I recalibrated my ambitions for this ride the night before and decided to make it only a little harder than last time. I rode down the coast initially, to increase the number of k's before the hills started. Unfortunately, there were a few roadies out, no doubt, doing their 3km sprint to the coffee shop. I tried to get drafts of them but every time I caught up to the next roadie, they would turn off West Coast Drive (presumably to get their skinny decaf late with a cream bun).
That wasn't good for my pacing as I tried hard to catch them and then had no benefit from it. And the strong Easterly wasn't much help either. I turned in towards town at Swanbourne and went through Nedlands and copped a bit of wind. More wind down the bike bath towards Midland where I met up with a flagging roadie. He quickly informed me that he had just done a 47km/h avg ride and then proceeded to stick to my tail all the way to Swan road. Thanks!
Swan road, more wind :-( I was beginning to doubt I would even make it to the hills and it made me realise how nice a group is to ride with, especially with all those wind breakers in front! The hills didn't stop the wind either. It was still there but not as bad at least.
Coulsten et all was ok. Legs don't seem to like those gradual slopes although it was hard to judge how hard I was going as I did not have anyone next to me. The descent into the weir was fun and the climb out was good too. Once again, I couldn't tell whether I was going hard or not with no one around.
Piesse Brook was a good climb though. I decided to put some effort in to try to do a Tooms climb - consistently fast pace all the way. Started off well, really pushing the pedals and not leaving anything in reserve. I happened to see a flash of white off in the distance when doing that climb. At the next corner I saw two roadie/ triathlete types struggling up the hill. Can you tell what happened next?
I discovered I wasn't pushing at 100% when my legs moved up a gear and I did my best to catch them, blast by and then ride off into the distance to the bakery. Ahh, bike riding can be so full of one-up-manship!
After the break, I rode back down Piesse brook to Pickering Brook. This killed me. Legs were tired and hills really hurt. A fruit stop later, my stomach gave out. On the long ride home, I also neglected my water intake and became dehydrated. Pushing hard to mainited 25km/h into a weird wind that attacked me no matter my direction, I called it quits at Stirling station and got the train home.
Well, at least I got to see how my body reacted in such a neglected state. Hopefully I won't get to that state in the race, but if I do, at least I might be able to recognise it a little earlier and take some action to prevent it getting worse.
Post Mortem:
Not enough water.
DIdn't stick to the nutrition plan.
Introduced fruit (previously untried)
Poor initial pacing.