I have been debating riding the Elephant Rock century an a couple of weeks. Since it goes right past my house it seems a logical choice for the first century of the year.
Due to a lot of business travel, I don't have the base I had planned. So, to gauge my fitness for such a ride I rode a hard 67 miles on Saturday. I rode two of my regular loops, Russelville Road to County Line Road (typically an out and back) and Perry Park Road to Wolfensberger.
Saturday was beautiful so many other cyclists were out and things got a little competitive (as they do in a century -- so it seemed like good training). After doing most of Russelville and Parker Roads at about 85% of maximum heart rate, I was a little tired as I crossed County Line and reached Perry Park Road. Add a little head wind and I was baked by the Thoma cut-off. After a brief moment of weakness, I pushed on to Wolfensberger (mostly because it's down hill, and i wasn't ready to climb Thoma) and struggled up that instead. Thank god for the long descent into Castle Rock proper. Now I just had to make the ~800 ft up to the house. It wasn't pretty but I got there. 67 miles, 2800 feet, 4 hours and 12 minutes.
I was totally shot when I got home. Even today (Monday) I still have some residual soreness. Not the result I was looking for. Maybe the Metric distance is a better choice for the Elephant Rock this year.
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