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Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling Do you enjoy centuries, double centuries, brevets, randonnees, and 24-hour time trials? Share ride reports, and exchange training, equipment, and nutrition information specific to long distance cycling. This isn't for tours, this is for endurance events cycling

2015 Randonnees

Old 06-16-15, 09:10 AM
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I was supposed to do a 400 last weekend but was completely wiped after 200. Since we were doing our 200 route twice in opposite directions the half way point was a convenient place to drop out. A combination of factors did me in: lack of stops to snack early in ride due to strong tailwind (guys I ride with use powdered nutrition drinks and don't need to stop to fuel), 60 kph cross winds / headwinds for last 100 km, not enough hydration (difficult to reach for bottles in strong wind when riding close, other guys use camelbaks), frequently losing draft and getting hit by wall of wind, probably the biggest was my ever changing fit. I've been moving my saddle and bars around to deal with sore shoulders. Every time I make a significant saddle adjustment it takes up to 2 weeks for my legs to adjust. To finally get my fit perfect I had to move both my saddle and bars up 1/4" last week and I really should have given my legs another week before tackling a long ride.
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Old 06-16-15, 10:29 AM
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Rode my first 600k this past weekend, and it was fantastic. Much like the 400k I described a few posts back, I had good company, stayed fueled and hydrated, and the weather was cooperative. We took a ~4 hr sleep break at the 410k mark and hit the hotel breakfast before heading back out for the last 190k. Total time was 35hr40min. I still had some occasional hot-spot issues, as well as a little hand pain/numbness, but they were all manageable. I will probably move my cleats back another mm and use firmer material to fill the low spots in the cleat mounting area.

PBP, here I come!
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Old 06-17-15, 07:53 AM
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I had not considered charly time until your post, maybe I could do it. I did a sub 14 hr and sub 24 hour on 400 and 600k, respectively. The 600k only had 7500 feet climbing but I did it solo with a mechanical. If I get to Brest in around 24 hrs, I will give it a shot. Only planned sleep stop will be at the secret control after loudeac on the way back. Sounds feasible. Crazy but doable.
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Old 06-21-15, 01:06 PM
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I gave blood last week and forgot that it takes a while to get all that stuff back to normal but I still gave the 400K a try. I managed to finish in 24.5 hours but it wasn't very much, felt like I was pulling a trailer the entire time. It was lovely weather compared to my last attempt... I've never seen so many fireflies in my life. About 7500 feet of climbing but most of it was over the first 250km or so. I made up some maltodextrin/soy protein mix (perpetuem knockoff) and that seemed to keep me going for about half of my food but I ate a bunch of other crap along the way and I think the only thing that was a good choice was a veggie burger for dinner and a few bags of salted cashews to snack on. I don't really feel like doing a 600K right now but who knows.
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Old 10-14-15, 04:17 PM
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Are you riding any last minute randonnees (brevets, permanents, etc.) before the end of the 2015 season on Oct 31?
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Old 10-14-15, 06:43 PM
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I did a 1200KM over the past weekend. I probably should have not started as I am still recovering from PBP (hands and not strong yet). It was a cool ride with lots of controls (some every 10 miles) and I ate and drank too much junk at them. I did not have time to mix my powders. I ate and drank garbage. First time I ever swelled up. I have dumped 10 pounds of fluid over the past 48 hours!!!

I'm doing a 300 km next week and also the same permanent week after.

Trying to decide whether to do the 24 hour TT in Borrego springs on November 13. I am probably too tired too do well but I want to do it anyway. Does this make sense. If I planned smarter, I am sure I could do a decent distance.
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Old 10-14-15, 07:00 PM
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Originally Posted by RR3
I did a 1200KM over the past weekend.
Which one?
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Old 10-15-15, 04:34 PM
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I've been rebuilding my legs since the start of the summer. While playing around with my fit in the spring, I started listening to my legs telling me where they want my saddle to be. For several years I've had my saddle setback at 4.5 cm, but I gradually reduced that to 1.4 cm. My knees are happy, my IT band is happy, no more hot foot and no more saddle sores. I think I was partially too far back, and partially sitting on the wrong part of my Brooks saddle not being supported by my sit bones. The down side is that due to the major change my leg muscles have had to adjust, meaning months of higher than normal HR. My HR is finally getting back down to where it was earlier in the season. But its difficult to get a good feel for my conditioning dealing with 30-50 km/h winds nearly every day this time of year.
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Old 10-17-15, 07:08 AM
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Originally Posted by RR3
I did a 1200KM over the past weekend. .... It was a cool ride with lots of controls (some every 10 miles) and I ate and drank too much junk at them. I did not have time to mix my powders. ....

