Naked naked naked!

Yup, Yana, you're right - that was me riding in World Naked Bike Ride in Chicago on Sunday.


Ok, not quite. Sunday, I rode in the Mahomet Rotary Ride. I did the century (101.98 miles in 06:52:17 (average speed of 14.8mph, no drafting)) - it was a great ride, very well supported, nice course, fantastic people working support. I'll definitely be riding it again next year.

Before:


After (needing some help getting off the bike):


Lessons learned:

• Strategy. As anyone who knows me would expect, I did the over-the-top, short-sighted thing and started off super-strong, hammering away for the first 30 miles or so, dropping as many other riders as possible. As a result, the next 20 miles or so were hell. The course was a 43 mile loop, a 29 mile loop, and a second 29 mile loop. When I finished the 43 mile loop, I was seriously considering DNFing, given how chock full of lactic acid my legs were. I dropped down to an easier gear for the second loop, and stopped worrying much re: speed, spending most of the second loop working on easy spinning, trying to get my legs back in better shape. The third loop was then much easier, and I was quite strong up to about mile 95.
• Calories. According to NAT, I burned approximately 5,500 calories on the century. I consumed 6 servings of Hammer Gel (approximately 550 calories), 1-1/4 oranges (approximately 250 calories), and I'd mixed 4 scoops of Perpetuem into two of my water bottles. I mixed the Perpetuem at about 6am on Sunday morning, as I was getting ready, and estimated the calories for that on the spot. That was a mistake. Being first thing in the morning, I thought that Perpetuem had 260 calories per level scoop, not 260 calories per 2 rounded scoop, so I only got about 500 calories from that. For the rest of my distance events, I'll either need to mix the Perpetuem stronger, or start training myself to withstand solid foods better on the bike.

All in all, I had a great time, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest of the events I've got coming up. Still to come this season are:

• Bicycllinois Champaign to Kankakee leg
• Bike Psychos Century (planning on riding the double metric century)
• Possibly being added
• North Shore Century
• Sizzling Century