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-   -   2019 k-hounds (https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=1163318)

unterhausen 01-01-19 03:46 PM

2019 k-hounds
 
iTrod and I are 1.08% of the way there with the 108km we rode today. He came up with the idea of riding back-to-back 200k's, take the long way from his house to my house one day and ride a different long way back the next day.

StephenH 01-01-19 11:43 PM

"One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off" is the quote that comes to mind.
I hope to hit K-hound for 2019 as well, and rode a cold windy 200k today as the start of that.
More importantly, I want to ride safely and have fun along the way.

unterhausen 01-02-19 09:09 AM

yeah, the only time I tried it previously I didn't get anywhere. And then I crashed and decided that cold weather riding wasn't for me. But if we don't ride in the cold, there is no way to khound. OTOH, I also think it's not going to happen if it's only a vague notion.

I had 4900km last year riding mostly RUSA events. iTrod had over 6100km. It's a little daunting to think about repeating what we did yesterday 50 more times.

GadgetGirlIL 01-02-19 09:27 AM

@unterhausen - take it one mile (or kilometer) at a time! I never thought I would get 5000+K in RUSA events especially since I don't do anything longer than 200Ks. But with a total of 39 brevets, populaires, and perms I did it! Not sure that I will try for a repeat this year. I really got lucky with the weather September through December here. I made the decision in September to go for the 5000K distance award.

unterhausen 01-02-19 10:24 AM

5000k is a real accomplishment 200k or less at a time, congratulations!

I forgot the 5000k award, I probably should have done a perm pop. 4900k is the most I have ever done, got to 4800k one year.

StephenH, I see you do an out and back route on consecutive days. Do you stay with someone at the remote spot? This is similar to iTrod's idea, except I couldn't talk him into limiting the length to 100 miles instead of 200k.

GadgetGirlIL 01-02-19 10:29 AM

@unterhausen - Thanks! I wasn't sure if you meant 4900K for all your rides or just your RUSA ones. Yes, I would have fit in a populaire since you were so close! It really helped that I have 4 of my own permanents now, 2 in Illinois and 2 in Wisconsin. I fit in 3 rides in Wisconsin on Thanksgiving weekend. The last day the weather was fine up in Wisconsin but we got a horrible snow storm down in Illinois.

unterhausen 01-02-19 11:35 AM

I did 6500km total in 2018 according to Strava, which means I did a few more miles. Strava counts dnf's though, RUSA doesn't :(
Most of my riding other than rando miles is on a trainer. I'm trying to follow a structured training plan, and riding outside is inefficient for that and I'm much less compliant.

rhm 01-02-19 12:13 PM

Well, good luck, @unterhausen and @iTrod!

I have avoided making mileage goals for myself, figuring if I ride the rides I want to ride, that'll be enough. But even so, it appears I've doubled my mileage every year since I joined RUSA. If I can pull that off again, I'll K-hound for sure. Odds of this happening... very low.

StephenH 01-02-19 01:03 PM


Originally Posted by unterhausen (Post 20729056)
5000k is a real accomplishment 200k or less at a time, congratulations!

I forgot the 5000k award, I probably should have done a perm pop. 4900k is the most I have ever done, got to 4800k one year.

StephenH, I see you do an out and back route on consecutive days. Do you stay with someone at the remote spot? This is similar to iTrod's idea, except I couldn't talk him into limiting the length to 100 miles instead of 200k.

I just stay at motels at the far end.
I've got 6 perms that are the Stampede 1200k (with Days 1 and 2 broken up into 2 perms each) and 2 new perms that are part of the Hound Dog 1200k route (Days 1 and 3, currently), and 2 or 3 perms that are just for fun. (The routes less than a 200k are a half-day on longer routes). Method so far has been to take minimal overnight gear, but including the lightest sneakers I could find, ride to the far end, park the bike in the motel room and hike down to the nearest grocery store for chow. I like being able to cover a 400k route but do it all in daytime. I think that's a neat idea, but so far, haven't generated much if any interest from anyone else. On the newest route, it's only 90 miles one way, so in warmer weather, I'd probably ride it out and back the same day. On the Pale Green Perm, it's a free-route, so I'm riding one route out and a different route back, with about 15 or 20 bonus miles each way.
I did one route a while back, "Just Go North", because the forecast showed wind from the south the first day, wind from the north the second day, so tailwind both ways. It worked out mostly tailwind on day 1, and mostly at-least-not-headwind on day 2.
That "Just Go North" was leg 1 of the rando tour to Canada, by the way.

On the riding in the cold- just keep in mind that not all the events are created equal in all places. You can work a k-hound just fine here in Texas, but if you want to train for mountains, well, tough.

unterhausen 01-02-19 02:20 PM

Thanks, I was thinking about designing a perm that goes to a place with a hotel. Haven't mapped that out yet though. Some of the DC rando routes would be ideal for being part of a point to point perm.


