As those who've read my posts thus far (all one of you), I spent most of the winter and spring out of action and/or rebuilding after my ToC mishap and collar bone reconstruction. Coupled with this was a pretty bad back injury at the end of March that had me off the bike for a couple of weeks and soft pedaling for a few weeks after that. As a consequence, I didn’t have the kind of preparation I would have liked going into this year.
I tried to accelerate my conditioning and gauge my progress by doing a 200K, 300K, and a 1000K with a 400K less than a week later. Although I had to stop and stretch my back a lot during most of these rides, especially the 1000K, I thought things were progressing OK.
As a further test, when Marcia and I drove out to Washington, we stopped at Winthrop and I climbed the Washington and Rainey passes. I hit those climbs moderately hard and felt pretty decent both while doing them and afterwards. Here's a shot at the top of Rainy Pass.
I’ll preface my route discussion by saying I didn’t have a protractor and tape measure with me so distances and gradients are suspect.
The first day, most of the first 150 miles was fairly moderate and my pace was pretty decent. The real action started at 150 miles with a climb up Elk pass. My recollection was it was about 4-5 miles of 8-11%, a flat section, then 4 miles of 8-10%. This went pretty well and I felt good during the climbing. An amusing aside: the climb was long and steep enough that there were several times when it appeared to “level out” and I thought “finally, a break” and looked down to see it was “only” 5%. At any rate, I got to the top of Elk pass in good order and froze my ass off on the descent. I stopped at the top to don all of my clothes but was soaking wet with perspiration and the cold wind (it was 48 degrees at the summit) really chilled me. When I got to the control between Elk and Oldman passes I was shaking like a leaf.
I recall Oldman pass as being 5 miles of never less than 10% starting at about 190 miles in. Once again, I felt pretty good and passed several people on the climb. I made it to the top in good order, put all my clothes on again and did the long downhill to the first overnight.
I got to the overnight and have to say I generally felt tired. As I posted on FB, I only got about two hours of fitful sleep before the start and I was really feeling it. Not sleepy, just no energy. Ate, showered and got about 3 hours of not very restful sleep.
Next morning started off with about 48 miles along the Columbia river gorge (beautiful) and Klickitat river (even more beautiful) followed by a long (about 7 miles) and steep (I didn’t look at my altimeter but I’d say 8-11%) climb up from the river then a fairly flat run into Goldendale. My back started to tighten up, then hurt, toward the top of the climb. It was steep enough that I didn't want to stop and try and get started again so I pressed on. I made it to the top and stretched which helped some but I had to stop and stretch several times between the summit and Goldendale which was very concerning since it was flat to downhill.
Like an idiot, I rode straight past the control (an “over a beer” story) for 5 bonus uphill miles then turned around and went back. From Goldendale, there was a longish 5-7% climb and then an absolutely screaming descent with lots of twists and turns. I thought to myself “the piper is going to have to be paid at some point” and, sure enough, I got to the bottom, went around a curve and immediately started climbing. This started off pretty steep (8-10%) then settled down but the real issue was first that it was hot and secondly that I was climbing for 15 miles non-stop. Not steep the whole way, some times as little as 2-3% but still, I was going uphill and working hard. This was the swan song for my back. During this time, the interval between needing to stop and stretch kept shrinking. I got to an unofficial control at Bickleton and stopped to get something to drink and did a lot of stretching.
Between Bickleton and the next control at Sunnyside it was generally downhill though against a slight breeze. I went as hard as I could but my back really wasn’t happy by this point and I was in a lot of pain.
I got to Sunnyside at 16:23 well in advance of the control close at 20:04. I spent a lot of time stretching, got something to eat at the Burger King, even slept for a bit. I was under no time pressure at all, the next control was at Mattawa, 47 miles away and closed at 02:07 so I had just under 10 hours to ride 47 miles. I knew that stretch contained one very steep and extended climb and a number of smaller ones.
After eating, stretching and resting for a while, I took off. I could barely push the pedals, even on level ground my back hurt so bad I could hardly stand it. I gave it about 3 miles with stops to stretch hoping my back would loosen up but it never did. I turned around and rode back to Sunnyside and called Marcia at about 18:10. Ride over.
Now that I’ve had a few days to chew on it I’m of course disappointed that I didn’t finish but I’m at peace with the decision. I simply couldn’t have gone on and I’m fairly certain that I was risking a much more serious and protracted episode with my back had I done so. Even if I’d have made it to the overnight (I had until 09:12 the next morning to ride 97 miles from Sunnyside to Ephrata) I seriously doubt I could have done Loup Loup pass the next day followed by Washington and Rainey the day after.
It was perhaps stupid to even try the Cascade given my physical problems over the winter. The thing is, I don’t have a gauge implanted in my navel that says “ready for a 1200K” when I’m adequately prepared so all I know to do is try my best to get ready and give it a shot. I will say that “normal” aches and pains notwithstanding, I felt MUCH better the entire time at Endless Mountains than I ever did at the Cascade so I know my preparation was lacking.
I’m still planning on doing the High Country in a little less than three weeks. I’m going to hit the core strengthening hard between now and then and hope that along with a few more weeks of riding will be enough to get it done. I know that if you have any weakness at all a hard 1200K will find it and I can only hope that I can ameliorate the back problem enough to keep the pedals turning for 1200K in three weeks.
Aside from the general disappointment in not finishing, another serious regret in my DNF is that the weather was about as nice as it will ever be for the Cascade 1200. There have been years where the temps were well over 100 or well below 40, howling winds, rain, etc. It wasn’t a cakewalk from a weather point of view but it’s probably as good as it gets.
