Three out of four PBP qualifiers done -- I went down to the Central Florida brevet week. Hot, flat, and did I mention hot? (The 600k is still going on, but I was completely trashed at the end of the 400k and less than 24 hours of recovery time was not going to be enough, physically OR mentally. And yes, I said before I was considering skipping the 400k, but it was the prettiest-looking route. Which it was, even if I was grumbling about being tired of riding a bike for most of it.)
Glad I went for it, even if I didn't finish all of them; 900k in four days is a confidence booster, and I got to practice disassembling and reassembling the brevet bike. (With only one minor issue -- I didn't tighten the front brake bolt quite enough, and did about 20 miles of the 200k with it rubbing after a section of rough chipseal jolted it out of alignment.)
As much as I am not a strong climber, I found myself welcoming even little rollers; putting out steady effort when tired is HARD; grunting up a climb and then coasting for a few minutes is easier in a lot of ways; I found myself gearing up, standing, and then tucking-and-coasting still on
the same flat ground occasionally, just for a change of pace.
Signed myself up for the New Jersey 600k; was hoping not to have to miss the NER 400k (same weekend) but there are only so many 600ks I can drive to, and a bunch of friends are going to this one. It will probably be even hotter than Florida-in-April, but I've determined I can survive that, especially when gas stations serve giant slurpees. And the next brevet on my calendar is the NER 300k, which is both gorgeous and possibly has more climbing than all 900k I did down here.