Ruffled by Ridges

Our Community › Forums › General Discussion › Ruffled by Ridges

  • Creator
    Topic
  • April 28, 2013 at 12:26 am #913249
    JimF22003
    Participant

    I really overextended myself on today’s ride, and gave myself a little scare. I did a 100 mile ride that crossed the Shenandoah Valley, going over 4 major climbs. It was an out-and-back so I had to do all four passes twice. I ended up with about 9.7K of climbing.

    Shenandoah Valley is divided at the northern end by Massanutten Mountain, which runs for about 50 miles from Front Royal to Harrisonburg. It looks like an elongated tuning fork. My ride started from Sperryville over the Blue Ridge at Thornton Gap where Skyline Drive crosses. Then it cross both “tines” of Massanutten Mountain. Finally it crossed all the way across the valley and went up the first ridge of the Alleghenies at Wolf Gap to the WV border.

    I was on a backup bike, and the saddle didn’t agree with me. I did OK despite the pain until the last pass climbing up from Luray over Thornton Gap. I could barely keep my legs turning over, and I also got extremely weak and shaky. The ride ends with a 6 mile curvy drop back to the start, but about halfway down the mountain, I got so light-headed I was afraid I would ride right off the mountain. I pulled off the road and laid right down in the ditch for about 10 minutes until I stopped shaking. I had a couple of motorists stop to see if I were alive or not. I wasn’t sure what to tell them :(

    Anyway, I did make it back, but my legs are cramping up something awful. It’s going to be a long night.

    tl;dr: I’m an idiot

    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/304189623

    CrossValley_zps9ae5a2b0.png

    CrossValleyElevation_zps6077edc5.png

  • Creator
    Topic
Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • April 28, 2013 at 12:42 am #968450
    dcv
    Participant

    Hardcore

    April 28, 2013 at 12:51 am #968451
    lancito brazofuerte
    Participant

    Ice bath!!

    April 28, 2013 at 1:22 am #968454
    creadinger
    Participant

    That is an insane ride.

    April 28, 2013 at 1:49 am #968455
    jnva
    Participant

    Respek

    April 28, 2013 at 2:06 am #968456
    KLizotte
    Participant

    Oiy, so glad you are ok. I’ve never done anything even 1/1000th that difficult so have no advice to give other than that you probably shouldn’t do such epics by yourself (though good luck finding someone crazy enough to volunteer). Lots of protein, sleep, and stay off the bike a bit to give your body time to repair itself. Sounds like you just biked the equivalent of a marathon.

    April 28, 2013 at 2:13 am #968457
    TwoWheelsDC
    Participant

    Epic. MoM prep?

    April 28, 2013 at 3:51 am #968462
    JimF22003
    Participant

    @TwoWheelsDC 50363 wrote:

    Epic. MoM prep?

    Yup. I’ve done MoM three times. Last year I missed because I had emergency surgery in April and was off the bike for 2 months.

    Come to think of it, this time a year ago I was in the hospital recovering from a bowel obstruction.

    I could use some of those drugs about now…

    April 29, 2013 at 5:32 pm #968366
    Tim Kelley
    Participant

    Looks like we were in the same general area over the weekend!

    April 29, 2013 at 8:01 pm #968562
    JimF22003
    Participant

    I saw a fair number of riders out and about. There was some kind of group ride or event in Luray I think. I saw quite a few identi-kitted groups riding in packs.

    Or maybe it wasn’t their kits. Maybe it was the spots before my eyes…

  • Author
    Replies
Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.