General Cycling Discussion - Well I almost did it

I enterd an MS150 this weekend. I loved it, but by 19 miles before the end I just gave up. I was so sore and tired I was weaving up hills and then saw another rider crash and said I'll be next so I saged. I hated to do it, but it gives me a goal for the time.

Joe

Don't worry about it. Learn from the experience. How could you have trained differently? Did you eat/drink enough? Did you ride with a partner and take turns "leading". You'll get it next time.

I had knee probles for a couple of weeks before the run and couldn't train as hard as I had wanted.

I was riding alone although a friend and I drove there together, we were too mismatched, kept crossing at rest stops. Because of the knee and the hurricane I didn't have as much time in the new saddle of the new bike as I would have liked. The pain in the butt is was caused me to use up too much energy and to weave on the hills, while my legs were tired I think they could have made it. Had to cut a bunch of trees up to get out to the paved road. Didn't get power back untill late Sunday.

Also the hills over in that part of the state dwarf the ones around here so although I had done as much hill riding as I could it aparently wasn't enough.

I believe I'll do it next time, just feel a little bad that I didn't make it all the way.

Thanks for the support
Joe

Just stick at it and whip it next time around. Rides that you have to wait for are ever sweeter!

Thanks Chris I'll do that. Just believe if I had remember the butt lube that Koffee talks about I could have done it.

Got to admit that I thought of you and your love of head winds Saturday - we had a good one.

Joe

:beer:

A headwind is a killer on a long ride Joe. you'll get there next time.

It will make you more determined next year. Twice this year I have had to walk hills. It seems the harder I train, the harder rides I opt to ride. So hills I have rode up on other occasions, become impossible after long mileage before the 10-20% grade. You probably could have handled the mileage and the hills, just not hills, mileage and headwind. Now you have a goal for the winter, isn't that wonderful. Strength training. Gotta love it.

Right, one concequence of not finishing is to convince me I want to try again next year. Even though I believe that had I thought to use a lube on my sit bones bag balm or whatever I could have made it I will push hard this winter to be ready for spring and work on steep hills for this ride, maybe by doing a flatter 150 seperate from the hills and then train for the hills.

Anyway thanks guys for the enchoragement!

Joe

Joeprim, Congrats on the ride! Doing all of it, but the last 19 miles is still a big accomplishment. You have every right to be proud of yourself.

I know what you mean about the sore rear end. I used butt lube on my MS150 but still managed to rub myself raw. I think I needed to apply more often.

Just train harder next year and plan on having a good time!

Congratulations on the attempt. Tell me something, though: is the MS150 you rode a one-day, 150 mile ride or a two-day ride of 75 miles each day? Either way, just think about what you did accomplish, 131 miles is no small feat.

Prosody

I thought all MS150s were 2 day events. That's why i wasn't clear on it.

I've never known whether they were all 2-day events or not. So, you rode 75 miles on day 1, and 56 miles on day 2, and you did this after clearing trees that Hurricane Isabelle knocked over--that's great!