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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

2021 Randonnees

Old 05-31-21, 05:10 PM
  #26  
David in Maine
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300K Brevet completed. The inaugural running of the Midcoast Maine 300K put on by the New England Randonneurs was greeted by unseasonably cold temps and rain in the forecast. It was a cloudy 43 degrees for the 5 AM start in Portland--the weather clearly scared some away since the group consisted of 4 team-kitted racers boys and one racer girl plus 6 normal randonneur types. I set off into a headwind with my friend Mike with worries about my new shoes which I only tested for 40 miles or so troubling my thoughts. The route covered many familiar roads and introduced me to some new ones--overall lots of beautiful riding that showcased my home region. At around mile 100, the cool but pleasant ride took a harsh turn when the cold rain began to fall. We expected rain with temps in the mid-50s, but it never climbed out of the low 40s. I was definitely a bit underdressed, and our lack of fenders made it difficult for Mike and I to ride close together. Our food stops were dragged out quite a bit, since it was hard to go back out in the cold. By the end, I was very chilled and shivering. Negotiating the night roads in the rain with car headlights reflecting off my glasses was a challenge and I'm really glad neither of us got a mechanical. We finished in 16:35--definitely my slowest 300K, but glad to have survived such challenging conditions. The last two finishers didn't roll in until midnight, and I think there were 4 DNFs. My new Lake CX328 shoes with Superfeet Carbon insoles worked really well to my great relief. Some periodic numbness in my R pinky toe, but hard to tell if it was cold or shoe related. I definitely learned the importance of carrying an extra layer just in case, especially if rain is forecast.

David
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Old 06-08-21, 12:04 AM
  #27  
downtube42
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SR series completed with this past weekend's SIR 600k. Of the 27 hours of riding time, only ten or so were in the rain.

The first 80 or so miles I rode with the main group of 7 from SIR. Then I let the rubber band snap, as they were dropping me on the climbs and the catches were slow and painful. They needed to roll and I needed to ride my ride. The next 30 or so miles I was solo, in the Skagit flats with the inevitable brutal headwinds. A bout of leg cramps reminded me I'd been riding outside my sustainable level for too long. Another brick placed in the long process of building my character.

To that point we'd had maybe a couple hours of light rain; nothing too unpleasant. Temps ranged from I'd guess upper 40's to low 50's. As conditions changed I zipped/unzipped my rain jacket's pit zips, zipped/unzipped the front zipper, and tightened/loosened the arm cuffs to either cut off or allow air to flow up my arms. That theme continued the whole weekend; I guess you'd say I had the weather bracketed with my clothing: I was hot on the climbs and cold on the descents. Clothing was wool jersey, tights, wool socks, Showers Pass rain jacket, Goretex gloves, fingerless cycling gloves, neck gator, cycling cap. BTW, I had the best luck ever flipping the cycling cap brim down to reduce rain on my glasses, up when things were clear.

Somewhere south of Bellingham I caught up two others who'd elected to drop back from the front group, and the three of us stuck together to the finish. I was prepared to ride 600k solo, with the benefit of riding my ride at my pace, but there are benefits of being in a small group as well. The deal is, when you're by yourself, you stop and pee when you need to stop and pee, you stop and fix a flat when you have a flat, you have a quick food stop when you want, and a slow stop when you want. With three guys, it's going to mean more stops. OTOH, it's someone to hold your bike as you remove the rear wheel, or someone to draft for a bit on a headwind. In one case, I took a brief nap on a bed of pine needles while Matt and Duncan fixed Matt's second flat; that was a win for me.

The day turned super nice, and as we were more protected inland and heading SW for the return leg, conditions were much more favorable. I stuffed my rain jacket in my bag, and removed the plastic grocery bags from my feet. It was pretty grand. Around mile 190 we hit the Centennial Trail, which was a lovely low stress ride for the next 30 miles. IIRC it was a 1% uphill for half the length, then a 1% downhill. Somewhere in there we stopped in Arlington, where Duncan and I had the idea of grabbing burritos to-go from a Mexican restaurant. Visions of eating on the bike were crushed, when they handed us wet burritos with beans, rice and pico. So we ate our burritos sitting on the sidwalk, rando style.

Some miles later, from Duncan as he was lagging, was the quote of the ride: "this burrito is infringing on my lungs".

