Butterfield Double Century (new route)

[Pain Freak]

Well, let me try this again. I'd spent better part of an hour typing up my rr and it wouldn't post, kept saying sending to host?? Anyways lost it.

The ride starts out in Irvine at the La Quinta Inn off Sand Canyon. We were planning on getting out with the early start at 5:30 am. I got up at 3 am to get ready and pick up my riding bud down the street. I didn't get to sleep till after 11 pm so I'm going out with 4 hours sleep, but others had less. Everything was ready except we were missing two of our riders. Seems they took the wrong way and we missed the early start so we had to wait till the next one which was supposed to be 6:15, but we didn't get off till 6:30.
One of our group had never done a double, but the other four has done at least 3 some over 10, so he wanted to go out slow (good idea), but the peloton went out fast. We held a consistant 23-25 mph.We went thru most of Irvine like this. The route is kind of shaped like a dog bone because it's pretty difficult to map out a bike friendly 200 mile ride. Things were going pretty good for the first 25 miles or so then I felt an old familiar feeling in my quad, the strating of a cramp! Damn, why? I had rode Mt Baldy the weekend before in fact 6 days before and climbed all the way to the lifts with no problem. I'm still not sure why this happened because I'd been hydrating for 3 days before, and I know I have the conditioning. I guess I'll never know. We got into some rollers in Aliso Viejo and I got dropped. But I figured I could ride thru this. As my group peddled away on a hill I got further back. I came up on a slower rider and as I passed him he yelled "Right at the light" , so I did. It turned out to be a mistake. I noticed I hadn't caught a rider in a while, nor had anyone passed me. I got down a ways and decided to try to find my way back to the group another way as I know just enough about the area to be dangerous. I started riding uphill and I noticed some guys with Camelbacks on going the otherway. This is after I'd been climbing for almost half an hour. I seen some folks walking on the other side of the street, so I asked them about where to go after showing them my route sheet. Somehow I'd found myself back onto the route. I turned around and bombed the downhill. I must of passed 20 people. Most roadies don't do well on the descents, they think I'm nuts doing 45 to 48 mph. If they only knew some of the shiat we fly down, they'd poop their pants. I'd go faster, but I almost always spin out at this speed. Anyways thanks to a great downhill I managed to catch my friends at the checkpoint. I'd passed a SAG wagon on the way but didn't pay much attention as I was trying to make up lost time. When I got to the checkpoint I was ahead of the two late birds. Seeems they were the ones getting help from the SAG. Cynthia's front derailuer had come lose, but we managed to fix it. So we all head out together, but now we are on the old route and I know my way. We got in with some other guys who were pretty strong and we worked together for the next 50 miles. Great pulls and really fast times. The kind of road riding I live for.
We get to the lunch break at about mile 90, 95 for me as I got extra credit when I got lost.They had submarine sandwiches, but I stayed with an all liquid diet consisting of Hammers Sustained Energy and Endurolytes.I was feeling pretty good here but we were only half way. We had just done a sub 6 hour century so things were looking good. I pushed and prodded trying to get the group going as we had already been there 30 minutes and that is way to long for me. My legs will get heavy of freeze up if I sit to long.The guys that rode in with us, decided to let a good thing keep going. We all stayed together for quite a while, but they pulled away out front. We caught them a while later at a hill and they couldn't hang and we dropped them. Now we are about to get back on the 5 freeway and do about 6 miles or so. Some people freak about this part of the ride, but I love it. You can take it up another gear or two with the help from the tailwind and I did. I'm not really sure where I dropped my group, but after a while it dawned on me I hadn't heard anyone so I looked back and could barely make them out a couple miles back. I slowed down some and just continued on thinking they'd catch up. I pulled off the freeway and seen some of the guys I'd passed a little while ago, but when I slowed down they passed me. Well, they were moving pretty good, but I thought my group would still catch us if I got in with them. So we worked together to San Onafre. It was my turn to pull and we hit some small hills, but I just kept the same tempo and when I looked back I'd dropped all of them except one other rider who wanted to keep going so we did. We got to the park and took it up a notch. We worked real well together. But we missed the checkpoint and rode on. We ended up riding thru till we got to the end of the bike path then he said he was done. I came out and the route sheet said to go left and inland, but I knew I could go down and just ride the coast to 133 and the cut over to Sand Canyon, but then I'd only end up with about 160 miles. So up Camino Capristrano I went. This street is very confusing and about half the people got lost here. Some figured it out right away, but I ended up doing 20 miles out of the way. This is not a good thing when you are doing 200 miles! I hit a dead end. I turned around and found a store. I asked them what was the best way to get back on track and they were of no real help at all, they told me to go back the way I came and they told me where to turn as a lot of people miss it. The street sign is there, but you can't see it if you are coming at it. You can if you turn around and look after you've gone by it though.
