Adamant

[ornoth_cycling]

Saturday’s Fire Ant Tour was an important ride. Most importantly, it was the longest ride I’ve done since my heart surgery back in March, and since my stroke last October. In fact, it was my first metric century since my solo PMC ride last August, and my first organized event ride since the 2024 Fire Ant Tour, a full year ago! On top of all that, this was my final opportunity to test my readiness before registration closes for this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge.

I’d already missed several other opportunities for long rides this spring, which I talked about in my previous update. But this post is about the ride I completed, so with all my hopes for a post-op recovery pinned on this event, how did it go?

Enjoying the scenery while earning mah kibble!

Looking strong crossing the line after 100 km.

Showing off a hard-earned finisher's medal.

The lead-in to the event was unsettled, in more ways than one. The weather was a little iffy after a week of scattered thunderstorms. In addition to my general health questions, I wasn’t sure I’d trained sufficiently. Then my final equipment check found a gouge in my rear tire that necessitated a swap back to an old tire I’d kept around.

I had concerns about the course, too. The organizers had tweaked the route, making it the event’s third different course in as many years. And at the last minute riders were warned that the local DPW had just resurfaced one of the final roads on the course with universally-hated chipseal.

Nonetheless, riders set out at 7:15am. My plan was to conserve energy by keeping my effort level moderate, around 130 Watts. And I closely monitored the estimate of my remaining stamina that my Garmin bike computer provided. In the end, that all worked out very well.

I also wanted to concentrate on fueling and hydrating more than usual, with mixed success. I managed to down a couple chocolate chip cookies at the rest stops, but completely forgot to take any of the electrolyte supplements I’d brought.

Having learned from previous editions, I’d expected challenging weather, specifically, hot and very windy conditions. The morning began with ideal conditions: 22°, with overcast skies, and no wind to speak of. As the sun climbed, the clouds gradually burned off, temperatures jumped to 30°, and the wind picked up, coming out of the south at 20 km/h and gusting to 31. But that was still kind of benign as compared to previous years.

The route began with a familiar 40 km loop, which went by quickly due to strong legs, light winds, and moderate temperatures. That was followed by a new 40 km out-and-back on FM 215 that illustrated how much impact the wind had. With a tailwind on the northbound leg, I averaged 123W for 47 minutes; but returning against the wind, I had to average 126W for 65 minutes to cover the same distance. Despite sustaining more power for an additional 18 minutes, I went 7.3 km/h slower heading south!

After nursing it home for the final 20 km, I crossed the finish line at 11:50am with 101 km under my belt.

The ride was a little challenging, mostly because I just wasn’t fully trained up for that distance yet. But thanks to the weather I wasn’t quite as thoroughly wiped as I’ve been in previous years. Taking into account my comeback from stroke and heart surgery, as well as my incomplete training, I was extremely happy with my performance.

Most noteworthy, this has cleared the way for me to finally register for my remote Pan-Mass Challenge ride, confident that I can at least put in a creditable performance to “earn” my sponsors’ donations for cancer research at the Dana-Farber. The scary part is that PMC weekend is only six weeks away, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for fundraising and long training rides… Yikes!

I can’t finish this ride report without covering the rest of my day. After happily completing my first cycling event in more than a year, I picked up a very nice finisher’s medal before heading back to Austin. After the drive home, I filled up on fresh strawberries and some Ben & Jerry’s mint Oreo cookie ice cream, followed by two trips to our free and shockingly uncrowded neighborhood swimming pool (after a thunderstorm caused that interruption). It was one of those idyllic, self-indulgent summer days that you dream about.

I hope that sets the tone for the rest of the year!