was suppose to be the toughest climb in the ride. Some 4+ miles with 8-10% gradient. I was definitely looking forward to it. After regrouping and eating some food I was ready for it. It was definitely a tough climb. No doubt about it. Climbing non-stop for 4+ miles is not really fun but then I felt that we had trained on more challenging hills in our training. All along I just kept thinking about king mountain, old la honda climb. Those seemed much tougher than this one. Once we conquered ink grade we all regrouped at the top of the hill to celebrate our climb and got ready for one final push to the finish line. From Ink grade to mile 88 was smooth, uneventful and fast. We stuck together as a group.

Mile 88 to 100 (108 for me)---The finish:

Once we rolled out of rest stop at mile 88 group again decided to do pace lining :) I again bailed out and decided to ride at my pace. Looking at the past disaster I decided to ride harder than the group and stay WAY ahead of them so that there was no chance of dropping me off ;) I biked hard for those last miles. There was tons of head wind but being the last part of the ride I was really not worried of burning out. I just kept pedaling hard. Finally, once in the town we all rolled into the finish line together.

Some of the 100k folks were waiting for us to finish. Had I known that I would have definitely made the grand appearance where they were standing. I directly went to my car and got changed into clean clothes and it was time to celebrate the achievement with Asha family !!

End of an awesome day

So after 7 hours on the saddle (close to 8.5 hours total) someone who had no clue how to change gear on the bike, who kept falling off not knowing how to unclip few months back finished 100 miles..actually 108 :) This by far was the longest endurance event I had ever done and I enjoyed every minute of it !!

Ride File:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212715383

What's next:
When the idea of doing a triathlon was scrapped I had penned down 4 attainable goals for the season
1) run a sub 2 half marathon
2) Do a century ride
3) Run first full marathon
4) Learn how to swim (work in progress)

With this ride I was able check off my second goal of the season. Now on to the final one...The one I am most scared off so far..Its time to tackle it head on...MCM full marathon is T-10 weeks. Lets get cracking !!