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Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling Do you enjoy centuries, double centuries, brevets, randonnees, and 24-hour time trials? Share ride reports, and exchange training, equipment, and nutrition information specific to long distance cycling. This isn't for tours, this is for endurance events cycling

Randonesia

Old 08-23-19, 01:40 PM
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downtube42
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Randonesia

Headwinds from mile zero to Brest, colder than anticipated nights, a right knee that was unhappy with me from day 1, a chaotic finish control that included a cyclocross skills test whilst dodging pedestrians on mixed surfaces. I zombie stumbled around Paris today with spouse and friends. Each time I rolled over last night, I was awoken by quad pains.

Already I'm thinking of what bike to bring for PBP 2023.

What the actual @#$&?
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Old 08-23-19, 01:54 PM
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Haha, randonesia is a real thing! Any logical person should go "What the **** was I thinking? I'm never doing that again!"

My designated "rando" bike has come a long way since 2015, but whether I'm still riding it in 2023 remains to be seen.
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Old 08-23-19, 03:04 PM
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Originally Posted by downtube42
Already I'm thinking of what bike to bring for PBP 2023.

What the actual @#$&?
Wow, way too fast. Already recovered? I guess those quads do not hurt that much
It usually takes me a few weeks to several months to recover mentally after a ride like that. After I rode the PBP I could not even look at any of my bikes for a few weeks.
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Old 08-23-19, 03:14 PM
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I'm suffering from it too. I said during those cold damp nights that I would never do another 1200 but now I want to take another crack at the Cascades and maybe them if the Rocky mountain 1200 is running I'd want to do it too.
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Old 08-23-19, 03:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Andrey
It usually takes me a few weeks to several months to recover mentally after a ride like that. After I rode the PBP I could not even look at any of my bikes for a few weeks.
You recovered mentally? I'm jealous!
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Old 08-25-19, 08:01 PM
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I enjoyed all of it, except maybe the part before when the winds died down a little on the first day. Even after my knees blew up, it was still fun.

I'm glad I took my wool long sleeve jersey. I din't really feel the need for anything else on top. I wore my knee warmers a lot, but on the 3rd night I switched to leg warmers. i was glad I had long fingered gloves and it was nice to know I had a jacket in case it got worse.

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Old 08-26-19, 04:43 AM
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
I enjoyed all of it, except maybe the part before when the winds died down a little on the first day. Even after my knees blew up, it was still fun.

I'm glad I took my wool long sleeve jersey. I din't really feel the need for anything else on top. I wore my knee warmers a lot, but on the 3rd night I switched to leg warmers. i was glad I had long fingered gloves and it was nice to know I had a jacket in case it got worse.
I wore the same thin wool jersey throughout, letting it air dry overnight. With the reflective vest, neck gator, and leg warmers, all worn or stowed as needed, I was good through the range of temps. The neck gator, just acquired, made a surprising difference.
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Old 08-26-19, 10:39 AM
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I forgot I also had a neck buff on for the last night. Very compact and adds a lot of warmth.

I don't think it got quite as cold as some people are saying, mid-40s seems right to me. Usually if it gets down into the 30s, I need another long sleeve jersey. Although there was one point where I wished I had my lobster mitts. Sun sleeves probably add some warmth under a long sleeve jersey, and I just kept them on the whole time.
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Old 08-26-19, 10:42 AM
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By accident I brought my wife's long finger gloves. The second night I tried to wear them but they were too tight and constrained the bloodflow, so for the rest of the time I rode barefingered through the almost freezing nights.
I finished wednesday night. Yesterday I rode 75 km and I am already contemplating taking part in LEL. So randonesia is already kicking in. My fingers think otherwise since they're still numb (ulnar nerve).
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Old 08-30-19, 09:00 PM
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I may be somewhat recovered, enough to think about 2023, but no way in heck am I signing up for LEL 2021 right now. Ugh.
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Old 08-31-19, 05:27 AM
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I signed up for LEL, but with reservations since it is known for headwinds. Doesn't seem all that likely that I will make it in, there are a lot more than 500 people like me that haven't finished a 1200k every year
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Old 09-02-19, 05:00 PM
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Originally Posted by alois
. My fingers think otherwise since they're still numb (ulnar nerve).
Be careful about that. If you do that to yourself too many times all the the feeling will not come back. Ever. (But I'm still riding, happily),
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Old 09-03-19, 01:53 AM
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Originally Posted by mac mini
Be careful about that. If you do that to yourself too many times all the the feeling will not come back. Ever. (But I'm still riding, happily),
Yes, I will put an aerobar on my handlebar and double wrap the handlebar for any upcoming 1200+ event, hoping that this will mitigate the pressure on my hands.
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Old 09-14-19, 11:24 AM
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Thin wool base layer and thin wool jersey with a thin wool long sleeve for that layered look. On the cold nights I wore my rain jacket and vest too with tights and two pairs of mid-weight wool socks. I wished I had boot covers though and tore a plastic bag in half and stuck half in each shoe on the the coldest night. A light merino neck gaiter would have been perfect but I made do with a bandana instead. Fingerless gloves worked fine for me, my hands run kind of hot I guess.
At the finish I told my wife, "well that was stupid, the most significant waste of time in my life." I still mean that wholeheartedly, but it was epic and momentous and a dream come true and all that. The next day I did a recovery spin and immediately felt the euphoria again as soon as I hopped on the bike (and settled in around a saddle sore). Since then my wife has had PBP dreams from listening to me talk about it so much. She's even talking about riding a 200k with me next season. I'm looking forward to the Cascades 1200 in 2021 if I can schedule it in, and of course PBP 2023.
Here's to time well wasted!
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Old 09-14-19, 12:31 PM
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thanks for the report ROT 01, have you ridden other 1200k's before this?

