GhostRider62

GL, hope it works.


I have not fully recovered from early December Covid. FTP is down about 75 watts and Rando pace power is down by about 60 watts. Family Doc, Cardiologist, and Pulmonologist all told me to ride (I took 2 full weeks off and then not so hard for the past 3 months). Maybe I should have beat those bugs into submission with 300, 400, and a Fleche over three weeks. No way I could do what you are doing but you're only 42 and on a bent, so, you won't get beat up much. GL


I did 300k last weekend and it was the first time I can ever remember finishing a 300k with gilet, ankle straps, and lights on. The later portion of the ride had what felt like bombed out roads, and my cervical spine was screaming for the recumbent. Funny is I used to ride that area in the 80's when it was mostly farms and now it is just suburban sprawl, and quite an eye opener. Rare that I finish a brevet and to be really happy it is over but to be fair, all of the suck was me. I question myself on whether I did the right things with Covid recovery. And, I come up short with answers. I hope your return trajectory is much better.

downtube42

Update: I'm past the 20th anniversary of being 42, and I've been riding upright the last ~3 years. Finished 1 1200 upright along with three years' worth SRs and R12s and such. It's harder in every way except climbing.

I feel recovered from COVID, but I've not done anything physically challenging. We shall see.

downtube42

400k in the books. It was rough; I got in just after 4am for 21:37 finish. Not quite my slowest 400k, but slow enough.

The first 100k was rough, with 5k of the 13k feet of climbing in the first 100k. It felt like an endless sequence of 200' climbs. I felt fine, but was just slow. Dropped by by the A, B, C, and D groups. I did catch a few stragglers and bonus-mile folks over the next 200k, and ended up pairing with a Seattle dude for the last 150k. Weather was varied; light drizzle on and off much of the day but not enough to really be a problem. The first 200k had a mix of cross and tail winds; crosswinds coming across the lake were chilly. Fortunately the return leg, further inland and late afternoon into night, wasn't very windy. I got the serious long-blink sleepies at around 70k to go, cured by a stop at 7-Eleven for some coffee and hot ramen.

300k next week, but I just told the fleche captain I'm out this year.

downtube42

300k done, though not without some drama. At the first control - the requisite Oregon Randonneurs pic of zipties on a post - I reached for my phone to find... no phone. Left in my car, 20 miles back and 700 feet down. That meant no credit cards to buy food, leaving me with just the $20 bill in my flat repair kit. Pro tip: If you're going to carry a dollar as a boot, make it a $20 just in case. Next question: can I ride the remaining 167 miles on $20 and the food onboard? Possibly, but not comfortably. Next question: can I find a rando to borrow cash from or otherwise sponge off the next 12 hours? Turns out, yes. I was alone at the moment, but came across an SIR rando at Safeway a few miles down the road. I told my story, she handed me a $20 and went on her way. Game on. Next stretch was to the Oregon coast at Cape Meares for some spectacular ocean views. On down to Pacific City, where I ran into more randos at a coffee shop. I borrowed a phone, txted my wife so she wouldn't freak out that my non-moving dot at the start, and reconnected with the $20-sharing rando with whom I finished the route. The weatherman lied; horrible headwinds down the coast didn't materialize, 8 hours of predicted rain turned into 2 hours if light drizzle, and the sun made a rare, prolonged and atypical April appearance in the sky. GPS trace sufficed for proof of passage. 13:43, $5 left out of $40. I'll take it.

Oh, you can actually ride a 300k without a cell phone in 2023. Who knew?

clasher

Finished my first 200 of the season, 8 hours of heavy rain in cool 6-8C weather made for a pretty miserable day. Fairly hilly with 1733m in the 210km. Worse too was that it was a local loop and I was rarely more than 35km from home... Took most of my willpower to finish the route. Rode with the only other rider that signed up. Was just warm enough to avoid hypothermia, except my feet were cold most of the day. Had 2 hours of dry weather and a wee bit of sunshine, only to get soaked an hour from the finish. Finished just under 12 hours due to trying and failing to warm up at controls.

GhostRider62

If anyone wants to make a quick buck, take off my handlebar tape plug. There is a baggie with 2 Benjies on one side and spare spokes on the other. I can't remember which side is which.