Just as night was falling and we were thinking we'd done our time in the rain, back it came. Back out came the rain jackets and gloves and down went the brim. This is why virtually everyone in SIR has fenders and buddy flaps on their bikes.

Speaking of buddy flaps, I did spend considerable hours studying a buddy flap in operation, and I have some thoughts. One thought, really: buddy flaps should be attached on the outside of the fender. Admittedly, an inside attachment is cleaner looking when the bike is stationary, but in operation, the inside attachment has a major drawback: water and muck coursing down the underside of the fender flows down and hits the top of buddy flap. From there, some of it flows between the buddy flap and fender, then out onto the visible exterior of the buddy flap. This is very unattractive, and leaves a trail of muck behind. Contrasted to an outside attached buddy flap, whereas the water and much flows down the fender, smoothly onto the hidden side of the buddy flap, and onto the ground.
I thought you'd like to know.

From there it was a slog toward the overnight. As we got into Redmond, not only did it stop raining but the roads were not even wet. Hence if's we'd stayed in Redmond like sane people, we'd have stayed dry.

In bed by 1:40, back up at 5:45 for another slog of a day. Day 1 was 240 miles, leaving us with 132ish miles for day 2. But of the 11k feet of elevation, almost half was packed into day 2. Starting with a 700' climb right out of the gate. Day 2 also held more rain for us, and more traffic, and some of the most beautiful scenery the PNW has to offer. It was a full value adventure. The ride up to the highpoint of the ride, alongside the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, is just spectacular.

For both my riding partners this was their first 600k; for me this was maybe my tenth. We all had our moments of doubts, as can happen. For me, it was the first hour of the second day, as I just wanted to crawl back into my hotel bed. Who's to say which was the smart decision, but we persisted.

Matt had a flat on his (tubed) rear wheel, which afforded me the brief nap mentioned earlier. I rationalized the newbs needed experience fixing a flat in the rain, whereas I'd been there done that. My bed of pine needles was protected from the rain, and it was grand.

Many miles later, as we departed Black Diamond for the last 35 miles, I ran over something huge and sharp and flatted fast. Sealant spewed everywhere, and poured out rapidly when I spun the wheel cut-side down. There was a 1/4" or larger gash right in the center of the tread. I plugged it (Dynaplug), aired it up with C02, and we were rolling. Super quick, and it held.

The run-in into Seattle was wet, with one stupidly steep climb the guys warned me about for miles and miles, then the maze of trails and connector trails that I'd still be navigating had I been solo. My rear brake faded as we descended into Redmond (disc, cable actuated hydraulic), but I made do with front brakes and 10% rear. We rolled in just before 8pm, a daylight finish. Funny enough, we were greeted with a rainbow as we approached the hotel - sunny and rainy at the same time. Fitting.

Oh, this was my first 600k on an upright bike, after ten seasons of rando on a recumbent. I wasn't sure I could do it, as my lower back has been problematic for years. No real back issues - no more than what anyone would expect. I'm pretty happy about that.

Cheers.
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Old 06-08-21, 05:04 AM
  #28  
SapInMyBlood
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I completed my first Audax ride back in May (600k), and I've just completed another one this past weekend (600k).The first one was quite flat (600k / 2800m) so I signed up for the second one to see how I'd fare (600k, 5700m).

Here's my little write-up, cross-posted from Strava...

"Where do I start? I signed up for this ride (my first ever Audax/randonneur ride) about 1-2 months ago. I jotted it on the calendar and then proceeded to forget about it.
Having just finished the 950km stint on the Munda Biddi a week ago, I received an email reminder about the southern Forrest and Plains 600k. ****!
I hadn't done any training rides. I hadn't done a ride over 80km in nearly 6 months on my road bike. I had hardly even done 600km total in the entire year to date.
At any rate, it would be completely up to my base fitness if I even stood a chance of completing these. At 630km, that's roughly 25 hours of riding in two days, with a 40 hour cutoff.
I spent Friday night before the ride hastily going over my road bike:
I raised up the handlebars 7.5mm
I swapped over my clip in road pedals to flat MTB pedals. I've had nothing but numbness and burning and hot spots with clipless, so I decided to go the old trusty trail runners and flats.
Consequently, I lowered the seat height based on trusty eyeballing.
I also swapped over my wheels to my new wheels (WOO! Dynamo wheels!), which included mounting new tubes/tyres, swapping over the cassette, and swapping over all my brake pads to the new ones, and adjusting for wider rims.
After getting all my GPS' setup, lights charged, battery bank good to go, food shop lined up for 25 hours of riding, and mucking around with my frame bag configuration for most of the night, I was as ready as I would ever be.

