Burnin' Ring of Fire

For some reason "Burnin' Ring of Fire" is the theme son for the ULCER (Utah Lake Century Epic Ride) sponsored by the Bonneville Cycling Club. It's a 111 mile ride around Utah Lake that occurred last Saturday, 9 August 2008.  I was one of the 1,500 riders. I rode with David Flores, Nicole's Uncle; Phillip Harrison, a riding buddy for several years; and Mike Pope, a friend of David's who is training for the Lotoja Classic next month.

Last week I had people ask me if I'd actually enjoy the ride. I responded then that I figured I would enjoy the first 80 miles and survive the last 30. It turns out that I was about right. I felt good for most of the day. Now, to be fair, it really helped that Mike wanted to pull the line for the majority of the ride. I'll freely admit that he was a big reason that I was able to enjoy so much of the ride. I did at times feel guilty and pull up to take a turn in the front and try to pull my own weight, but I didn't come close to matching Mike's effort. So, what was there to enjoy?

Well, there was the band at the starting line playing "Tequila"; that song stuck in my mind for 10-20 miles or so. There was the well marked course. Okay, a story about that. Even with good course markings on the road, the leader of the line has to look at the road to see them. Twice I had to call from the back of the line that we had just missed a right turn. (They weren't both Mike. I don't know who was leading then.)  There were well stocked rest stops every 10 miles, including water, sports drinks, ice, fruit, and licorice. Good stuff. There was one rest stop toward the end of the ride that ran out of water and ice, but I'm told that's because the volunteer just bailed on the stop. I heard another rider say that was the only glitch they'd seen on the ULCER in about five years. There was the pleasant company. Obviously I've enjoyed riding with Phillip and David, but I also discovered that I have a lot in common with Mike, and we hooked up with Adam, an employee at Zion's Bank. He and Phillip ended up talking shop for several miles. Who knew that a credit union guy and a bank guy could get along so well?

I actually felt pretty good during the entire ride and after. I stuck to my game plan to keep a sports drink or electrolyte supplement in my bottles at all times. That really helped me to stay hydrated. In fact I felt better toward the end of this ride that I did on the last training ride leading up to it. I also made up my mind to not try to lose weight on this ride, but to eat as much as I needed at each stop. It worked. It was good that we kept the line together for most of the ride. Now, Mike and I did pull ahead of the group on a small climb out of Lincoln Beach heading to Genola. But, hey, if you can climb sometimes you just have to.

I did also notice how increasing just a couple of km/h can drastically increase the amount of effort required. To get from 25 km/h to 28 km/h took a fair amount of work, and then to get up to 30 km/h spiked my heartrate and really increased the effort required to keep going.

Oh, and it's really fun to look back and see a group of 20 riders falling in line behind the little group you're a part of. Good stuff there.

Anyway, I'm amazed at how much I really did enjoy the ride, despite the headwinds and other challenges. To have no mechanical failures was really a bonus!

Now it's time to return to my original goal of commuting by bike as much as possible until the snow falls here in Utah.