My 400k is in the bag with special thanks to the NJ Rando volunteers on what should have been an easy ride turned out to be a hypothermia haze when the forecasted return tailwinds turned more into a 2 o'clock right chin double cross after fighting a left chin wind all the way across the state. Then, it was calm and dark. A big boom and flashes. I've underappreciated the effect of so-called long covid that my pulmonologist says I have, recovery is awful as is overall vitality. So, I got cold. Confused and lost. The last 24 miles took me 4 1/2 hours with nary a hill in sight. Someday, I will figure this randonneuring out. Today, I have randonesia.

54 miles into the NJ Pinelands 400k, my left foot went right to ground with metal noises bouncing pavement. I thought my pedal broke. Turns out the cleat mount failed. On my hands and knees searching for the metal bits, I found some of it. What to do in crisis? 0. Don't panic 1. Pee 2. Sit 3. Have something to eat and drink. 4. Make a plan. At that point, I wasn't sure what the problem was but I thought, well it is only 23 flat miles to the next control, I can pedal with one leg and meet my son with spare pedal. Then, I noticed part of the cleat was still affixed to the pedal. The hardest part of the MacGyvering was getting half the cleat off the pedal. Hands were no match, nor was my multi-tool. Out into the woods to find a short sturdy chunk of wood with an angled end to fulcrum off the crank arm.

Then, my recently flaky Garmin decides to go full bore Cra-Cra. The best part of the ride was somewhere around 10-11 pm in pouring rain and a jogger PASSES me and my Garmin decides to show me my speed. It was 6.8 mph. A comedy of errors, mistakes, amd mishaps. Other randos were blowing by me like I was standing still, which is about as fast as I was moving.

The interesting thing about getting cold is when shivering stops. Then when you start to warm back up (after a long hot shower), you start to shiver again. My biggest mistake was forgetting to bring my Shakedry rain jacket instead of the old rainjacket that I keep with me all the time, it wets out really quickly. I got cold and wet. Never a good combo. Rookie mistake. The rain pants were good. So, 50/50 wet/dry.

Kind of pathetic but I am sure 1 or 2 of us has had a rough go here and there.

downtube42

Squeaked in a pop last day of the month today, to keep my P12 going. I planned to ride a route yesterday that included a couple climbs and miles of gravel, but yesterday morning I just wasn't feeling it. Lingering issues from the 300k the weekend before. Regular stuff, no biggie.

While yesterday was sunny with high of 82, today was mostly overcast, high in the 60's, and 50 when I started at 7am. It sprinkled on me a few times, but never turned into anything. Light wind, seemed to shift through the day. Today's weather suited me better - for bike rides anyway. I had enough heat and sun when I lived in west Texas.

Portland Three Rivers is a flat 100k that's half trails, that I designed specifically for fixed gear. This was my fifth time riding it - four of those fixed IIRC. I pinged some local randos last minute to see if anyone wanted to ride, but no dice. That's okay, I like solo rides.

I'm fairly new to fixed gear; generally I find it's a matter of always being in the wrong gear, just a question of how wrong. Today wasn't bad; I was clicking along nicely much of the ride, climbing out of the saddle on some short climbs, floating on the pedals on some descents. Good time.

Leaving early Sunday, traffic was super light until the last hour or so. I finished in 4:13, quickest by 27 minutes. That's probably about how long I usually stop at Subway, so par for the course.

Any PNW ride this time of year that isn't a rain slog is a win.


​​​​

NJgreyhead

When a riding buddy was looking for a little support to keep alive his R-12, things just fell into place to attempt my first 200k in over a year, this one the Oyster Creek permanent. Starting out as a day to use my clip-on fenders, it went well enough that I am looking forward to doing that distance again soon.
Full write-up here:
https://NJgreyheadbikes.blogspot.com

clasher

I did my local 300, a tough one with ~2400m listed on the rwgps but ~2900m recorded by two of us, one garmin and one wahoo. I was aiming for 12h ride time, 14h total. Finished in 13:48, with 2h stop time. It was cold at the start, 2C but it was up to 14C by 10am so most of the ride was done in summer kit, with some 3/4 length non-insulated bibs to keep the knees covered. Winds were mild for the first 100km, then it was mostly tailwind for the rest, only ~30km of headwind. I wore my shakedry at the start, along with oversocks and some light overmitts that block the wind well. Warm enough for a couple hours and pack down very small.

