Bike Around the Buttes

Paul, Dian, Chris and I traveled to Sutter, California at a very early hour to participate in the Bike Around the Buttes Century ride.

This was my fourth year participating in the ride – the second time I was planning on doing the Century course. Three of the four years I have done this ride with my favorite former colleague from the FPPC, Bill. (Last year, however, Bill decided he’d melt and he opted out of the VERY WET ride.)

I had been looking forward to this event for a while, as it often allows me an opportunity to catch up not only with Bill, but also to see one of my former triathlon training-mates, Holly, and her fiance John. I miss them!

The drive to Sutter is a long one for a bike ride, but the Sutter Buttes are beautiful and I don’t mind the drive to ride around them once a year. However, Chris and I had been sick all week and weren't sure how we were going to fare with the long ride.

The Sutter Buttes hold the title of being the world’s smallest mountain range. The Buttes are a small circular complex of eroded volcanic lava domes in the middle of the Central Valley. The highest peak isn’t very tall – about 2,130 feet above sea level. The ride around the base of the mountain range is merely 40 miles.

The Century course travels for 60 miles out and about along the Sacramento River and then ends with the 40 mile route around the base of the Buttes.

We sent out on the Century Course at about 8 am and I quickly realized it was not going to be a social ride. Paul, Dian, Chris and I all has very specific heartrate or wattage zones we were supposed to ride in for the day. After a brief warm up Chris took off to start his tempo repeats and I decided to follow suit to do mine. I was supposed to spend the majority of the ride under 130 watts. I battle with staying in the lower zones when I know I can go faster and found myself pushing watts I should not have been to keep up with Chris.

The first 25 miles FLEW by. We continued at a pretty good clip until we stopped for water at mile 42 and decided that it would not be wise to do the full 100 miles due to our not-so-healthy week.

We completed the 60 mile loop in 3:16. That's fast for me. I was excited about it and started to get ideas in my head about a faster-than-planned Ironman ride until I became VERY sore hours later and realized that I should stick with my 7 hour bike goal. I could not have run a marathon as sore as I was after our 60-miler.

It was fun to spend the day riding with Chris. I usually find myself long behind him.

I was bummed to have missed the best part of the ride - the 40 mile loop around the base of the Buttes - however I knew that doing the full 100 would not have been wise based on my state of health. I need to be healthy... Ironman is merely 9 weeks away!