How I managed to pull off the win in such a tough division I don't know. I just have to give thanks to Jesus, Clay Frost is only one man, there's no "I" in team, I had to bring my "A" game to try and bring home the "W" so I just went out there and gave it 110%.
Alright, alright, before I do the post race interview, I guess I should give you the full report.
This Memorial Day weekend lived up to it's billing. Not only was it party weekend 2009 with great friends at a beach house on the Cape, but it was the 100 Miles of Nowhere weekend. Unlike many of my "competitors" in this "race", I had no solid plans on how I was going to ride my race. My first thought was on the trainer, just as Fatty intended although, to be perfectly clear, the one rule to this race was that there are no rules. When I realized that we would be on the Cape the weekend of the race, I thought maybe I would take advantage of the plenty of stupidly small neighborhood loops that are flat and that I don't live in, so I brought the bike along. Like I said, I was playing it by ear. We got to the Cape Friday night and the partying commenced. Got to bed around 2 am and woke up around 9 am the next day to crazy wind and chilly temps. No 100 Miles this day.
So Saturday consisted mostly of overeating on cheesedogs, hamburgers, salt and vinegar chips, and brownies. You could say I was carbo loading but really I was just eating way too much. Gotta love holiday weekends. Oh, and there were some adult beverages of the keg variety involved which lead nicely to some hotly contested rounds of a game that's new to me, cornhole. It's a fun game and the fodder for cornhole jokes is endless...literally. Saturday night got to bed around 3:30 am and was then rudely awakened by a cell phone alarm at 7 am Sunday morning. Oh ya, Becky had signed us up for The Great Hyannis Road Race. Awesome, so we head to the race, and actually proceed to have an amazing time. It was a flat 7.2 mile course and it was nice and cool that morning. I hadn't been running at all this year since I've been spending most of my aerobic time on the bike, but it actually felt good to be running again. Thank goodness I didn't do the half marathon, I don't think I would have had as much fun.
Sunday afternoon, I contemplated getting the bike out of the car to knock out the 100 miles, but a relaxing seaside lunch with Clint, more cornhole and more beer got the best of me, and before I knew it, it was Sunday night, and the good times were continuing. Sunday I went to bed early, around 1:45 am. We woke up the next morning around 8:30 am and started packing up to head home. No 100 Miles of Nowhere on the Cape. Back to the original plan, hit the trainer when I get home.
We actually had an easy drive, and were back home by noon. Time to devise a plan, the weekend was slipping away from me. I had to plant my veggies, (yes, I'm a bit of a gardener) so I planned on getting my yard work done, then clean up, set up the bike in the movie room, pick out some long movies and start turning the cranks around 6:00 pm and hope to be done by a little after midnight. OK, go.
By the time I got the corn, carrots, green beans, yellow and green squash, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, and basil in the ground, and the strawberry patch weeded and blackberry bush tamed, it was almost 7 o'clock...whoops. Chad called me right as I was finishing up to see what was up. Had I done it, was I doing it, what was the story. He brought to my attention that time was not on my side and made a gentle suggestion that I get off my butt ASAP and start riding.
He was right, I got everything set up, got my biking gear on, and headed upstairs. Yes, it was a bit awkward. I've never ridden on a trainer before and I felt a little silly getting all geared up just to walk down the hall, oh well. I picked out some long movies. Step into Liquid, one of the best surfing doc's ever made, The Last Samurai, a movie of epic length that I haven't been able to stay away for in my two previous attempts, and The Way of the Gun, a movie that's been sitting not yet watched in my DVD stack forever.
Finally, onto the ride. Lucky for you, it was boring as all get out which means that there isn't a whole lot to talk about otherwise this post would be a mile long. Here's my starting mileage and my setup in the movie room.
Alright, alright, before I do the post race interview, I guess I should give you the full report.
This Memorial Day weekend lived up to it's billing. Not only was it party weekend 2009 with great friends at a beach house on the Cape, but it was the 100 Miles of Nowhere weekend. Unlike many of my "competitors" in this "race", I had no solid plans on how I was going to ride my race. My first thought was on the trainer, just as Fatty intended although, to be perfectly clear, the one rule to this race was that there are no rules. When I realized that we would be on the Cape the weekend of the race, I thought maybe I would take advantage of the plenty of stupidly small neighborhood loops that are flat and that I don't live in, so I brought the bike along. Like I said, I was playing it by ear. We got to the Cape Friday night and the partying commenced. Got to bed around 2 am and woke up around 9 am the next day to crazy wind and chilly temps. No 100 Miles this day.
So Saturday consisted mostly of overeating on cheesedogs, hamburgers, salt and vinegar chips, and brownies. You could say I was carbo loading but really I was just eating way too much. Gotta love holiday weekends. Oh, and there were some adult beverages of the keg variety involved which lead nicely to some hotly contested rounds of a game that's new to me, cornhole. It's a fun game and the fodder for cornhole jokes is endless...literally. Saturday night got to bed around 3:30 am and was then rudely awakened by a cell phone alarm at 7 am Sunday morning. Oh ya, Becky had signed us up for The Great Hyannis Road Race. Awesome, so we head to the race, and actually proceed to have an amazing time. It was a flat 7.2 mile course and it was nice and cool that morning. I hadn't been running at all this year since I've been spending most of my aerobic time on the bike, but it actually felt good to be running again. Thank goodness I didn't do the half marathon, I don't think I would have had as much fun.