Saturday morning, Rosa drove me to the start at the Boya library. We arrived early, in the dark, while everyone else had already showed up and was ready to go. A lot of experienced and strong riders in the group.
I, on the other hand, was freezing my nipples off in shorts and a t-shirt while making the last few little adjustments on my rig. I went to start my ride when I realized I didn't upload the GPX file. Doh! I ended up leaving about 10 mins after the official start by the time I got it all finished.

A first hour of riding meant riding downhill from Helena Valley and doing a few warm up hills along the way before hitting a quick MUP along the highway which graciously brought us into the low, flat farmland which I would soon come to both hate and love.

I had never ridden more than 300km in one go, so a 340km first day followed by a 280km second day was going to be a massive undertaking (especially without any training whatsoever...). I knew I had to pace myself and ride conservatively if I was going to have any chance. I plodded away at a pace that I guessed I could hold all weekend.

The riders hop scotched, leap-frogged and rode haphazardly. Congregating at common points like cafes and servos .. Speaking of which, after 75km we arrived in North Dandelup and enjoyed an amazing cheeseburger sausage roll with a pickle inside. Perfect fuel for the upcoming 1000m of climbing in 75km, on the way to Dwellingup

The hills turned out to be nice, as I rode through them slowly, careful not to bonk with 500km remaining.

We made it to Dwellingup for our first checkpoint. Periodically, riders must check into specific stations by the cut-off time and get their brevet card signed. For us, as this was a supported ride (unusual for audax usually) this meant we were also greeted with coffee, muffins, bananas, etc, courtesy of Gary our rockstar ride organizer.

We carried our own food and water and gear between stops, which ranged from 50-110km apart, but we had periodic help from Gary for water and foods.

After Dwellingup, with the hills mostly behind us, we carried on through Nanga Brook and its winding hills, then into the flats to Waroona and Harvey, turning through single roads, barely wide enough for 1 car. Gary did a phenomenal job of keeping us off busy roads, and also planning routes through interesting country side landscapes.

We carried on south in a consistent way; the weather was good, the wind was minimal, the temperature was mild. A perfect day for a 340km ride. Eventually, after passing Dardanup and cycling in the dark, Gary and his assistant Ryan were following behind me for a minute, just figuring out where the riders were to plan the next rest stop. And then they started high beaming me from behind .. I pulled over to see what was up. According to them I had missed a turn, but it never appeared on my Garmin. Strange. Let's look at the other Garmin. Same thing. Hmmmm. I must have missed the turn off, so Garmin "rerouted" me a different way. We turned off rerouting. No difference, same result. Huh. The 3 of us stood in the dark like a bunch of monkeys trying to operating a tv remote. Finally we figured out that I had the wrong route ... The route had changed the day before to accomodate for some problems in Busso (Someone lit their car on fire under a bridge, and consequently burnt the bridge down? We needed that bridge). And I had the map downloaded from a month ago when I signed up.
After faffing about for 30 minutes, we finally figured something out. Oh well. Off to Capel now.

Another hour of riding and I got to Capel, where the chefs were awaiting with their camp trailer kitchen and had made us some fresh bacon/cheese/vegemite toasties. Yum! What a perfect snack for the road. Sasha and I both shared 2 toasties together and then we headed off. Capel was our last checkpoint of the day at 292km, and our next stop would be our spot for a nap for a few hours, at Peppermint Beach campground.

That meant about 75km of riding in the dark solo. The nice thing about night time is the wind usually dies down. With the alluring promise of a warm meal and an enticing air mattress, I pressed on, heading the advice of a very seasoned rider : "When you feel good, ride on." I averaged something stupid like 32kph during those 75km.

I finally made it to the campground for 9:30PM, where Gary had made us some amazing penne bolognese with cheese for dinner, replete with creamed rice / peaches and custard for dessert. YUM YUM. I had my fill, took advantage of the nice hot shower then slipped into my sleeping bag at 11PM. 340km in the legs was feeling alright. Maybe it's the pressure of knowing you have another 280km the next day that tricks you.
Saturday was a full day of riding through forests, and field and paddocks and pastures, watching cows graze, sheep bleet and llamas look at you confusingly.

