Wannabe Cyclist does the "Worst Day of the Year Ride" A.K.A. "WannaBeCyclist's 31 mile Hill Course"

Sun, 2011 Jan 23 12:00 Eastern Time
-Please scroll past all this preamble to read the goodies-


From the site:

The weather outside is frightful, but a bike ride is so delightful. Bundle up and join us on a festive, winter ride around the streets of Ann Arbor.

The fifth annual Worst Day of the Year Ride will take place on Sunday, January 23rd. This free event always promises to be a fun filled, snowy day of riding. We will offer a variety of routes for you to choose from including:


Polar Bear Ride- 40 miles 12:00pm
Polar Cub Ride- 20 miles 1:00pm
Abominable Snow Man Ride- Mountain Bike loop 1:00pm (dependant on trail conditions)
Reindeer Ride- 12 miles 2:00pm

Snowshoe Hare Ride- 6 miles 2:30pm
All rides will be lead by ride captains and will be at a casual pace. The Polar Bear ride will have a fast group leading the charge with moderate paced ride captains following the faster riders. You will be provided with route maps on the day of the event. All rides leave from the Kerry Town Farmer's market and end at the Arbor Brewing Company where there will be free hot soup, attended bike parking and cash bar. A full menu will also be available for those that want to purchase additional food.

The 42 mile loop





Say Whaaaa...............
But that is not what really happened... here are the stats:
This was an ass kicker.
From the Schwinn Cycle computer:
Total Odometer reading: 2001.2
Distance: 31.122 miles
Max Speed: 31.2 mph
Average speed: 12.3 mph
Time Elapsed: 2:31:28
-----------------------------

AND:
The GARMIN DATA as recorded.

Summary
Overall
Time: 03:13:15
Distance: 31.10 mi
Elevation Gain: 1,220 ft
Calories: 2,005 C
Timing
Time: 03:13:15
Moving Time: 02:38:24
Elapsed Time: 03:35:51
Avg Speed: 9.7 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 11.8 mph
Max Speed: 45.6 mph
Avg Pace: 06:12 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace: 05:05 min/mi
Best Pace: 01:18 min/mi
Speed
Pace
Elevation
Elevation Gain: 1,220 ft
Elevation Loss: 1,220 ft
Min Elevation: 738 ft
Max Elevation: 982 ft
Heart Rate
Avg HR: 157 bpm
Max HR: 184 bpm

GOLLY GEE WILIKERS! How about some pictures too!

Look at those stats! Red-lined right out of the hole, I got to stop doing that and give myself MORE warm up time and not show up at the very last minute, literally showed up at 11:59. Oversleeping felt very nice today, I might add.
Here is the story, as unplanned as per usual. I awoke to this ridiculous number staring at me, yes, it was like ten-thirty A.M. and very cold outside, great motivator.

Seriously folks, this is freggin cold,, not my favourite weather to be riding in. And for those brave souls who rode today as well, I salute you all, regardless the distance of your voyage's.

After totally rushing to get out to Ann Arbor a few things went wrong right from the get-go. I typically load my bike up with the water bottles before loading it into my truck just to make sorting things easier, we ended up doing this today, strike one. Both water bottles froze on the way out there at 85 mph thus leaving my H2O stores dry. I bet you never thought that water could be dry, well in deep space, it is. I left my blue-tooth headset on the charger at home, as well as my battery for the "Good" camera, AND forgot to bring my charger for the phone, and I never do that, ever.

With nothing to drink on the way out, I was getting nervous that I would dehydrate and mess my body up during the ride, probably did that anyway, but I am here typing this now and my urine is back to a low-hydrated colour so that is good.

The second no-no was not eating the correct foods the night before, at least what I think to be the right foods like pasta and bread, but suprising enough, the mixed nuts were sufficient for the entire journey up to the sandwich stop in Dixboro.

The third major blow was not getting my ass out of bed and getting there at least 30 minutes early, I was too rushed to meet up with my teammates and do proper introductions, I did however see a few 'HOUNDS at the very beginning of the race. Sorry boys, I wished I could keep up and ride as a group but I was unprepared. This unpreparedness had me stopping by the river to put the hand warmers in my gloves, this act cost me about 1 minute, and by then I was bottlenecked in the back of the slowest group, not even a power blast could save me, everybody was split on a narrow path and passing was not the best measure, thusly I was dropped by the fast group which had dropped the slow group that of which I eventually passed on a hill, but out of gas and completely confused on where to go, I ended up turning right instead of left, thwarting my mission to catch up with the faster group.

