eatingRD.com Food. Fitness. Nutrition. Life!

Hi guys!!  I am sooo loving this cool down we are having!  I actually had to put on a little zip up jacket when we were walking Buster last night.  We even had a pretty torrential downpour Monday and I didn’t quite make it home from my bike ride (pic to follow).  First, I have to share some pictures from the Furnace Creek 508 bike race this past weekend with my friend Jen.  She is the most inspirational, amazingly strong cyclist and athlete I know and I was absolutely honored and excited to be on her crew.  It was one experience I will never forget . . .  

Right after work on Friday, I hitched a ride to the airport and was off to California and caught a shuttle to meet the rest of the crew.  I didn’t really have a clue how this whole thing worked, or even what kind of food/nutrition they had, but I was up for the challenge! After having a nice dinner at Claim Jumper, and a fairly good night’s sleep, we were up and ready by 5am for a quick breakfast and prep for the start.

There was a lot of prepping going on . . . Sooty Shearwater was our totem 🙂

That is a pretty saweeet bike and wheels.

Ready for the start!

What has got to be going through your mind at the start of something like this?  Only 500 more miles to go??  It’s just amazing to me, I sure didn’t know what to expect, but here goes nuthin’.

Lots of junk in the trunk.

The first stop was 25 miles away and we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

The first day during sunlight, we had to leap frog with Jen.  So we would drive out ahead and have everything ready by the time she arrived to the van.

There were a lot of handoffs the first 100 miles and boy she blazed through them with an 18mph average.

We had to scope Jen’s ETA.

Get ready . . .

Almost there . . .

We have contact!  And she was off!

There was lots of bottle throwing as well, watch out!

After the first 100 miles or so was the first checkpoint and Jen was going strong.  She stopped for a quick pb and j, double decker style.

She’s a pretty salty sweater too, so I made sure to add a pinch of salt to her fluid mix since regular Gatorade doesn’t have all that much.

I was busy in the ‘kitchen’ most of the time and it was pretty hot outside.

I kept a nutrition log of everything we were giving Jen and everything she had consumed.  If I wrote it all down and added everything up right (some didn’t have labels), she consumed total during the ride, about 6900 kcals, 9000 mg of sodium, 535 oz of fluid, and some protein and fat in there too.  That equates to about 300-350 kcals, 450 mg of sodium, and 27 oz of fluids per hour.  I still need to figure out the carb specs.  Not too bad, but towards the end it was a struggle to get Jen to consume!  Sure wish we could just have a remote control IV!

While she was off to the next checkpoint, we were off to Subway for some quick sammies.

This is what I saw most of the ride . . .  tweedle dee and tweedle dum lol

Going into Death Valley the views were gorgeous and I wished we would have been able to see it before someone turned off the lights.

I love this picture . . . nothing but you, your bike and the pavement.

Once 6pm rolled around, we had to turn on the flashers and break out the reflective gear, and that’s really when things got interesting. . .  By this time Jen had been cycling non-stop for 12 hours.  All you can do is fight your body telling you to stop and sleep and your mind telling you to keep going no matter what.  I think nightfall is the hardest part because if you’re a rider it becomes pitch black, you can’t tell where you are exactly, how much farther you have to go, and question what the heck am I doing here?

There was a pretty crazy descent once night hit and I think I about had a heart attack right there in the back seat.  We got up to at least 55 mph and I was gripping so hard to the seat handles, I was sure I left permanent indentations.  It was windy and steep and we were right behind her.  One false move and . . . I don’t even want to think about that.  I just worry too much!

*stay tuned for a short video clip of the descent*

I don’t think I would ever have the courage to do that and live to tell about it anyways!

As the night and morning went on, I could tell Jen wasn’t right.  We were consistently trying to tell her to make sure to drink, eat, stay focused, hang in there, eyes on the prize.  Sleep deprivation can be an ugly thing and I’m not sure how she did so well.  There is only so much caffeine can do.  There was one point I had to peeee sooooo bad I thought my bladder was going to explode, but it was pretty dark out and no one saw me squatting in the desert 🙂

We finally decided to stop and take a 1.5 hour rest because she was exhausted.  I think it might have been too long of a power nap, but I’m not sure if short nap increments would have made it better.  Jen fought a good fight and was freakin’ amazing, but decided that she didn’t want to continue.  Not knowing why she was there, not believing in a purpose in this crazy race, she had the courage to say enough is enough.

At about 5:00am, about 300 miles in and after 22 hours of riding, Jen decided to call it.  It wasn’t pretty folks, this crap is hard and not for the faint of heart.  There were a few times we had to convince her to get back on that bike and pedal because sometimes when you are in the moment of difficulty, your body wants to quit when your mind doesn’t really want to.  That is the hard part, but this second time was real.  Jen would not come to the end of Furnace Creek 508 as a finisher, but damn well a fighter and inspiration beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

I cannot tell you how much Jen inspired me, and in the midst of the craziness that this whole race brings, I absolutely loved the experience.  Wow, what a weekend.  I was absolutely exhausted and I don’t know how many of the other riders and teams continued to pedal another 24 hours to the finish.  Just wow.  Can you imagine cycling for 35, 40, even 48 hours straight pretty much?  On the ride home I was bobbing my head so bad and could barely keep my eyes open and I wasn’t even riding!

The next day I was able to get a ride in myself and it felt great.  Well, everything went well until I lost my Garmin on a downhill and it started to rain on my way home!  I thankfully missed the crazy downpour and hail though which was a good thing because it was pretty bad.

We had some crazy flooding near us.

And a cyclist got caught in it!  This was not more than an hour after I got home.

Before the last downhill, I took my Garmin off to look at my stats and eat some dates.  I must not have clipped it back in right because it went flying into the abyss and I couldn’t find it 🙁  But I’m pretty sure I got in 65 miles at a 16 mph average.  I felt pretty good afterwards except I had been messing with my saddle and handlebar height beforehand and somehow my knee is hurting now, ugh! I’m going to give it a rest, ice, and try to reposition my bike better before Viva Bike Vegas on Saturday, eek!!!!  I’m so excited!

Sometimes when I’m cycling through some pretty challenging terrain and I’m huffing and puffing I question why the heck did I sign up for this?, what is my reasoning behind this madness? And you know what sometimes I guess there doesn’t have to be a specific reason. You get up and do it because it’s just in you, a part of who you are, and deep down inside it’s worth it and all a part of this experience we call life.

Hope you’re having a good week!