Kelly's BIG adventure!
I rode 200 miles with 16,000’ of elevation this past Sunday.
Here’s why
In the chaos that has been 2020, it’s felt like all of my cycling plans slipped away. After facing a bunch of personal health challenges that had me searching all over the place for a diagnosis, I began to accept that my year was just going to keep getting worse and there wasn’t a point in making goals anymore. It may be a bit morbid, but I really had started to give up on feeling normal or being well.
But then, on August 8, I finally got a diagnosis/treatment for my health struggles, and since then I have been on a trajectory of improvement and healing. As of this past Saturday, I am 80-90% recovered from my impairment and am so over-the-moon happy to be feeling more and more like my old self.
When I finally accepted that I was getting better and it wasn’t a fluke, I decided I needed to do something big to celebrate! Hence, my 200 mile adventure!
The longest mileage ride I’d done before this was last year at the 1st edition of SBT Gravel - 140 miles of amazing gravel around Steamboat Springs, CO. So of course, I had to go longer than that. And why not just go for the big 200?
So I made a route, decided I wanted to finish on Skyline Drive as the sun was setting, and set the date. September 6 was perfect because there was going to be just over 12.5 hours of daylight, the weather forecast was AMAZING, and the shop was going to be closed the next day for Labor Day, so I’d have a full day to recover before heading back to work.
Gear and Food
Bike:
Tarmac Comp SL5, updated with Ultegra di2 and 28c Roubaix Pro tires; I decided to ride my Tarmac for this because it’s my lightest bike, and I was only going to ride 3 gravel roads total during the whole day.
Bags:
Specalized Burra Burra Frame Bag 3
EVOC top tube bag small
Specialized Seat Pack
Pack: Nathan Hydration Pack - I’ve had this pack for years and like how lightweight it is; I originally didn’t want to run a backpack as I knew the pressure on my back would become a thing later on in the day, but I wanted to carry as much water as possible because I couldn’t be totally sure of how my day was going to go… Better to be prepared for as much as possible, especially on solo adventures.
Food/Drink:
In my frame bag I had several fig and nut bars, a “shareable” bag of SourPatch Watermelon candies, a bunch of gummy-type candies, salt tablets, and for breakfast LEFTOVER PIZZA SLICES, I ended up consuming all of this except for 2 bars
During the ride I also grabbed some snacks from 2 gas station stops - 2 sodas, 1 orange juice, 1 giant chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, and 2 chocolate bars.
GPS/Lights/Miscellaneous:
Wahoo Elemnt Bolt
Cygolite Hotshot 150 taillight and Dash 600 headlight
Small battery pack for charging lights/phone/gps if needed (more on this later)
Mace - kept in an easily accessible pocket
Tiny travel bottle of sunscreen - WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN
Benadryl - I’ve had some crazily timed allergic reactions to random things
Clothing (I don’t normally include this specific type of information about what I wear, but everything I wore worked so perfectly, I thought it was worth it):
Jersey - currently my favorite, Velocio UNITY Jersey SE
Bibs - also currently my favorite, Velocio LUXE Bibs
Socks - Velocio Signature Socks - lightweight and feel amazing
Helmet - Sworks Prevail II with MIPS - the airflow through this helmet feels so good and it has one of the highest safety ratings
Shoes - Sworks Sub7 - stiffness index 15?! please and thank you, haha
Jacket - Specialized SWAT Jacket (super packable!)
Gloves - POC long finger - comfortable, not super heavy, easy to take on and off
Sunglasses - OAKLEY EVZero Prism, Trail lens (just dark enough for the daytime but not so dark that it’s difficult to see in the shady areas of the forest)
The Ride
At first I thought I would be starting my ride around 3am. After some anxiety about being in the dark for 4 hours (sunrise was at 6:50am), I decided it was best to leave an hour later - that helped lower my anxiety about being alone in the super early hours, and I felt like I could still finish the ride before or right at sunset.
Riding in the dark with no cars, a clear sky, and a bright moon is amazing. It was somewhere in the high 40s/low 50s when I left the house, and actually felt like it got a little warmer as I made my way towards the George Washington National Forest. As I rode further into the forest, it got a bit windy and I could tell the temperature was dropping just slightly.
My first stop for the day was about 35 miles in, and it was just so I could grab my breakfast pizza out of the frame bag to eat while I rode. It was then that I realized that my hands were on the cold side - dexterity was lacking, so keeping hold of my pizza slices was quite amusing and a bit stressful.
I was very grateful I had my SWAT jacket on. I got to see just the start of the sunrise right before I turned onto Marble Valley Rd, and was then plunged into a foggy cloud that lasted for the next 25 miles. By the time I was 60-ish miles in, and at my first actual gas station stop, I was pretty soaked from the fog. My torso was warm, and the jacket did a great job of repelling the water droplets, but my hands were even more numb than earlier, during Operation Breakfast Pizza.
