mthayer

I had been throwing the thought around about doing a 200k brevet for months now. I found one close to where I live and its on July 16. I got kinda stoked about it and I am really considering doing it. The issue is that I am not in the riding condition that I would need to be in to do it. I did a 36 mile ride today and thats longest ride ive done this year. My legs were tired at the end of the ride and thats in part to me pushing a little harder than i normally would, but some was because of the distance.

Would it be feasible to start and try to train to complete the brevet with such little time to build myself to the point of being able to complete it?

2manybikes

I would not suggest it, however everyone is different. Try one long ride each week. Make each ride a little longer. See what happens. I have helped a few riders train to get to 100 mile rides by September. I would say one month is not enough. My on line converter says 200k is about 124 miles. Be sure to eat and drink as you ride.

znomit

Go ride 120km at an easy pace tomorrow. See how you feel.

FunkyStickman

I just did my first 200K, my longest ride this year was about 55 miles. I've done 75 miles on a supported ride, but 200K was by far the longest distance I've done unsupported. I'm not going to lie to you, it was very hard. Most of the difficulty was saddle soreness, my legs, hands, and feet were pretty much okay. With the proper comfort setup, it's doable, though it may take you longer than 13.5 hours if you have to rest a lot, or you can't maintain about a 12-14MPH average.

Read this, it should give you some ideas.
https://jeffhendricks.net/?p=582

Richard Cranium

I've always wondered why anyone would ask other people to try weird activities This "200k or die" idea is little different from "how much can I stress my body without breaking?"

If you don't like to ride bikes - why would you want to ride 120+ miles all in one shot?

Seems goofy to me. I have no answers -only more questions.

Bacciagalupe

I don't recommend doing this particular 200k.

If your longest ride was 36 miles, 3 weeks is nowhere near enough time to ramp up to a 120 mile ride. It's barely enough time to acclimate to the heat, let alone quadruple your endurance.

I don't think the consequences would be catastrophic, but you might not finish, get a minor injury or both.

I know 200ks aren't that common, but there should be one later in the year that you can do and will have time to train for properly.

Machka 

If you've been thinking about doing a 200K for months now, why is your longest ride this year only 36 miles, completed today? If you really wanted to do a 200K, why didn't you start building up your distance months ago?

What was your longest ride last year, preferably late last year?

10 Wheels

^^^^^ Stay home and drink Cold Drinks..

Thulsadoom

If you need someone else to tell you whether you're ready or not, then you're probably not ready.

mthayer

I have excuses for not riding this year, but they are just excuses. I just have not done it, plain and simple.
Last year i easily did 70 mile rides.

Homeyba

If you are in reasonable physical condition and are very stubborn you could most likely do the distance. You're going to be sore and miserable but you could probably do it. Could you do it in the allotted time???? I don't know. There is typically a time limit on these events. The question is really do you want to suffer through it? If you don't mind the suffering then go for it.

StephenH

I got interested in randonneuring a while back and did my first 200k. But prior to that, I had ridden several 100-mile centuries at charity rides, several 100k's, etc. And I joined RUSA and did a 100k and a 160k permanent first to see how things went there.

With the 36-mile ride, the question would be, how hard were you working on it? Some people just can't get on a bike without hammering for all they're worth, and if you did 36 miles like that and your legs are tired, you might be able to ride all day at a relaxed pace. Or if that 36 miles was at a relaxed pace, you'd probably do well to get more riding in.

Randonneuring routes tend to be hillier and windier rides, and it would be informative if your longest ride was also of equal hilliness or not.

Sekhem

I rode my first populaire (100K) and first 200K in 2009 (I had never ridden a century before then). I thought they were the most terrible experiences I ever had on a bike... I was lost lost lost, found the format of having to make the time cuttoffs a source of crazy stress, discovered what SUFFERING meant and at the end swore off ever doing it again! But they ended up being point of references of what I needed to learn (like how to read maps, etc). The following year I rode 2 SR series and a 1200K and can honestly say that the learnfing curve was a spectacular climb into the nosebleed section! Every ride pushed the bubble. If I spent last year toodling safely on the bike path and listening to everybody who told me to stay on the bike path, I wouldnt have the amazing treasure of experiences or the appreciation for the skills that I have now. I think that the most important thing that I learned last year is that there will always be a crowd of people who will try to discourage you from leaping forward. It's your choice what you do.

the fact that you are considering a 200K is no doubt coming from something in your gut that knows you bettter than anybody on this list.
best wishes

StephenH

Good answer, Sekhem!

mthayer

Most of the riding i do has more climbing than what the 200k would have. I have been through the course which the ride takes place and its flat. I am concerned more about being on the bike for the 8-13 hours.

10 Wheels

You can do it. Determine a slow pace and don't go any faster.
The heat with the long saddle time will give you a sore butt. Stand up and pedal as much as you can.

Machka 

OK, this coming weekend (or sooner if you can) go out and ride a 100K. Take it easy, you don't have to maintain the 15 km/h minimum speed. Just try to finish the distance as comfortably as you can. If you were riding 112 km (70 mile) rides last year, a 100K now shouldn't be too bad. When you finish it, you'll probably have a better idea if tackling a distance twice that is a good idea or not.

thebulls

It's "feasible" in the sense that if this were a death march and the people who drop out were being bayonneted by the side of the road, then you could almost certainly do it.

