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All told, that's about 3,000 miles of scheduled rides by the end of June (gulp!). And weather doesn't stop ya...the rides go in snow, sleet, rain, fog, whatever.

Mechanical: This ride will force me to become more mechanically inclined. I met with my local LBS mechanic and told him I want to be able to repair everything on my bike by the time I leave in August. I'll also want to go through contingency plans if something breaks. If the derailer (Sheldon Brown spelling) bites the bullet, is there some way I can get at least three gears (middle cog and hand change big rings?). Learn to replace every cable, repair a broken spoke, etc. Another challenge on PBP is what lighting system to use. Some folks go with one Cateye Micro, while others use a SON dynamo hub. I checked this hub out with Peter White Cycles, and the cost for me is prohibitive: About $250 for the hub and 20" wheel.

Nutrition: What and how to eat during the 90 hours? I want to go "liquid diet." RAAM riders have done this successfully. How do I do it when the only support team is me? For centuries and double centuries, I find I ride better if I don't eat solid food. I carb up about 2-2.5 hours before the ride, and then consume 3-4 packets of GU (400 calories) an hour and try for 24 ounces of Gatorade an hour. GU has come out with a new product called GUO2, a liquid carbo and electrolyte drink.

Oh yeah, the financial training. Anyone need their car or windows washed? lawn cut? care to make a donation? ;o) I'll let you know how the SatRDay performs on the 2/15 ride.

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2/17/03

Gainesville, FL, 300K Report

As a newbie I thought I'd post a recap of the Gainesville, FL, brevet (300K) and some lessons learned. Jim Solanik of West Palm Beach organized and ran the Gainesville brevet and - thankfully for me - picked a very flat course. Again, I'll take hills, as there was a very nice tailwind on the way out, but its ugly sister showed up for the way back. As a newbie I wanted to learn several things:

(1) The light provided by one or two EL300's: good? bad? indifferent?
(2) Take a look at some of the other lighting set ups and steal an idea or two.
(3) Since I'm a slow rider, check out my time on a longer ride.
(4) All-liquid diet: on centuries, I do only GU and Gatorade. I wanted to see how this would work on a ride twice that length.

What I didn't plan on but learned was how to become mechanically creative, and sometimes you just forget about time and help someone.

I'll skip the ride route except to say that the area of Florida is related to Eve: multiple personalities. The area near Gainesville is typical urban sprawl with all the associated neon blight and traffic. Heading north from Gainesville to Georgia is what Florida looked like before it developed (literally) its other personality. And it was basically flat. The other great part is that most of the ride had little to no traffic.

EL300's: I bought these because it seemed everyone else had them, so I went with the crowd. I'm a wimp for peer pressure. Wait, I ride a recumbent. I'll have to check the EL300's out in my area of northern NJ where there is no ambient light from other sources on some of the back country roads. On this ride, we had a clear sky and full moon so I couldn't fully evaluate how they'd work on a really dark road. For someone who hasn't done night riding, I thought the light patch was small. Oh, I'm super slow, so that means I almost rode alone. A woman from the Gainesville club, Nancy Davis, had a light that threw a great pattern. Other lighting: I saw everything from the SON generator, to someone with a mounted battery hooked up to a couple of the lights, to a guy who had nothing but a very small Cateye light.

Lighting lesson learned: Need something to be able to read my cue sheet. I did bring along a penlight flashlight, but that was by mistake. I keep one in the side panel of my car. Used it to look for something. Door was locked and just threw it in my bike bag. Glad I did. I was able to read my cue sheet and to check out my (ahem) "speed" at night. I also noted a couple of small helmet lights that I'll look into.

Time: I did the ride in 16 hours, but I thought for a flat course I should have been in sooner. My thought after doing the 200K was that it would take about 14 hours. Two things happened to extend the time, one mechanical and the other neighborly. Now I know better why there seems to be more time than I thought was needed, given the riders who do these. Simply: Sometimes you need time.