I don't really want to train for climbing, but I live in the wrong place for that. My 200k with the least amount of climbing has over 5000 feet. I was trying to think of one that had less, but so far I'm suffering from a lack of imagination. Even the 120k ride I always think of as flat has 3500 feet. It doesn't go over any mountains.

As far as cold goes, I am now careful if the weather has been cold the week before a ride. I crashed out of my R12 streak because of just the tiniest bit of rain. But it iced up because the roads were really cold from the previous week that had seen a high of 20F.

unterhausen 01-07-19 11:02 AM

the magnitude of this is sinking in. Did a 200k yesterday. Not sure 8500 feet of climbing and headwinds is the path to finish a k-hound. Only have to do 33 more weeks like this one :twitchy:

I plan on doing an SR series, a 1000k, and PBP, so that makes it a little more tractable.

GadgetGirlIL 01-07-19 11:44 AM

@unterhausen - well hopefully not all of your rides will have headwinds. Sounds like your area has a lot of climbing though.

I'm cheering you on from afar!

unterhausen 01-13-19 12:13 PM

all of our rides so far have had headwinds, it's really rare around here to have low winds in the winter. We are up to 400k, but it just snowed last night so I'm afraid to do any of my perms. Living in a valley, it makes sense to use roads that are protected from winds, but they tend to have ice. Hopefully it didn't snow on iTrod so we can do one or two of his perms this week.

iTrod just got half of his back-to-back 200k routes approved. He helped me design a route so I can ride to his house (and back) and get 100k for the day before/after. 600k in 4 days would be nice.

iTrod says the snow is melting, so maybe we'll get some rides in this week. Amazing how much difference 60 miles can make in weather patterns

StephenH 01-15-19 12:57 PM

One bright idea I had was to ride one-direction with a tailwind, then just rent a small U-Haul truck and drive back. (Past experience: regular car rental places won't rent one-way, or charge way too much if they do.) The problem is, right now, I'd need to ride south to Crockett, Texas, and the U-Haul places there close early on Saturday and aren't open Sunday.

Another bright idea was to make a one-way route either right through Dallas or making a big loop around it, but in either case, starting and ending near the Dart stations so you could take the train back to your starting point. But haven't tried that yet.

unterhausen 01-15-19 03:28 PM

that's an interesting idea. For the 2 day rides that end up at iTrod's house, my wife will probably come pick me up so we can go out to a restaurant she likes nearby. But that's only about 50 miles.

rhm 01-22-19 12:41 PM

It's pretty uncommon for anyone to get the K-hound mileage by doing only calendared rides, so some permanents are needed. So even though I don't expect to get that many RUSA miles, I am doing some permanents, probably more than previous years... so I'm going to use this thread to write about them....

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7911/...8785c733_b.jpg

My friend @greg3rd48 had last Thursday off from work, and our friend @jlippinbike had recently got a permanent approved that started just three miles from my house... and the weather forecast seemed to suggest a pretty mild day.

So Greg drove down early in the morning, got to my house at about 5 AM... and we rode to the start, in Lawrenceville... just north of Trenton, NJ.

This is a free-route permanent, so basically we had to ride a little over 100 km to Saylorsburg PA, and ride back. But we could take any roads we liked, between the two. That meant we could take a direct route with a lot of climbing, or a long route with less climbing, or some compromise between the two. We didn't plan much; I know most of the roads near my house, and not much could go wrong if we didn't take the most direct route. I had a route in my GPS, just in case.

Well, it turned out to be a lot colder than expected! By the time we had gone 20 miles, my hands were getting numb despite bar mitts, fleece gloves, and hand warmers, and my water bottles were pretty much frozen solid. I needed to stop someplace warm and drink coffee. This entailed a detour of about two miles, but well worth it. It was light by now, and getting warmer. In fact the sun came out occasionally, but never strongly enough to warm us up much. The cold was tolerable, but my feet were cold most of the time, and my face was cold. I normally try to eat while on the bike, but my face was too cold. I couldn't take bites, and I couldn't chew. So even though I'd brought enough food to get through the ride without stopping, that wasn't an option. At mile 68 we took another detour to get to a convenience store in Wind Gap PA. There was nowhere to sit there, but we warmed up, drank coffee, and filled our water bottles with warm water again. From there we just had to ride over the mountain to the controle, at the next town, where we turned around.

My bar end shifter was getting loose on the handlebar, and I needed to tighten it; so on our way back through Wind Gap we stopped at McDonalds. They woulnd't let me bring my bike into the restaurant to fix it! Not that I can blame anyone for that. It was really too cold to work outside, but I was able to work on it for a minute or two, come inside and eat, and go out to work on it for a few minutes a couple times. And lunch was good.

