{"id":528,"date":"2010-10-24T12:32:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T20:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=528"},"modified":"2010-10-24T21:21:59","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T05:21:59","slug":"bucket-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=528","title":{"rendered":"Bucket List"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Marcia Morrison<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2003, three avid cyclists, Paul Greene, Ray Low, and John Mazzella rode three double centuries to earn the Triple Crown Award. Ever since then I thought that someday I’d like to see if I could accomplish such a feat. \u00c2\u00a0Comments I heard were: “Double centuries really aren’t that much fun.” (That one kept from trying sooner).”You’d better do it soon, because it doesn’t get any easier.” At that time I was meeting other challenges, so it was put off but still in the back of my mind.<\/p>\n

The year of 2009 started out great, but took a turn for the worse. \u00c2\u00a0Just four days after returning from the National Time Trials I was hit with a gut-wrenching stomach ache. I went to the emergency room 4 times, was misdiagnosed twice, hospitalized for 13 days, had 5 internal abscesses and almost every “itis” possible, lost 25 lbs., and had to wait 4 months for an operation to make sure all the inflammation was down.<\/p>\n

Finally in November I started riding slowly on my own. \u00c2\u00a0I gradually picked up my mileage and started following a century training program. There aren’t many centuries in the winter, so even though I wasn’t up to 25 miles I found myself signing up for the Solvang Double Century. \u00c2\u00a0I followed a training program I found online and knew I had to follow it religiously. \u00c2\u00a0On the long rides I plodded along at a snail-like pace. \u00c2\u00a0I felt comfortable with that because the program said to ride the long rides slowly. \u00c2\u00a0The shorter rides were to be ridden faster, but that didn’t happen. \u00c2\u00a0I was still down 15 lbs., so I thought my hill climbing would be faster, but when you put a large pack on the back of your bike and fill it with V-8 juice, power bars, tools, etc. the weight loss advantage wasn’t that much.<\/p>\n

With my tortoise pace I really wasn’t sure I’d make the 17 hour cut-off time. \u00c2\u00a0I figured I would either just make it or miss it. \u00c2\u00a0You can imagine my surprise when at the first rest stop my average speed was 3 mph faster than my training speed. \u00c2\u00a0I guess the adrenaline kicked in. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I thought my average speed would drop, but it remained consistent throughout the ride. \u00c2\u00a0I even had several hours to spare before the cut-off time and finished just before it got dark. \u00c2\u00a0Life was good again!<\/p>\n

Spring Solvang Double<\/h3>\n