My Brutally Honest Sub-5 Century Ride Report

A week ago Sunday was my second big riding event of the year, the Sub-5 Century. It was a day filled with fun, wind, speed, wind, frustration, and in case you were wondering, wind.

NOTE: What you’re about to read is my honest (and lonnnng), no nonsense ride report. I didn’t pull any punches and it likely won’t make me many friends. I’m ok with that because I’m trying to be honest about what transpired and how I felt. I took a week before writing this because I really wanted to think about the day and what happened before writing it all down.

This post does not spend much time talking about the facilities or running of the event. They were all top notch and riding for the benefit of Parkinson’s Research and the Paul Ruby Foundation was an honor and a pleasure.

On to the ride!

I’ve done a lot of riding this summer with distances ranging from 20-100 miles but most of them were around 50 miles. The exception was the Dairyland Dare and the training rides for this event. It was important not just to get saddle time in but to get time in with a steady high pace and practicing with a team to work through the signals, transitions, and flow of the event.

Heading into Sunday I was excited to finally ride with the whole team together and to really knock this Sub-5 out of the park. The last training ride I was at we managed 81 miles in 3 hours 50 min and the team had a few more rides with similar paces so we were confident coming into Sundays event.

The morning of the ride started a bit chilly around 55 degrees fahrenheit. My teeth were actually chattering at the start line waiting to get rolling. I had my arm and hard warmers on but other than that just my jersey and bibs. I’m glad I’d taken care of natures calls before standing out in the wind though because otherwise it may have frozen.

Aside, am I the only one who has to make several pre event/race visits to the restroom? I think the tension and excitement causes my body to tense up and push more waste out. Sorry to gross you out but it’s a trend for me and I was curious if it was for others as well.

Back to the snowshoeing, I mean cycling … no it didn’t snow but man it was nippy out there in the pancake flat plains of Illinois. The low temperature combined with the 15+ mph winds out of the north quickly cut through any clothing. After we started and the blood started flowing again, about 5-10 minutes in, I was a much happier camper. I’m very happy I opted for the gloves as well as the arm warmers, I was on the fence before the ride.

Lap 1

The first lap (of three) around the course was challenging. Warming up, getting into a rhythm, and getting acquainted with side winds posed quite a challenge. We rotated between double and single pace lines depending on our direction.

We’d usually be in a double pace line with 2 people rotating to the back when we were traveling East or West. That usually allowed for one side of the pace line to rest a bit more because they weren’t fighting the wind as much (more on that later).

Our single pace line was usually reserved for Northbound or Southbound travel to make battling that headwind easier and less taxing on multiple people. We did mix these both up at other times but that was often how it played out.

By the time the first lap ended we were all communicating well and the pace was solid.

Lap / Distance	Time @ Speed	Total Time	Total Avg (mph)	Place
1 / 33.6 mi	1:34:49 @ 21.26 mph	1:34:49	21.26 mph	129

Transition 1

We came into the transition right on schedule and even finished the transition in around 2:30, well under the planned time. My transition was far from smooth though I still managed with time to spare. I ran from my bike to get fresh water bottles which was difficult at first because I wasn’t sure where the team staged my cooler. I had placed neon orange masking tape on the top in an X pattern so that scanning for it in the sea of coolers was faster.

Once I found the cooler I popped the lid and did a double take as someone was squatting some bottles in my cooler. Ignoring the squatter I grabbed my water only to realize I’d forgotten my old bottles on the bike. I sprinted to and from the bike, then back again, and finally a quick bathroom break and I was back on the bike ready to rock. During the transition I also dumped my arm and hand warmers as I’d started to warm up about 3/4 of the way through the first lap.

Lap 2

Heading into the second lap we’d come in under our 3 minute transition goal and were leaving right on schedule. Starting the second lap we were feeling great and our pace was high. Then wind happened … and it really sucked, or blew, or whatever you want to say it just plain hurt.

Yes, we had wind on the first lap but we were now heading toward our second hour of riding, were certainly more tired, and the wind was back in force. The tail end of each loop put the wind at our back so it’d been about 20 minutes since we’d last conversed with our gusty friend.

