After the results of my first and second hard rides using Topical Edge’s PR Lotion, I was looking forward to trying it again. This time I would be riding one of my favorite routes: an imperial century from my hometown to the Pacific Ocean.
The Warmup
The legs felt fairly fresh, the weather was perfect, I was fueled and hydrated. Once more I rubbed the PR Lotion into my upper legs about 30 minutes before the ride began, then my buddy Zane showed up and we were off. It was a little after 9AM on Friday, September 8, 2017.
After a ~7 mile warmup we hit the first climb of the day, known by locals simply as “Hopland.” It’s actually two climbs, the first 1 mile long (6% grade) and the second 2.7 miles long (5% grade). I felt good up the first climb, but didn’t push it hard, averaging 307 watts for 6 minutes to get the legs warmed up.
Hitting It Hard
As we started the second climb I ramped it up a bit, because the legs felt good. At the halfway point I looked down at my Elemnt and saw I was ahead of my PR for this climb by over 30 seconds… and I was feeling good! So I kept pushing it. Zane (who is a stronger rider than I) commented, “Man, you’re really hammering this morning!” He stayed behind me the whole time, and I kept pushing it to the top.
My finishing time was 14:18, a 9% improvement on my previous PR of 15:38. I’d been hitting a PR ceiling on this climb for a long time, with my last 5 hard attempts over the past year or more all coming in at 15:38 or 15:39.
An Ill-Fated KOM Attempt
I was blown away and excited as we descended the backside of this climb. Felt so good, in fact, that I told Zane I wanted to try to take a KOM on the next flattish section, which was actually a slight (-2%) 5.4 mile downhill into the town of Hopland. Zane said his legs weren’t feeling very good so I would have to do most of the pulling, and I was OK with that.
The problem was, I didn’t know when the segment began, and road construction meant we hit a stoplight that stalled us for a few minutes at the beginning of the segment. No KOM for us.
Realization Sets In
We made our way to the next climb of the day, Mountain House Road, which is almost 9 miles long. At this point we were 22 miles into a 100 mile ride, and when we began the first climb, Zane and I both realized we had a problem: our legs were cooked. Oops.
We spun it easy up Mountain House, but it was clear to both of us that I had hammered too hard up Hopland and on the flat section KOM attempt. This ride was going to hurt.
We stopped at the next store we could find, drinking Cokes and scarfing snacks in the tiny town of Yorkville (population 188!) in an attempt to get some energy into our bodies. It helped a bit, but it still felt like a slog as we made our way along HWY 128 to Boonville.
Boonville is a quaint town whose most interesting feature is the fact that its inhabitants created their own language, Boontling, in the late 1800s. We grabbed lunch here and headed out.
The rest of the ride was fairly unremarkable: we both knew we had overcooked ourselves, so we weren’t pushing too hard. I did make one 30 minute effort on a segment I had spotted the day before, only because former pro Ted King had the KOM and I thought we could take it from him. I ended up pulling most of the way because Zane was cramping hard, but in the end of the KOM was ours so that felt good. (It certainly felt better than my legs, which had begun to cramp during hard efforts.)
We made it to the ocean, turned turn on HWY 1, and pulled into Mendocino for an ice cream cone. Century complete.
Lesson Learned
What did this ride teach me? You’ve got to be careful with long rides and PR lotion, because you may feel so good that you’ll overdo it early and pay for it later. I should have learned this lesson from the Dunnigan Hills Road Race, but apparently I need to be told these things a second time.
Apart from this negative outcome, I was pretty stoked from this ride, as I was able to set a lot of PRs and even grab a KOM. Those always feel good, even when you know in your heart that the former pro you grabbed it from could kick your butt any day.
Where to Buy PR Lotion
Buy PR Lotion here. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so what have you got to lose? Plus shipping is free on orders over $75, so if you buy two tubes or any of their kits they will ship free.