5AM wakeup! Dark. Cold. Tired. Sore. Tight. Uncaffeinated.
We got up begrudginly and started getting ready for the next section. A coffee or two and a bacon/egg brekky wrap and we were off. Still dark in the morning, we rode with headlights for the first hour. The fields were covered in a blanket of fog that glowed with the first rays of warm lighting. Spectacular.

I let my body dictate the pace - the morning was a slow start, knowing I still had to sustain this effort for nearly 300 more kilometers. I watched kangaroos dart in front of me as they tried to escape the threat of "WHATEVER THE HELL THAT IS." I even watched one young joey completely bail in the middle of the road, pick himself up and carry on.

Kangaroos lined the roads until I got into Bunbury proper. My eyes scoured the streets for something yummy ... Finally, our first checkpoint came into view : The BP Australind. That'll do! I headed inside to grab a ham/cheese croissant, a pain au chocolat and a much needed barista made latte (Sorry Gary! Your coffee was good but it's not the same). Gary wasn't at this checkpoint so we took photos for proof and signed off on our own sheets. 8:30am.

With a croissant or two in my legs and a coffee fueling me, I pressed on. The sun had risen, the winds were still quiet and I made my way through Bunbury, admiring the different trees I had pruned in the past year.

After that we returned east into the quieter farm lands, weaving our way through small country roads past farms and orchards, seeing 28's flutter around and cows eyeing us curiously.

Thankfully today is mostly flat. I considered this my reward for the pretty intense, hilly, munda biddi I had just finished. 625km and 3000m of climbing was a welcomed change. I could sit in my aero bars and plod along at 30-32kph.

I left cokenerup , thinking I had enough water for the next 55km. After a few mins I realized my bladder was empty. Oops. I stopped to put some electrolyte in my 600ml bottle and then proceeded to knock it over and dump 3/4 of it on the ground. Ouch. The 55km to pinjarra was quite unpleasant 😂

But nonetheless, we made our way north in good time, meeting up Gary and Ryan at Pinjarra for a quick salty snack at the 152km checkpoint. Some chips and a sanga, and a diet pepsi or two (amazing) , and we were ready to attack our last 110km of bike paths going back into the city.

110km felt so close! and yet I knew it still meant 4 hours of pedalling. But it went quickly after doing 490km already.

I put in my headphones, cranked some drum and bass and finally enjoyed letting my legs do what they've wanted to do : PEDAL. I had been conserving my energy until this point but I felt like i could go now. Averaging 30-35kph on the meandering bike paths to the tunes of dubstep and electronic music, I hardly stopped to eat or drink until we got to Boya. Sasha and I rode side by side for 30 odd kilometers and had some good chats about different experiences in the wilderness in canada and NZ, and about her ultra racing experiences.

Finally, after a couple good hills in Helena Valley, we made it to the starting point where we left 36 hours earlier : the Boya library. A congratulatory handshake and a photo, and that was it.

A final 25km bike ride home and now I'm ready for a good meal and a good night sleep, before getting up tomorrow to go to work and climb trees!"

Finished in 37 hours including the 25km commute home. Average speed 28.9 ... I'm pretty happy with that for my first ride!




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Old 06-08-21, 04:15 PM
  #29  
unterhausen
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That's great, two rando rides, two 600k's. For whatever reason, I find 600k to be the hardest distance. Longer or shorter, no problem.
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Old 06-08-21, 05:41 PM
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600K can be very hard when arriving at the sleep control after the sun rises.

600K is very easy when arriving at the sleep control before the sun sets.

Both are at the extreme for a 4 am start.

Since the sleep control is usually at around 400k, the 400k brevet seems like the acid test. If a 400K takes more than 22-23 hours, there isn't much sleep to be had on a 600K. If a 400K takes 26 hours, there is no time to sleep on a 600K considering there are housekeeping chores before and after going to sleep. Doing a 600k on little or no sleep is hard. It seems to me that focus on efficiency on a 400K is the best prep to get some sleep on a 600K. I usually gas and go at controls on a 400K, mostly to train myself for the 600K in order to "earn" or bank enough time for a good night's sleep. It is easy to spend 20 minutes in a control, doing it in 3 minutes takes planning and discipline
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Old 06-08-21, 09:53 PM
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atwl77
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Yeah timing can be crucial on a 600K. Above that you get plenty of bonus time, below that sleep isn't necessary so you don't have to plan for it. I usually fit in only 3-4 hours sleep on my 600k rides.

