Day 1 of the MS 150
The MS150 is an annual ride done for the MS Foundation. They offer rides of 50,75, or 100 on Saturday and Rides of 50 or 75 on Sunday. This was one of the first events I saw after I began my transition from mountain biker to roadie. The proceeds go to a great cause and it gets us who like to do endurance riding a fairly safe and well supported ride. As you've probably guess by reading my other blog posts, I have been training solidly for months for this ride. My training rides were of great help as were the friends I would make from Suncoast Cycling Club (Chainwheel Drive/Suncoast Cycling was the team I joined).
On Monday night, I started to get the scratch in the back of my throat that said either allergies or a cold was coming. As the week wore on it got progressively worse but nothing to stop me from riding. Oh well the joys of daycare right?
Finally Friday rolled around. We stayed in Winter Haven to make the early morning comute to Bok Tower a lot less of an issue (I had to be there for our team photo at 6:20 and the ride started at 7). I woke up around 4:45 after a night of tossing and turning. Hit the shower and stopped at a Dunkin Donut on my way to Bok Tower.
When I arrived at Bok Tower, the place was alive. There was a brilliant glow of light coming from the parking area near where the tower and visitors building were. As I got closer there were already many rows of cars and there were tons of people out and about. I found my team and verified where we were supposed to meet up. After taking the picture I finished getting myself and the bike ready. It was quite humid at this point and already about 75F. At around 6:45 my team and I rolled into position. As one of the biggest teams we got to be one of the first waves of riders released.
At this point I met the first of my teammates I would be riding with, they were looking to do 16-18mph consistently. This falls into the realm of my riding preference (or rather endurance level). Courtney, Christine, Donald, Mike, and, I would take turns taking pulls. By taking turns being the one to take the wind effectively makes the whole team ride faster. We called ourselves the wolfpack and kept up the higher side of 18 as our pace for quite some time and having a group of people to help you keep distracted from the constant churning of the pedals is a great thing.
Another blessing of the humidity was a thick layer of fog. This helped us all stay cooler and kept the sun out for a much longer time. The ride also had the best rest stop volunteers and were filled with all the goods one could ever ask for. The porta pottys were all super clean too (if you can imagine).
The first 37 miles were for the most part - flat. For the most part. There were some slight hills but nothing really out of the ordinary (and nothing worse that the inclines on the Pinellas Trail. Around mile 36 rest stop is where I met up with my friend Nate who I would finish the ride with. The next 19 miles were hellaciously hilly, especially the section on"Detour road". We should have definitely detoured this section. Climb afterer endless climb. The real plus here was the 1/2mi downhill that let us see 30+mph without so much as turning the cranks. Once we finally got past the hellacious climbs, there was a short run through some neighborhoods and then the busy road fun began. They also had a photo opportunity here as well:
Around Mile 46 there was a stop for lunch - pb&j (if you wanted that) and stock up on gatorade, ice water, and bananas. From mile 57 to nearly the end, it seemed like the roads were either very busy or in very poor repair (or in some cases both).
The stated distance for this ride was 75 miles. The distance indicated on the cue sheet was 78. I set my sights at 78. When I got to about mile 75 I was stopped at a stoplight and was talking to the cop who was directing traffic. I mentioned where we were and he said we had at least 6-10 miles remaining. Nothing crushes your motivation like setting your goals on one thing and being told you were quite a bit short.
Emotional ending. The power of this event doesn't hit you till you get near the finish line and the folks with MS are waving you in and people are cheering for you as you make the push past the finish line. It truly was an amazing experience.
After the ride I got cleaned up and got my post race massage. While it was being done the storms that had been promised arrived which for some unfortunately folks meant a wet afternoon was in store for them. At this point I had some coffee and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Day 1 Ride Stats and Maps:
Ride Time: 4:47:20
Stopped Time: 1:23:18
Distance: 83.26 miles
Average: 17.39 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 42.06 miles/h
Behind Best Ride: 3:48:56
Ascent: 2244 feet
Descent: 2385 feet
Calories: 4960
The Roubaix needs it's rest too!
Day 2 of the MS 150 - 50 miles
I was awoken at 5am to the sounds of hellacious thunder. I fired up the weatherbug app on my phone and saw a nasty patch of weather moving across the state. The one big plus was that it was moving across at a rocket pace.
I stopped in and had a huge breakfast of cereal and bananas and then headed to the cafe for an espresso as they had delayed the ride for an hour. Nate and I discussed wether or not we were going to ride, as the weather still looked really bad and the wind was something fierce.
Around 8:05 we finally got underway. It was much cooler this morning, and it was still wet which was a little disconcerting. One thing I did notice was a huge number of people repairing flat tires. A surpising number...
So naturally about 16 miles into the ride I feel the bike start to be somewhat sluggish. I look down and sure enough the tire was going flat. I pulled over and Mike from the club did as well. He let me borrow a CO2 tube to quickly get it pumped up, and meanwhile a SAG truck pulled up with a pump and let me fill it the rest the way up. The bummer was that I forgot to readjust the the speed sensor and I lost speed reading and distance for the next 8 miles. Great.
From here we rode up to the next rest stop and I topped off my water supplies and made sure my speed sensor was good to go again.
A quick stop for lunch and cold water and we were off again for the last leg of the journey. At this point the wind became brutal and the climbs were no help. It is a sad time when you are going the same speed downhill as you were uphill because the wind is just beating you.
We finally made it to the rest stop at the bottom of the last climb, rested for a minute and then attacked. It was the perfect time for using the small/big chain combo. Nothing like spinning 100rpm up a hill at 10mph.
I will definitely do this ride again - it was for a great cause, and I had an awesome time. Ana and Alana had a good time shopping and going to the hotel's kiddie pool.
Day 2 Ride Stats and Maps:
Ride Time: 3:29:16
Stopped Time: 1:36:46
Distance: 52.44 miles
Average: 15.03 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 44.06 miles/h
Ascent: 1467 feet
Descent: 1293 feet
Calories: 3131