I'm doing a 300 km next week and also the same permanent week after.

....
I suspect I know which 1200 -- there was only one likely possibility that weekend, and I know it had too many controls while zig-zagging through the mountains. If it was the 1200 I suspect, then I've got RR3 real-world name limited to 22 possibilities.

Lack of mention of some flooding makes me wonder, though.
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Old 11-30-15, 10:51 PM
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I did PBP for the second time this year but, unlike 2011, I finished outside the time, or Hors Delai as the French say. I caught a bad chest cold a couple of weeks before the start which slowed me down, made it difficult to sleep, and caused a kind of mental shutdown during the ride.

I have given a lot of advice over the years about how to finish brevets and I have finished some tough ones, including 5 previous 1200's and several 1000's. I forgot most of the good advice before and during PBP 2015. Some highlights: “Make a checklist and use it to prepare for the ride”, “Keep it simple”, “Stay on the bike”, “Don’t think too far ahead during the ride, just get to the next control”, “Get outside your head and enjoy the world around you”. I don’t know if all that advice would have got me to the finish on time but it would have made the experience more pleasant either way.

When the day came I had this chest cold and things that I would have ordinarily brushed off started to bother me. I worried about small delays and wasted time at controls. I thought about and started to dread the whole distance to go instead of just thinking about the next step. In 2011 I had this big grin plaster to my face but now I was fretting. I did well on the way to Loudeac and built up a 7 hour time buffer but I was starting to dread what was ahead of me on the ride. That is not a good place to be 450k into a 1200. I actually did pretty well up to 1000k but I had such a sleep deficit that I had to take 2 hours worth of ditch naps in the last 250k and could not make it up. I had spent too much time off the bike at controls doing things other than sleeping.

Finishing outside the time limit is pretty rare. In the 6 PBPs between 1991 and 2011, 18 % of riders did not finish while less than 2% finished outside the time limit. I know people find many reasons to finish. My motivation to finish was in part due to what I wrote in my ride report after 2011:
“After Levaré I decided that I could not in good conscience abandon the ride unless there was an insurmountable problem. The French people had welcomed me, a total stranger, into their lives and had taken time to do what they could to help me along the way. My part of the deal was to have "good courage" and not give up until I reached the finish. It really struck me in my slightly addled state, 13 hours and 286 km into the ride. I know it's not a unique sentiment but I certainly found it to be a strong motivation over the next 3 days. I felt like I personally owed it to those people to finish.”

This gave me two reasons to finish. First was that I still feel that way. The second was that I had posted it on the internet in front the whole world and I felt obliged to live up to my words. Another reason was that by the time I realized I had no chance of making the time I was over 1000k, the bike was still in good shape, and it seemed harder to figure out how to get there by other means.

I would not call it a failure but it was a disappointment. During the months leading up to PBP I had built it up in my head to be the greatest experience ever, even better than 2011 because I knew what to expect and could enjoy it more. I figured I knew the drill and didn’t have to do a lot of planning or preparation, I could just sort of do roughly what I did last time and everything would work out. I guess I got complacent and forgot how much I have obsessed about preparation for previous 1200k’s. For example, in 2011 I had a little cheat sheet taped to my top tube with distance and closing time for each control. In 2015 I didn’t bother.

The required pace between controls is highly variable on PBP and actually goes up significantly after Villaines. Because I was not paying attention to the actual closing times I thought I was late when I wasn't and gave up sleep unnecessarily early in the ride.

All that said, it's a great experience. The people are wonderful and it is great to be part of the tradition. Just be sure to take it seriously and prepare thoroughly. I may see you there in 2019. :-)
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