Looking at the math of things, from 200k to 600k you're given about 14.8-15 km per hour, so if you're just barely making time for 200-400k, 600k will be a problem as there are no provisions for extra time. Whereas at 1000k, if you go by the 15km per hour of the shorter events that only accounts for 67 hours so you have 8 "bonus" hours for sleep.

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Old 06-08-21, 10:42 PM
  #32  
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These are taking place in western Australia.. Maybe things are different but there are no sleep controls

This second 600k was fully unsupported.. You decide whether or not you want sleep, and then it's up to you to decide where you want to stop, for how long, what kind of sleep system you want..

I had heaps of mechanicals (2 sidewall failures, 6-7 flats, patched 3 tubes, lost a bottle cage off my saddle bag mount which had to get mcgyvered back on at 11pm..) I ended up covering 370k by 1am, sleeping until 5:30 and then doing the remaining 230km on day 2

26.5 moving average on a 600k / 5700m route. Not bad!


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Old 06-09-21, 06:53 AM
  #33  
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Brevets used to be unsupported in the US and there are still some RBAs who run them that way. Often, accommodations are provided in your entry fee for a 600k. That is not a hard and fast rule but generally, there is at least a suggested sleep stop at a hotel/motel/hostel/cabin location and it will be a control. Whether you stop and sleep there is another story. It seems to almost be standard practice to have sleeping accommodations included in a 1200K entry fee here, one even chided to ride further was antisocial when inquiring if it is possible to opt out of the accommodations, I simply did not feel like stopping to sleep at 6-7 pm. So, yes we have controlled sleeps.
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Old 06-09-21, 03:48 PM
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My 400k 600k and 1200k times in the same year are not highly correlated or I wouldn't have remarked about how I find a 600k to be the most difficult. One factor is that on a 400k, if I'm not feeling it, I just use all the time. Like stopping at a fast food restaurant, for example. If it's the choice between that and suffering, I'll take the burger and fries, thanks. If you always get a lot of sleep on a 600k, then sleep probably seems more determinative to you than it does to me.
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Old 06-09-21, 05:22 PM
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part of it is math. 27 hours for 400K but only another 13 hours for the next 200k on a 600K. Have to bank a lot time in the first 400k of a 600k to be able to sleep on a 600k. Then on a 1200K, you get 50 hours for the second 600K.

I mentioned it because I spent a lot of time thinking about it for hours on end this weekend waiting for riders to stamp their card, worrying they would not make the times.
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Old 06-11-21, 09:23 PM
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
Brevets used to be unsupported in the US and there are still some RBAs who run them that way. Often, accommodations are provided in your entry fee for a 600k. That is not a hard and fast rule but generally, there is at least a suggested sleep stop at a hotel/motel/hostel/cabin location and it will be a control. Whether you stop and sleep there is another story. It seems to almost be standard practice to have sleeping accommodations included in a 1200K entry fee here, one even chided to ride further was antisocial when inquiring if it is possible to opt out of the accommodations, I simply did not feel like stopping to sleep at 6-7 pm. So, yes we have controlled sleeps.
I'm not sure how much it costs in the US, but accomodation is generally pretty expensive here. Even a basic patch of grass (unpowered) at most campgrounds is $30-40 for the night.

The 600k entry fee is $8 ... Accomodation is up to you to find, same as food, etc
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Old 06-13-21, 08:39 AM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by SapInMyBlood
I'm not sure how much it costs in the US, but accomodation is generally pretty expensive here. Even a basic patch of grass (unpowered) at most campgrounds is $30-40 for the night.