The wind really started to take its toll and slowly grind me down to a nubbin on this lap. It wasn’t taking the rotation that was bad, that’s just part of the event and being in the pace line on a team. It was taking too much wind that was the worst part.

I know I’m a big guy and I’m not exactly aerodynamic but that doesn’t mean I should always be placed in the wind as a draft shield. It was in this lap that I felt like people started dodging the wind. I certainly don’t have evidence and perhaps I’m wrong but it certainly felt like there were far more empty positions on the windy side of the pace line than the shielded side.

I guess I don’t blame them, it was brutal out there in the wind. If we could have drafted a SAG car for a few minutes to take a break we might have. The difficulty of the wind situation to me just reinforced the purpose of the team though. Take your pull, rotate off, and take your break. If that meant your next pull put you on the windy side and in a head wind then that’s fine, everyone on the team was doing it … right? To not take your rotation on both sides of the dual pace line meant you were hurting the team.

In that second lap I spent a lot of time in the wind and as a result started to feel my energy levels drop. To keep my energy up I tried to stay on top of my nutrition and hydration during the entire race. Every 5 miles I made sure to drink, every 10 miles or roughly 30 minutes I made sure to eat. I stuck with Gu’s and Bloks for a quick fix and a protein bar for some slower activating carbohydrates. Because I was so diligent there I don’t feel like my energy drop was due to nutrition, that left only the wind … the relentless wicked wind.

Lap / Distance	Time @ Speed	Total Time	Total Avg (mph)	Place
2 / 33.6 mi	1:42:17 @ 19.71 mph	3:17:06	20.46 mph	104

One thing to note is that the above lap time is longer than the previous one not only due to the wind but also due to the previous transition time. The timing strips were just before the transition area so this time includes our prior transition.

Transition 2

We headed into the second and final transition on time but tighter than we wanted as we’d lost some of our padding in the last lap. This time I knew right where my cooler was so I decided to answer natures calling first. Fortunately someone helped me with my bike, something that didn’t happen on the prior lap, which helped immensely. I handed it off to a friendly lady and trotted to the porta-potties only to realize they were all full so I had to wait … argh.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, about a minute, I jumped in and took care of things and then sprinted to my cooler … or at least where it was after the last lap. Ummm … it was now gone and I was really confused. Why had they moved it? Seriously was I supposed to be hunting for this thing during a critical transition? After 15 seconds of confusion I finally found it and threw in my old bottles (I remembered them this time), grabbed my final set of cold ones, and jumped on my bike.

While I wasn’t the last person to get back on the bike I was certainly darn close. Next time I’m going to not wait in line for the potty and I’m going to position my own coolers for sanity purposes.

One final transition gotcha for me was that the ground was slightly muddy in transition where the coolers were. I don’t know if it was from the previous nights rain or the few hundred folks running over it in cleats but the loose mud jacked up my bike cleats causing a rough remount and difficulty clipping in. After a few failed clip-ins my normally trusty Speedplays finally clicked in and away I went with the rest of the team.

Lap 3

The first thing I did entering this lap was to eat a Gu. I was hungry and knew I was going to need a shot of something coming into the headwinds shortly. I also knew that on this lap I was going to need to be more defensive about my position in the pace line. If I was going to make it under 5 hours I’d need to take a little less wind and be a little more conservative about my energy this lap.

In the first portion of this lap it worked out pretty well. I took my normal pulls, nothing too long, and I was sure to rotate into and out of the windy side of the pace line. Once we started heading north more though it seemed like I was caught covering the wind a bit longer. It also seemed like a few members of the team were being protected and shielded from the wind. I honestly didn’t mind that and was happy to help out, we were a team and the more people we got across the line the better it’d feel.

Then the wheels started falling off the express train …

I don’t know if it was everyone getting tired or everyone getting antsy because we were getting closer to finishing the day. Either way, about 20 miles from the finish everything we’d worked so hard to do started falling apart. We stopped communicating where everyone was, we stopped holding our pace line together, and we started getting random bunches of riders up and down the line.