Contingency planning: When I got the idea to maybe do PBP, I said to my LBS owner, "I want to learn how to do almost anything mechanical on my bike and I want to go over some What If's:

What If my brake cable breaks?
What If a spoke breaks?
What If a derailer breaks?
What If a quick release breaks?
What If a derailer cable breaks?
And I said to him, "If that happens, I want to know how to get into a gear I can ride."

So, Joe, how about we give you some on-the-job training? At about mile 80 I went to shift and all of sudden my shifter seemed pretty loose. By the way, yes, I was last even with all 24 gears. Diane posted last week about riding and talking with fellow randonneurs. When you're as slow as I am, it's amazing how many imaginary friends you can develop. So with a broken derailer cable, I said to myself and the crowd of onlookers, "I am not going to DNF on my second brevet." I wasn't that far from the second control point, and it was there I met up with Walter and Nancy Davis.

Nancy had passed me earlier when I was checking out the derailer on the side of the road. I had passed her about 30 minutes before that when she was fixing a flat. Yes, that was the only rider I passed all day, except for those coming back on the return route! She asked, "How's the derailer?" To which I said, "The cable is broken, so now I'm down to a 3-speed." Walter, whom I had met at the sign-in, said, "You know, you can pull it into another gear and tie it down." I said, "Funny, but yup, I thought of that as one of my contingency plans during my What If thinking. But right now it feels OK since it's flat terrain and there's a tailwind."

I told Walter and Diane to go on ahead, as I had some refilling and emptying to do. After the stop, it was now the return route and I immediately knew I needed to change gears: I was now going into the headwind. I knew it was going to be a strong headwind, because when I was heading out, doing about 18 mph, leaves on the ground were passing me, and I thought, "That's not a good sign for going back." My other thought was: "Oh, great, not only do I get passed by every cyclist on the brevet, but now leaves are getting into the act, too!"

Mechanical lesson learned: It's good to have a SatRDay, because the recumbent seat is held on with not one but FOUR quick release skewers. Walter had suggested snugging the cable there if I wanted to change gears. With a bit of a grunt, I pulled the derailer into position, loosened the skewer, wedged the cable between the seat post and quick release skewer, and squeezed it shut, holding the derailer cable in place. I now had a middle gear that would allow me to spin into the wind and a high gear that wouldn't let me spin, but I could mash a higher pace. I thought, "OK, you have three gears to finish this even if it takes all 20 hours." The low gear was pretty worthless, I thought, until I had some risers and rollers on the way back and could just spin on up them.

Liquid diet: Beaucoup GU works for me along with Gatorade. For some reason, "eating" during a long ride makes me tired, sluggish, and weak. I'd love to know the reason why. I've done centuries with nothing but GU. I will experiment with some of the other liquid foods, but not on a brevet. I felt great the whole time, had no stomach problems.

One good deed deserves another. After awhile I caught up to Walter, who said this was his first 300K. He had done a 200K and wanted to see if he could do the 300K. We chatted and he said the headwind was bothering him. I said, "If you want to suck wheel, feel free." A bunch of times he told me to go on ahead, but I figured if he was having trouble at about mile 100, what was he gonna feel like at 150? I also figured maybe Lady Kismet had played a hand with Walter being there to suggest the use of the quick release skewer, so maybe I was here to help a little with Walter getting in his 300K.

Turned out to be a pretty good brevet for both of us: we finished. And I got a few more lessons along the way. Next up: Jim's 400K in Tavares, FL, on March 15. Me thinks, "Oh great, The Ides of March he picks."

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2/20/03

PBP Update and Recumbenteur

If you know of someone who has done PBP on a recumbent, please send me the email address. The randonneur list is almost all DF riders, and I'd like to get some first-hand feedback from someone who has done PBP on a recumbent.

PBP Training Update. To do PBP is still a dream because I don't know if I'll have (a) the endurance and (b) the cash to do the ride. Luckily I've found that I can use my frequent flyer miles for airfare.