The 600k entry fee is $8 ... Accomodation is up to you to find, same as food, etc
Accommodation included 600K is cheap, $75-150 as a general range. Most 200 - 300k brevets at $20-40 where I live, probably most of it going for insurance. I'd call that dirt cheap knowing what volunteers do Of the last handful of 600k, all provided food. Some had accomodation included in fee. For instance, I did a very well run 600k in Florida. There was a lunch stop with fantastic food. The sleep control also wonderful food. You paid the lodging yourself. I think a suggestion of where to stop to sleep is a very good idea.
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Old 06-13-21, 10:27 AM
  #38  
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In Ontario, Canada the club just charges 80$ a year, that includes 40$ insurance that all cycling clubs have to use. Most of the rides are completely unsupported aside from getting a brevet card and a cuesheet/gps file. There's usually places to stop along the way but a lot of small towns are dwindling so a few routes are run with a support car at the controls for water but it all depends on someone volunteering, we don't charge an entry fee for those rides, but it's rarely more than a dozen people on those rides. On a longer brevet riders would split the cost of gas/rooms for someone doing multi-day support/bag drops but again, that's usually just a few riders. The Granite Anvil 1200 is ran like most other North American 1200s with full hotel rooms and bag drops, looking forward and hoping we can have it in 2022, it was supposed to be this year but we're still in a quasi-lockdown here and haven't had any official brevets yet this year... soon hopefully!
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Old 06-13-21, 01:31 PM
  #39  
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I hope that doesn't catch on in the U.S. Like my signature used to say, I'm not smart enough to stop for the night.
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Old 06-14-21, 10:23 AM
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I did a hilly 300K on Saturday, it took me about an hour longer than usual. I walked some of the 12-14% hills and was especially careful on the twisty, turny, bumpy descents. I actually wore a set of brake pads on the front out. They were pretty new and just toasted on one ride. I was either braking a lot or I am fatter than I think.

It seemed pretty much everyone was slower than usual. I suspect last year wasn't great fitness-wise for most randonneurs.

I think 34 miles had been my longest ride since January 2020 until Saturday's 300K. So, happy to finish successfully.

Instead of store controls where you get your card stamped, we were given locations of a QR code to be scanned with your phone to be sent as proof of passage. This is probably a good tool for permanents. I did not care for it on a brevet because it wasn't easy to find some of them and the controls these days are often very close to one another, sometimes around 10 miles. It seemed to take me forever to check in this way. When I would scan and send it, it would often fail to transmit and I would have to repeat. Then, you have to write a code onto the brevet card, which I did not understand clearly. I am considering a 600K in upstate NY and the cuesheet brings back memories of the old rando days where the controls were often 50-70 miles apart, like this one.

https://www.distancerider.net/cues/600LR_2.pdf
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Old 06-14-21, 12:39 PM
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If there is a control every 10 miles there is a problem in route design. And info controls whatever the tech should not be a snipe hunt. There was one brevet card on an eastern PA randonnee that said "highest marker" Well, I thought "up on the building covered in historical markers" when I should have thought climb up the hill a little more. I DNF'ed that ride because of eating issues, but I didn't find the marker they were talking about anyway.
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Old 06-15-21, 09:20 AM
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
... I am considering a 600K in upstate NY and the cuesheet brings back memories of the old rando days where the controls were often 50-70 miles apart, like this one.

https://www.distancerider.net/cues/600LR_2.pdf
That should be fun. Most of my brevets have been in Eastern PA and/or NJ, but I've done two in Western NY (well, technically, the same one, twice) and I really like the way Pete runs a brevet.
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Old 06-15-21, 10:57 AM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by GhostRider62
I did a hilly 300K on Saturday, it took me about an hour longer than usual. I walked some of the 12-14% hills and was especially careful on the twisty, turny, bumpy descents. I actually wore a set of brake pads on the front out. They were pretty new and just toasted on one ride. I was either braking a lot or I am fatter than I think.

It seemed pretty much everyone was slower than usual. I suspect last year wasn't great fitness-wise for most randonneurs.

I think 34 miles had been my longest ride since January 2020 until Saturday's 300K. So, happy to finish successfully.

Instead of store controls where you get your card stamped, we were given locations of a QR code to be scanned with your phone to be sent as proof of passage. This is probably a good tool for permanents. I did not care for it on a brevet because it wasn't easy to find some of them and the controls these days are often very close to one another, sometimes around 10 miles. It seemed to take me forever to check in this way. When I would scan and send it, it would often fail to transmit and I would have to repeat. Then, you have to write a code onto the brevet card, which I did not understand clearly. I am considering a 600K in upstate NY and the cuesheet brings back memories of the old rando days where the controls were often 50-70 miles apart, like this one.