I tried drinking my carbs for this ride, brought 960g 720g of sugar with to give me 60g/hr. I mixed 180g with a bit of sodium citrate, into ziplocs, refilled a bottle at each control (~75km apart, perfect). I felt great the whole ride, didn't eat too much extra food, just a few cans of pop, and some chips. Had a couple buns and fruit at the last control but felt like that was too much food. Finished the ride and wasn't ravenous. This morning I feel much less drained and sore than I did after my difficult 200 a couple weeks ago. I think this approach is going to work for me, and it's really cheap too.

This was my first brevet using my new 50mm carbon rims, with 30/32mm gp5000 setup tubeless. I have a road bike with the same tires in 28mm on shallow aluminum wheels and they are fantastic. I didn't put a dynamo hub in these, so that probably gets me 10w into forward motion instead of light. I feel like it's worth it. My old 650b wheels had an SP dynamo and gravelkings, so it's not a fair comparison at all.

I bought a magene radar and it was great to have. Traffic was bonkers since it was the first nice spring day we've had. No false negatives, it did alert a few times to cross-traffic or a bird, or something, but I had no surprises. Really nice to have the beeps when it was windy. I still check my mirror and do shoulder checks, but I like having it. The battery lasted for the entire ride, so it should be good for a 400 with a bit of charging, or I think it'll work while charging, either way I'll find out next week. For 130$ it's nice to have. The garmin varia is 345$ here and doesn't have as good battery life. I don't use the light on the magene since I already have a pile of good rear lights but it's a nice backup light. The supplied mount with the magene would work on most seatstays but with my dropped stays it points too far up. It did attach securely to the saddle though,

I hate hate hate the selle anatomica rubber saddle I bought. It's absolutely one of the worst saddle I've used. It squeaks and makes weird popping noises. I'm also ~10lbs over the weight limit so maybe that's the problem, I somehow missed the obvious warning on their website. It doesn't give me saddle sores but that's the only good thing about. I think I'm going back to my old one, just need to figure out how to attach my bigger saddle bag to a normal saddle.


Also, that top tube thing is a mockup, I came across the apidura race bolt-on model, since I don't want straps. It's waterproof, but has a magnetic clasp instead. I cut up a small jug to see if the general shape and opening/closing would work for me and I loved it... easy to open one-handed, just enough room for my dog repellent, a powerpack, a couple of cables, and gum/toothbrush. The apidura one has a cable port as well, seems to do most of what I want, and what I miss not using a handlebar bag. I have a dill pickle bag so it's not really big enough to stuff a lot of clothes in, and I've found I'd rather just stop to change than trying to to faff around while riding. I'm getting close to being completely satisfied with my setup, though I think a shorter stem with a bit more rise might be better for my hands.

clasher

Finished my 400K on the weekend. 19:50 was the time, was hoping for a bit less than that but it was only 16h on the bike so that was what I was aiming for. I rode with a group of 4 so the stops ended up being longer, and more frequent than I'd do on this route alone. We had a 5:30 start so I'd wanted to finish by midnight, but it was 1:20 when we got back to the start.

Temperatures were mild, going up from 12C to 20C and then back down to 12 at night. The wind was fairly mild for the first 100k, then we had some helpful crosswinds for 50k, then 50k of gusty headwinds, then ~180k of tailwinds. Another great day for riding, I don't feel like I missed out on doing the earlier qualifiers we had in Ontario, it's not like PBP is going to have snow.

I was out in front for most of the ride with our little group, I did the sugar-water thing again and I found it very helpful, especially later in the ride, I wasn't fading like I usually do on a 400... was able to keep up my pace and felt like I had a little more in me when I got to the end. I did eat some real food along the way: a few buns, couple of pies at rotten ronnies. Also drank a few pops to get some caffeine into me.

I tried out the lumintop b01 light, but since I had 3 riders with bright lights behind me, it was tricky to get a good feel for how bright it was on its own. The colour does have a bit more yellow to it than the blue-ish dynamo lights I've used. I ran it on high for the last couple hours and it had enough light for a moderate pace on straight roads and short hills. I would carry this light all the time as a backup, it's quite adequate on its own and the mount it comes with worked well, even upside down on bumpy roads, it never came out of the rubber clamp thing. We didn't have any moon due to some clouds. I could use a bit more light off to the sides though. If I were more creative I might try and make a mount that would hold two of them pointed off-centre to each side to get more light toward the ditches.