Now I was split from both groups and ended up following a cyclist on a commuter bike, not knowing he wasn't with any of our groups, I ended up pedaling uphill by the hospital and about a four miles out of the way, damn. I was at that point, on my own. I was really pissed off because at this point, there was no way in hell I was going to catch up with anybody. It was the most unique split I have encountered in my short life of cycling, that is, getting separated within such a short gap between groups, but in hindsight it was well worth the interesting solo voyage.


Map deviation 101:

How to Make Your Own Course
By: Maikeru "Double-back" Rorenja A.K.A. The WannaBe Cyclist

Yeah...

So here were the two main routes, starting with the Twenty Mile loop:

Followed with an even longer forty mile loop:

After looking at the map and figuring out that I had totally botched my ride and that the road needed was the other way, I just figured that I would have a good ride regardless the current situation, then smiled as the comments from Facebook started coming in through my cyclemeter's VOX. It was an encouraging lot that of which I shall share with you proper.

マイケル ロレンジャー

Scott: You are crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy crazylllolol
Jeffrey: how the hek do you ride in this cold?
Chris: YOU ARE WAY TO COMMITTED OR MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE COMMITTED TO SOMEWHERE.
マイケル: I am determined to be great at cycling. :D
Jim: Nice. Did you do the 20, or 40 mile loop? I forewent the Ride and skied instead.
マイケル: I actually went for a modified 31 miler, mostly hill work. I'm spent. I'm going to blog the details.
Jim: Yeah, it's tough cycling in this temperature. Skiing is warmer since your upper body is more active and you don't move as fast. (less windchill)


The original plan was to do the 40 mile loop, but as soon as I started heading north on North Prospect road, the wind was horrendous. It was searing through cracks in my outfit by my forehead, hence the silly bandanna placement, which in fact, wasn't the brightest idea as my glasses took longer to de-fog.

The idea was to block the wind from my forehead which worked, but didn't really help the entire situation, did I mention that this was my first ride with this set-up? Well now you know.

The icy long road of doom

Look at those giant robotic monstrosities ready for battle!

I was truly enjoying myself right about now, despite the cold and being alone, it was a zen-like experience that is always welcomed in my temple, always welcome. Rides like this, ones filled with new scenery and climate really become memorable, like my good friend Dan, he was commuting to and from work last year and during his 14 mile commute he was caught pants down in a lightning storm, he must write about it and LINK it here, it is a wonderful story. These rides really let you know who is in charge while teaching you some advanced bicycle handling under adverse conditions, which we seem to run right into right here.

Wow, a sheet of ice gently sloping downward, let's give it a go... [Insert cartoon sound bite of slippery legs a flailing] DAMN! Front-end was dancing side to side like on rollers, less the control, it is a wonder I didn't go down right here. It was a white knuckle maneuver to say the least. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I was completely tense and not comfortable riding this terrain, it was then that I had realised that I was totally in over my head. Cherry Hill was even icier than Stommel Rd., and it was an uphill stretch from there. I was like "WTF! This is a sheet of ice!" Quite literally in fact, apart from cussing a bit about this situation, I was liking the experience, sadistically enough.

Cherry Hill Ice Track Eastbound

Cherry Hill Ice Track Westbound

I had to walk my bike up the hill up to this point, and snapped the last few pictures I could before my fingertips being exposed for a minute duration was starting to leech frost-bite. Typically, during all my touring rides, I document as much as I can because photography is one of my hobbies, it calms me and gives me the pleasure that I can rehash the ride or experience and share it with you, the reader. I also do this for my own archives so that one day when my son is old enough to ride, he can see the experiences that I had, besides, who blogs about cool shit like this anymore? Seems like more people are just reading them instead of writing them these days.

Do you want to see a great photo? You do? Great, the following photo is of an old farm house on Cherry Hill Rd. that needs too much TLC, and most likely will be torn down due to mold and or infestations due to the elements. Sad, yet captured on film for you to view forever in cyberspace, or as long as Blogspot remains free.

