Jun 28, 11:49 AM by Steve | The Paradox of Coconut Water
Posted in Cycling & Ride-Report
The story starts, nominally, on Thursday—I decided that the Energizer battery charger I had bought for the Solvang Double just didn’t cut it and decided to build my own using the instructions here. I picked up the parts at Radio Shack, but they gave me the wrong kind of cable and I didn’t realize it until after I cut it! Fortunately I have tons of the proper USB cable and was able to finish the charger.
Friday, as I’ve posted, I was sick. Sick, sick, sick. I left for work feeling a bit off, and by the time I was about halfway there I felt so bad I could hardly turn the pedals over. When I got to work I had never felt so happy to get off my bike in my life! I somehow managed to lug my bike up to my office and proceeded to sleep on my couch for nearly the rest of the day, with a few breaks for work and one to throw up. I felt much better after that, and became 99% convinced that it was food poisoning. Eventually I felt well enough to limp home but didn’t think I would be able to ride 200 miles on Saturday. As the evening progressed I started to feel better, and Kim told me that she wasn’t going to let me give up that easy. I had been looking forward to it for a while, and she knew with my crazy mutant immune system she knew I would be fine in the morning. Still not sure myself that I would be ok, I posted that I was 50/50 and set my alarm for 3:30 for a final decision.
3:30am Saturday morning, I wake up, snooze the alarm once or twice, waffle a bit, and then finally decide to just go for it. One of my concerns had been my heart rate, which had been really high when I was sick, and still somewhat elevated into the evening. I took it in the morning and it was close to 50, somewhat high but close enough that I felt comfortable continuing. I throw on my clothes, put my bike on the car and wake Kim up and we are on the road around 4:15. In the car at 4:15, driving from Santa Barbara. My only concern was that the website said registration was until 5:30 and I didn’t think we would make it in time. As luck would have it, we got there just after 5:30, and they weren’t being strict about enforcing it.
6:05am I’m all dressed and prepped and ready to go, just need a picture. Kim took a bunch, and for some reason I look really dorky in all of them—this was the least dorky of the bunch. A few minutes later I took off hot and passed a few people right away. One of them turned out to be my eventual riding partner for the rest of the day, Eric Ostendorff. He and his friend Bill caught me right after Zuma beach when I lost my momentum at a light. Further along PCH we picked up another guy, Brian, and a little later one more but I don’t think I caught his name (he was on a nice Serrotta with 0G brakes). The 5 of us hammered into the first rest stop at Hueneme, although honestly I was barely hanging on at times. We checked in, got some snacks (I had several strawberries and orange wedges) and was moving again fairly quickly.
Bill was doing the Lowland (I hesitate to say “only” since he had open heart surgery a year ago), so we parted ways with him there. Eric, Brian, and I left Hueneme together and headed out toward Westlake. Eric seems to know everyone so we hooked up with some other riders along the way and also cruised with a tandem until they turned off to do the Lowland route. The climb up Potrero was great, and it was fun shouting inspirational words to riders struggling up. It was certainly much easier to do it on my own bike with a compact crank (36×27) than the bike I used last week with a standard crank (39×25). At the stop I finished off my FRS and refilled my bottle with a Vanilla Hammer Gel solution. I do this part of the route a lot, whenever I go down to Thousand Oaks to visit the in-laws and I love the roads through Hidden Valley and Lake Sherwood.
After a brief wrong turn at Lake Sherwood we were back on track, repassed a few people and continued on our way through Westlake and on to the Moorpark rest stop. At Moorpark Eric tried to scam a soda from the double metric lunch area but the volunteers foiled his plans. I met roadfix and learned that the rest of the bikeforums group was up the road and he surmised that I would find them at the Ojau lunch stop. I finished off my Vanilla Hammer Gel and made a bottle of Espresso Hammer Gel. Also drank several cups of Gatorate and had a few more orange wedges. The Oreos looked good but I knew they were trouble so I stayed away.
On the climb up Grimes I was pulling away from Eric and catching another rider who had gone flying past us earlier. Just after I caught him, another guy with the same jersey went flying past me. We hit the summit a minute or so later and cruised down the other side. The guy ahead seemed to be waiting for his friend and I was waiting for Eric so nobody was really working very hard. The 3 of us formed up and rode into Santa Paula together. We didn’t see Brian or that other guy after Grimes. We got to talking and I think his name was Gary. He was a cat 2 racer/hill climber so I didn’t so feel bad anymore getting passed like that! On the climb out of Ojai he was pushing the pace and Eric was holding his wheel, but I was starting to cramp up and decided to hold back a bit and meet back up at the lunch stop. A few minutes later I got a flat, but changed it pretty quickly and continued on to Ojai, repassing everyone that went by me while I was stopped…
At the lunch stop I found Eric but Gary was nowhere to be found. I got a sandwich but solid food wasn’t very appealing to me at the time and I didn’t eat much of it. I went to get a drink but don’t like sodas, so tried the coconut water that they had. I had never heard of it before, but thought it was very good. I think I probably had 4 there (11oz each) and filled my bottle with 2 more. Bill came in from his lowland route and a little later Brian arrived as well. Eric saw and talked with many people that he knew and I took care of my bottles and checking in, which I forgot to do when I arrived. A note regarding meeting the bikeforums crew, I thought I recognized Spingineer (Ron) and then saw him talk to someone that looked like merider1 (Mary), put two and two together and figured it out. I missed Ron, he had already walked off, but came up to Mary and introduced myself. She was with Indolent58 (Dan), Shprung (Shai), and Magicant (Joel).
