groovestew

Some of the Calgary guys are still like that, but they've done a good job in recent years of offering mentored rides for newcomers, where an experienced rider would stay with the slowest new person. In Edmonton, there's much less of a racing mentality...I'm probably the worst for it.

Bill is still around, and I tried to hook up with him this year on a 200, but it didn't work out. Maybe later this summer. (BTW, I'm the current coordinator, mainly because no one else could or was willing to be.)

Someday. We've had a few BC Randonneurs join in on Alberta rides, so I've met a few from their club (one from Fort St. John, another couple from Kamloops I think).

Thanks, this is great, and exactly what I need to keep in mind next time I bonk (well, I'll try to prevent a bonk from occurring in the first place...)

groovestew

Update: I re-rode the 300 (the one where I bonked 8 km from the end) on Friday July 20 and managed to finish this time. I still had problems with my stomach not wanting to accept any nutrients during the last 100 km, but I averted a bonk by taking it easy and resting when necessary, including sitting in a ditch for 20 minutes waiting for my stomach to settle at the 275 km mark. I worked on the mental aspect of the ride, first by not focusing as much on my finishing time, and second by not entertaining thoughts of quitting.

Nutritional intake is still an issue that needs to be resolved if I am to be successful in longer rides. Seems like some new things I'm trying are worse than what I used to do in past years. Live and learn.

thebulls

Good job!

Yup, sounds like you have nutrition issues. Those can be hard to work out. You note that some things worked better in past years, and those might be worth trying again. But they were on shorter rides than this.

Even as an experienced randonneur, I still sometimes have nutrition issues, and what worked OK in past years probably wouldn't work well for me now. On recent rides, I've been eating "Alan Lim rice cakes" and those work very well at providing the calories without upset stomach.

Nick

Richard Cranium

So - do you still "suck" or is it that you are just inferior many other cyclists?

Have you ever thought of selecting much shorter goals of say - 50 or 100km and doing these workouts with other goals - such as pacing correctly?

Or do you "have to have" the group to motivate you?

Keith99

I'm not a distance rider. Still I have done 4 double centuries and 2 or those back to back, close to making the time for a 600 km ride even with the nights real sleep.

Looking back the hardest thing I did was on the first ride. I bonked. I decided to stop and rest and NOT ride until I had finished an energy bar, a bananna and half a water bottle. Sticking close to that decision was very very hard. Yea I didn't quite finish the energy bar. But I did manage to rest a bit more after I thought I was fine.

BTW on the final leg of the 200 mile ride I flatted, nasty flat a piece of steel belt from a car tire. I got that fixed and had enough energy to chase at 25 MPH to catch riders I had been withe before. (Now thsi was the Grand Tour near Los Angeles and the last 50 miles are going south near the beach, which 90% of the time means a tail wind so the speed is a bit misleading. But I had totally recovered and more).

My last experience related to distance riding was when one of the ladies in our local club was trying the 300 mile option on the same ride. That is a bit tough as there is 24 hour limit. Oh and the way it goes from 200 to 300 is where most turn left to home and a tailwind the 300 and 400 mile options turn right to Santa Barbara and a head wind. I was meeting her at that point and riding with her.

Turned out to be a devilishly hot day. All the 300 mile riders who were making a choice were choosing to bail and she made that decision. Oh this was after she had completed Paris-Brest-Paris. Sometimes things go wrong and bailing is the right decision. But for yuo for now I think you need to be very slow to make a decision to bail. You need to do what you did here. Stop, invest 20-3- minutes to refueling and recovering.

IF at that point your body does not respond then consider calling it quits. But make that call rested, not bonked.

cpblue

Excellent info on this thread