Knoxville Double Century

This past weekend I drove up to Vacaville to participate in the Knoxville Double Century that is organized by the Quack Cyclists. According to the California Triple Crown Website: "This course starts & ends in Vacaville, at a local park, and is promoted as a friendly, social ride. No recorded times, no course records, just complete or DNF. The course is a big figure 8, heading out of town west & north, up the Napa valley, across the hills to the top of Berreyessa, then 40 miles out & over Knoxville Road to Lower Lake. It will be a reverse course of the Davis Double for a section in the middle, and then head down Vacaville's Pleasants Valley to the finish." The ride has ~12,600 ft of climbing and the temps can be nice or they can be really hot. We rode most of the day in mid-90's heat.

Rather than jump right into a long-winded ride report, I thought I'd give a rundown on the bike and the nutritional aspect of riding the ride. I am always asked about these things and I've been doing these kinds of rides long enough that I have my own system down for handling things. You learn from others as you participate in ultra-style events, and my hope is that you can learn something from how I go about doing these things.

Going into the ride, I knew a few things that influenced my choices for bike, lighting, clothing and nutrition. I knew that we would be starting, and likely, ending in the dark. I also knew it would be hot during the day and pretty chilly in the morning and possibly chilly after dark. I also knew there was tons of climbing, making it likely that I'd be on my bike quite a bit longer than on other, slightly less difficult (that was weird to write!), double centuries.  I also knew the roads were not always going to be smooth. There would be tons of chipseal and tons of potholes throughout the course.

The length of time on the bike and the roughness of the course made the bike decision easy. My Rivendell Road bike has a nice long wheelbase, a relaxed geometry, and allows for larger tires. These all make for a smoother, more comfortable ride under these conditions. On a ride that would have much smoother roads, I might opt for my more racy Davidson.

Here's a list of thing about the bike and why I chose them:

Rivendell in Full Dress Mode for a Double

rear, brakes are Shimano Dura Ace(the gearing gives me a low enough low to get over most stuff and the Shimano brakes are reliable, forceful stoppers for those 12%+ downhills).

Wheels: Hugi 240s hubs (32h rear/28h front) laced to DT Swiss RR1.1 rims (built by Joe Young; experience with Joe's wheelbuilding told me that these spoke counts will work for me. He builds exceptionally strong wheels).

Lashing stuff onto the banana bag

Tires: Grand Bois Cerf 700x28c tires (comfy; lots of air and low rolling resistance)

Bag: Duluth banana bag (from Rivendell; roomy inside while not being so big that it inhibits leg movement; also has a way to lash things down to the top of it).

Inside Bag:  2 spare tubes, patch kit, tire irons, first aid kit, tire boot, 7 pre-made bags of powdered mix of Perpetuem/Endurolyte (2 scoops and 3 capsule contents), three hammer gels, and three cliff shot block packages (2 margarita with extra salt, 1 black cherry), ~12 tablets of Camelbak Elixir or Nuun.

Tallac Stainless Dual Water Cage

Lashed to Outside of Bag: wind vest, arm warmers, leg warmers, shoe covers, long fingered MTB-style gloves.

Water Bottle Cages: Tallac Dual Stainless Cage and King Stainless single cage. Both are strong cages and the dual cage allows me the luxury of three bottles on the bike so I can forgo wearing a Camelbak.

What's in Water Bottles: Two have Camelbak Elixir and one has a mix of Perpetuem (2 scoops) and Endurolyte powder (~3 capsules worth), flavored with a serving of Hammer Gel. Alternating sips from the Elixir bottles and the Perpetuem bottles every 10 minutes or so keeps me well-hydrated and keeps me calorically happy and keeps me on top of my electrolyte replacement.

Cockpit-two MiNewt headlights

Lights: 2 Niterider MiNewt headlights (each good for 3 hrs of light when fully charged; you can turn on both for downhills to get lots of light and run one for normal stuff; a longer run time would have been nice as I was running on empty at the end of the ride), barend tailights, Serfas tailight on rear stay (nice and bright and flashy and easy to mount/dismount), and Serfas taillight on helmet (you can never have enough).

