Things I’ve Learned through the experience:
- Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
- Ride the event as you’ve ridden the training rides
- Fuel your body
- Stay Focused
How I believe I let myself get so worn down:
- By all charts my body would have burned a minimum of 5000 calories during the actual 8.5 hours of saddle time — I’m sure I didn’t take in any more than 2000 calories, if that.
- My excitement at doing the ride was electric, coming through the first towns of cheering on-lookers in Charlton, Oxford, Sutton, Manchaug and Whitinsville I was as enthusiastically greeting the cheering crowd as they were cheering on us riders — that took energy better saved by focusing on my riding
- I’m clear that I did not make good use of my stops. Instead of stopping and paying attention to refueling with the Power Bars I had used during my training rides I found myself “checking out” what was available at the stop – by the first stop I had lost my focus
- Along with the inefficiency of my stops, I stopped for too long — another sign of having lost my focus