Things I Learned at the Hell’s Gate Hundred

I have heard / read many greater athletes and intellectuals than me say something to the extent of “Some of the greatest lessons we learn are those we experience during times of great suffering”. I know this was certainly the case for me last Saturday. As I stated in my ride report, I crossed a boundary into another world of self-discovery…and I liked it…a lot. However, not all the lessons that we learn are high, flighty self-aggrandizing ones, some of them are very practical and will hopefully limit the suffering next time. I will start with those lessons:

1. Bike fit, as I have always heard, is one of the most important things in cycling.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of cycling and bicycles, I will give you the nickel introduction. Most people think of a bike as coming in a few sizes depending how tall you are, this may be true for Walmart bikes, but the more expensive variety that serious cyclists ride and a puzzle of geometry. Most bikes come in varying frame sizes, and you pick one based upon your height, and leg to upper body ratio. After you get the right size frame, there are many micro adjustments that make a big difference. You can slide the saddle (seat) forward or backward, or point the nose, or raise it or lower it. You can extend or shorten the stem which brings the handlebars closer or further from you, you can adjust cleats on your shoes to bring your foot into a good position. The point here is, there are a lot of adjustments that can be made to make your position on the bike more comfortable for you and more efficient when pedaling. Well, my bike is ill-adjusted. I know my stem is too long, which results in me reaching a long distance for the bars. This results in tired arms and shoulders, and it makes me ride further up on my seat, which results in numb nuts (I love using that term in a scientific way. Hah!). My suspicion is my cleats are not in the right place, because my knees and hips were hurting very bad. Also, I have enormous hands, and a skinny handlebar. I need to get a handlebar that has a flattened out, aero shape, that is more comfortable for me to rest my hands on. All in all, I need to work on the fit.

2. Small gear spinning saves your legs.
I have heard that one of the worst habits that new cyclists, especially bigger guys, have is spinning the pedals at too low a cadence. The ideal cadence to spin at is around 80 rpm, or faster if it is comfortable. This number dips slightly on hills, but it should be kept as high as possible. My natural tendency is to power the pedals over at a low cadence, usually around 50 rpm. This habit usually results in some very shocked legs at the end of the day. The amount of climbing on this ride would have resulted in an inability to walk at the Hell’s Gate water stop. Thanks to my friends on BikeForums.net for the advice to train at a higher cadence. It worked!

3. A mix of HEED, Gels and Snacks works great for me.
Nutritionally, I felt pretty good on this ride. I may have been a little low on calories at the Ryolite stop, but that wasn’t anything a couple banana nut muffins couldn’t solve. For the most part, drinking a lot of HEED, the occasional squeeze of Hammer Gel, and snacks at the stops worked good for me. I also used Endurolytes at every water stop, and I didn’t get any cramps at all.

4. This too shall pass
I have heard many times about this phenomenon, and I finally got to experience it first hand. The way humans are wired to think and react is as follows: You pedal a bike for X amount of miles and you start to feel really really bad, legs hurt, head hurts, you are tired. The initial thought is, “Well, stop, you idiot!”. It seems a reasonable way to respond by saying “If I feel this bad at mile 50, imagine how bad I am going to feel at mile 100, it will be twice as bad”. It goes against all reason to continue pedaling, because you are going to feel worse, right? Wrong. The human body is an AMAZING machine. It has the ability to recover, even during intense effort. You will feel better, just ride through the low spot and there will be a high spot on the other side. There were 3 distinct low spots that I can remember that I had to just push through and keep moving. In all 3 instances, my body rallied and I felt better. This is the way people are able to get through events like the Furnace Creek 508.

5. I need to train more
After watching the power that some of the other riders displayed, I am certain that I can be riding faster and stronger than I currently am. Obviously, some of this comes with time on the bike, which I have only had a year. Some of it comes with training hard though. Hill repeats, intervals, long flat steady distance. I have been riding for fun most of the time, but I think I can ride with a little bit more focus than I have. Suffer hard in training so you can suffer less on event day.

6. I can do it
As is probably the case with most new cyclists, there is always this question in my mind as to whether or not I can “do it”. I am sure that most of the fears are completely unfounded and can be written off as nervousness. I feel like there is this subconscious fear of suffering that I need to ditch in a bad way. My body and mind fear the suffering and as a result, I start to question my ability. There is the saying, it is 90% mental and the other 10% is all in your head. This, I am sure now, is all true.

7. Giving it all feels really good
I noted in my ride report that my finishing time left a lot to be desired. As deep as I dig, though, I can’t feel disappointed. I gave everything I knew how to give. There were probably a dozen reasons why I finished with the time that I did, but in the end there are no excuses. I have heard the term “leave it all out there”, but I feel like I finally understand it. I left it ALL out on the course. There are bits of my aspiration, sweat, determination and heart scattered all over those roads. I arrived at the finish an empty vessel. I left it all out there, and I leave it to the road to sort the pieces out. When you do this, you finish, it is really hard to feel bad or disappointed. Time goals are just that, time goals. If you come up short, and you knew that you gave it all, you realize that the goal you were really searching for was delivering at the highest level you were capable of on that day. I remember watching an old Race Across America DVD and seeing Kitty Goursolle talk about why she came to race. She said “If the best I can do this year is to just finish (even outside of the time cutoff) then that is the best I can do and that is just fine with me”. That is a badass attitude to have, and that is the attitude I am going to adopt.

In closing
I am sure there are other things that I learned out there, and maybe I will do a follow up post to this. For now…I will see you on the road.