On the way back, we mostly took the most direct route, but after we crossed the Delaware at Easton we followed the river as far as we could, avoiding further climbing. We didn't stop again, but even so, it was dark by the time we finished. It was getting colder and colder again, and for the last few miles my eyes were getting so cold I just wanted to close them. It was an odd sensation, kinda like being so tired you just want to close your eyes, but in this case it wasn't a matter of being tired; I Nonetheless, I just wanted to close my eyes.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7853/...fc3030fe_b.jpg

All in all it was a pretty day, with lots of great scenery, a nice route in many ways (though there were a couple busy roads that couldn't be avoided). There wasn't much wind, and no rain; so the only adversity was the cold, and of course the distance. I don't think it ever really got above freezing. Too cold to take many photos!

Anyway, a total of 148.3 miles in just under 13.5 hours, 7772 feet of climbing (says Strava)... and I'm 209 km closer to the K-hound! :thumb:

GadgetGirlIL 01-22-19 02:01 PM

@rhm - very impressive endeavor that you undertook! While I’ve had permanents where it never got above freezing, none of them were longer than 70 miles. I just can’t imagine that many hours out in that cold although I know that having sunshine helps. i can also relate to frozen water bottles and difficulty eating on the bike in the cold.


CliffordK 01-22-19 02:37 PM

Hmmmm...
I'm mainly a commuter here... but some of my commutes cross the Randonneur distances.

I got in about 12 MegaMeters last year. :)

I got up to Salem last week. About 172 miles, or 276 km.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...88c139165f.jpg

I think I over-packed for the trip, but we had off and on rain all day. And, I was purchasing some Craigslist items + meeting up in Salem.

I'll have to try some of the Randonneur events, but it is hard to conform them to my riding. There is a long ride from Seattle to Klamath Falls that might be fun. That is if I can ever get to the point where I can ride long rides back to back. Hit 150+ miles, and I'm often pretty toasted the next day.

unterhausen 01-22-19 03:05 PM

Too much ice here, and ice/snow is in the forecast so we are building a debt for later in the year.

Rudi, that looks like a really nice ride, I think I see Delaware Water Gap in one of your pics. I have temporarily given up on free route perms. I wanted my ride to iTrod's house to be free-route, but I didn't want too many controls on a 100k.

greg3rd48 01-23-19 01:09 PM

I will add some photos to @rhm Rudi's summary of our ride last Thursday. As for words he explained it thoroughly. It was cold, I mean frigid after a while but the challenge that this cold presented us made for a great ride and experience. Don't get me wrong, after about 100 miles I couldn't wait to change into dry clothes in a warm house!

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0a0ce86af1.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...29f4215324.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a58959402e.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...41db112a5a.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a67f5a92c1.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cab69f75ef.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...635e67a0d2.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...00a83f361b.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3f521eeecb.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...58d2144e53.jpg

unterhausen 03-25-19 06:49 AM

After no miles at all in February, I'm finally over 1000k. iTrod is over 1400k. He rode a 300k in Atlanta while I was suffering through a non-cycling trip to Vegas.

We both rode 500k this week, 2x200k and 100k. Looking forward to 400k this week. 100k tomorrow, and the Eastern PA 400k on Saturday. Although iTrod promises that the 100k he picked out is easy to DNF

GadgetGirlIL 03-25-19 08:20 AM

@unterhausen & @iTrod - nice work especially considering how the winter weather has been.

I'm trying not to get too excited about the highs in the 70s that I'm seeing for my 200K this Saturday in Virginia (King George). I've been wearing so many layers for so long that I will probably be overdressed.

unterhausen 03-25-19 05:06 PM

the 300k this Saturday is supposed to feature temps in the upper 60's and a high of 71. I am not sure how I will be able to tolerate that, probably cramp. Start will be in the 40's, so I'll need to be able to stow some clothing.

rhm 03-26-19 06:31 AM

For what it's worth, here is what I wrote in my Strava ride description of last year's 300k, which was in mid-April:

"This was a hard ride. Started out cold, got very warm, headwinds most of the way. First warm ride of the year, I'm not used to it. "

According to Strava, the temperature rose from 79F to 109F, apparently while my bike was sitting in the sun at a controle, so I don't trust the exact temperatures. But it was definitely into the 80's for the second half of the ride. It's not the same route as we have this weekend, though it overlapped in a few places.

unterhausen 03-26-19 04:53 PM

I only did the PA 600k last year, so I missed that. Forget what I was doing the weekend of the 300k.

iTrod and I rode 100k today, another one of his rides designed to generate DNFs, but we finished in time. Ridiculous climbing until the halfway point and then headwinds. And it was colder than forecast. But there were no clouds in the sky all day.


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