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06-19-09, 10:40 AM
What a great experience. I cannot say thanks enough to the organizer, Matt Settle, and the volunteers who made it all work. We had wonderful weather, unlike the blistering heat that hit last year's ride. Other than some drizzle the first morning, I did not even get rained on, although some others caught a shower.
We climbed. My Garmin 705 recorded 47,600. Someone else's read 53,000. Bikeroutetoaster.com says 50,000 ... somewhere in there is the truth, but regardless, there was a lot of climbing.
There was no wind. That was great. I'll take hills over wind any day.
This was my first 1200. I remember times during my first 400, not long ago, when I was asking myself -- "why am I doing this?" ... but somehow with the 1200 it seemed easier to just settle my mind into the ride and not second guess. I probably took it easier on myself, knowing that I was going to be out there for days.
After the first day, which I rode mostly by myself, I linked up with Juan Salazar, from Brazil, and Andy Brenner, from New Jersey. Other than some Control-to-Control separation a couple of times on some climbing sections, we rode together. They were great company and our riding styles meshed.
We were not trying to set any records. We spent 5 hours at each of the overnight rest stops -- 1 hour cleanup & eat; 3 hours sleep; 1 hour organize & eat and hit the road. That seemed to work quite well. We did not rush through any Controls either. Actually Juan and Andy spent a little more time at the first overnight Control because they got in before me.
We got in at 2:45 p.m. on the final day against the 10pm time limit. It felt good to have some margin. It also felt good to relax, eat and not worry about digesting it :).
Personally I found that recovery time was not long. I was stiff the next day (Monday), exacerbated by a 14 hour drive to Florida. Where originally I thought that I might hop on the bike and do a ride on Tuesday, I was not all that anxious. Thursday was soon enough to get out and do a 137 mile Permanent. I noted that my 705 read 100 miles of riding and 199 feet of climbing ... and most of that was two causeways over the Intracoastal Waterway and 1 overpass over I95 ... not exactly Virginia riding !
I notice two residual effects of the Shenandoah 1200:
1) a little bit of numbness in the tips of my toes probably from pressing my feet against the ends of my shoes
2) a desire to do it again ... yes, I'm hooked ! I'm looking forward to the Granite Anvil.
We leave Florida in a couple of days to travel to our cottage north of Toronto. Riding temperatures will be more conducive to riding than here in Florida, at this time of year.
Dave Thompson.
We climbed. My Garmin 705 recorded 47,600. Someone else's read 53,000. Bikeroutetoaster.com says 50,000 ... somewhere in there is the truth, but regardless, there was a lot of climbing.
There was no wind. That was great. I'll take hills over wind any day.
This was my first 1200. I remember times during my first 400, not long ago, when I was asking myself -- "why am I doing this?" ... but somehow with the 1200 it seemed easier to just settle my mind into the ride and not second guess. I probably took it easier on myself, knowing that I was going to be out there for days.
After the first day, which I rode mostly by myself, I linked up with Juan Salazar, from Brazil, and Andy Brenner, from New Jersey. Other than some Control-to-Control separation a couple of times on some climbing sections, we rode together. They were great company and our riding styles meshed.
We were not trying to set any records. We spent 5 hours at each of the overnight rest stops -- 1 hour cleanup & eat; 3 hours sleep; 1 hour organize & eat and hit the road. That seemed to work quite well. We did not rush through any Controls either. Actually Juan and Andy spent a little more time at the first overnight Control because they got in before me.
We got in at 2:45 p.m. on the final day against the 10pm time limit. It felt good to have some margin. It also felt good to relax, eat and not worry about digesting it :).
Personally I found that recovery time was not long. I was stiff the next day (Monday), exacerbated by a 14 hour drive to Florida. Where originally I thought that I might hop on the bike and do a ride on Tuesday, I was not all that anxious. Thursday was soon enough to get out and do a 137 mile Permanent. I noted that my 705 read 100 miles of riding and 199 feet of climbing ... and most of that was two causeways over the Intracoastal Waterway and 1 overpass over I95 ... not exactly Virginia riding !
I notice two residual effects of the Shenandoah 1200:
1) a little bit of numbness in the tips of my toes probably from pressing my feet against the ends of my shoes
2) a desire to do it again ... yes, I'm hooked ! I'm looking forward to the Granite Anvil.
We leave Florida in a couple of days to travel to our cottage north of Toronto. Riding temperatures will be more conducive to riding than here in Florida, at this time of year.
Dave Thompson.