https://www.distancerider.net/cues/600LR_2.pdf
I've ridden that one -- it's a nice route! But there are some real differences in different parts of the country on how easy it is to design a route that has neither obvious shortcuts or too many controls. (Also 24-hour services without having to go into busy areas to get them; that's a good reason for enforcing sleep stops. Though with electronic proof of passage we can now potentially let people go ahead if they're willing to carry enough water/food for a much longer stretch than we'd usually inflict on them. We had one route pre-EPP with 200k with no controls on the second day of a 600 -- if you slept at the sleep stop (or arrived late enough that you didn't have the option), tons of stuff was open on that leg, but if you forged ahead in the night you could go a long way before anything was open.)
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Old 06-15-21, 04:40 PM
  #44  
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In Ontario we've been using EPP since covid started, I'm hoping ACP makes it a permanent thing. We also required gps recordings of the ride because the insurance wanted it (dunno why), so that made it pretty easy to check that there wasn't any shortcutting... but in my 6 years I've never heard of anyone doing it here, at least on purpose, sometimes construction detours cut a couple km but most routes are over-distance by a few km anyway.

The roads in southern Ontario are mostly a grid so it's pretty easy to shortcut and I found trying to design routes that avoid potential shortcuts ends up making for worse routes because all the shortest routes happen to be the busier roads. Most people these days just seem to blindly follow the gps line and would only shortcut back to the start if they were abandoning. I couldn't imagine putting controls 10 miles apart unless there was a mountain in between them, but even then it seems kinda excessive.

There's a few routes in the east and the near-north where there are no 24 hour services but we make riders aware of it and highly recommend people don't ride through, but there's a 1000k that we've done twice and both times through-riders had to be rescued, once by the cops. Next time we do it there will be probably be a mandatory sleep stop, but generally in the south-west of the province you can ride through and probably find a 24h tim hortons or a circle k, though covid has cut down on that somewhat.
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Old 06-15-21, 08:52 PM
  #45  
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I'm still stuck at home due to stricter lockdown measures from recent spikes from a couple of weeks ago, and the 1300k that was supposed to happen yesterday, is unsurprisingly postponed to some unspecified future date. Again.
Looking for a silver lining, vaccinations in my country are slowly ramping up and hopefully in a couple of months we get to ride something again. Anything. Even a 200k would be awesome
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Old 06-23-21, 01:30 PM
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Well, I've officially now DNFed at each main ACP distance with this past weekend's ride. Lovely day, lovely course, and 75 miles into a 400k I just was massively sleepy, did not want to ride a bike (didn't even want to coast downhill). I'd ruled out bonking (stopped multiple times for food and could feel the sugar rush), my legs were OK, and the bike was mostly OK (I was dragging a brake for a bit which didn't help but I found it and fixed it). I did feel less good at about the same time the weather went from overcast to mostly sunny/warmer, but it wasn't really that hot, and I was fine hydration/electrolytes wise. I kept pushing on for a while, but once I realized that I was going to blow either the next intermediate control or make it by a few minutes and not be able to sit down for a rest break there, which I'd been counting on, I gave it up.

Then I felt really exhausted and congested on Sunday and Monday, as did my spouse, so I'm retroactively blaming this one on my first post-quarantine/lockdown cold.

In happier news, I and another organizer checked out some needed changes to the course for our next 400k that we're offering and it should, as always, be a fun ride. I will be organizing, not riding, so anyone coming up to Boston for the Boston-Portland-Boston 400k, I'll see you there.
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Old 06-25-21, 04:41 PM
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Originally Posted by antimonysarah
Well, I've officially now DNFed at each main ACP distance with this past weekend's ride. Lovely day, lovely course, and 75 miles into a 400k I just was massively sleepy, did not want to ride a bike (didn't even want to coast downhill). I'd ruled out bonking (stopped multiple times for food and could feel the sugar rush), my legs were OK, and the bike was mostly OK (I was dragging a brake for a bit which didn't help but I found it and fixed it). I did feel less good at about the same time the weather went from overcast to mostly sunny/warmer, but it wasn't really that hot, and I was fine hydration/electrolytes wise. I kept pushing on for a while, but once I realized that I was going to blow either the next intermediate control or make it by a few minutes and not be able to sit down for a rest break there, which I'd been counting on, I gave it up.

Then I felt really exhausted and congested on Sunday and Monday, as did my spouse, so I'm retroactively blaming this one on my first post-quarantine/lockdown cold.

