WJW Jersey Double 2000 Report

Official results: see page 6 of The Spoke Vol. 20, No. 7 July 2000

Not really a report, more like just some notes. This was my first Jersey Double. Statistics sometimes can tell a lot. Here are the stats from my ride:

Stage Distance Time Average Speed HR Impressions Average In Zone Schooley section 56.45 2:50:11 19.9 157 1:17 Pushed the pace a bit, felt good To lunch section 47.76 2:14:04 21.4 158 2:07 Buegler pushed the pace, fast section To 135 miler 34.03 1:44:30 19.5 154 1:32 I started to feel bad, trouble following sometimes To Pennington 35.05 1:53:17 18.6 145 1:06 Total wheelsucker, thinking about abandoning To finish 29.08 1:36:38 18.1 142 0:45 Finish couldn't come soon enough Totals: 202.4 10:19 19.6 152 7:47

[Notes: My max HR is 188. HR zone is set to [145,185].]

Official time was 11:28. So one hour and nine minutes downtime total at four stops.

As you can see, the first 100 miles went very well. Start time is between 4:45am and 5:45am. Dave Buegler, a strong cat 3 racer and a strong endurance rider as well, and I started at 5:43am. Plan was to start late and catch/pick up people on the way. First section has some notable climbing: Old Chester Rd and Naughright Rd, so this strategy makes sense as a big pack would naturally break up on these climbs anyway.

Picked up Kurt Owen, another cat 3, on the first section. The three of us hung together for the rest of the ride. Other people came and went. Kurt rode a particularly strong 2nd 100. By the lunch stop, we'd basically encountered everyone who had started ahead of us.

2nd 100 was difficult for me. There is a precipitous drop in my average HR over the last two sections. The temperature got into the mid-90s (fahrenheit) and the index heat was another ten degrees higher. My base HR was abnormally high even when drafting, a sign that my body wasn't cooling itself properly. Lack of heat acclimatization was probably a factor. Don't believe I went out too hard, just one week earlier I'd done a 192 miler with more climbing at similar or faster pace, and I finished in good shape. The big difference was the heat and humidity.

Did I get dehydrated? Perhaps, since I did have to borrow water, but not excessively so. 24 hours after the event, I was 1.5 lbs heavier than at the start.