So now I figure my group must have gone by. It's getting dark, and it's getting cold. I back track and finally hit Ortega Hwy. I reel in a few riders now and am relieved to know I'm back on track. The climbs around this area I've done a number of times, but never with so many miles into my legs. We turned on Antonio, and started the loooong climb to Santa Margarita Blvd.Talk about a ball buster. I never got caught by anyone all during the climb and didn't pass anyone till I got almost all the way there. I had my Minewt light with me, and it was the brightest light out there. I got in with a group of 3 and we liked how much light we got from all our lights together. We rode good together taking turns pulling, but I was doing most the work, but I didn't mind as I'd be working this hard anyways if I was alone. We rode up on another group of four and they jumped in with us. We got to Plano Trabuco and made the left. None of these riders were familiar with this area so I gave them the outline. I told them to watch your speeds in the turns because if you're going to fast you could end up in the other lane into oncoming traffic. Like I said before roadies don't typically go all out on a descent, but I love to. At this time I was out front and I yelled back to the group,"Anyone want to go fast?", silence. So I took that as a no, and so I stood up and started tp crank. I didn't have enough staright ahead to look back to see if anyone had jumped in. My MiNewt is a good light for the road, but not when you're going 35+ downhill in the dark. You out run the distance of your light real quick and at that speed it's almost useless. But I know that road very well, and I knew there was the final checkpoint coming up at the General Store on the otherside of the Trabuco wash. I flew thru here, but slowed enough to look for rocks and stuff. I made it to the General Store in one piece and felt rejuvenated. Now this is the only time I had solid food all day. A cup-of-noodles never tasted so good.The group I had left behind took almost 10 minutes to get in. They'd inched there way down as they didn't like over running their lights.
Now we only have about 15 to 20 miles to go. I'm already over 200, but when I got to the last checkpoint one of our strong riders is there. She's Suzy. She does 3 ironmans at the same time. 2 mile swim, 336 mile bike ride and finishes with a 78 mile run. And I caught her! But she'd got lost too. Well after my soup I see a guy going out that I'd rode with earlier in the day and I knew him to be strong so I decided to jump in with him. He started riding up the street so I followed. Wrong. We rode all the way to the top where the gate stops you. He said, "I thought you knew the way", and I told him I was just following you out! We both got a laugh out of that and bombed back down together, now we are climbing Live Oak and he was starting to fade. We got to the steep climb and he stopped. He told me to go ahead as he had nothing left. I told him he only had about 500 yards or so to go and then we'll have the dh to Cooks. He wouldn't budge. So I waited at the top for him till I was getting to cold. I then went down at a lot slower pace then I'd like to, but the cold by this time was getting bad. I stopped and waited at Cooks for him and he showed up about 10 minutes later. The route then took us on to Santiago Canyon going towards Orange. We rode together for a while and then he got way out in front. We continued like this and eventually I caught him. I told him his rear light had gone out and I'd stay in the back if he'd like but he said he needed a break. I told him I don't want to stop as it's to cold, so we parted ways. I got into a good rythym here and the miles started clicking past.But when I got to Irvine Lake my light went out. You want to experience something scary? Try riding Santiago in the dark, not a fun thing to do though. I finally made it to Albertsons where I got something to drink and decided not to buy a flashlight as there were only 10 more miles to go. There was another rider at the Chevron and he asked me if I had a route slip as he'd lost his. We went over the remaining part of the route and I thought I'll go out with him as he seems to be as old as I am or maybe even older so I'll just poach his light. Well, we left together, but this guy was strong! He took off like a rabbit and I was hoping he was just trying to impress me. He wasn't. He got away from me, but I caught him at a light. We then came up on some other folks riding in and I jumped off of his tail and jumped in with these other riders.Wow! What a relief! We then turned onto Sand Canyon and rode back down to the Inn. What a day!
Miles: 220
Time 15 hours total including breaks
I had to ride around in the paking lot for another .7 miles in order to get the full 220 and just as I was finishin my group came in so it worked out great.
Elevation: over 10K. The organizers changed the route, but no one thought to change the elevation profile. This was supposed to be one of the easier doubles with only 6K of climbing. Fun ride and Solvang double is next month. Followed by Hemet one week later!