I also mounted my radar to the back of my saddlebag with the wahoo zip-tie stem mount. I wasn't confident that the seatpost mount would stay put with it on my seatstays, and I remember the wahoo mount was designed to be zip-tied to the stem, and it worked zip-tied to the light clip loop on the back of my saddle bag. The lanyard that comes with the radar looped around the saddle rails, and also kept the radar from sagging too much. Not perfect but probably the best I could do on short notice. I am not sure where I'm going to mount it with my larger saddlebag that I am thinking of using for PBP.

I was thinking of getting a matching apidura race saddle pack instead of the axiom thing I have now, the axiom sways a bit and doesn't tighten up enough against the saddle rails... suppose I could modify it. My larger dill pickle saddlebag that holds enough stuff for a short tour, so I might use that for PBP to carry everything so I don't have to waste time with a drop bag. The apidura bag might be more aero too, though I think my body is wide enough that the dill pickle bag is blocked by my body, but I have a 600 and 1000 coming up to really test the setup. The only concern with the dill pickle bag is that I won't have enough stuff to fill it up enough...

downtube42

Seattle International Randonneurs' Tahuya Hills 600k was my final PBP qualifier, and it was a sufferfest. The route is tough on paper; 9k feet of climbing over 235 miles on day 1, and 7k feet over 141 miles on day 2. Climbing on day 1 started at mile 20; from there it was mostly up or down until about the last 20. Day 2 started pretty easy until mile 70, where the climbing started and didn't let go until 3 miles from the finish. The high point at 1700 feet came just 98 miles into day 1; "it's all downhill from here" yelled a 'bent rider just behind me at the peak. Funny man. Net elevation loss does not equal descending; we had most of the climbing ahead of us.

But the suffering had more to do with heat than hills. My Garmin reports 106F as the high temp, it does not report the blazing sun that drilled us from dawn to dusk. I didn't move from west Texas to the PNW for this! I did rely on my Texas riding experience, dialing back the effort a notch and paying extra attention to hydration and electrolytes.

In an real-time clothing decision, I opted to remove my jersey and wear just my thin SIR windbreaker - for sun protection on my arms. The windbreaker zips up and down, so I took advantage of that for airflow. Worked well, I'd say. There were an astounding 70 riders at the start, so there were plenty groups to ride with. I didn't have a specific plan, other than get as much sleep as possible while leaving the overnight before the control close time. I knew day two would be tough, back-loaded with climbing, so I wanted full time plus a bit.

At some point mid-day, I was with a small group grinding up a steep climb in dead air, when I decided I had to get out of the heat, and now. I put my head down, accelerated to somewhere around my limit, and kept it there for 5 minutes to the top. I figured I might pay later, but there were enough miles and hours to recover. Over the top I went, with a few miles of false flats and rollers before the descending began. I didn't see most of those riders again, and from here to the finish I was alone 90% of the time.

I did pick up an SIR friend with about 40 to go, worked with him until he dropped me on a climb, then reconnected with under 10 miles to go. I was so happy when, as dusk approached, I started feeling cool air wafting across the road. Glorious. We rolled in to the staffed overnight control and hotel at 11:20pm, which was 20 minutes behind my best-case estimate and 2 hours better than worst-case. My stomach had been a little off, particularly unhappy with some apple juice I'd downed with 40 to go, so I ate a light dinner provided by the excellent volunteers, showered, and was in bed before 12. Alarm set for 5:45, giving me a decent amount of sleep after a tough day.

Backing up a bit, my buddy was planning to ride through the night with a four other like minded randos, aiming for 26 hours. There were quite a few planning a straight-through ride, hoping to get some night riding experience for PBP. My hotel room at the overnight was his bailout option. I didn't expect that to happen, but I reserved a two-bed room just in case. Good thing! Heat zapped him hard, and he'd only rolled in an hour or so before me. He was planning a 4:30 wakeup, but I didn't consider that for a second. I like my sleep, and a 6:30 roll-out put me 30 minutes ahead of the clock. Good enough, I figured.

