DogBoy

Last Saturday I completed the longest ride I've ever done, clocking in at 189 miles. Here is a recounting of my experience and lessons learned.

The weather was wet and cold (40-50 F) but there was not much wind. I used chamios butter with a solid application to the shorts prior to starting. I wore a showers-pass jacket and waterproof pants, running tights, wool socks and lake winter boots. The ride was an out and back with 6 segments.

What went right:
Nutrition & Fluid intake...I ate a Gu every 45 minutes and consumed 2 bottles of gatorade in each segment, along with a 20 oz bottle of water at each stop.
Clothing: When I was riding, I was warm. I don't think anything would have kept me dry
Chamois Butter: This litterally saved my a$$.
New Saddle: I got a brooks flyer saddle about 400 miles prior to this ride, and while not broken in, I did not have any of the saddle sore issues I had with my prior saddle.

What went wrong:
I kept focusing on the negative.
My lighting was heavy and not sufficient for a longer ride (watter bottle battery)
Weather

Total Ride time: 14 hours 15 minutes
Total time on the bike: 12 hours: 30 minutes


Ride detail: (this part is long)
The ride started at 7:00 and I got dropped by everyone (there were 21 riders including myself) instantly. I wasn't feeling very good for the first few miles, but I quickly caught up to a group going a nice pace and I hopped on. The pace was decent...14-16 mph and I kept my pulse in Zone 1-2. The ride to the first control was flat flat flat, except one hill near the beginning and climbing out of a river basin just before the control. I felt okay, but was getting cold.

From control 1 to control 2 I started feeling better. It was still quite wet, but adding some hills warmed me up nicely. I then found that I'd ridden off the front of the group with another rider so I slowed a bit to let them catch me. They didn't catch me by the control, but when I emerged from the restroom they were there. I waited for them to leave control 2 and this was a mistake. I cooled off so much that I was beyond miserable. Control 2 is only 2 miles from my house and as I was shivering to the point of having difficulty tracking I almost bailed.

Control 2 to Control 3. This was a mental toughness challenge. I was too cold riding with the group so I had to speed up. My pace increased to 15-17 (barely faster). At about 10 miles from the control I was feeling warm again and had stopped shivering. I finally got the constant (why am I doing this to myself on my birthday) out of my head when the first group of riders passed me. I was 20 miles plus a stop behind them! This dampened my spirits a bit. I know its not a race, but I figured that I was right in the middle of the pack. It turns out I was, and after a few miles of counting people passing, keeping track of how many were behind etc. I found I had forgotten all about the wet/cold conditions and had arrived at the mid-point.

Control 3-4. I left the control at 2:30pm. At that pace I would be back to the motel at 10:00. That would be too late for the hot-tub, so I decided I needed to pick up the pace...mostly by taking shorter stops (10 min vs 20). My hands were starting to chafe on my gloves and a re-application of chamios butter was needed elsewere, so I got everything taken care of and was off. I was about 6 miles ahead of the group I'd left control 2 with (plus their stop). I figure they must have stopped somewhere else because my pace really hadn't been that much faster than it was in section 1 & 2. My legs were really feeling the miles and hills. I was also now going a bit into the wind (5-10 mph wind) and was getting frustrated by how hard I felt like I was working to go 14 mph. Again my mind was ready to quit. I was completely alone on the road now and I drifted back into the "this sucks" mode. I got to Control 4 at 5:10. I really WAS going slow! By now my hands were chafed and hurt from bearing my weight all day, my rear was sore and I had finally reached the point of having everything about me be soaked, either with sweat or with rain. Just prior to arrival the thought of going home again entered my mind. I decided if I could just focus on the task at hand I would be okay.

Control 4-5
I wanted to be out of control 4 in 10 minutes and wanted to arrive at control 5 before dark. I went to the restroom, refilled my fluids and tried a non-traditional energy food: Oatmeal cream pies. It must have worked though because I really started moving. The clerk at the store said I was 30 minutes behind the previous rider. Since it was overcast, I figured it would be dark by 7:30-7:45. That meant I had to speed up. I pushed the pace and set my focus to "just keep spinning...." Its difficult to explain how the voice of Ellen Degeneres, the image of a blue fish and the mantra "just keep spinning" can help. I was almost in a hypnotic state. I arrived at Control 4 at 7:15. Another quick restroom break, a bit of food and more fluids and I was on my way. I knew I had no choice but to finish now, since going home was farther than finishing, and both were into the wind.

