CliftonGK1

I solo'd the lastest addition to the Seattle Randonneurs list of Permanents today for my January R-12 ride. (The R-12 award is for completing 12 consecutive months of 200k or longer rides; no double ups in the summer to make up for bad winter conditions.)
The Three Rivers v2 200k is the flattest 200k course the club has, with only 2500' of total gain. The biggest challenge is the 55 mile stretch from Darrington, WA to Clear Lake, WA with no services.
I took over an hour off my time from the original Three Rivers Cruise 200k, and finished in 8h 29m.

Mr Danw

That is great! When the weather finally breaks here I really want to get into some longer rides.

1bluetrek

Wow dude, you rock! Well done

BTW doc says arthritis in my knees, guess it could be worse?

CliftonGK1

You can try a glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM supplement and see if that helps.

Mr. Beanz

I'm not familiar with a 200k time, is that good?

CliftonGK1

Take a century time and add 25%. 200k is 125 miles.

Barrettscv 

Great result & a great way to start the year!



Michael

Mr. Beanz

I've only done one metric double, Cool Breeze, 7200 ft of climbing. I spent a whole lot of time waiting for my 2 partners at the tops of the climbs. Riders really should train more on climbing. Partners didn't want to do the final climb so we cut the 128 course short to 124.

I believe Homey was there that year. I think he did the 100 miler, he wanted to be first to the ice cream rest stop!

CliftonGK1

Thanx! It's #3 in my R-12 series; 3 down, 9 to go.




I've been doing quite a bit of climb training for this season; there are some great climbing brevets I've got planned for this year.
The Bellingham 300k is rolling to flat, with only 1 real climb... Mt. Baker. 4200' in 25 miles, and the summit is the 100k marker in the course.
Then there's the 3 Volcanoes 300 in the fall, which climbs the high roads of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. The elevation on that one should total up around 14,000' I think, and I might need all 20.5 allocated hours to finish since we're promised "long stretches of gravel roads" by the organizer. Looks like I'll be slapping some 32mm, or maybe even 35mm tires on for that ride.
Most of the 200k rides the Seattle Randos put on are between 6500 and 8500' of climbing, but because the time frame for a brevet is so long, you can ride at a comfortable pace as opposed to a hilly club/organized century, where they expect the "slow" people to be coming in at 7 hours. (YMMV) There were a couple organized century rides here last year where I rode 20 miles to the start, rode the hilly century and arrived to see them pulling down the tents and packing up at 8 hours post-start, and then rode home thinking "well, that's just rude."

Mr. Beanz

THe hill rides around here allow about 11 hours. I know cause my friend did it, took 11 hours and was the latern rouge!...........But I know hwat you mean. The first time the Tour De Palmsprings was held, it include a whole lot more hill climbing than today's easy version of the ride.

Gina nd I did hte century on the tandem. About 60 miles in, the organizers were telling the riders that they coud eliminate the last section into the hills by cutting across town to the finish. Heck, we paid for the century so we kept going into towards and into the hills. I knew we were in trouble when the crowd turned from a group of about 50 to 3 bikes! We finished in 8 hours but were just about the last bike in out of the 200 or so!

Tents were down, food was gone, and a group of about 5 riders looking at each other wondering what had happened! Our postride meal went from a chicken dinner to M&M's (no peanuts)!

I think it would be cool to do the bevet rando stuff but they dont have that stuff around here that I know of. Maybe they do down the road but the hotel scene gets expensive. Done some rides in Arizona but 7 hour drives (14 total) gets expensive after a few years. I'd have to sell my bike to continue!

Homeyba

Beanz!!!!! There is a brevet series out of Ventura. That's not too far from your place is it**********

Regarding speed, brevets have "opening time" requirements so you won't see too many really fast 200k's on brevets.
Back in my younger years (before they started enforcing opening times on brevets) I did the first 200k of a 600k in 4:45. It made the next 400k kind of tough but I had lots of time in the bank to recover!

Clifton, congrates on your PR, that's awesome.

Mr. Beanz

A bit over 2 hours, brevets start at what time, 4 ,5, 6 am? I need my 5 hours nightly sleep. I'd need a hotel cause I aint getting up at 2 am to drive to a ride.

Few years ago, I'd think of doing the whole scene, but just doesn't seem important nowadays. I just like to ride. One hour drive to an organized is ok, no more than that. If I get into the mood to do the triple crown or similar series, I'd consider the travel but for now, I'm just a slug.

Clifton, how far do you drive to these events, just curious!

Homeyba

Beanz, you big weenie! I have to drive from all the way up here to do those rides.

