Sufferfest 07 Day 3: 90 Miles, Too Many Gaps, Too Cold, Too Long, Too Suffery... Epic

07:28:53 AM: Got home last night, threw some laundry in and rode with Heather to Bambinelli's where she picked up her dinner. Crashed at 8:30pm. Slept like a baby 'till 7am. Probably longest I've gone without the computer in a long, long time. I see emails in the inbox and voicemails in the phone but haven't gotten to any of them. Apologies. It's been wake up, ride, crash, repeat.

Today is going to be the toughest day for me psychologically. And maybe physically. We have some climbs today and I can feel soreness in my quads. Last couple days I've been lagging behind on climbs. I have a bulbous sore on my right butt cheek that's very tender. Could get ugly out there today. I know we'll make it through, but the prospects look intimidating.

09:17:20 AM: Out of panera.

08:49:35 PM: This ride put the suffer in Sufferfest 07. Long, cold, hard ride. Accidentally climbed backside of hogpen before we reaklized we were lost. Rain and night descent of woody's. Completely underdressed all day. Details soon. Tomorrow looks rainy, cold and suffery.

10:36:32 PM: Where to begin? Ouch, long day. Just got home. We rode more gaps than we wanted to. Matthew pulled a bunch and made things a lot easier. We met who we can only assume was Booger of the Booger Gas Station... and he talked our ear off. We all underdressed so we were chilly early and freezing later on. I made a wrong turn and we climbed half of the backside of hogpen (sorry all). Dana saw where she wrecked, took on the mountain and won. By the time we got our bearings and made it to the bottom of hogpen it was 5:20pm and we didn't figure we'd make it back to the cars by nightfall. Then the freezing rain and wind came. And climbing wolfpen was no fun time. Climbing Woody's backside was quick but the night rain descent of Woody's was sketchify. We could barely squeeze the brakes by the time we made it to the bottom. I put on my sweat pants backwards, announced that I had done so, laughed at my stupidity, took them off and put them back on backwards again, not realizing I had done so until we got to Moe's for some food and a recap.

Matt rocked the first half of the ride, leading through the wind... today's hero. Marc rocked up Wolfpen... his strength is way way way up from last season... what a dick... wouldn't just let me have it... no, couldn't just let the skinny kid go... awesome climb dude. Dana rocked hogpen and the other gap downhills... inspirational to see you back on them so soon after the wreck.

Thing that took the biggest balls today: Marc on the phone with Leslie at 9:55PM: "Hi Honey, I'll be home in about ten minutes... can you put some water in the tub?"

293 miles down. 360's the goal.

The recurring theme is "choose your pain." You can go fast and get leg pain or you can go slow and freeze. You can hit the rolling hills quickly and burn your legs or you can be on the road for seven hours. You can eat all the time and get intestinal issues or you can not eat and see double. A million other examples like this, big and small. As the days add up the line between a good decision and a bad one gets thinner and thinner. The good thing is that we're learning a lot about our riding and mental toughness. Sufferfest is working.

Exhausted right now and not looking forward to tomorrow's rain. After two days of underdressing I will wear a ton of clothes tomorrow... I don't care how crazy I look.

Sorry for the weak summaries of Sufferfest. I'm just beat. Big thanks to everybody calling us and sending us email to encourage us... it means a ton to us and is not forgotten when we're suffering. One day to go. Over and out.

Oh, and I drove my bike into the top of the garage again. Doesn't appear to be any serious damage though. Aerobars bent down a bit but I'll fix it tomorrow.

This blog post is sponsored by the letter Retarded.