I ran my hands under warm water in the bathroom sink for a while. They came back to life, I ate some more snacks, texted Chris and my parents how I was doing, and set off hopeful that the fog would let up soon.
Thankfully, it was only another 5 miles or so before I was in total sunshine with blue skies and WARM air. :)
I really enjoyed the miles between Goshen and Lexington. It was beautiful, the roads roll along and feel secluded even though there’s a city not too far off, and some of the mountains look especially interesting.
Lexington was just over 90 miles into the ride, and I was feeling GOOD. I was almost halfway through, It was only 11am, and I was STOKED.
So off I went to cross over the valley and head to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had two fairly large climbs within 30 miles of each other for this section. The first was 13-ish miles with only a 3% average grade and paved until the last few miles. The second was after my last gas station/store stop and was just over 4 miles with 7% average grade; it also turned to gravel in the last 2 miles.
It was from the gravel section of that first climb, around mile 125, through the entirety of the second climb, and all the way to mile 142 at the Three Ridges Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway that I unraveled a bit. My pack was putting pressure on the middle of my back (which I knew would happen) and I was at the point in the ride where I had to force myself to eat or I would truly fall apart and the ride would be over. I also just had to sit down and stop pedaling for a hot minute.
This is me, in the middle of “unraveling”. Just had to push through it!
The Three Ridges Overlook shows part of the Wintergreen Resort. You can see radio towers. So I figured if there was a signal for cell phones, it was probably going to be here, and I was right. I called Chris and had a bit of a moment while stuffing my face full of those Sourpatch watermelons (the sour taste was AMAZING - nice and different from the sweetness of the other things I had been eating). I’m not sure why I was so upset by this, but I had noticed before I called Chris that the mile markers for the BRP were missing, and I couldn’t remember how many miles it was until I reached Skyline Drive.
** SIDE NOTE: To save all the battery on my Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT possible, I used the Route feature from mile 60 to mile 128. Before and after those miles, I am familiar enough with the roads to not need gps directions. I wanted to see how long my computer would last on one charge.**
Chris looked it up and said, “you have 13 miles to Skyline.”
This was far fewer miles than I had thought, and made me so happy! Haha. Especially because I knew the pavement would get waaaaaay smoother on Skyline - this particular section of the BRP was recently redone with “chip-seal” and that is not a smooth or nice surface to ride on.
What also got my spirits up was knowing that at some point on Skyline Drive, Chris would meet me on his bike to finish the ride. I couldn’t wait to see him after so many miles alone!
On I pedaled, watching the miles go up, calculating how far I had to go to the entrance of Skyline.
Then I realized that somewhere along the way in creating my route on the computer, the mileage became incorrect. At the southern entrance to Skyline Drive, 155 miles in, it was only 40 miles to the next entrance - where I had planned on finishing. That only added up to 195 miles!
“Oh my gosh, whyyyyy,” I literally said out loud.
Taking in that I still had 44 miles and another 4000’ of climbing left
BUT I was in good spirits, I was feeling SO much better than when I was at that Three Ridges Overlook, and I know that section of Skyline super well. So I just kept pedaling along looking ahead for Chris. He found me just before I reached the Blackrock Summit parking lot, and I asked him how many miles he had ridden, just to be sure I had done my math correctly.
“22.5 miles,” he said.
“Ok, well I have 27.5 miles to go to reach 200… Sooooo, we’re going to have to do at least 2.5 miles beyond the Swift Run entrance before turning around and reaching 200.”
The only thing was that 2.5 miles for the out-and-back was another climb. I was grumpy at first, but knew I’d be fine. I’d made it this far, another 2.5 miles of climbing was basically nothing at this point.
Those last 27.5 miles were my favorite of the day. It was the golden hour, every single overlook was absolutely beautiful, I was so happy to feel good enough to do this, and I KNEW I was going to do it. Finally, for this year, nothing had stopped me or prevented me from completing a goal I had made.
I finished my 200 mile adventure just as the last rays of sun disappeared behind the mountains. It was perfect.
Some STATS/Extra Info
So grateful to Chris for riding those last miles with me and relieving me of my pack!
Ride Info: 200.70 miles, 16,122’ of climbing, 14:29:42 moving time, 15:42:28 elapsed time
I finished my ride with 10% battery left on my Wahoo. This is pretty incredible because Wahoo says the ELEMNT Bolt battery only lasts to 15 hours.
I had 2 taillights with me, one ran out prematurly for some reason, so I was grateful to have the second one. I did charge the one that had died just in case I ended up getting darked on.
Things I’ll do differently for my next longer ride: Hopefully my other frame/handlebar bags will be here by then and will omit the need for the hydration pack, pack MORE PIZZA, and find a non-messy way to transport pickles (I had really been wanting a Claussen’s pickle by the end of this ride)
Overall, I’m very pleased with how my day went, and other than those three things above wouldn’t change anything else about the day if I could.
If you’d like to see my ride on Strava, you’ll find it HERE.