Palm Desert Century Bike Ride

As a reminder I am Secretariat's (AKA Tony Brickel) older sister Penny the Personal Trainer and Nutritional Consultant.  I was asked to write about my most recent accomplishment. 

 

My personal goal since I got my new carbon road bike in May was to train and complete 6 Century (100M) bike rides prior to the end of 2011.  I just completed my 6th one in Palm Desert last Saturday in the pouring rain.  I have put a lot of time into studying sport specific training for long distance cycling and implementing into my training and nutrition all that I am learning. That being said I picked this particular event for 2 reasons, minimal elevation gain (2400ft), a15 mile time trail, and older riders to compete against.  As an extremely fit 62 year old, I want to be able to perform as well or better than a 40 year old.  In the last event I did which was timed I am happy to report that I came in 1st as the only one in my age category, and 10th overall against all women in all age categories.  You can imagine I am feeling pretty good about my training and results. I have my nutrition perfected and my body is strong.

 

Well the Palm Desert Century had many firsts for me.  First and foremost not only did it rain, but it poured the entire lasts 50 miles.  I felt very strong though and my body was happy to have a fairly flat ride as opposed to all my others which were moderately difficult rides with 5000 ft elevation gain.  I was hitting RPM of 100-110 something I have tried but not succeeded to accomplish until finally having a flat route, my time was going quite well so when I came to the 15mile time trial which was a 15 mile steady 3-4% hill, I was ready and excited to see my positive results.  I was very proud of my results in 2 areas.  Finding that with less elevation gain my body can go forever, feel good and strong, and capable of going yet further was great to see as my plan for Spring 2012 is a double (200M) Century.  Also learning to ride and break safely in the rain was an achievment in itself.  So upon finishing the Century I was feeling great and very proud of myself and couldn't wait to see the results of the time trial.

 

Well the final results are now posted and I was in for a very rude awakening.  I did come in 1st in my age group as the only competetor, but came in 126 out of 142 overall riders that completed the time trial amongst all competitors, men and women. Not such good results, certainly not what I wanted to see and was very dissapointed I must say.  I dont like seeing that, I want to see myself at the very least in the middle.  Granted there were 565 registered riders for the Century and only 280 finishers and only 142 that completed the time trial, but still this does not make me happy.  I have no excuses, I went as fast as I could and my pace was good for me.  So back to training for speed.  I seem to do great over long distances, which has always been my gift and over the shorter time trial I am not so good.  I would have loved to see the entire event timed and where I placed.  Yes I am very competitive with myself and like Tony want to be in the top half at the very least regardlus of my age.  I don't accept age as a factor!!

 

My training continues now focusing on what I continue to learn and is all based on getting my body ready to complete a double in the Spring.  I want to be one of the very few women in the country that has achieved this and I love being an example for my clients.  BTW one of my clients came with me and at 28 years young and a pervious couch potato growing up completed her first 50 mile ride in the rain, I was so very proud of her.