Update... the next morning... I find Dana's post:

Um, bear with me as I try to describe this one…I have to dig deep for the energy to type.
So you know the routine. Panera in the morning for bagels. We met up with Matt. Boy, was it good to see Matt and his fresh legs. Remling had to bail. Something about bronchitis. (Feel better soon Rem!)
Headed to the Gaps. Parked somewhere. Headed out to do a course which was suppose to be somewhere around 82 miles or so. The fun began for me on my first descent. I locked up with panic. I totally underestimated what it would be like to descend again after the hogpen incident. I had to stop and collect myself. The only thing that kept me going was Joe. He stopped, talked me through it, insisted I go first and stayed within a few yards the whole time. I also remembered what Leslie (Marc’s wife) told me in the morning. She said “Just try to turn off those negative tapes your brain is playing” Now I know where yesterday’s anxiety was coming from. Once you experience a wreck like that and you see others do what you used to do, it’s a weird feeling. I was like, ‘how on earth did I coast these descents at 52 mph before? And today I’m petrified at 26?’ My top speed at a straight descent maxed 33. At one point I looked at Joe and said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get back what I had and that might be ok.’ He said, ‘it totally is.’ Major appreciation goes out to Joe today who was with me the whole time smelling my burning brake pads (I’m not kidding). The reality check that came from the wreck must’ve been meant to be. I got the message and I took no chances today.
The climbs felt ok. Matt pulled us for a good part of the ride. (Thanks Matt!) He kept a consistent easy pace for us. Just what we needed. Then the winds came. Then…Hogpen came. Yes, you heard right I said Hogpen. Hogpen wasn’t part of the original plan. But someone who shall remain nameless missed a turn and we ended up climbing the back side to the point where the wreck occurred. I actually wondered if this was a purposeful plan but that apparently wasn’t the case. We paid the price for this error. We still had to climb Woody’s and rollers and it was getting late. Joe and Marc had a climbing showdown while Matt and I grinded behind them wishing we had popcorn to watch the show. Joe said he was “cold” which is total crap because we all know when Joe wants to bring down the hammer, it’s on and you’re lucky if you see him again. Especially in the Gaps. Only now…he might have a little competition. Marc has made mega improvements. He’s climbing very well. His weight loss has helped and his sights were set on Joe’s back. When Matt and I got to the top where Marc and Joe were waiting, I said some not so polite words when Joe asked if I had enough fuel. It made for a good laugh.
Then…the sleet came…inside relentless cross winds. At one point Joe said, just tell me if you stop shivering and make sure your heart rate doesn’t drop too much. I was thinking…ok then will you call the medical helicopter and have them pick us up and take us to Starbucks?
So just about 6 miles from the car, we still had to descend Woody’s gap. It was dark by this time and the cold and wind was really making it difficult to shift and control the bike. We decided I should get dumped off at this charming little gas station while they went to get the car. My ego wanted to finish it out with them but I got my miles in and I wanted to practice playing it smart. The cold had me frozen stiff. Besides they had some kind of little dinner buffet going at that little store, with chili and everything! So while I worried sick about the guys descending in the dark, I had to partake in a little chili. Afterall I couldn’t insult the sweet store owners who were letting me barrow their heat and stuff. Matt led the descent. It sounded sketchy but cautious.
Headed to Moe’s and tried not to fall asleep in our food. Matt and Joe had to remind each other to drive between the white line and the yellow lines in the road. Scary, I know.
We definitely feel we named our little expedition appropriately. This day brought us to a new level of suffering. Tomorrow is our finale. Forecast rain. Sweet. Let the suffering continue. We’re changing routes to someplace close and familiar - an abbreviated Taylorsville loop minus bumpy roads. Needless to say, after 280 miles give or take…you feel every bump.
After tomorrow, we’ll be stronger and it will be time to recover and focus on others. Looking forward to catching up with family and friends, watching some good soccer and baseball and hearing how the Charles Harris peeps did. Sorry I missed Dave’s gathering. Hope everyone had fun.

And Marc's post:

Gaps and more Gaps - 90 miles, 6 hours 16 min, 7678 calories burned, avg heart rate 137, 8721 feet of climbing. Very tired, very hard, 2 wrong turns, lots of climbing, bad ass night decent in the freezing temperature wind and some rain. Matthew pulled alot today, awesome job! Joe killed it up Wolfpen at the end of the day, just couldn’t catch him. Dana’s a climbing machine and told Hogpen where to stick it on our accedental detour. Today defined Suffer. Ouch!

Excellent summaries... I post them here along with an attribution link so that I never lose them if Marc or Dana go offline... but definitely go check out their sites... lots more cool stuff on each.

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  phone camera pics

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  dana matthew marc phone camera pics