Brian told us that he wasn’t going to be able to keep with us on the climbs and to go ahead without him. It was interesting wandering through the back roads of Ojai, I’ve always just been down the main road. There were a lot of arrows from other recent rides (probably the Ojai century and Cool Breeze), and we almost made a wrong turn. Then we caught Mary’s group along La Luna, shortly before the turn onto Baldwin (150). I pulled for a little while and somewhere around Lake Casitas realized that Shai was with us. I don’t know if he was there the whole time, or if he caught up with us. We were both climbing at a good rate on the rollers out of the fire station, but my stomach was cramping pretty bad, and as we neared a crest I was hit by a blast of wind that may as well have been a wall. It practically stopped me in my tracks and Shai took off while I fell back. Eric eventually caught me on the main climb as I struggled to keep a reasonable pace, and then fortunately waited for me at the top. I was still having some difficulty on the second climb but managed to stay within throwing distance of Eric’s wheel and he didn’t have to wait for me (although he didn’t realize it, and started to unclip). We caught Shai somewhere around the 192, shortly before the Rincon rest stop, and we rolled in together.
More coconut water for me, some gatorade, and a V8. I hadn’t been drinking much on the bike since lunch, since it was aggravating my cramps, and my bottles were still relatively full so I didn’t do anything with them. I saw they had Krispy Kreme donuts and cup of noodles, both of which were tempting, but solid food was still unapealing to me and I passed. My biggest regret of the ride is not getting one of those donuts. As we were about to leave, Mary’s group came in and Shai decided to stay with them for a bit, so Eric and I took off down onto the freeway. My cramping got really bad along PCH and Eric took it down a notch to keep us together. The route we took through Ventura was unfamiliar to me, as I usually just cruise down Main Street to Victoria. I liked going along the waterfront, especially the overpass over the river for sailboats. The final rest stop brought us back to the first stop in Hueneme. I was confused at first because all the food and tables were gone, but quickly realized everything was inside now. I had more Gatorade, some M&Ms, bread, and many orange wedges. I also took some antacid to try to help with my cramping. We saw a guy completely covered in a salty white crust, and then Shai came in right as we were about to roll.
We took it easy out of the stop and fell into a medium-sized group. For a while, we weren’t going very long between lights and he pace seemed reasonable, so we thought it would be a good group to relax with for a while. Once we got onto open road and away from the lights, the salt-crusted rider started to gap the group, so Eric and I decided to bridge up and We caught him quickly. He told us that his name was Alex, and that he was glad to have someone with him that would actually share the work; the other group didn’t want to do anything. I pulled for a little bit and then Eric took over, the animal that he is. I didn’t mind pulling but couldn’t match Eric’s speed so he usually ended up in front. He and Alex traded a few pulls for a bit, but once we hit PCH Eric did most of the work again. After the road jogged a bit to the left at Sycamore cove, the wind became more favorable and we shared the workload a little more. Then the rollers hit and Alex started to have difficulty. We coasted down a few but eventually he was toast and he told us not to wait for him. My cramping was finally subsiding, and I blasted up some of the climbs, especially Zuma. I got to the top way before Eric and was just cruising down the other side but got stopped at a light. Just as it was turning green, Eric zoomed by shouting (I think) “all is fair in love and war!” I caught back up and we took it easy the rest of the way in, finishing just past 7:30.
At the finish, I checked in, found my photo and for some food. A little bit of chicken, some beans and lots of bread. And more coconut water. They had boxes of the stuff with a “free” sign, so I took several more for home as well as some cold ones to have with dinner. I saw Gary come in, which confused me because he should have been ahead, but he told us that he made some wrong turns and ended up in Montecito. Shai came in while we were eating, and Joel a little later. Mary and Dan came in I think just as it was getting dark. Later I met Whitecarbondude (sorry, I dont remember his real name). Kim and her mother came to pick me up and have some food, and stayed for some interesting conversation. My mother-in-law was completely lost in all the bike-talk, but I think enjoyed grilling Mary about her personal life, lack of kids, etc. At the end of dinner, I tried some more coconut water and thought that it didn’t taste nearly as good; fairly bland and just uninteresting. It must have tasted so good to me before only because my body wanted the sugar and potassium. After we excused ourselves and left, we went back to Kim’s parent’s house and hung out there for a while, and didn’t get home until somewhere around midnight.
