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This was my first 600k. The ride was spectacular! The experienced riders quickly formed into small groups and stuck together throughout the ride. My beginner mistake was to worry too much about completing the ride within the 40hr time limit. I ended up riding ahead of the group of "mere mortals" (there were 4 "super hero" types ahead of me, two of which finished the ride in under 24hrs) for the majority of Saturday. The funny thing is that I thought I had wound up at the back of the pack, assuming the others must have ridden past me when I stopped for food/water along the route. It wasn't until around 01:00 on Sunday morning that I finally saw another rider from our group. He had already made it to the turn-around point and was heading back North; we crossed paths about 10mi from the turn-around. I like riding by myself, but it would have been safer/smarter to have slowed down a bit and ridden with others. I was afraid the others would have dropped me, though. I guess I'm a little faster than I thought. I took the advice of a veteran and kept my sleep stop in King City short, no more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Otherwise, I was told, the body goes into "repair" mode and it hurts more to get back on the bike to complete the ride. So I got about 3 hours of sleep and was happy to find most of the riders converging on Denny's for breakfast at about 06:00. The bummer was that the only North-bound rider had just arrived and hadn't had any sleep yet. So while he slept on the bench at Denny's some riders departed, but in the Southerly direction, and I took off solo again Northbound. I had heard that the winds in the Salinas Valley could be fierce and I didn't want to get stuck battling them all day.
About 20 miles after leaving King City on Sunday morning Mark, from Auburn, caught up to me. Turns out he was the guy I saw near the turn-around. He was with the Super Hero pack for most of Saturday but decided to take an easier pace. He's a faster rider than me but was happy to slow down a bit to my pace. I was grateful to have his company on the ride back to Santa Cruz.
The return trip to Santa Cruz is mostly on the same roads I had taken the night before. At night, the roads all look the same in the bike headlight. We had no moon but the stars were out and quite beautiful. Returning on the same roads was not bad because it was during daylight hours so I could see where I had ridden the night before. I passed miles and miles of farmland and vineyards. There is so much food out there! I recognized grapes, artichokes, lettuce, broccoli, strawberries, and brussel sprouts. I got to see how they prepare the fields for strawberries with a special rig on the back of the tractor for creating a tall rectangular mound and wrapping it in a long continuous piece of plastic. When the strawberries mature they hang down and gently rest on the side of the plastic covered dirt rectangle. That must be how they keep from rotting or otherwise getting blemishes from resting in the dirt. Farming these days certainly seems to be a finely tuned and efficient process. I thought that riding through the farmland would be boring but I was wrong, it was very interesting.
When Mark and I made it back to Soquel, about 15mi from the finish, we were getting into the rollers: short but steep little hills, one at each creek/river running to the coast. My legs were feeling great but my knees were starting to give me warning signs with occasional sharp pains. It was time for me to stop trying to keep up with Mark. I backed off a bit and Mark quickly noticed and eased his pace to match mine.
In no time we were back at the finish control in Santa Cruz, the first of the mere mortals to finish the ride, at about 2:30PM. We high-fived each other; this was the first 600k either of us had attempted.
In addition to the gps track and photos, linked above, there's also this fun player that animates many riders' progress along the route:
By: | Eric Walstad |
Started in: | Santa Cruz, CA, US |
Distance: | 373.4 mi |
Selected: | 373.4 mi |
Elevation: | + 13696 / - 13652 ft |
Moving Time: | 24:28:01 |
Gear: | Orange: Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross |
Page Views: | 222 |
Departed: | Sep 27, 2014, 4:59 am |
Starts in: | Santa Cruz, CA, US |
Distance: | 373.4 mi |
Selected distance: | 373.4 mi |
Elevation: | + 13696 / - 13652 ft |
Max Grade: | |
Avg Grade | |
Cat | |
FIETS | |
VAM | |
Ascent time | |
Descent time | |
Total Duration: | 33:39:23 |
Selection Duration: | 121163 |
Moving Time: | 24:28:01 |
Selection Moving Time: | 24:28:01 |
Stopped Time: | 09:11:22 |
Calories: | 15722 |
Max Watts: | |
Avg Watts: | 174 |
WR Power | |
Work | |
Max Speed: | 51.2 mph |
Avg Speed: | 15.3 mph |
Pace: | 00:05:24 |
Moving Pace: | 00:03:55 |
Max HR: | 164 bpm |
Min HR: | 62 bpm |
Avg HR: | 117 bpm |
Heartrate zones: | |
Zone 1: | 6 hours 39 minutes |
Zone 2: | 6 hours 53 minutes |
Zone 3: | 3 hours 20 minutes |
Zone 4: | 30 minutes |
Zone 5: | 1 minute |
Best format for turn-by-turn directions on modern Garmin Edge Devices
Best format for turn by turn directions on Edge 500, 510. Will provide true turn by turn navigation on Edge 800, 810, 1000, Touring including custom cue entries. Great for training when we release those features. Not currently optimal for Virtual Partner.
Useful for uploading your activity to another service, keeping records on your own computer etc.
Useful for any GPS unit. Contains no cuesheet entries, only track information (breadcrumb trail). Will provide turn by turn directions (true navigation) on the Edge 705/800/810/1000/Touring, but will not have any custom cues. Works great for Mio Cyclo. Find GPS specific help in our help system.
Estimated Time shows a prediction of how long it would take you to ride a given route. This number is based on your recent riding history, and represents an estimate of moving time. Each time you upload a new ride, your Estimated Time profile will adjust to reflect your most recent riding. Only rides exceeding 10 miles (16 km) will affect these estimates.
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