Mr. Beanz

Pick me up on your way! I don't drink coffee but a hot chocolate and a buttermilk donut will do fine

Homeyba

Yeah, that wouldn't be out of my way...

Kamala

You're my hero dude, I'm going to need every last minute in March.

StephenH

Congratulations on the personal best!

"Good" is relative. I've ridden 3- 200k's, and my best time has been just over 10 hours, with a good bit less climbing.

On New Years Day, I did a 38 mile ride and averaged 18.0 on my speedometer. That was my best ever for a loop ride. I realize Lance Armstrong could probably do that with one leg, but it's still my best.

CliftonGK1

Yesterday's drive was about 75 minutes to the start.
For an 06:30 start and wanting 30 minutes to prep my stuff when I got there, that meant leaving at quarter to 05:00. With time for breakfast, loading the car, etc... I was up at 03:30.
I'll drive 2 or 3 hours for a 300k or longer, since I'll stay overnight afterwards. We do 07:00 starts for 200k and 300k, and 06:00 starts for 400k. 05:00 or 06:00 starts for 600k is typical, except when someone plays a crazy hand like Jan last fall, starting the Mountain 600k at 21:00 on a Friday.

Mr. Beanz

That's about right! If I have an hour drive, I'm up about 4 am. Same for a 2 hour drive cause most of the rides further away have a later start time.

Bad thing about big rides is I can't sleep the night before. Usually 2 hours, 3 at most, too excited. On one ride Gina wanted to drive support. Figures the brakes would start squealing (warning clip). I was out there jimmyrigging it at 11 pm when I had to get up at 3:30!

CliftonGK1

Here's the big difference between 300 to thousand+ rider organized/club rides and brevets:
Cascade Bike Club puts on one of the biggest double centuries around; the Seattle to Portland. 10,000 riders. You can stay in the UW dorms, or a hotel, etc. the night before if you don't live near here.

Seattle Randonneurs puts on a great 400k / 1000k combined ride which starts from a member's house. When you finish the ride, he and his wife have spare towels, the guest bathroom, and rooms prepped up for riders to sack out for a few hours. And he fixes breakfast and coffee.
One of the club members lets riders camp in his back yard the night before/after the 300k which leaves from his house. (And you can use the hot tub if you bring some trunks.)
Even the largest brevet we've got (The Chili Feed 200k) draws 100 or so riders, and they're all invited back to the organizers house for, you guessed it; post-ride chili.

Maybe it's not the same everywhere; but with the Seattle Randos, it's a much tighter knit group of people than the average bicycle club..

Neil_B

You are my hero. :-)

Mr. Beanz

Yup, sounds sweet! We exchange room and board around here with others. But nothing like you mention!

100 people after a chili feed? I dunno about that!

youcoming

WTG you must take short breaks or none at all. I did 209km last year and it took 9h5m but only 7h43m of ride time. Doing it again this year and see if I can cut the breaks down.

CliftonGK1

I'm a notorious lollygagger at the controls, and known for bonus breaks; "Hey, I'm gonna stop and take some pictures over here, I'll catch you at the next control." "I'm gonna cruise over there and get another Gatorade and take a breather, I'll catch up at the next control." Etc.
This season, I'm really looking to cut down on that since I'll be doing a 600k in the fall and I want every minute of spare time available for the eventuality of a mechanical problem, and to catch some shut-eye for (hopefully) 2 or 3 hours at the 400k mark. Saturday was a test of how quickly I could be in/out of the controls.
3 signature/reciept controls, and 2 info controls. The first/last signature was the start/finish, so that barely counts. I was prepped and ready to roll when I got the first signature, and I ran in to get my signature then pretty much collapsed on a bench after the last one. The first control signature was at 30 miles and I took 10 minutes: Grab some snacks, refill my bottles, hit the can, eat some pop-tarts and head back out. The info controls were both 5 minute quick stops: Check the card for the question, snap a picture for the answer, eat a little bit and get moving. I took 2 bonus stops of 5 minutes; one during a 55 mile stretch of the course with no services so I could stop and have a snack, the other at the end of that stretch to buy a Gatorade and use the can. Overall, I kept my stoppage time under 40 minutes.

Having done a sub 08:30 200k, I know how much work I have to do with increasing my speed for the endurance haul if I ever want to get to the sub 20:00 400k level that I see quite a few of my club's riders pulling off. Holy cow! I was pretty much in a state of disrepair at the end of this 200k. Usually, I finish my 200k ride and I feel like I could continue on for another 100k if I wanted to. I finished this one and had a difficult time eating a sack of salt & vinegar crisps because I was a little shaky and my stomach was a bit knotted. It took me 15 minutes before I was ready to stand up and walk out to my truck.