Back at it on Bunker Hill

Well, I'm still trying (and failing) to get it right. The weather looked pretty good for Friday so Bob and I decided to give it a go. Bob got started really early (5:30 I think?) and ended up with over 13K feet for the day - go Bob!

It was really foggy when I was getting ready to leave so I dawdled to give it time to clear and got started riding at about 7:45. Cool and very humid to start so I had sun sleeves, vest and knee warmers on which I wore for the first four laps. My goals for the day were:

1. Get the nutrition/hydration/electrolytes sorted.
2. Complete 10K feet of climbing.
3. Stretch goal: Everest Basecamp (14,502 feet)

The power numbers for this ride and the two previous goes are below. As you can see, I started off considerably harder than on previous attempts - 200+ watts for the first 11 laps and 198 for the 12th lap before I took my first long break. Power fell off somewhat after that but not as precipitously as it did on 5/2 averaging 183 watts for laps 13-24.

My strategy going into the ride was to stop at the bottom of the hill every 2-3 laps and eat/drink something. I mostly adhered to the strategy but I realize in hindsight that I really only drank enough to wash down the food I was eating and that would once again prove my undoing. I was also taking an S-cap every other lap so roughly every 30 minutes.

At lap 21, my left leg felt like it "wanted" to cramp as I neared the top of the hill. I backed off from then on. By then it was quite warm and I'd once again gotten the hydration/electrolytes wrong. From then until the ride ended I stopped every other lap at the bottom of the hill and took a long drink from the gallon jug I'd stashed plus 2 S-Caps. Between soft-pedaling and the increased fluids and electrolytes I didn't have a major cramping episode so I'm happy that I avoided that but disappointed that I'd once again gotten it wrong.

I hit it somewhat harder on the last ascent just to see if I was in fact recovered or if my legs would cramp and fortunately they didn't and I averaged 172 watts for that climb.

So what now? Obviously I've screwed up the hydration/electrolytes twice now and I'd very much like to see what I can do if I get it right. How to fix it though? Two possibilities suggest themselves:

1. Wear a CamelBak. I used to wear one on brevets all the time. I'd typically get a blinding headache after around 100 miles or so but a couple of ibuprofen would sort it. I stopped wearing the CamelBak and voila - no more headaches. Still, a CamelBak would allow me to take a good long drink while descending.
2. Really make a point on the "every 2-3 lap" stops of drinking a bunch. The problem on this hill is that the descent is fast, has a sharp curve in it along with some longitudinal cracks that you need to watch out for. Because of that, I typically would take a drink from my water bottle at the bottom of every lap but that's only at most one mouthful of water - not very much when it's warm. I was able to recover when I started stopping and taking a big drink.

In more positive news, I did manage the food well and I'm pleased with the effort for the first 20 laps, that's just about 5 hours of riding so being able to keep the wattage at about a 192 average for that length of time is good progress.

Here's what I ate during the ride:

• 2x half PB&J (full sandwich cut in half)
• 1 banana
• 2x chicken wrap with mayo, lettuce and tomato (and 2 Cokes)
• quart sized zip loc full of Tostito chips
• 1.5 Gu flask
• Grapes

Not sure when/if I'm going to have another go. I'm thinking of trying a Basecamp on Zwift which has the advantage of a regular forced stop as my avatar descends not to mention being able to control the conditions. My friend Dawn is going to have a go at Bunker Hill in a week so I might join her. I've also still to go check out Denzer.

Stay tuned!

Lap  4/22    5/2    5/16
1     184     187   200
2     180     188   208
3     181     186   205
4     194     183   206
5     187     184   207
6     177     181   209
7     179     184   203
8     183     183   203
9     176     181   201
10   185     182   200
11   192     184   202
12   174     176   198
13   181     176   194
14   188     170   189
15   184     169   187
16   182     160   184
17   168     183   185
18   172     175   182
19   181     153   188
20   173     164   183
21   177     155   180
22   169     155   174
23   161     153   172
24    ---      160   169
25    ---      162   160
26    ---      152   159
27    ---      161   157
28    ---      148   158
29    ---        ---   158
30    ---        ---   158
31    ---        ---   151
32    ---        ---   172