How pleasant it will be depends on many factors that we can't know about, e.g. bike fit, and what you know about how to ride long distance.

There are 200Km's in the Dallas area almost every month of the year. Austin is more sparse. But there are "permanents" in the Austin area that you might be able to find someone else to ride with, see https://www.rusa.org/cgi-bin/permsearch_GF.pl.

Why not take a little longer to ramp up so that you can enjoy the ride? Of course if suffering is your bag, go for it. But in fairness to the organizer, make sure that you're not going to become a huge problem for them -- let them know if you're dropping out or arriving after the deadline. Don't suffer so much that you end up in the hospital. Etc.

Nick

2manybikes

And if you do it now, you might have time to adjust things in case there are comfort issues.

skiffrun

This is an interesting statement, coming as it does from the guy that posted looking for people to do a Triple or Quad Century in a paceline / group (or whatever it was) in 24 hours, and sort of asking an implied question of "can it be done".

mthayer

I went for a workout ride this evening, and after about 15 minutes of riding it felt like some bones in my right foot were trying to cross. Normally my foot starts to go nnub after about 30 minutes of riding and i can un clip it and it will wake up. This is a first for that kind of feeling. I moved the cleat and it seemed to help but I am feeling some discomfort still. I am using shimano double sided spd pedals and specialized tahoe shoes. I am going to call around tomorrow and see what i may be able to do to remedy it.

Anyways i did have a great ride tonight. I stayed riding for an hour straight took a 10 break to eat and adjust the cleat and then it was a hour ride back home. I did 25 miles but wanted to do some more, but i ran out of daylight. I did push myself harder climbing today and I am feeling better going up the hills than i did a couple of weeks ago.

StephenH

Various additional thoughts:
1) It's hot out there. The first 200k I did was in June, and I finished it. The next two were in July and I DNF'ed both due to heat issues (and some other issues, but mainly heat.) If you start out in July, fine. But be prepared to deal with the heat. Get some Endurolytes or other electrolytes, drink some Gatorade as you go along. Whenever you refill your bottles, make sure they're full of ice, too, the colder your drink, the less you're going to be sweating. I've stopped in the shade, I've gotten water at churches and poured it over my head, I've filled my jersey pockets with ice, and i've taken 12 hours for 10 hour rides because of the heat. It can be done, but doesn't make it any easier.
2) It can be lonely out there. And that is highly variable. If you are a fast rider, you can show up at a brevet, and likely glom onto some group for the duration. If you're a slow rider, sometimes somebody will drop back and ride with you. A lot of times, you'll just have a long solo ride out of it. So be prepared.
3) Nobody ever stops when you need them too. If you glom onto some group, ride 10 miles, and need to adjust your clothing or dig out some food or whatever, tough, lots of times, the group won't stop, so you either hang on regardless, or you need to be fast enough to catch back up (and if you're slow, that's a problem) or you wind up riding by yourself. That's one reason I got a Camelbak.
4) The time allowed for a brevet is pretty generous, and that's one reason I got started. It dawned on me that I could do the Hotter-n-Hell 100 in 10 hours on my Worksman cruiser, and a 200k ride allows 13.5 hours, so that's 3.5 hours to make that last 25 miles. So if you can keep moving, you don't have to move real fast to finish within the time.
5) If you're serious about riding long-distance, go ahead and join RUSA now. That gets you the handy RUSA book (mine took a month to come in) and lets you get started riding any permanents that sound of interest. (Do a member search on the RUSA site, and as soon as you show up there, you know you're "official" even if you haven't gotten your book and all in.) Your membership will be good through the calendar year, renews in January.
6) We will be doing rando rides through the summer here in Dallas, but attendance is usually lower than when the weather is nice. Also, if you look at the schedule, if the only event is a 200k, everyone will do it. If you have a 200k, 300k, 400k, 600k all on the same time, it's not uncommon that only one or two people do the 200k, so that puts you riding by yourself again.
7) The more serious riders here ride in Dallas but also do rides in Houston, Austin, and West Texas. So don't be afraid to travel out of your region to do a ride. It usually requires joining the local club for $25 or so, but that's fairly minor compared to traveling and food expenses for a trip. Ideally, you'd have a filled-out application and check when you show up for the ride.

skiffrun

^

(1) ditto re HOT July 200k DNF's. Two of them last year. Learned a LOT though. (Also had a June DNF that was paritally HEAT, partially because we took cover for about an hour during a WICKED thunderstorm, partially because the boot on my front tyre was failing, partially because my very rando experienced riding partner failed to bring a light "just in case" and there were too many BAD pot holes on a couple fast descents to consider doing without a light -- but heat was the biggest problem.)

(2) ditto on being mentally prepared to do the entire ride solo. You can learn a lot AND get very comfortable with yourself doing a 200 or a 300 with no group to draft, etc..

(3) not only is it possible that "[n]obody ever stops when you need them too", it is a certainty that stopping with someone else who is desparate for a five-minute break when you are feeling great will do absolutely nothing to help you. 10 miles later, that other person will be in the groove and loathe to stop, but you will be desparate for a few minutes off the bike.

...

(6) We aren't as crazy in NC as those well-known Lone Stars ... to the Lone Stars: chapeau!!