Sunday, December 24, 2006

winter double century...

Well, Chew had been bugging me for the last year to do a double with him, and the only time it seemed to work out training wise was in the winter when it doesnt matter if Im tired. Matt Eaton did one with him and he won the freaking milk race, so I figured that it couldnt hurt. 7 am and dark as hell we met at the oval and headed west. He honestly thought other people were going to show up the day before xmas eve, in the winter, in the dark on a day where the roads were wet to ride for 12 hours. No. Stubna showed up and did the first 2.5 hours with us on his fixed gear. Chew said it would be HEROIC if he did it all fixed, and seriously tried talking him into it.

4 hours later we met up with Chew's friends from the 80's or something, hess, briarcheck and delrazzo. They rode with us for about 40 minutes as we entered greene county. Meeting up with them gave me some respite from Danny, which at that point was pretty critical for my sanity. Stubna and I agreed that if I could make the 12 hours with Danny, I had the mental tenacity to do nearly anything.

First food stop was 90 miles in. Greene county is the joke of Pittsburgh as being the county that touches West Virginia and all this. I guess the people laughing at us while we drank and ate was payback. I only know 1 person who lives there, so I hope Bedillion isnt offended that I said that about greene county.

We hit the river and headed north toward the city, the sun was getting low and it was getting kind of chilly. We did an out and back on a paved bike trail that Chew had never been on before, despite it being 20 miles from his house. We got back to the oval with about 165 miles in and started doing our loops to finish the full 100. Bob Gotlieb, the only other person believed to have done a winter double in Pittsburgh said we will have an * by our mileage do to the loops at the oval and it not being on the road. He also got pulled over by the cops at mile 175, and told he couldnt ride anymore because the cop thought they were going to get killed. That was his first attempt.

The awesome Amy showed up and delivered hot chocolate, gas station cappuccino and bagels with peanut butter (my first peanut butter in 3 days!!!). She left us as pitch black set in and we finished out the last 35 or so laps. \

Chew's computer keeps track of total time, so he is constantly hurrying the stops to keep his average up. When he set the US 24 hour record (508 miles in 24 hours) he only stopped for 5 minutes total. I thought only stopping for 40 minutes over 12 hours was pretty good, but apparently not? I also learned that after 10 hours my computer stops keeping track of seconds, but only keeps track of hours/minutes.
Stats
202.76 miles
12:33 total time
11:42 ride time
17.37 riding average
I wish I had a powertap so I could see calories burned. Maybe around 6500 or so?

Oh, this is cool 1000 streaming mp3 albulms:
http://www.radio3net.ro/1001/?cx=home

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that is a Romanian site. How did you happen to come across it? I lived there for two and a half years and anything Romanian strikes my interest.

I'm an old guy from eastern Pennsylvania from the 80's now living in Colorado.

steevo said...

I never realized that .ro was romanian. I found it on a music message board, and stupidly enough I thought that it was south american?!?!
http://www.radio3net.ro/?cx=best500
500 other albulms!

Anonymous said...

hey steevo.....this is bedilion.....glad you "city" folks made it down to greene county. i moved to mt. lebo(country boy in yuppie-ville..traffic sucks!)...so next time you guys ride down to greene county email me...i'd love to join ya. sbedilion@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Hey steevo ,this is shaun .Hey just came accross your blog .Pretty neat and sweeeeeeeeet dude.Hey if you ride mtb as well i will give you my cell or email if you ever wanna ride togehtor man.I am trying to race both in 2007 .cyclistkeenan@hotmail.com is my email.

Anonymous said...

hey steevo (I think I got the caps thing figured out) ... cool ride (well, except for the time on the track, which would have been cool if you and Chewbacca had ridden in opposite directions in the dark on the track) ... but I suspect, humbly-opinionated and all that, that 6500 kCal for 11:40 on the bike is a tad high for someone as naturally trim as you. At full race-pace, you probably burn a little over 700 kCal/hr. At 17 and change for speed, you are going to be under 500, and probably closer to 400. Have you been riding w. a PTap? Do you know your maximum kJ/hr so far?

Whatever the number, a feat. I spent the day cooking.

Hope you're well. I have taken up riding again.

Chris Mayhew said...

No, he doesn't ride with a PowerTap but I do and that seems to be close enough for him.

Matthew Ruscigno said...

35 miles on an oval? That sounds miserable. What did you think about?

Anonymous said...

Steevo, great ride Dude not for the miles but 12 hours with Danny.

steevo said...

Thanks. MENTAL TENACITY!!!