What is Randonneuring?
 

What is Randonneuring? It is a great way to physically challenge your cycling skills. All you have to do is have the abilities and experience to pedal 100 kilometers (62 miles) or more at a minimum 9.1 mph. It's not racing nor fund raising. You can acquire medals for the brevets (scheduled rides) of 200k. or more. Seek out RUSA: Randonneurs USA. This and www.presidentschallenge.org (sign up free for the President's Champions), earns you medals and is motivating to help keep your resting heart rate lower.

There is a Randonneuring and long distance forum on BF. There's really no need for you to evangelize here.

When I read the title of this thread, I had a mental reply "Look it up on Wikipedia," not expecting a promo. My interest is piqued but I have enough trouble just trying to train for an occasional century. I regularly take my resting HR, usually 48 when I'm riding regularly; my best was 42, in 2006. When low, it's a satisfying achievement.

I thought Rapido's post was appropriate and not (annoyingly) evangelistic, nor proselytizing. Why speak to just the choir? I found it worthy of an agreeable reply.

Opinions differ.

On a good day, it's what has been said already.
On a so-so day, it's a long ride possibly with friends to the point where you wonder if you can go further the next time out. You may be sore the 1-2 days but you'll survive and later wonder what the excitement was all about distance/difficulty-wise.
On a bad day, you question your sanity, possibly lose a great deal of money and/or health (due to an accident, equipment failure or failure of your own body to function properly), and find out that you or your friends aren't the superhero athletes you thought each other was. You're merely human.

That's my take on it.

So much for evangelizing.

Thanks for the reply. Believe it or not, I had read your tag line last week, but didn't note who the subsciber was. I thought it was a truism and I was intending to at least paraphrase it on an intended ride description of this past Saturday's ride, on the Regional Discussion thread Metro Boston: Good ride today?

I recently alarmed a cardiologist for having such a low resting HR- (I don't remember the exact number) he immediately ordered a stress test. I couldn't help giggling to myself at 58 years old

In the Public Service Announcement spirit of the OP's post, the Long Distance Forum here on BF has some excellent info on the difference between randonneuring and touring, and essentially what randonneuring is. Interested persons should jump over there and take a look.

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Thanks for the event introduction!

Even if it is a 'mature' forum, I'm sorry that you had to experience the wrath of some of our less sociable users . . .