Control 5 - Finish
It was now dark. I knew my cygolite HID would last for 2 hours but I've never run it longer than that. It boasts a 4 hour run time, but I was a bit nervous. I waited until the last possible moment before turning it on. I was incredibly sore, my hands hurt and I started to feel a pinched feeling along my spine just above my shoulder blades. The route was a long (11.5 miles) straight stretch of road. When a car passed I just kept watching the tail-lights get smaller and smaller until finally they disappeared. I went back to my fish visualization and decided just to focus on looking around and seeing what's happening. Then I started worm dodging. This provided great entertainment as there were worms all over the road due to the wet conditions. A later inspection of my bike proved that I was not very good at this game, but it got me to the end of the ride. I turned in my card and rode back to my motel. As I got to the door of the motel my light went out. Good timing. 2 hours and 30 minutes is apparently all my light had in it.

Post-ride:
I got to the motel at 9:20 and got my 15 minutes in the hot-tub. It was the best 15 minutes of my day. I had the opportunity to reflect on the ride, and have to admit that it was very difficult. I doubt I could handle the 400 km ride right now, and my schedule is such that I can't do the 400 or the 600. I need to get more long rides in and more hills in before I attempt these longer rides. Next year I'll see if the changes to my training plan were successful.

reef58

Great post! I really like the long ride stories.

Good job,
Richard

saintx

great post and great job.

blue_nose

I love these endurance storeis as well. Congrats.

oboeguy

Good write-up but the above quote would have made it worth reading all by itself.

Peek the Geek

Interestingly enough, a very inspiring post. Thanks.

Doggus

Yah me too. I wanna start doing these things you call brevets someday.

The Octopus 

Congratulations on a great, epic ride! Thanks for the delightful write-up; now you've really got me looking forward to our 300K this weekend.

I'm with ya on the hot-tub thing. When I did my 1200K last year, I booked a reservation at a different hotel than the one where the ride started from because I wanted access to the hot tub after the ride, and the hotel associated with the ride didn't have one. All I could think about for the last 200K or so was that hot tub that would be waiting for me. Man oh man, there's nothing like a good soak after a long ride!

Congrats again on making it through such a tough ride!!!

Jet-man

Geesus christ - nice job man. I've done 120 a couple 'o times but never further. Wow, w/ crappy weather like that, I'd have said "maybe tomorrow when it's nice out." I'm a total sack when it comes to weather now (having raced many 10K mile seasons and ridden in every type of weather imaginablein the past) & won't even ride around the block if it's raining out. That's what the gym is for You are indeed huge.

Machka 

OK, the first thing that caught my attention was the fact that it was dark at 9:20. It's 9:30 here right now and still as bright as day out there .... where are you that it gets dark so early??

These long distance rides are very much mental adventures. You've got to be as positive as possible ... it really helps the ride go better. And if visualizing fish helps ......

The hand chafing thing is something I fight with too. In fact I'm thinking I might need new gloves or something because my hands have been getting so chafed on rides lately.

Congratulations on the ride!! I actually think you could do a 400K ... especially if the weather were a bit better. Just about all of us get off our current brevet (whatever distance it might be) and think that there's no way we could do more. But a few weeks later, we're out there doing it, and it is OK.

supcom

Congratulations on your 300K. You did well in the face of adversity. Good show! Riding long distance in cold rain is hard work.

I find when i start focussing on negatives that I usually need more calories. At the next control, I like to get a 20 oz or so Cola from the fountain and suck it down. The sugar gets into my system quickly and helps lift my spirits. A starving rider is a cranky rider, so try to keep those calories flowing. Just be sure to eat things that are easily digested.

You might also look into getting one or two of the newer Cateye LED lights. They run on 4 AA batteries and give you about 7-10 hours of light. Two of these mounted below the handlebars on a Minoura Space Grip or mounted to the forks work pretty well for night riding. Randonneuring rules require spare batteries and bulbs so two LED lights satifies the requirement.

Keep up the good work.

cmh

Nice ride and nice write-up. I haven't done a ride longer than about 110 miles, but having done a good deal of mountaineering, including a few 18-20 hour days I think I can relate.

I have one question - what did you eat during the ride? From your "what went right" segment it sounds like you ate only Gu every 45 min (that's 18 Gus!) and gatorade. But later you mention eating an oatmeal creampuff, so I am confused.

DogBoy

The gu's were only every 45 min of riding. At each rest stop I grabbed an energy bar. I also ate a couple of sandwiches around lunch/dinner time. It was only 12 Gus. I can still taste the banana

Machka, Here in the deep south (southern Wisconsin) sunrise is at about 5:30 am and sunset is at 8:10 pm this time of year. The overcast skies made it dark at about 7:45. The chamios butter worked pretty well on the hand chafing with my gloves. At first it was kind of slimy, but then I didn't notice it. I didn't find anything that worked for the pressure pain on either my hands or my kiester.

KurtHiggins

Nice recount. As the others who also mentioned it, it's enjoyable to read someone's recount of an epic ride. Your comment on the chamois butter reminded me I need to experiment with that. I'll be attempting my first 24 hr ride this July and while I've not had rear end problems, the 12 hr ride I did last year put me into the beginning stages of some rear end problems.