One thing I like about a 1200k is it completely obliterates any concern outside of the ride. it's a nice change of pace. I guess I never thought of it as a waste of time, but I can understand that viewpoint
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Old 09-15-19, 10:14 PM
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My "waste of time" comment was partly fatigue-induced, but also a tongue in cheek comment too. Many people in the U.S. think cycling at all is a waste of time so I was sort of mocking that mindset. My job involves lots of time and resource management so when I get to waste my own time it's a great luxury. PBP was the capstone of my vacation, after all. The whole experience was so amazing: the other riders, the volunteers and townspeople along the route, the food, the drink. I first learned of PBP as a bike mechanic while in college 15 years ago and now I finally did it!
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Old 09-15-19, 10:24 PM
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Congratulations, @ROT_01! I don't spend a lot of effort trying to explain to people why I'd want to fly to another country to ride my bike 750 miles non-stop and end up right where I started. That would be a waste of time.
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There's no such thing as too far.. just lack of time
Originally Posted by noglider
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Old 09-19-19, 12:36 PM
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I had been talking to some of my fellow Philly Dyno compatriots how I really did not enjoy myself during this year's qualifying PA SR. The rides were brutal and really grinded me down. There was no randonesia for me; I remembered very vividly how much each of those rides sucked. I couldn't wait to just have PBP "be over with" so I could quit rando and throw all my bikes into the river.

But pretty much immediately after it was over, we were all scheming for the next 1200k, 1000ks to get an ACP-5000, Raid Pyrenean, Super 600k's, and of course 2023.....

This was the same how I felt after doing Granite Anvil in 2017, loving randonneuring and feeling like 1200k really is "it". When I first started doing randonneuring, I didn't want to ride any distances more than 50 miles unless it was a brevet, and now I don't even want to ride the intermediate distances. 12 miles to get coffee or 1200km, and nothing in between.
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Old 09-19-19, 01:00 PM
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I think 100k and 1200k are my favorite distances. I hate, hate, hate 600km brevets. And they hate me back. The 1000k I rode in June was a bit of a travail, and it ended on a down note. I was feeling awesome at dinner time on the third day, but then dealing with emt's and police and ambulances really took a lot out of me and the last 100k after that was just miserable. I've been trying to focus my memory on the 100 miles before that.
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Old 09-19-19, 01:54 PM
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Follow up from the original post; after PBP I signed up for the SIR R5000 1000, held this past weekend. Rain and urban trail navigation made for a challenging 1000k.

RUSA cup earned!

The legs again are sore, and I'm not sure exactly why I do this. Nonetheless, the next ride idea is forming.
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Old 09-19-19, 04:57 PM
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I have to ride a pop to earn a RUSA cup. The people that decided you needed a pop for that are jerks that don't have to travel 6 hours round trip to ride a pop
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Old 09-19-19, 07:55 PM
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
I have to ride a pop to earn a RUSA cup. The people that decided you needed a pop for that are jerks that don't have to travel 6 hours round trip to ride a pop
It's all about the trinkets.
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Old 09-20-19, 06:41 AM
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I mostly gave up on trinkets. Got no place to put the cup
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Old 09-20-19, 07:28 AM
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
I have to ride a pop to earn a RUSA cup. The people that decided you needed a pop for that are jerks that don't have to travel 6 hours round trip to ride a pop
See if your RBA will let you organize one locally? Since the ACP isn't involved, it's not as much work to get a pop on the calendar, especially if there's already an approved route.
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Old 09-20-19, 12:06 PM
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have to ride it before october, so organizing one is out. The Eastern PA pop is 100 miles this year. Wasn't too happy about that. I think I'm going to ride the D.C. pop. At least with 100k, driving and riding in one day is not too much. 100 miles +long travel is too much for an old person like me

I was wrong about October. It looks like I can start the clock with last year's Mac 'n' Cheese, so I have until next summer. Still am going to do the DC pop.

Speaking of randonnesia, i want to do the Miglia and the 2020km brevet in Thailand. I know, it's a sickness.

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