Unless I can figure how to get out of it, I will be traveling to KC come this Friday, returning Sunday. So have fun, ride fast, but do it without me.
I will be riding Wednesday as usual. Wednesday night rides are now officially back to road bikes.
Roark
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Who is riding Sunday. Anyone doing the Prarie Pedal Sunday. Mike Brady I can pick you up if you want to drive over. Anyone else who wants to drive over let me know. You'll have give me some direction on using my Garmin Edge 305.
Mark
I'm riding Sat, and teaching spinning on Sun. Brian might ride with the girls Sun. I picked up some coupons for the Prairie Pedal from Alpine Shop. I have about 7 extra. I will bring on ride tonight (Wed) for anyone who wants them.
Cheri
Hello all,
I know it's kind of late notice but I thought I'd tell you all what I'm up to this weekend.
Ron and I are going to tackle our first 200k brevet over in Edwardsville, IL on Saturday morning. The ride starts around 7am. I'm hoping we are done around 3:30 or 4pm. (These brevets are training rides for a big Ride in Paris in 2007. I'm 99% sure I'm going to do the Paris ride next year, and I think Ron is leaning towards it.)
I've been sick all week and haven't riden since 2 Wednesday's back, so I'm a bit out of shape. But I figure I'll give it a shot. It should be pretty flat and Ron and I are going to try the slow and steady approach.
With that much riding on Saturday, I'll probably ride a lot less on Sunday. I'm thinking the middle route unless I get realy ambitious. And it will be at recovery pace.
If anyone wants to join us in Illinios, give us a call. I'll have my phone with me all weekend. You don't have to ride the whole thing if you want to ride beside us for awhile and knock of some miles. :)
Mike
Hello all,
Man, what a day! Ron bailed on the 200k this morning - something about not wanting to get cold. So I made some new friends and went on without him. It was a pretty crazy day. Winds of 15-20 all day. We started out at 7am and I know the wind chill was below 30 degrees. There were about 20 of us that started out. I'd say at least half the field were experienced long distance cyclist. At the start I asked a guy if I could kind of tag along with him and he said sure. Little did i know it would turn out to be the guy who finished first.
These brevets are timed events. For a 200k (125 mile) brevet they give you 13.5 hours maximum. I hade to be someplace at 4:30 so I was hoping to finish by 3:30. That would have been a pretty good clip, but I figured flat roads wouldn't be too hard.
Boy was I surprised. The cold weather and the never ending wind made it pretty tough. We had a strong cross wind for the first 25 miles or so, and then a tail wind for the better part of 40 miles. At that piont our average speed was up around 20 MPH. But then we turned back into the wind. Our speed dropped to around 13-15 most of the time. We fought a head wind for 55 straight miles! I have to tell you it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. I'm glad I was with two other guys. I stayed in second or third most of the time. One guy (that guy I mentioned at the beginning) stayed in front the entire time. He was one half draft horse and one half quarter horse (about 58 years old too). One of the better riders I've ever seen. He stopped twice for the entire 125 miles. I'll bet he was off his bike a total of 15 minutes. He finished in 7 hours and 40 minutes total. He dropped me and the other guy we were with when the two of us had to stop for a bathroom break. That guy and I finished together in 7 hours 53 minutes (second / third). Our on bike time was 7:22 for an average speed of 17 mph. Not bad for the head wind we were dealing with half the day.
It ranks in the top 3 or 4 hardest events I've done. Of course we did burn it up a bit. We could have taken another 5 hours if we had needed to. There is a 300 k coming up that I will try. For that they give us 20 hours. I think I'll shoot for 15 hours which is a much slower pace than we ran today. It's just not worth it going harder. My knees are killing me, and my sholders ache from being in the drops all day.
And get this I did the ride without one of my most important pieces of equiptment. Just before starting out I realized I did not have my inhaler. And those of us with asthma will tell you that once you realize you do not have your inhalier with you, you instantly need it. I was real tight chested the first 2 hours, and then loosen-up. However, in the last 2 hours I was tight chested again. When I made it home I hit the inhaler about 10 times in 30 minutes.
All in all it was a good experience. I learned quite a bit. (Bring lots of gels: I went through 5 and could have used 3 more, don't go quite so fast, and don't forget your inhaler.)
I still plan to ride Sunday. I'll be out there and more or less ready to go around 9:30. I don't want to make an all day affair out of the ride. I'm sure there will be some milling around as we look for friends. I know lots of people who will be out there. Right now I'm leaning towards the middle route (my knees really are shot), and I'll probably go at a moderate pace. But if I'm feeling well I might be able to be talked into a the longer route.
Mike
Cheri gave me a few extra coupons for the Sunday Fun club ride...I'll try and be there a little before 9:30.
Ron
Post a Comment