Sunday afternoon, I contemplated getting the bike out of the car to knock out the 100 miles, but a relaxing seaside lunch with Clint, more cornhole and more beer got the best of me, and before I knew it, it was Sunday night, and the good times were continuing. Sunday I went to bed early, around 1:45 am. We woke up the next morning around 8:30 am and started packing up to head home. No 100 Miles of Nowhere on the Cape. Back to the original plan, hit the trainer when I get home.
We actually had an easy drive, and were back home by noon. Time to devise a plan, the weekend was slipping away from me. I had to plant my veggies, (yes, I'm a bit of a gardener) so I planned on getting my yard work done, then clean up, set up the bike in the movie room, pick out some long movies and start turning the cranks around 6:00 pm and hope to be done by a little after midnight. OK, go.
By the time I got the corn, carrots, green beans, yellow and green squash, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, and basil in the ground, and the strawberry patch weeded and blackberry bush tamed, it was almost 7 o'clock...whoops. Chad called me right as I was finishing up to see what was up. Had I done it, was I doing it, what was the story. He brought to my attention that time was not on my side and made a gentle suggestion that I get off my butt ASAP and start riding.
He was right, I got everything set up, got my biking gear on, and headed upstairs. Yes, it was a bit awkward. I've never ridden on a trainer before and I felt a little silly getting all geared up just to walk down the hall, oh well. I picked out some long movies. Step into Liquid, one of the best surfing doc's ever made, The Last Samurai, a movie of epic length that I haven't been able to stay away for in my two previous attempts, and The Way of the Gun, a movie that's been sitting not yet watched in my DVD stack forever.
Finally, onto the ride. Lucky for you, it was boring as all get out which means that there isn't a whole lot to talk about otherwise this post would be a mile long. Here's my starting mileage and my setup in the movie room.
Starting mileage.
Getting ready for the big show.
Pretty pleased with the set up, thanks to Chad for letting me borrow his trainer.
My view for the next5 or so hours.
Still smiling after mile one.I started with Step into Liquid and things went pretty well. Riding a trainer isn't too bad, but I'm not eager to get back on one anytime soon. About 30 miles in, I had a weird noise coming from my bike, but after some unsuccessful listening for the problem, I decided to keep going. Had to just get this over with. Onto The Last Samurai. I took in some Carbo Rocket, and some Famous Amos cookies and kept going. One thing was for sure, I wasn't going to fall asleep watching it this time around. I totally underestimated the length of this movie, no wonder I fell asleep trying to watch this thing. Energizer bunny style, it keeps going and going. Good for a long ride on the trainer.
100 Miles of Nowhere Challenges
- Sheer boredom. Literally, watching movies was a mediocre distraction, but wow, really, really boring.
- Sore butt. Ouch, why they don't make more comfortable bike saddles I don't know. Seriously, whats the logic behind seats with no padding, but then wearing special shorts with padding. Why don't we just pad the seat and wear normal shorts? Chew on that one for a bit.
- No downhills or coasting. A good way to make cycling suck, is to strip all the fun parts away. About 40 miles in I was wondering how I could have been so excited for a ride that doesn't include any of the things I've come to love about cycling.
- No momentum. The trainer is like a treadmill that's OFF. As soon as you stop pedaling or even if you mis-pedal for a half a second, it's like the brakes come on and your being pulled to stop. Not cool.
- Mystery noise. I'm not bike mechanic and I couldn't figure out what was making this noise for the life of me. It can't be good, and the bike needs a new bike tune up anyway, so I'll be making friends with my local bike shop this week.
- The Last Samurai. I don't want to start a riot, and I can see how people loved the movie, but it wasn't my favorite. It seemed like a ton of overacting, in a easy to figure out plot. On any other night, the unbelievable length of this movie would have been unacceptable. Luckily, loud and epic fight/war scenes save it from being terrible. Plus, it made a good push for the finish. When I had less than 20 miles to go they were just about to go into battle and I guessed that I could probably get this thing done before they did. I was wrong but not by much. As the movie ended I had about 4 miles to go, but with a long movie comes long credits and I sprinted to the end and was finished before the last credit rolled.
100 Miles of Nowhere Highlights
- Famous Amos cookies.
Exactly... so it's done. I finished up right around midnight. Actually a bit faster than I had planned. I averaged around 23 miles an hour and it took me about 4 and a half hours in the saddle. I tried to keep my cadence in the upper 90's, low 100's.
Literally ended my ride just as the credits rolled...couldn't have done it better if I tried.
Ending mileage. 100.13 miles on a stationary trainer. Yup, it pretty much sucked.
It was an experience and thankfully it was for a good cause which kept me going after I crossed the 50 mile mark. All in all, 100 Miles of Nowhere riders raised over $20,000 to fight cancer, and for me personally, this event helped me raise over $700 for my real century ride coming up in August. Not bad for a ride that was going nowhere fast. Kudos to Fatty and all the other 100 Milers out there, keep up the good work.
Chad started at 1,962 miles this month, so this shows he road 106 miles so far in May, nice.
Clint's off to a better start than me as well, he got in 65.3 miles so far.
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