Day 2 was hot but not as bad as day 1. There was also more shade, less exposed sun. The first 15 miles was actually a gradual drag up; not challenging just a net gain of about 400 feet. From there it dropped down to essentially sea level as we rode along the coast, and was basically flat until mile 70. I felt strong and good, with a good stomach. Then the hell hills hit. I'd been dealing with a slow leak on my rear tire all weekend, topping it off at controls. Things finally came to a head in the Tahuya hills when, faced with fast curvy descents, I decided to take care of things. Friday night, as we rode from where we'd parked at the finish hotel down to the ferry, I'd evidently run through a field of glass. My back tire had ten or twenty tiny punctures that were just not sealing. I had a small vial of sealant; I removed the core, squirted in the sealant, and used CO2 for a quick inflation. I usually pump, saving CO2 in case I need to seat a bead, but it was hot and I was tired of pumping. Topeak Roadmorph, by the way, is a damn fine pump. So that appeared to work, and from there I descended with confidence. Ascending was still slow; it wasn't the tire

With 14 miles to go, I had two thoughts. First, I thought that's an hour ezpz, and I'd be in before 6pm. Second, after realizing this was the same finish on Bainbridge Island as last year's rain-soaked 600k, the last 14 miles were a seemingly unending series of short sharp climbs broken up by a few long drags. Ug, this is going to suck. It did, those last miles crawled by slowly, and I came in a few minutes after 6pm for a day 2 ET of 11:48. If my math is right, my overall time would be 36:10.

Tough ride. I'll take it. PBP bound for #4.

ThermionicScott 

Well done. I'd say you earned your spot, @downtube42.

Meanwhile, I've decided to pull the plug on PBP this time around. After my poor showing in the 200k a month ago, I took a hard look at everything we have going on this year, and the current state of my cycling mojo, and realized I didn't quite have the drive to make all of it happen. Perhaps things will line up better for LEL or the next PBP...

downtube42

I rode the Southeast Portland Bikeways 100k on Tuesday evening, keeping my P12 alive. Unexpected business travel meant no more weekends at home, soon a solo weeknight ride was the only option.

Legs were still pretty toasty from the weekend 600k, so a flat trail ride option was appreciated. Not much to be done about the sore ass except ride a different bike with different saddle. Initial rando ride for my new Trek Domane ensued.

The route is essentially three out and back segments, on the Springwater trail to it's terminus in Boring, Trolley trail to it's end at Gladstone, and Eastside esplanade to the Steel Bridge. I live on the Springwater halfway to Boring, so i started and ended there taking advantage of new perm rules allowing start/finish between controls.

It was warm and calm, with slim chance of rain, so I just brought a reflective vest and a gator. Slight risk of weather turning, but yolo.

I got a little confused in Gladstone and wasted a few minutes, and similarly wasted time in Portland dealing with the closed lower level of the Steel Bridge. Killed my sub 4 hour finish thoughts, which was just as well; pointless suffering is pointless.

Heading south out of Portland in full darkness, i was slowly closing on a normie (aka non rando cyclist). I would have stayed back but that blinkie was super bright and annoying. So a little mup mamil pseudo race ensued. Actually he was a mamil; I'm 62 thus technically old. The dude stayed 1-200 yards back, closing in and dropping back, for about a half hour as we transitioned from urban to suburban. I started wondering if he was going to follow me all the way out to Boring, about ten miles out. Eventually when I rolled through a smokey homeless camp segment of the SWT, he disappeared. That little escapade brought four hours temptingly close. The route to Boring is slightly uphill along Johnson Creek and before long I decided to shut things down and have a chill finish.

I had to ride past my finish point with 10 miles to go, for that last bit of out and back. Always emotionally challenging. An endless supply of indecisive suicidal rabbits kept me awake as my sleep deprived weekend started catching up with me. One bunny actually slammed into my front wheel. I stayed calm and rando'd on.

Finished around 11:20pm for 4:11.

https://strava.app.link/6kpJsZLoXzb

NJgreyhead

Rode another 200k with my buddy Rick who created the route recently. He split off after 100+ miles to complete his new 300k route, allowing me to be the first to finish his 200. Generous of him, I think.

