Alright! Today was the 2015 Tehachapi GranFondo! A bit of a preface... I spent the past few days gathering the stuff I wanted to take with me on the century. 90% of the stuff was backup gear. Including electronics, extra
lothing, toiletry, tires and inner-tubes, etc. I ended up taking 2 power bars, some paper towels, 1 large bottle of Cytomax, and 1 large bottle of water, my smartphone, Gopro Batteries and memory cards, and a printout of the turn-by-turn directions. On the bike, I had my GoPro camera, GPS, Bottles, Saddle Bag and my ride number. Before putting the stuff in the van, I did a test recording of the Gopro camera. It wasn't functioning as I planned. The shutter button was supposed to start the camera and begin the footage. After fiddling with it, I decided not to worry. Things turned out of the better. The camera functioned perfectly. Now for the ride... Mom, dad and I got to the Kmart parking lot as we had planned. I had problems with the GPS. It wasn't detecting my speed/cadence sensor. I fiddled with it and got the speed sensor to recognize, but the cadence wasn't. Luckily, it was detected shortly before the ride began. I got to the start line around 5 minutes before the beginning. This year, everyone started all at once. They were smart to separate the groups by their ride distance. Greater up front and lessers in the back. The ride started east on Tehachapi Blvd. The sun had just risen, so we were riding into the sunlight. I could hardly see a few riders in front of me, I had to use my left hand to block the light on more than a few occasions. I tried to move up as much as I could without burning any matches. I found myself working at around 150+ bpm hr. We cruised down the street and made the first turn of the ride, down Steuber. All was safe at this point. I was just making sure to stay in the draft of the pack and watch the road. After that, we made a left turn on Highline and a right turn on Willow Springs. This is where the ride began. Willow Springs was the first climb of the day. I really wanted to stay in contact with the main group. In about 10 to 15 minutes, the pack began to fracture, as I had anticipated. I followed a few wheels. I didn’t want to give up too many places, but I had to stay within myself. I was like this for the entire climb. I was feeling good, a bit winded but I was fresh. Once over the summit, the next obstacle that I was worried about was the descent and the left hander into the wind farms. The pack was strung out and there were no problems going into that turn. There was a rest stop there, I ended up passing that. I rode the climb sensibly. Well within my limits and focused on the next few parts of the ride. Once the wind farm climb was done, there was a nice downhill section that led to the 58 freeway. The freeway crossing wasn’t as I thought. I was expecting there to be more police enforcement. There were none to be found by my reckoning. I remember drafting on a few wheels. The freeway crossing went fast and safe. The next climb was going up Sand Canyon. I’ve ridden this road before. It was almost exactly as I recalled. The climb was nice and gentle. This was the first section to estimate where I was in the pack. About 2.5 to 3 miles from the turn-around point, there were people already on the return. Most of which were in groups of 5, 10, or 15. At that point, I think I was in a group of about 5 guys. The turn-around point was about what I estimated on my training ride. I got into a small group of guys on the descent. I think I was with them for most of the downhill. The part that I was looking the least forward to was Tehachapi Blvd, going west past the sand factory. Fortunately, I hooked up with 2 other guys. They let me draft till we made our way to Highline. I met mom and dad at Tucker Blvd as we planned. There was also a rest stop there. I got just what I needed and went back out. At this point there was a tailwind. The wind was going towards the west, which was atypical. This also meant that I would benefit less from riding in a group in terms of drafting. So, I was content at going my own pace to Banducci and through the Alpine forest. Going up Banducci and Alpine forest was all about pacing. I knew what sort of climbing I had in front of me, so I conserved my energy for the more difficult sections. I felt good going up the Banducci wall. I kept the pace nice and steady. I think my HR topped out around 160bpm. I used the immediate false flat to recover. Alpine forest was more or less as I remembered it on my single recognizance ride. I think the gradient topped out at around 8-9%. It went faster than the one and only time I rode up there, in terms of perception. The later parts, with undulations were a treat. Well maintained roads and sweeping turns that could be taken at full speed. I descended Banducci by myself. I didn’t hold much back. The trek to Stallion Springs didn’t take too long. I hooked up with a few guys all the way to the feed station. I got my drinks and then did a bio break at the Chevron station. I went solo for most of the way to Bear Valley. About the point I was entering Bear valley, my right calf muscle started to hurt. It gave me flashbacks that happened in the Spooktacular metric century ride that I did about 4 years ago. I had the same sensation back then as I was entering the last 1 ½ hours of the ride. It ended up as an injury and significantly limited my impetus. I was doing as much as I could to mitigate the pain. I did everything from stretching out of the saddle. Massaging the affected area with my hand while coasting. I stopped on a few occasions to give it a bit of a reprieve. I shifted my the power in my pedal stroke to my left leg. I tried different heal/toe positioning. I knew that if I could make it to Keene with moderate discomfort that I could complete the ride without excessive stoppages. There were some fun points going through Bear Valley. I reached 52 MPH coming down the first climb. There was a nice descent around the local lake and that gave me time to stretch and mitigate the cramping. It was more or