Be the Queen of Your Own Mountain!

An epic weekend of back to back century rides!

I finished dead last. Not that it was a race, but there was a pack of 40+ people who rolled out together and in a group that large there’s an inherent scorecard. Someone inevitably will be the last. A week ago, that last person… was me. It was nearly dark. We'd been on the bike for 11 hours, and I could not have been more stoked!

At the beginning of March I happened upon a post from Our Mother The Mountain (OMTM) that peaked my interest. A Spring Coastal Ride: Start in Portland, OR, ride to to Pacific City, spend the night, then pedal back. Self supported. There were a variety of route options presented, the shortest about 105 miles and 7K' of vert and a monster option of about 127 miles and 10K' of vert. So essentially two century rides back to back. Fun! I thought 🤯

Riding 100 miles is not a common practice for me. While I love a solid day in the saddle I don’t tend to apply much structured training to my riding as it’s really important to me that bikes stay in the fun zone. However, fun is different for everyone. Have you read the article “All my friends are either uphill or downhill people?” That article has always driven me crazy because I am 100% both! I love ripping downhill at full throttle or sending jumps and steep shoots. But I equally love a massive day out on the bike. A day that makes your brain challenge your body and begs the question of every cell, “why?” So to me, 11 hours of suffering is it’s own form of fun. Two days in a row? Double fun.

But I knew I was undertrained. I placed a huge priority on skiing this Winter and since December, I've averaged 4 rides per month for a grand total of less than 100 miles per month, for the past 4 months. So my wife looked at me like I was freaking crazy when I voiced my plans for two hundred+ mile back to back days.

But I wanted to do it. and sometimes, I’m really freaking stubborn. I wanted to do it for 3 reasons:

1) Curiosity. I honestly didn’t know if I could do two massive days with the training volume I’d sustained the previous months but I wanted to try. I’ll admit part of it is cocky and part of it is ego, but another part was raw curiosity. Could I accomplish these routes with my minimum on bike training volume? My strength training had been incredibly consistent, and I was skiing 2-3 days per week with a mix of of nordic, touring, and downhill. So it’s not like I was sitting on the couch for 4 months!

2) Mindset. I wanted a mental challenge. Something where my body would want to quit and I’d need to dig deeper to keep going.

3) Nutrition and Recovery.I have always struggled to fuel properly and recover well on rides longer than 3 hrs and this seemed like a perfect chance to practice. Could I eat and drink well enough to finish both days, and have a semi productive work week following such an intense effort?

Day 1: **Out.** Portland to Pacific City

We rolled out at 8:30 am from Cinco Siete Coffee shop which had graciously offered to provide coffee for the riders! I’m not accustomed to much of a gravel or road “scene” despite the large amount of time I spend on bikes. Most of my gravel riding is done either solitary, or with one or two other friends. To say the scene was “Portland” is the single best word I could use to describe what I rolled into. Lots of mustaches, the tiny under the helmet hats, hand built gravel bikes, and monochrome colors. I got copious complements on my hot pink and striped kit along with a number of eye rolls. 🤣

As soon as bikes were rolling I knew I was in for a long day. And a long day alone. The pace was much faster than my 1 ride a week schedule was going to allow for and I instantly felt the shame of my cockiness kick in.

I can’t hang.

And then, my friend and fellow Brave Endeavors coach, Annick Chalier, casually cruised up alongside me, and did not leave for 2 days. She could have ridden ahead. She could have rode with her other friends. I fought to not feel guilty that she was riding with “Slow Bekah” and instead embrace my own mantra - The pace doesn’t matter. You get there together, that’s what matters.

As the day unfolded we rode through farm fields, wine country, and finally into the lush forests of the cascades and up up up before descending over the coast range and into Pacific City as the sun was setting. It was 7:30 pm.

We showered, wolfed down burritos, and fell asleep.

Day 2: Back. Pacific City to Portland

Day 2 was hard. Really hard. I had a much harder time eating, my legs felt and were SLOW, and it seemed like I needed to pee every hour!
But here’s the thing. I freaking did it. With every hill I climbed, I felt like Queen of the Hill! And I developed a mantra, **“Be the Queen of Your Own Mountain!”** It didn’t matter that Annick got to the top of the hill before me. It didn’t matter that 30 or 40 other people had already crested and descended the hill. Every hill was a challenge, and every time I got to the top, I celebrated the fuck out of accomplishing that challenge. The closer we got, the harder it rained. It was pouring, I was cold. The wetter we were, the more I thought about hanging out on the side of the road and letting Annick ride back to the car and come scoop me up. Yet still I celebrated at the top of each and every hill!

I work with a lot of women who play the comparison game. Do you compare your fitness, your success, your strength to others? I could easily compare my performance to the 40 + other rides and go all woe is me on myself about this ride. Or, I could celebrate that I just did the biggest ride of my life, followed by the second biggest ride of my life. If you’ve read this far, I encourage you to do the following:

Find your own hill to climb. Your own hill to get to the top of. And celebrate the fuck out of that hill! There are always more hills to climb, but limited time to celebrate! Too often we focus on the negatives. Our energy pours towards what we are lacking, what we didn’t accomplish. Flip that script! Focus on your achievements, cresting your own hills, the bright daily moments, and be the queen of your own fucking mountain.

I Finished Dead Last

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