We went from being a team that was working toward a common goal to a few packs of solo riders fighting for invisible seconds. People were accelerating at random points on the road, through corners, or when their pull came up … something you don’t do when you have 12+ riders already close to red-lining after 80+ miles of riding. As a result I ended up in the wind far more than needed and found myself having to bridge gaps between groups, all while other people drafted me of course. That meant precious energy being lost but I was a part of the team and was sure we’d help each other when needed, right?

Then more bad news … apparently during one of the random accelerations when I was working on bridging a gap we lost a few riders. One of them was someone like myself, a bigger guy, who took a ton of wind for the team throughout the day so it frustrated me immensely that he was dropped. I looked back and didn’t even see him. Had I seen him I 100% would have dropped back to help him bridge back but I knew if I couldn’t even see him it’d be a death sentence to do it now.

So I put my head down and resolved to stick with the pack as long as possible. I purposely slid to the back though as I knew I couldn’t take another pull at the front, not with where my energy was quickly headed … south. In hindsight, I should have tried to get a small group together or touched base with the ride leader to set something up to go back and get the dropped riders.

Heading into the final 10 miles it went from bad to worse. On a steady yet longish uphill section I fell off the back of the group. I was hoping to hook back up on the downhill though since I wouldn’t have to use my breaks. That’s one thing about riding in a team that sucks when you’re a bigger rider. I accelerate downhill at a much faster rate than most other riders and as a result I’d had to use my breaks the entire day to prevent running into the rider in front of me. Every single downhill up until now I had to break but this time I was able to accelerate at my pace and not theirs.

Within a few miles I was able to hook back on as planned but I again had to dig deep to make it happen. By the time I did make it they were switching from a double into a single pace line. I slid into a position and then immediately got yelled at from someone to fill a gap. At first I was confused because I was exhausted didn’t even know they were switching and once I realized what they were saying they yelled at me again so I told them to go ahead, I couldn’t do it. Their tempers (and rudeness) flared but I didn’t care I was nuked.

What the hell happened to the team? What happened to people helping each other and the team goal of under 5 hours? What happened to people spending precious team energy earlier to shield other riders but somehow now I wasn’t worth the effort?

I’ll tell you where the team went … in the ditch about 5 miles back … the team was dead and it was every man for himself.

You know what, it was sad and unfortunate that this happened because a number of us were dropped off the back of the group and it wasn’t at all necessary. I know without a doubt we could have brought most if not all of us across that line together had we tried … had we acted as a team.

Anyhow, I wasn’t about to give up so I hunkered down and picked my battles. I knew I had a few small climbs and a few downhills remaining followed by one final climb to the finish line. I dropped into lower gears on the climbs, much lower than earlier in the day that’s for sure. As a result my usual fast pace climbing these hills in the group was down. On the downhills I worked to make that time up really punching it and taking advantage of gravity and my mass to hit some faster speeds than earlier in the day.

Enter the final climb … it was going to be very close and would likely come down to seconds. I had about 7.5 minutes to make the final 2.5 miles which under normal situations would have been plenty. Add to that the fact though that the final section ranges from 1-5% incline and I was running on empty and you see that it wasn’t quite a normal situation.

About half way through this last segment a team of 6-7 people rode past me and for the briefest moment I had the idea of jumping on the back and trying to draft them to the finish. That ended quickly though when I wasn’t able to come close to matching their pace. I just put my head down and pedaled … focused … focused on pedaling circles. Clean, smooth, circles … focusing on using all of the muscles in my legs, to get every last ounce of energy out of them to make that line.

Just under 100 yards from the finish I hit it really hard. I could hear people cheering and saw a mass of people gathered at the finish so that really helped drive me. I hit that finish line knowing I’d used up every ounce of energy I had left …

Lap / Distance	Time @ Speed	Total Time	Total Avg (mph)	Place
3 / 32.8 mi	1:42:56 @ 19.12 mph	?	?	91

My legs really cramped up badly just after I crossed the line. I can honestly say I’ve never felt this type of cramp in my life, I almost fell off my bike and had to do everything I could not to fall unclipping. Once I stumbled into the nearby grass I collapsed and just sat there for a few minutes breathing hard and crying a little. Yes, I said crying … I was spent.