And if that is not enough, here is a link via Google maps for your viewing pleasure, as if you don't already have enough links to click through in this long-winded post.

View Larger Map
It seems as if this little gem will be salvaged, at least I hope.

Onward HO!

It was about time for some liquids as the water bottle, or shall I say slush bottle in my jacket was out of melted water and I needed some for this journey, you can tell when you need water, it is when you are already dehydrated, or starting to get dehydrated that is. Dixboro is just north of here, I am sure there is a corner store to grab something to eat and drink, this is the plan.

This was a great idea because if you look at my HR graph, you can actually see my energy draining by the amount of effort produced per given time. In town I made another video, a brief one talking about this and that before making the next journey back to Ann Arbor, this is when things started to get crazy.

If you haven't noticed by now from my previous blogs, videos, posts, etcetera... I am not too great at hills, in fact I am terrible at them, as most of my riding consists of slow rollers and flat long winding roads. The Ann Arbor City itself is host of some of the more challenging hill climbs per given square mile, this I can attest to, as just about every leg of my journey consisted of these nasty climbs, yet fun descents. As I made it back to the city, near the train station and river, I had seen a few cyclists in a large group and did an awkward button-hook while the light was red to catch up with them, this is where I was totally indecisive, as seen by the map clippet:

This led me to the biggest hill-climb in Ann Arbor, as far as I was concerned. With an elevation change of over 148 feet within a half a mile, I was bonked by the time I got to the top! Too funny, and a good thing I wasn't wearing GREYHOUND colours as I would have been a total disgrace to the team. It was a slow go, the stats for that lap are:
23 00:06:43 00:05:47 1.00 119ft 11 8.9 10.4 22.6 162 174 82
24 00:06:15 00:04:31 1.00 52ft 76 9.6 13.3 30.3 158 173 70

Basically, it's about 150 feet.

ANYWAY, I met up with the 12.5 mile group, and the pace was a bit too slow for me so after a mile or two, I ended up splitting off and bombing a hill, this hill was a total dead end and had me climbing yet another hill, just to get back up to the road needed, thus leading me into the back of the slowest riders. The slowest riders, by no means is a disrespectful label, it is just a perceived comparison as I was getting antsy to get back for the raffle and some soup. The lady was pedaling in the lowest gear possible maintaining a cadence of like 115 whilst moving at like 5 mph. it was totally not my pace so I wished them well and sped off up yet another hill. Man, these hills were taxing all my energy stores big-time, I was finished and needed food stat.

My Cockpit

At this point was yet another challenge as my battery was running flat as the gps was sucking it dry, taking a few minutes of video didn't help either. (Those videos will be appended to this NOVEL by Monday night.) So the most important photo was not taken, it was the 2000 mile milestone as observed. This took place right when my GPS wend dead on the iPhone (see link above for that location), and the remaining ride was about a mile or so back to the brewery.

The Arbor Brewing Company was jam-packed and the Wheels in Motion team really did a great job at setting this FREE event up for us, much props to those guys, they did a remarkable job. I checked my bike in valet style went inside looking for familiar faces but didn't see anybody, not too suprising as I am relatively new to the cycling community, and seldom come to Ann Arbor anyway.

I had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat, next time I might prepare just a little bit more and less the stresses on my body and bike.

The entire day can be summed up like this: If you do not bring everything you had intended, or fail to give yourself enough time before an extreme weather event, be prepared to endure some serious riding. And there are no regrets, I wouldn't change a thing as it gave me this totally unique experience that no body could have planned, it was just that random, and random I love. From taking a crappy longish way out to A2, leaving important items behind, to not fueling up properly and having enough drinking water, and even getting totally lost, this was one awesome ride that I will put in the books as the "WannaBeCyclist's 31 mile Hill Course", bring a riding partner and beat the time of 2 hours and thirty minutes. In the snow and at 14 degrees Fahrenheit!

Ride safe, ride smart, ride hard!

LINKS:

http://wannabecyclist.blogspot.com/2011/01/wannabe-cyclist-does-worst-day-of-year.html
-For the full story.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/64863961
-For my physiological data for this ride.

http://j.mp/fl3HZK
-For the Cyclemeter data stream. Yeah, redundant much?

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097311&id=1546316600&l=c3cdd363f0
-For FaceBook photos.


-WCFTW