The trouble with riding such a long time/distance in South Jersey is, at some point I find myself in rush-hour traffic somewhere with little to no shoulder, and some of that traffic is going to be large trucks. I feel like I am pushing my luck. May not be doing another 200 this year for that reason.
EDIT: Maybe I should limit my long rides to Sundays.

Had to take this pic, as I am a '49er by birth year.



Ye Greate 200k rando ride #1 - A bike ride in Vineland, NJ (ridewithgps.com)

downtube42

PBP registered, with all qualifiers entered!

It was particularly satisfying entering the 600 homologation number, given the amount of suffering involved.

Now to avoid getting fatter and slower between now and then.

GhostRider62

I managed to drag my old bones around 600k with three punctures and only one asthma attack in Princeton with lower in evening temperatures and what seemed like a 10 alarm fire, which I could not smell. Long Covid and still cannot smell. I planned to ride straight thru but my lungs said otherwise, so, I stopped 5 hours to rest. I guess I am finally not as stupid.

I'm trying to figure out if I should convert my PBP pre-registration to a registration. Riding in cold air has been a real problem. When I was younger, I used to fantasize doing the 84H group and only riding in daylight or as close to that as possible given logistical constraints. Maybe I could change from the B group to a Monday morning group. I dunno. I have plane tickets, car rental, and hotels booked. Last Fall my fitness was the best in 10 years and I planned to ride PBP fast and now, I am not sure I can even do it. C'est la vie.

How many days does it take for Randonesia to kick in?

GhostRider62

Saturday's NJ600 was so well run as usual with such nice and kind volunteers, They are kind even busting your chops. I could not get my leg over the saddle (I never can) at I guess 200 mile control and our ever present Rick quipped, that is what happens at 65 and we both laughed. I just could not get back on the bike, I wish I had a video.

Three punctures for me and unfortunately a pretty nasty crash on one of those stupid unmaintained MUP trails. That is the third crash I have witness on those gawd awful, unfriendly rando routes. Dogs, rollerbladers, joggers, walkers, runners, Freds, messed up road surfaces, stantions at stop signs every 500-1000 feet. Nuff said. Other than that, a glorious weekend. Calm winds, sunny, and moderate temperatures. Stunning days.

The last 200k was in my neck of the woods and I know all roads literally. When the route first came out, it was pretty good. Then after the pre-ride the NJ leadership changed the route to what I think was near perfection with a great mix of flat roads with rollers to several challenging climbs albeit nothing too hard. Nice views and it even went past NJ's last remaining covered bridge. We had a touch of suburbia, horse farms, cranberry farms, Pineyville, "Down the Shore", a nitro burning funny car drag strip 200 feet off the route (needed the adrenaline rush), bridge towns of Lambertville, New Hope, Frenchtown, and scenic farmland vistas at the Northern end of the route. For the most populous state in the country, it was a really nice route and very enjoyable. The second day's hills were just challenging enough to feel it in the legs without them breaking. They gave us pretty much the nicest and easier climbs. I think I recorded 7,900 feet on day 2.

As we headed South from "Princeton" towards the turnaround, Cape May. Nine of us had two locomotives doing the lion's share. I could hold wheels no problem but we were hauling ass (and then stopping 15-20 minutes at controls, LOL). For example, the one fellow took a 10 mile (not minute) pull at 23-27 mph and we did it in 26 minutes or perhaps a few seconds under. As I struggled to pull thru, I playfully said to him, "That's all?", I guess there is a big difference from mid 40's to mid 60's in age. I chatting about the pace with another older fellow who has 51 hour PBP and Tour Divide finish and then I started counting similar riders in the group, we were not wheel suckers but our pulls might have been a couple minutes versus like what seemed forever for out two relatively young locomotives. The route recalled a 600K that I rode completely solo in 2015 and at the 10 hour mark, I was a full 40 miles ahead of Saturday's pace although I did have two punctures a short detour to a bike shop this time. I laughed at myself not too long after and decided to just enjoy the beautiful day and wonderful roads. Now I understand why almost nobody completes PBP once they hit 70.

An ACP SR in the bag ain't bad. Randonesia is starting to fade in or it could be the second double espresso

downtube42

I've had it kick in mid-shower after a 600k. My brain went from "am I actually standing in this shower or am I still on the bike?" to "that wasn't so bad".

But generally, one good sleep does the trick.