[Padre]

I was wondering where that endless stream of people was coming from on Antonio all day...

[MTBMaven]

Dude I love how you always get lost. Sounds like you needed some pickle juice for those cramps.

I know you hate the Planet Ultra people but are you doing Solvang Double?

["WU"]

Congrats! I was looking out for you, but it was difficult to look around for people in the beginning with so many people.

My group and I were drafting some PacTour and RAAM guys in the beginning and missed the first 2 stops. After we got off the 5 we had to let the group go and re-supply at the convenience store. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Definitely a lot more climbing than I expected.

We finished around 13 1/2 hours, with too much time spent at the rest stops (gonna work on that on the other rides).

Next up will be Mulholland, Devil Mountain, Heartbreak, and Terrible Two for me.

David.

[Pain Freak]

Wow 13.5 that was flying. Was that your total time? Did you go out with the early group?

Yeah Brian, I'm doing Solvang. I did let Debbie know about how I thought customers should be treated, but she told me in so many words to F*&^ off. She does have the good rides though. I just try to ignore how she treats people. During the ride two different groups of riders were talking about how badly she treated them and if she hates her customers so much she should just sell the business.I kept my mouth shut and just listened, but one of my riding friends told them of his horror stories. Yeah, I'll be doing Solvang Double and the very next week we are doing the Hemet double. Either I'm going to get very good at these doubles or they're going to find me on the side of the road crying and babbling about the pain.

WU, I'm also doing the Mulholland Challenge and Heartbreak 100, and Breathless Agony. I'm not sure about the Terrible Two just yet, I think I had a scheduling conflict with that one.

["WU"]

We did the mass start at 6:15.

We wasted a lot of time at the rest stops as it's hard to get the group going sometimes and we weren't shooting for time. I think we had a total of 2.5 hours at rest stops. But on the climbing doubles, definitely gotta cut the rest stops down as the ride themselves will take so much longer.

[Pain Freak]

Well considering this one went over 10K it wasn't bad at all. You guys finished up front then.

[sdyeti]

OMG Mike! You are hardcore, mang!

Way to go on the double century...I can only dream of doing one of those.

[dstepper]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Well considering this one went over 10K it wasn't bad at all. You guys finished up front then.

Mr. Freak you have the GPS, maybe you should go over to REI and take one of there classes. Or if you ever want to come over I will teach you how to put routes into it.

Dean

[nomad]

Thats just incredible , great story , thanks for sharing it .

[Von-Skipp]

Nice ride Mike! Is 220 your longest ride?

I'm still working on breaking a century!

I'll second riding Santiago Canyon in the dark. Its pretty damn scary w/o lights!

When I am in CA, I still wana get a road ride in with you.

[MTBMaven]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

I'm doing Solvang.

Cool. I really want to make this one happen. However if you're going to try starting out at 23-25 MPH I'll fall back pretty quickly.

