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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Denver Century Ride

The Century was quite an experience! It was certainly challenging and I often thought of the 112 mile IMAZ ride and how I was going to manage that as I took advantage of almost all the stops on this ride.  The longest I have ridden before this was 75 miles  and since I hadn't experienced Lookout Mountain (a famous climb around these parts) I wasn't sure what I was in for. At one point right before the first big climb there was a short VERY steep road. After that was an aid station where I proceeded to check my cassette to see if maybe I had the wrong one on my bike. (that hill was really tough).  I had correct one on (easier for climbing) and was a bit discouraged about how challenging I thought that hill was. Fortunately, Lookout Mountain, while a long and winding climb, was not as steep as the little monster leading up to it and I handled all the climbs fine. They were challenging and I got tired but I kept on plugging away.. The ride took us to places I have never seen before so that was great. My nutrition plan didn't work out so great. I did the two hour bottles of  Infinit but I didn't drink enough of it ,I don't think, and then didn't drink the water I needed. I just wanted some solid food so started with the Cliff bars and has a few animal crackers and some pretzels along the way. Cold water and pretzels were great at the 82 mile stop. My back and shoulder were acting up pretty badly by the 82 mile stop and I spent some time lying in the grass trying to stretch things out. I haven't ridden much on my road bike this year so I am sure that was part of it. Overall it was a good day but I was ready to be done at the last aid station. Once we arrived at the finish, my Garmin was at 98.9 miles so I road around the parking lot to get the last mile in. I wasn't about to go all that way and not have 100 miles to show for it. Of course if I spent the time to figure out all the features of my Garmin, I wouldn't have stopped it by accident and lost some of the data.
It was great to have Julie along for the ride (thanks for the pics by the way) and it was nice to meet Jill. My friends Sarah and Paul road also and as always I enjoyed their company.
Some pics from the day.

 Invesco Field at Mile High. Start of ride
 Pic from Lookout Mountain

 Almost at the top of Lookout Mountain
 Paul and Sarah enjoying a moment after a big climb
 I should have kept my helmet on for this pic but I was way to hot.
 Sarah, Paul, Julie and Jill