In happier news, I and another organizer checked out some needed changes to the course for our next 400k that we're offering and it should, as always, be a fun ride. I will be organizing, not riding, so anyone coming up to Boston for the Boston-Portland-Boston 400k, I'll see you there.
It was nice to meet you at the start of the ride on Saturday, Sarah.. Sorry you had a rough ride and couldn't finish. I appreciated the check in when you drove by me part way through. That was quite a challenging ride with some beautiful scenery. Happy to have completed my first ever 400K in 21 hours.

David
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Old 06-27-21, 06:59 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by antimonysarah
Well, I've officially now DNFed at each main ACP distance with this past weekend's ride. Lovely day, lovely course, and 75 miles into a 400k I just was massively sleepy, did not want to ride a bike (didn't even want to coast downhill). I'd ruled out bonking (stopped multiple times for food and could feel the sugar rush), my legs were OK, and the bike was mostly OK (I was dragging a brake for a bit which didn't help but I found it and fixed it). I did feel less good at about the same time the weather went from overcast to mostly sunny/warmer, but it wasn't really that hot, and I was fine hydration/electrolytes wise. I kept pushing on for a while, but once I realized that I was going to blow either the next intermediate control or make it by a few minutes and not be able to sit down for a rest break there, which I'd been counting on, I gave it up.


Then I felt really exhausted and congested on Sunday and Monday, as did my spouse, so I'm retroactively blaming this one on my first post-quarantine/lockdown cold.


In happier news, I and another organizer checked out some needed changes to the course for our next 400k that we're offering and it should, as always, be a fun ride. I will be organizing, not riding, so anyone coming up to Boston for the Boston-Portland-Boston 400k, I'll see you there.

Sounds similar to something I been struggling with but have not figured it out.


In the late Spring of 2019, I was having tea and some zucchini bread at a local coffee shop when in walks a cyclist looking like she had just done a double century but this was no ordinary rider. She has more National Championships to her name than I could imagine, plus she had one of her many Stars and Stripes jerseys on. Back in the 90's, she used to sometimes ride with our Wheelman group's long rides, so, I went up to her and I could not believe he remembered me. We spent a few hours chatting. Anyway, she had just done a 10 mile TT in her worst time ever. She did not have the energy to ride the 8-10 miles back home. We got into talking about our shared experience of literally wanting to fall asleep on the bike and having no power. She emphatically said that is is the pollen and pollution in the air in the Spring, that she sees it every year but this year (2019) was the worst for her and that as she gets older, the effect is more dramatic. I went to many different Doctors and they really did not figure it out, but I do find I ride poorly when certain pollen is up with humidity in the air. It is the worst. I had to sleep 5 times on PBP and have had to literally stop on the side of the road and sleep during training rides. I'd say you did the right thing pulling the plug, hope it is a one off for you, Sarah.
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Old 06-28-21, 02:57 AM
  #49  
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I often feel the worst after the first 100+ km or so. On a 200k, I'm already more than halfway done so it's usually a no-brainer that I might as well finish it. But on a 300k, or longer, ride there's always that nagging "I'm suffering and feeling like crap, maybe I should call it quits" going through my mind but if I can get myself to push through until around 200-240km, things get much better. Sometimes much better that I'd forget about how hard that 100-200km was. Or sometimes I tell myself I'd get to that next checkpoint and then quit there, but take a good rest, meet up with another rider and decide to ride together, and then everything's back to normal again.

Another odd thing is that, no matter how tough a ride, I'd always have the energy to hammer that last 5-10km to the finish.

I dunno, I guess it's weird sometimes. But we all have our own personal struggles, our own quirks and limits, but what's important is that we know our body best to decide when we can push on and when we should stop.
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Old 06-30-21, 06:24 AM
  #50  
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Rowan and I aren't doing the longer randonnees this year for obvious reasons but for the first time since Rowan's accident in 2018, we are attempting a 50 km each month or in the Audax Australia world a Petit Year Round Randonneur.

We are 6 months into it which is actually better than I originally thought we might achieve!

And in May, there were a few days when I thought the attempt was over ... Rowan had a heart attack right at the end of our May 50K. However, he had recovered enough to ride the June 50 so we're celebrating 6 months!

We'll see how the next 6 months go. Each one is an accomplishment for us.
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