less pain mitigation all the way to the exit of Bear Valley. I stopped at the station at the exit. I got exclusively water. I knew that this was all I needed from that point till Whitepine and WTR. As I was descending my way down Bear Valley road to CVR, I did more massaging of the right calf. When I reached the CVR climb, I proceeded with caution. At this point, there was a headwind, so moderate tempo was called for, and that’s what I did. I continued to mitigate the pain to the summit. I was going about 70% of what I normally do on this climb. It was very discouraging! I reached the top of CVR with no further ailments. The false flat provided for some reprieve. Going down OTR was mostly fun and games, as it usually is. I continued to massage my right calf at that point. My next planned stop was at Whitepine and WTR. My plan was to stop, take on drinks, feed and do whatever I could to alleviate my muscles cramps. I met mom and dad there as was planned. I ate 1 power bar. Drank whatever provisions was left and then some. As for the calf cramping situation was concerned. I sat on the van bumper and massaged the affected area, then I applied ice. I did this for about 2 or 3 minutes for both legs as my left calf muscle was starting to give way. So, I put the scenario in my mind at this point. I was almost certain that the pain was going to come back and that I was going to have to make several rest stops and limit my tempo accordingly. Upon departing from that rest period, I started my way to the top of the descent on WTR. I had a tailwind, so this happened very fast. As I was making my way up the road, I was continually assessing the cramping situation. I was expecting the pain to return immediately after departing. Say, up the first riser. As I made my way up, my leg started to feel better. I could feel some discomfort, but it was very mild. When I made it to the top of the descent, the cramping pain remained mild. I didn’t know what to expect at the turn-around point. I kept massaging the area as I was descending. It continued to feel good. I was taking mental notes as to where to stop in case the pain returned. I think I made it to the base in average time. I started the climb. I felt good. The cramping situation set aside, my body was feeling realy good at this point. I had no symptoms of lower back pains, knee pains, light headedness, dehydration, bonking. I knew I had it in me to do a fast ascent. I told myself that if my leg comes around, then I’m going to charge up the mountain. 5 minutes went by. 10 minutes went by. My legs were feeling great. Almost no pains at this point. So, I put in my mind that I was going to give it a real push. I knew where to put the eggs. The first open section and the loop monument. Before I was even close to those points, I saw that my HR was above 160bpm. That’s my normal maximum on this route. I was near my maximum, but I had a lot left in the tank. I eased off just a bit before making the critical locations. I was catching people every 5 minutes or so. There were 1 or 2 followers. I burnt a few matches as I crested the loop monument. At this point, I noticed that my HR had climbed to over 170 BPM. My HR hasn’t been this high since I went up to the Tehachapi forest campgrounds. I was somewhat asphyxiated, but I was keeping as much encouragement in my mind. Deep down, I was upset that I couldn’t put in a better performance earlier in the ride. I kind of put that anger to help keep the tempo very high. I’d say I was about 95% maximum for the majority of the climb. Once I saw the summit, a few miles prior, I knew I was doing something special. I pushed it all the way to the top. At that point, the wind was a full-blown headwind. I recovered for a minute and continued down the mountain. Typically, I can fly down this direction on WTR. But, with the headwind conditions, I was only able to maintain half the speed at best. I had about 10 to 20 minutes left at that point. I was feeling good. The calf pains were returning, but it didn’t detract from my impetus. I pushed on, at near maximum to the top of Westwood. I must have caught 5 or 10 cyclists by the time I reached Red Apple. The gradient leveled off, and all I had to contend with was the headwind. I put my head down and just hammered as fast as I could. By the time I made it to town I had caught another 5 to 10 cyclists, half of which were likely to have been from a different length ride. I found myself riding around 15 to 20 mph into town. It was only a few turns to make it to the finish line. I was coaching and putting encouraging thoughts in my mind by the time I made it to this point. That elation did help. I crossed the line at around 6:47 hours. That translates to about 14.9 MPH. My moving time was 6:27 hours. That translates to 15.6 MPH. Maximum speed, 51+ mph. Max HR, 172 bpm. The results have come in and I got 48 place out of 174 riders in the century alone. 14th in the 40 something age group. Overall my concentration was spot on. There were some shaky moments with lapses here and there, but I called upon my experience to real it in. Balance and form was real good today. I used just about every technique I could to keep my riding form as efficient as possible. It worked out in the end. Other notes. My electronics worked perfectly once the ride began. The GPS live tracking worked. I did have problems with the GPS acquiring a signal to my speed/cadence sensors. I managed to get the speed sensor to work before departing from Kmart. My cadence sensor was not detected. I fiddled with it as I was making my way to the start line. It began working shortly after. The Gopro camera worked as planned. I only had to change the memory card once. I didn’t have to swap out new batteries. As for the crew that put the ride together, it was almost perfect. My only gripe was the lack of traffic control on the 58 fwy. Other than that, well done Tehachapi!

Results update: The results have been update. I've moved up a couple places to 45th. And 13th in the 40 something (male) age group.

Results update: I got 40th out of 156 male riders.