Da Iz Biz: Race Report: Solvang's Finest Century

First century ever!!! Decided I wanted to get in 100 miles and preferred doing it with a group and some SAG help rather than trying to go it alone somewhere in SoCal. Ended up working out well! I mean the course was super hilly and quite technical, but I did it!!! :D

Race details:
Bulleton, California
Bike: 101.9 miles

Course Reported Finish: 7:08:46

Garmin Splits:

Race Summary:

What to say about this race? Man. There were so many times on this race that I thought I could just give up and it wouldn't matter. I mean some of the climbing and grades were just brutal with switchbacks. But let's hit all the points.

My Mio HR died about 4ish hours into the ride. That pissed me off. I may have to use my Garmin HR for IMFL bike and then switch to the wrist in transition. That would be a major fail though to not have that critical metric for the marathon run!

Elevation was brutal. Slow small grades through the first 30 miles. Nothing too bad. Lots of fun descents followed. Then a gnarly and long switchback up Pacific Grade. Had some relief before the really gnarly 5 mile stretch climbing the summit. Ended with a ridiculously steep and somewhat crappily paved road downhill. I thought I might die, but I made it. Then rolled back into town.

I kept a pretty decent speed through the first 50 miles. I was trying to stick with this really fast group from Canada so that helped keep me ahead and on course. But they proved to always be super fast and they dropped me at mile 50ish, right before the 2nd SAG. But they were a nice group, just older and ridiculously fast. I was in awe. It also made me realize just how weak of a cyclist I am. This will be my focus this off season (unlike last which was my running).

The next 50 miles was a grind. My legs were somewhat toasted, but I had also not gotten this much distance under my belt before. Plus the second half was littered with climbs. So it really was a rough go ahead during the second half. By this point, the two elite groups had dropped me hours ago and none of what I am going to call "the upper average joe" riders were showing up anymore. I had basically lost the top pack but was too far ahead of the rest of the pack. So I grinded out much of the last 50 miles by myself. All I had were my thoughts, some conversations with the staff at the two SAG stations and then my route sheet. And thank goodness for that route sheet. The road was relatively well marked, but only at the turns. So you had stretches between marks and I was definitely concerned I might be going the wrong way haha.

Mile 7ish had about a 10 mile climb up Pacific Grade. It started as a long slow rolling uphill. Then it became some small switch backs. Then it kicked you in the balls with some steep switchbacks. And man I was just so glad to see the SAG at the top of the hill. The guys were super nice, super talkative and just fun. They also served me PB&J sandwiches!!! WIN!!! I had never had this on a bike before but had heard that this is one of the good snacks to have that is real food and not any kind of powder or pill crap. It did just that. I felt rejuvenated despite the climb and I was off going strong!

The other killer point of note was that last climb. It was much shorter, only about 5 miles, but it was ridiculously steep. I'm not sure how it compares to Wildflower's Nasty Grade. Nasty Grade is basically a straight upwards climb on an absolutely ridiculous grade. This climb was just continuous uphill but via switchbacks. And there was similarly no relief. If I stopped pedaling, I would almost fall over. So I just thought back to Nasty Grade and my experience there. Just keep swimming... Just keep swimming. One foot then the next. I also started to incorporate some intervals that my spin instructor HL had taught us. I think he derived it from the Tabata training movement. But it was 8 strokes seated, 8 strokes standing. That's it. I just kept alternating that all the way up the hill. This worked well because it challenged my legs in different ways so I was just burning through in the same position.

But I made it through. Did all the climbs. Loved all the descents and flats. Didn't hit a pothole or a flat tire. And most importantly didn't get hit by a car. So it was a good, fun and successful 100 miler! And with that, I got a couple new PRs too! :D