[Pain Freak]

No way,Bud. You know we never drop people for to long. I'd wait for you, but I think you're sandbaggin and will probably get bored and just ride away from us. We have Solvang and Hemet Doubles only seven days apart. I hope no one gets hurt doing these so close together. Sometimes when they run this close together you don't have enough time for your body to recover and you end up getting hurt by straining something by overworking it.

No Matt, my longest ride so far was 267 miles in one day. We are planning on doing the Grand Tour 300 in June. My friends did it the year before last and finished in 21 hours. I'm hoping to be close to that as there's a 24 hour time limit. Some folks will do the 400, and that has to be done in 30 hours.

[MTBMaven]

No sandbagging Honestly nervous about doing 200 miles in one day. I have really struggled with keeping my form after about 7 hours of riding. If I don't do everything right I either cramp or have bio-mechanical issues. I think I'll give the pickle juice thing a try! I'm getting jazzed about the double though.

[1Flipsster]

Hey Pain Freak..I think I rode with you on Antonio to CP4. I believe you were on a Giant? I was having some light issues at the time.

I barely survived a previous double with gears so I figured why not really make it hurt and go fixed this time. I was looking at this experience as my "Everest" and doing it Fixed was like climbing Everest with just a Salad fork. I used a 46*16 with two brakes (I know I lost some style points but I am old and I like my knees).
The start was fast so I decided not to burn myself out, found a pack led by a tandem going through San Clemente all the way towards Fallbrook. The site said 6900 ft of climbing..but we almost did that after Fallbrook. Hit Ortega Hwy/Antonio in the dark..at this point I was Cold, Knees were shot and I was having light issues, all this leading to thoughts of "Game Over" but it is these times in your life where you learn a lot about yourself and how you handle adversity. I hooked on to two other riders (Pain freak?) going into Trabuco canyon and found the last Check Point..surprisingly Cup'O noodles when you have gone through hell tastes like a steak at Morton's. There was a propane heater that I swear I was ready to put down my shorts but I am sure I just would have put the flame out, I was that freaking cold! Climbing out of Live Oak sucks in the dark..no love from the cars whatsoever. I walked the last incline before dropping into Cooks. Remember that thought about adversity? Well right at the corner of Cooks I was beyond miserable and the thought of still going through Santiago Canyon at 9:30 at night was not appealing to me. What did not help was I live literally two lights down from Cooks at Painted Trails, talk about temptation! No one was putting a gun to my head to finish the ride and I had all sorts of legit reasons to call it quits. It was decision time "Right or Left" thoughts of the Matrix popped in my head. I can take the Blue pill, be at home, nice and warm, comfortable or take the Red pill and find out what the unknown is. What the hell..I take a right and head into the dark of Santiago Canyon, all I had on was my shorts, jersey, light vest and arm warmers, as I was going deeper into the dark I found two other riders to latch onto who promptly dropped me at Jamboree. So here I was by myself going down Jamboree than Portola..wierd that I saw no one else out, no cars, no riders, nobody, almost surreal. Just me and the street lights and the tune from Phil Collins "In the air tonight" going through my head. Finally I get to "La Quinta Inn" bruised and battered with a time of 15hr 27min and knowing that I pushed through what I thought were my limits both physically and mentally. Now that I got that over with..."I wonder how long would it take to do a double century on a unicycle"

-Frank

[Pain Freak]

Yep Frank, that was me. I also met you at the start of the ride when we were admiring your bike. Santiago was a torture to say the least. So many of us lost our lights and were in the dark during this section. I found myself talking to myself in this section just to keep my mind off the pain. Funny, I did the whole ride without solid food and felt fine till the last CP when I all of a sudden became starved. It was like instant rejuvenation after the soup. We really did the ride in about the same amount of time, but I did get extra credit for getting lost and gained an extra 20 miles that I really didn't need! If you're doing anymore and want to ride with our group, you're more then welcome. We have a good group that jokes around a lot and is very entertaining.

[Wrecker]

You guys are all nut-bags! Congrats on the double, it almost sounds doable

[Tumbleweed]

you guys are stud's! Congrats on the ride!!!

[andy aka rut]

Studs????! You mean nutty!

Wow congrats to both of you!