Windmill Century Ride in Santa Maria

Well my second Century now completed and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself and my training and nutritional planning.  Although you can't compare one event to another, this event was determined to be harder ( by the accounts of us riders) than the last one in Ojai. 

I came away from Ojai with 2 goals, tweaking my nutrition to better yet ward off the lactic acid build up in muscles on ultra events as well as gaining more speed on the both the uphills and downhills.

I am proud to say that I achieved both during this event.  After much research on nutrition along with my own knowledge as a nutritional consultant, I determined the perfect ratio for fuel the week prior to and during the event is a 1-4 ratio of protein to carbs.  We know we need carbs for fuel, but we forget that protein is highly important to stave off lactic acid build up and keep our muscles strong and recovery short. This proved to work outstanding, I ended this Century coming off my bike and this time feeling like I could definitely do another 50m the next day.  Yes I was certainly tired and didn't want to go further after the 100m, but my muscles and overall well being was far superior to my last ride, and today the day after ready to go back to riding.  I had no feeling for hunger as my fuel was near perfect and I could walk and move perfectly with really no overly sore joints.  Will not need a massage, however I always soak in Epsom salts in very hot bath the night of the event.  (for those of you that don't do this, it is highly recommended for recovery, I enlist all my clients to do this to ward off sore muscles it really does work)

In addition my tweak in my training routine was to continue concentrating on my intervals, (which I do 30m on the elliptical in the gym 3 days a week) and up my strength straining on long steep hills to 3 days a week working at increasing not only my uphill strength but more importantly, increasing my downhill speed.

I am also pleased to say that both paid off.  Although one cannot compare exactly each ride as they all are different, this ride was harder than the last and I completed it 30min faster, which was because my downhill speed had increased by 10mph and my uphill cadence by 2rpm.

I learned that my next focus is to add back 2 days a week training on the flat as this was where I was passed ( and yes like Tony I really can't stand to be passed, (guess it runs in the family).  So I will train on the flat beach path in increase my cadence and speed on the flat for the next one.  My overall goal is get down to the 6hour time, I plan to get there by the next event or at least I will give it my all for sure.

This Post was provided by Penny Fink