I brought myself across that line and just like at other points in my life I had to go it alone. I had to make it happen for myself, not the team, I made it across. What I had thought was going to be a team victory today turned into a personal victory for ME. While I wanted to celebrate with the team I didn’t have it in me, I didn’t cross the line with them, I wasn’t feeling it at that point.

In hindsight I should have went over and shook their hands, the ones that had been there almost 2 minutes celebrating. We had spent 80 miles together working toward a common goal, it had been a fun day overall, and they were all really nice people.

I just wasn’t feeling it though, I wasn’t thinking straight in my exhausted state, and I was really hurt by what had happened over the last 20 miles of the day. I stood up, mounted my bike, and rode to my car to shower up and head home. No after party for me and no celebration … I needed to clear my head.

So now you’re probably wondering what my elapsed time was. In case you didn’t do the math above, the elapsed time as reported by the official timing chip was:

Lap / Distance	Time @ Speed	Total Time	Total Avg (mph)	Place
1 / 33.6 mi	1:34:49 @ 21.26 mph	1:34:49	21.26 mph	129
2 / 33.6 mi	1:42:17 @ 19.71 mph	3:17:06	20.46 mph	104
3 / 32.8 mi	1:42:56 @ 19.12 mph	5:00:01	19.9988 mph	91

Yes, you read that right … I missed being Sub-5 hours by 2 seconds. I might be able to say I was Sub-5 if it were 5 hours on the nose but I was 5:00:01 which certainly isn’t under 5 hours.

To say I was devastated, angry, frustrated, torn, and sad would be an understatement. I thought of a million ways I could have made up that 2 seconds and beat myself up for every one of them. Ride faster on one downhill, stand up on the final uphill and hit it even harder, stay tucked more throughout the ride, I could go on and on for a few paragraphs.

I did learn an important new lesson at this race, don’t talk to anyone after the race if you’re feeling any of the feelings I mentioned above. You’re tired, hungry, and dehydrated and won’t say things very eloquently or with a very level head.

After my shower I made the mistake of sharing my frustration with a few people on the team before leaving. My frustration of being dropped after working for nearly 90 miles for the team. My sadness that no one tried to ensure communication didn’t break down in the end. My anger that despite training rides where people got angry at others sprinting or driving too hard in the end the same poor behavior was repeated in the actual race and yet I seemed to be the only one to see it.

In Closing

If you’re still interested in checking out the course or my crazy pace numbers (sorry no heart rate, it was acting up) here’s my Strava statistics.

It looks like the Strava information for my ride attempted to strip the transition time where my bike wasn’t moving, thus why the elapsed time is less than 5 hours. Based on that time it looks like we spent about 3:40 in transition which considering we had two of them that was good. I do think that’s off though because I’m fairly certain we spent 2:30 on each.

Thank you for taking the time to read this long writeup. It was certainly an emotional day for me and I did truly really have a lot of fun. I also take these events very personally though because to me they’re more than just a bike ride. These events are time away from my family, they’re goals I set to prove I’m healthy, they’re milestones I work toward throughout the year and like anything you work hard for you want to perform at your peak and give them your all.

To me that meant giving the team my all and when it wasn’t returned at the end of the race I was truly devastated. Hopefully people who know me or ride with me and read this will understand my point of view.

If you’re asking yourself if I’d do it again, a team ride like this, the answer is I don’t know. I did enjoy the event but I haven’t had the best of luck with team sports throughout my life. I seems that every time I step up for the team I either get beat down or left behind. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’d rather push my own limits to my own goals in events like triathlons or long distance solo cycling.

Have you ever had this type of thing happen? How did you deal with it?

• I Signed Up For A Sub-5 Hour Century
• Ending The Ride Streak And Beginning Circuits
• How I Fuel For Endurance Events
• My Triple Dog Dairyland Dare Ride Report
• My Cycling Ride Streak Update