Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Hey - Dick Cranium ain't all bad !

I did my boy-scout good deed last week by helping a 69-year-rider finish a 300k........... If there's one thing I've learned from this, is that riding really slow can be nearly as hard as riding really fast....... The saddle-time was over 13 hours! - Yes, Vaseline was necessary......

The entire 300k ride took over 16 hours, my heart rate never made it to 120. Normally, I would ride this route in a bout 10hours. On the other hand, riding a 185 miles without any aches or pains is kind of nice..........

[end of self-serving bragging]

[begin ruthless remarks below]

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wow. not sure where to go with this so i'll keep it positive. ;)

i can tell you that riding slow is hard work.
i hired a coach and he set me up with an organized plan.
i'm in a build period, so i was expecting more intensity... but what i got back looks nothing like what i was doing. it has plenty of z1 rides and strategically applied intensity. (i've been making mine up as i go along, riding hard and harder... and not seeing results!)
the intensity days hurt, and the z1 and z2 days strangely make me sore too... just as it is hard to keep your hr up into the maximal zones, i'm finding it hard to stay in z1! (i keep telling myself to slow down, climb slower, let the wind push me around...)



people who ride brevets and do marathons 'slow' because they have to really have it worse off than the fast crowd.

the fast crowd goes all out for a much shorter period of time.
the slow crowd goes all out for a much longer period of time - more need for calories, more chances for mechanicals, more spots to mentally break down, etc. on a brevet, slower riders get less sleep, the last of the food at the controls, ride in the dark more, and have that debilitating sight of seeing the folks on the return leg (of an out and back) flying by in the other direction...

in terms of physical output - relative to each rider i would guess that each is riding at their limits - so while the faster rider puts up more impressive stats, the slower rider, in relation to their conditioning, is putting out the same percentage of watts to training / etc - and maybe more - just to finish. impressive on its own and would be fun to somehow 'handicap' brevets like in golf.

I did that once too last year. I was recovering from broncitis so I rode with an older guy and later on when I could have pulled away I decided to stay with him just to make sure he made it in. Both of us had HIDs at that time so it really was a beautiful night ride at the end even if I didn't have as much battery as he did.

Gregory House just tripped and dropped his cane...

Besides bragging, I think one point of my post is to remind readers that riding any pace - but your own, on a long ride can be much more taxing.

Because of my vast cycling experience, and previous knowledge of this particular rider's abilities, I did indeed "help" him finish. However, I wonder if most riders who "pair up" in these events really do themselves that much good. I would suppose there is some "mental" aspect that supersedes any physical benefit.

Bottom line, unless you know what you are doing, let the turtles ride down the road at their own pace, you're misguided help could eventually get them run over..........

Besides bragging, I think one point of my post is to remind readers that riding any pace - but your own, on a long ride can be much more taxing.

Because of my vast cycling experience, and previous knowledge of this particular rider's abilities, I did indeed "help" him finish. However, I wonder if most riders who "pair up" in these events really do themselves that much good. I would suppose there is some "mental" aspect that supersedes any physical benefit.

Bottom line, unless you know what you are doing, let the turtles ride down the road at their own pace, you're misguided help could eventually get them run over..........


You're not patentcad, are you? ;)