I'm including the trainer miles as part of the total, based on feedback from the randonneur group. The problem with the SatRDay miles is that they've been all flat miles. I use the trainer to try to simulate hills, and am also doing weight training with leg presses and leg extensions in the gym.

Brevets completed: 200K and 300K in Florida, flat with STRONG headwinds. 40 miles of the 200K (128 mile) brevet were into a very strong headwind, and over 90 miles on the 300K (190 mile) brevet were into a strong headwind on the return portion of the ride. With the SatRDay, I scootch down to minimize my body mass into the wind. Seems to help. Targeted brevets:

Weight: 174 lb. Goal: 165 lb. I figure I need to lose weight to compensate for what I'll be carrying on the PBP course. Trick is to do this without losing strength, so I'm shooting for 1+ lb. a month in weight loss. I'm using the Bill Phillips "Body for Life" plan: www.bodyforlife.com/nutrition.shtml

Most difficult task so far is finding time to get in targeted miles. To meet my goal I'll be getting up at 5:00 a.m. or even 4:00 a.m. to do some long weekday rides before the work day starts. I'm unemployed, but finding a job is more work than a full time job. For the trainer, I do an hour of nonstop cycling at various resistance settings. On weekends with no scheduled brevet, I'll do a century ride on Saturday or Sunday.

Added expenses (not really thought about when I started this):

Lights: Two Cateye EL 500's and a Pezo (sp?) helmet light.

Brevet: Registration and hotels, usually in the $50/night range.

Batteries: Lithium, suggested by PBP vets.

V-Rex: Replace cables and chain. Buy a T-bar holder for lights and a CRATE box, or rent a hard shell box.

Foodstuff: I'll consume a ton of GU and Gatorade, neither of which is free!

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3/4/03

200K Brevet - March 29

The NJ Randonneuurs will have a 200K Brevet on March 29 starting from the Forrestal Center in Princeton, NJ. This ride is a brevet-style ride with control points having food, water, gatorade, etc., but is a minimally supported ride, unlike a club tour or bike tour. Information can be found at www.njrandonneurs.com and http://www.njrandonneurs.com/2003/princeton.html. Anyone who enjoys long distance cycling and wants additional information should visit www.rusa.org. The articles make for some interesting reading. You don't have to be a member of RUSA to do a brevet. However, if you think you may want to earn the medals and awards that are given for achieving certain long distance requirements, then you do need to belong to RUSA. Other rides scheduled are 300K on April 12, 400K on May 10, and a 600K (with sleepover options) on June 14.

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3/17/03

Joe's 400K Ride and Lessons Learned

This ride report is written from the viewpoint (comfortable as it is on a recumbent) of a newbie with more lessons learned for anyone else out there contemplating their navel, longer brevets, or PBP. A brief ride report followed by a longer More Newbie Lessons Learned.

The Florida 400K, run by Jim Solanick, was held in central Florida (Tavares), somewhat way west of Orlando and included hills, hills, and then some hills. Was I transported back to New Jersey in the middle of the night? Great idea of what a hilly ride can be. This was the first time in over 1,000 miles ridden here in Florida where my legs hurt the next morning. Good! This is the third ride of Jim's that I've done and a small open forum thank you to him and the excellent brevets he runs as the Florida RBA.

Controls were convenience stores (7-11) and an all night Chevron gas station. The ride was in two loops so the home base served as three control points: Beginning, Middle, End. Weather called for thunderstorms -- they never occurred. This was my first time for such extended night riding, and for the first four hours I loved it: clear skies, no city lights, sky full of stars, a full moon so I hardly needed my lights, and then I got what I didn't plan for: seven hours of riding in pea soup fog.

More Newbie Lessons Learned:

(1) If you make a check list, check it. I made this extensive check list, and the night before I left to drive five hours to the ride area, I mentally said, "Oh, I've got everything." It was 85 degrees in Miami, so mentally I didn't check off my windbreaker even though it was on the list. Guess who needed a windbreaker when the fog hit and the temp dropped into the 60's? Damp cold descents can be chilling. Ah, see lesson #(7).