Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - My first 200k Brevet

I enjoyed MOST of my ride, and learned some things, as well. (Note to self: Don't chase the rabbits, don't chase the rabbits, don't chase the rabbits)

Finished the first half of the ride with the lead group in just under 3 hrs. Took me forever to get back to the start point... I let myself get dehydrated and I got sick. Also had to keep getting off the bike because my back was killing me... Need to get that fit adjusted. Oh... and the headwinds on the way back were BRUTAL. At one point I think they were 30mph. UGH!

Oh... and then in my delirium I got lost with only 5 miles to go, and added another 5 miles to my ride.

*sighs* I'll be better about making sure I pace myself next time.

Stats: Metric Century in 2 hrs, 59 minutes (no stops), Century in 5 hrs, 18 minutes (not including about 20 minutes at the controls)
Total on-bike time: 7 hrs 7 minutes...

My total was 9 and a half hours, so I spent almost 2 and a half hours off the bike in the last 1/3rd of the ride. But... I made it. :D

Yaaay for you! What I do at the first sign of back pain is put the bike in 52X12 and get out of the saddle and stay there until my legs are tired, just pumping slowly. I do the same thing every time I finish my pull and go to the back of the line. When I'm in the line and feel some pain, I do something similar. When you do it in the line, watch the wheel in front of you and come out of the saddle smoothly so that distance doesn't vary at all. Also, when I get tired and I'm second, I'll do the same thing so I'll feel OK when I start my pull.

If you feel yourself getting dehydrated, pick it up to 6-10 sips of water every 10 minutes, and pop an Endurolyte at least every 1/2 hour. The getting sick part - yeah, you've just got to experiment and find what you can and cannot eat. Stay away from Gatorade.

The back pain was the worst thing for me.... I took two separate breaks where I spent a half hour off the bike just laying in the grass. I'm pretty sure it's the fit, I've only had the bike for a week, and it's MUCH smaller than the one I'm used to riding. They SAY it fits me better, but my body is telling me otherwise.

I think my handlebars need to come up a bit, seat forward, and a slightly longer stem.

Congratulations on your 200K!

What part of your back hurt?

And when doing long rides, it's a good idea to aim to drink at least one 750 ml bottle every 1 to 1.5 hours (says she who was struggling to do that yesterday). Now that includes whatever you drink on breaks ... and the way I got my hydration back closer to normal yesterday was by sitting down for 15 minutes at controls and drinking a 591 ml bottle of orange crush or iced tea ... in addition to what I was drinking on the bicycle. The orange crush and iced teas also gave me some calories. When I drank them, I made sure to eat something salty too, so that my electrolytes didn't get off balance.

Lower half of my back was hurting, as well as my hands. I'll have new gloves for the next ride, these were really cheap gloves. I think I'll also add some more padding on my bars when I redo them.

As far as hydration, I really messed that up... I drank about half of what you're recommending on the first half of the ride. I also rode at a lot faster pace than what I'm used to... we stayed at the first checkpoint for only about 5 minutes, the second checkpoint was about 10 minutes (I'd lost the first group by then, but there were only 5 people ahead of us at that point)

After the second checkpoint (about 90 miles) is where I fell apart. I didn't make a note of my time at that checkpoint, but after that I slowed down a lot... and just kept getting slower and slower.

I think I ate plenty, but I didn't drink nearly enough.

I've ridden pretty long distances on my own, but I generally went at a lot slower pace, and had plenty of stops to see the scenery, shop, eat, whatever.

I'll do better on both counts next time. :)

Stopped in to see my friend at the bike shop... he looked over my fit. My bars are too low and too far forward for the way I ride, and I keep scooting forward on my seat.

He's recommending a few changes, we'll play with it and see what happens. Hopefully I'll be in a lot less pain during my next brevet.

I'll probably also plan on just getting off the bike for a while if I run into serious problems again... even with all the things that went wrong on my 200k, I finished with 4 hrs to spare. I need to remember that I'm plenty fast when I'm on the bike that I can afford to take some serious time off the bike and still complete the ride in the allotted time.

I ride with my handlebars level with my saddle ...... and I've gone through more stems than I can count in the past 7 years to find one that is short enough. Short stems seem to be a very rare thing!

And don't forget to stretch while you are on the bicycle. I posted my on-bike, whole-body, stretching routine on a thread in the General Forum, and can post it here if you're interested.

I've never had these kinds of issues on any other bike... it pretty much has to be the fit. The bars on my old bike are just above the seat height and were as low as they'd go... this one is about 2" below the seat and that's as high as they can go.

The bars are also a different size from what I'm used to... wider by 2cm and makes the bike feel twitchy. I think they are longer in the drops as well, (Maybe a bit deeper?) I'll compare them with my old bike tomorrow and may swap the bars from my old bike when I swap out the stem. I think if I raise the bars to be even with my seat and move them back a bit so I'm not scooting forward onto the point of my saddle I should be a LOT more comfortable.

*throws his tape measure into his trunk bag so he doesn't forget it in the morning*

Congrats on your first 200K. Sounds like mine a few weekends ago [first half good, second half bad] except your were faster and because I am riding a recumbent I was comfortable as I struggled into the headwind on my way back to the start.

Good luck on your up coming rides.

Well, I compared the fit on the two bikes and the bars on the new bike were 4 inches lower! No WONDER my back was killing me. :( The bars were also narrower on the old one, as well as shaped different. I'm taking the bars off my old bike and putting them on my new one, along with a new stem to bring them up some. Should be MUCH better, and I'll be able to lower them slowly as I become more used to the new position.