The Battle of Bunker Hill - Initial Skirmish

As I've written in the past, I'm planning on a longer effort on this hill in a few weeks so this was a rehearsal. My goals for the ride were:

1. Steady effort. I'd say I did very well on this with my segment times ranging from 9:40 to 11:22.
2. Experiment with nutrition. I did a poor job of this. Didn't eat much (a single Gu) on the first 12 laps and was really out of gas on the 12th lap. Did better after that but already had a deficit. Didn't affect my times overmuch but did affect the perceived effort quite a bit.
3. Experiment with fluids. Did a pretty good job of this. I only drink water while riding so really this was more about quantity and I had to urinate 4 times over the course of the 5 hours. I think I could have drank more though and will try to on the next outing.
4. Check out the equipment. Didn't expect any issues and there weren't any. Bike and gearing were fine.
5. Complete at least 5000 feet of climbing. Felt pretty good so reset the goal to 7500 which I accomplished.

Here's the Strava entry for the ride.For those not on Strava, here are some stats:

• Each lap (start, up the hill, descend to start) is 2.16 miles. The Strava segment for the climb is 1.07 miles with an average gradient of 6% and 323 feet of gain
• 23 laps
• 7,520 feet of climbing total
• 5:04:42 moving time
• 50.56 miles

I think for a "real" Everesting attempt, this hill wouldn't be the best choice. Something longer and steeper would work better (Denzer hill?) but for my current level of conditioning, returning from injury, this was just right trading off less elevation and, as a consequence, more time in the saddle against a harder effort was a good tradeoff to make.

Extrapolating to an Everesting though, at this pace it'd take approximately 24 hours. My goal would be somewhere nearer 19. I'm not currently at the level of fitness to do that.

Some notes from the ride:

• met my friend Bob Booth and "mostly" socially distanced. We probably rode closer together than was wise on and off after about lap 6. To be honest, I don't think a riding WITH somebody is necessarily a plus (at least for me) as it causes me to lose focus a bit. It does make the laps pass faster though.
• my goal was to maintain a consistent 180 watts on the climbing segment. I was close but not quite there. The lack of focus mentioned above was a factor plus I only had normalized power (for the whole ride) displayed on the Wahoo, need to have 5 sec avg power so I can see when I'm slacking off.
• were I in better shape, my goal would be an average nearer 200 watts but don't think I'm there right now, especially coming off the injury.
• need to lose weight. I'm 18 lbs heavier than when I finished PBP. I lost 12 of it early this year, got injured and put most of it back on.
• it was raining a bit prior to the start. I'd decided in advance I wasn't going to ride if was raining but it quit before I started and turned into a very nice, almost ideal day. The temperature was perfect.
• they started spreading manure on a field next to the climb on the 17th lap. Yuck. This really made it a lot more difficult.
• got stung a small amount by a bee on about the 14th lap. I'm somewhat allergic (no danger of anaphylactic shock but the sting swells like crazy). Wasn't too bad so only a mild sting

Thinking about the nutrition afterwards. There are a number of factors contributing to why I ate so little in the first 12 laps:

• I typically start a ride or brevet after eating a good breakfast. I generally feel like I can go a couple of hours on what I've eaten. For a regular ride, it's probably OK but for a long ride it's more important to avoid getting behind. A steady intake of 200-300 calories per hour beginning in the first hour would be better.
• My usual ride distance is 40 miles or so and as mentioned above, I generally ride shortly after eating breakfast so I can do that distance without difficulty although I am hungry when I finish and need to eat something almost right away. So the bottom line is riding a couple of hours without eating anything is a well formed habit.
• I don't like to stop but this climb isn't conducive to eating while riding. I have a hard time eating anything while climbing and messing around with trying to open an energy bar or Gu while descending at 35 MPH seems unwise.

 I might try some liquid nutrition. I haven't found any that work for me (and I've tried them all) for several days in a row but it might be that I can tolerate it for a single day. I've got some Infinit powder and am planning on taking a spin on Denzer in a few days so I might give that a try.