Serfas rear tailight-bright and easy on/off

Cockpit-Calfee Carbon Barstem

Handlebars: Calfee Carbon Barstem. This is a nod toward comfort for me. My shoulder injury last year created some problems for me on longer rides. These bars offer hand positions that allow me to relax my shoulders. They are shaped and flat across the top and have a nice comfortable flat ramp to the hoods. Oddly, I could probably save weight using a more standard threadless stem and bar combo.

What I ate and drank before, during, and after the ride:

For breakfast: A cup of coffee and two blueberry Pop Tarts. I wasn't that hungry in the morning as is usually the case. I rely on staying on top of my caloric intake rather than pounding down a large breakfast.

During the Ride: 6 bottles of the Perpetuem/Endurolyte Mix, ~6-8 packets of Hammer Gel (used to flavor the Perpetuem mix), ~12 bottles of Camelbak Elixir or Nuun,  1 Clif Bar (peanut butter and chocolate chip), 2 bananas, 3 packs of Clif Shot Blocks, a handful of pretzels, a small bean and cheese burrito, a chili dog, and ~9 extra Endurolytes tablets throughout the day. Oh, and 2 cans of Dr. Pepper.

After: 2 servings of Tortellini in cream sauce and garlic bread and another Dr. Pepper.

Total Calorie Consumption: So, I ate about 406 calories for breakfast, 5249 calories during the ride, and 1270 calories after the ride. This equates to a total of 6519 calories for the entire day. Sounds like a lot doesn't it?

So, how many calories do you burn on a 200 mile bike ride?

I did a 23 mile recovery ride yesterday and according to my Garmin Edge 500, which calculates calories burned for my 183 pound body, I burned ~1600 calories. That is ~69 calories per mile. This means that over 200 miles, I would have burned ~13,900 calories (this may actually be a low estimate since the ride had so much climbing).

According to these calculations, I was able to ingest less than half of the total caloric requirements for the ride. Okay class, can anyone tell me where the extra calories came from? The breakdown of glycogen, body fat, and muscle. In a ride this long, there is always a deficit in calories consumed versus caloried expended. You have to eat as much as you can while keeping your belly happy. Some people handle more solid foods better. Others rely on liquid calories (or gel). And oftentimes, you find that at some point, nothing sounds or tastes good. At those points, I usually dilute what I have and keep going and nurse it along until I feel like eating more.

Sadly, after a ride like this, you step on the scale the next day and you often weigh more ,even with the caloric deficit. This is likely due to the increase in retention of water. You need the water to help in the rebuilding of glycogen stores and muscle.


Things I learned on this ride:


(1) A full zip jersey is handy on long, hot rides. Being able to open the jersey up completely on long climbs really helped me control my body temp. A Craft COOL Superlight base layer help a ton here. It did a great job of dispersing the heat when I opened up the jersey.


(2) Gas-X can be your friend. For the first time on a ride like this, I started to develop an uncomfortably gassy belly. The kind where you feel full of gas but can't get rid of it and it becomes painful. There were times where I could not pedal with any force due to the pressure. A fellow rider handed me a few Gas-X tablets and within 30 minutes, I was feeling tons better. Not perfect, but good enough to get it done.


(3) I usually carry a bag of drug-like stuff with me. The contents are usually: Ibuprofen, Tums, Sudafed, anti-histamine, Endurolytes, Pepto-Bismol. I will add the Gas-X to the mix in the future and will also throw in some extra chamois cream. Riding a lot of extended climbs meant a lot more time in the saddle without breaks and this meant a bit more chaffing.


The ride itself?


You can read other accounts of the ride. One example is that of my brother's here: http://fancylug.blogspot.com/2010/09/knoxville-double-century.html


It was fairly uneventful. It got hot and that slowed me down. This was done purposefully as I have heat problems at times and I was trying to keep myself from blowing up. The only thing that really hampered my ride was the aforementioned gas issues that caused pain. I had to deal with that for miles 70-120 or so, but after that it subsided and I simply had to soldier on to the end.


We started at 4:30 in the morning and I finished right around 10:00 in the evening. It wasn't exactly fast, but with the stomach issues and the heat, it was a good finish. A lot of times those issues might have been problematic, but I figured out how to manage them and get through. That's what it's all about.