Umm..I want to join the nut brigade

[Trekhawk]

I knew that i had to come back to a thread before I went to bed

To answer a few q's
1-The longest ride i've done recently was approx a 100km mtn bike event (very hilly) a few months ago.

The longest road ride i've done recently is about 80km. I am unsure if i should do longer distances the following way-Bike to our group ride(25km), do the group ride (50-60km), bike home (35km) & then add some or just go off on my own & bike. I could invite a few folks from our group or drag ian along on a training ride. What about doing training rides off road? Would that make any difference? I don't want to lose any more mtn bike mojo. I can do 100km off road happily.

We've driven to meckering & it's FLAT but i might drag ian out for a drive & see the course. Most of the areas we pass through are one horse towns if you get my drift.

Sunrise on June 2nd is at 7:08am & sets at 5:20pm-Seems enough time to do 200km. Will have my back light on at all times.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...&afl=-11&day=1

Nutrition plan-I can have someone take a look at that for me. I'll plan a long ride after the 1/2 IM next weekend.(mtb event this weekend & no i'm not doing the 1/2 IM ..i'm part of the technical crew) and have a think.

I'm going to contact the Perth audax guys & find out a bit more info. I have a feeling it'll be a cozy bunch.

Off to bed kids.

C

CC - as far as your longer training rides go I think you could do both. Maybe one week do your long ride with your group adding to the beginning and end and then the following week do a long ride on your own. If you are going to be doing the brevet on your own you may be riding some or all of it by yourself and its nice to know that your comfortable with that. I was lucky to be with the wonderful Jobob and Leebob on my 200km brevet but if they had dropped me (Jobob could have done this as she is faster than me) I would have been ok as riding solo is something I do 90 percent of the time.

I would try to get some longer rides in on your road bike just so your body gets use to the feel of sitting on that bike for an extended amount of time.

Good luck with your training and let us know how you are getting on. Will you take a camera along on the brevet?? I would love to see some pics.

[maillotpois]

Between work, a visiting mother and TE outages I didn't see this thread til now!

Yay! We got another one!

You've gotten loads of great advice, CC. Definitely work on building up your long rides. 200k is a great distance to start with for a brevet, to see if you actually like it and want to ride farther. Most of it is mental. Seriously. You need a lot of practice doing long rides mostly by yourself to see how this works for you and if it drives you even crazier.

In terms of bags, I use the Tailgator as SK mentioned, and I also have a large handle bar bag, but for 200k I don't use the bar bag.

Let us know how the training goes!

[SadieKate]

I carry tow or tubes and a patch kit. Unlike NorCal, we have to put with goathead thorns and Cactus spines.

Whachu been smokin'? Goatheads all over inland northern California. And this nasty creeping vine that seems to grow mostly along bike trails and throws thorns at you as you ride by. Plenty of prickly pear but it seems to keep its thorns under control.

BTW, whoever asked. The bar map that Fredwina photo'd is actually larger than the Bar Map of the Gods. The OTG is the "queen" because it folds up and has pockets, but the profile of the folded map on your bars is smaller.

[SadieKate]

1-The longest ride i've done recently was approx a 100km mtn bike event (very hilly) a few months ago

Ok, you've ridden a 100k on your mtb in one day? How'd you do? Mtbiking is generally twice the work (due to rolling resistance, weight, less aero, etc., etc.) of road riding (assuming you are using a roadbike not the mtb).

Lessee, big maths coming . . . . 100k x 2 = 200k.

I think you can do this.

[midlife]

Hey midlife have you done the Alpine Classic??
Im going to do that one on my return to Aust and any tips would be appreciated.

No I haven't, but have lots of friends who have and we were up there for a birthday weekend when it was on. I'm no good at riding hills, let alone mountains!! I used to ski down some of these years ago so the thought of riding up them...

Its a brilliant event but very challenging. The year we were up there it was 40C for the three days and the bitumen was melting. Due to bushfires in the last few years there is not a lot of shade cover now either. Lots of guys we know who have done Ironman had to get off and walk frequently (not quite sure how they started peddling again either!)

We took our MTBs up and road around the fire trails etc and then rode up to the river, jerseys off and fell in the ice cold water. that was enough fun for us!

[crazycanuck]

Hey SK.

We did the 100km Great karri mtb ride earlier this year. It was mostly uphill & I was one of the slowest folks out there. It was a mixture of some sand, pea gravel, bitumen & singlegtrack.

It was hard but fun. Our coach checked my nutrition plan & what I ate worked well. I think for a 200km road ride I would eat-Vegemite sandwiches or Jam sandwiches, bananas, energy bar but would need to sit down & think about it.

In terms of doing long road rides now, that's not a problem. If i follow the bike path from my house to the city then end of the train line north it would be a 120km ride.

I could do the same off road-Srarting at John forrest to the dell & back is 100km.

Theoretically I could do both for training.

Thanks ladies.
C

[crazycanuck]

SInce today was a public holiday I decided to do a long ride. It was only 101km(i was almost at my house & my odometer said 100.4km..i went around the block to equal 101km..)

My total average speed was 22km/hr & the ride took me 4hrs 31min. I stopped a couple of times-to have my banana, get more water & go pee..


I agree it's all in the mind..

C

[maillotpois]

Hey CC -

I am sure I missed some discussion about this on one of the myriad thread drifts, and perhaps I should know, but who's the person in your avatar pic? I have been wondering.

[crazycanuck]

Roger taylor from Queen

[Keely]

Hey C,

You should check out the BV Forum. The Around the Bay in a Day discussion has lots of advice being thrown about for those already starting their training.

For those who don't know about this ride it is around Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne, Australia). There are 4 options for this ride - 50km, 100km, 210km or 250km. It is held in October and up 10,000 cyclists do the ride. Most people aim to complete the 210km ride in between 7-9 hours. One of the major challenges of this ride is the changeble weather we seem to have here in Melbourne. You generally have an awful head wind for at least half the ride! The day can start out lovely and then change to absolutely horrible - 2 years ago it was sunny in the morning and then changed to cold and wet in the afternoon. People were suffering from frostbite because they were ill-prepared for the cold change.

[crazycanuck]

I'm knackered..We drove approx 400km today to check the route out. Oh how I love my dear (It's 160km round trip from my house to the start of the ride) I've attached a few photos for you whilst you're eating brekkie.

It's undulating but nothing as bad as some of the hills on the 100km off road ride we did. I think my main concerns would be the following: 1-The elements-there's very little shade as with many many roads in WA. If it's windy i;ll be ingesting dust for lunch. If there's a burnoff or bus 2-Farm machinery/wide loads-you can see by the photos there's very little space! I'll be paying attention! 3-The idea of being self reliant. Apart from the checkpoint stops there's nothing except farms in between.

I have a spare weekend in may where I might just go out and do some of it for training.

Enjoy the pics as i''m def not taking my camera on the day of the ride! The first is a little bobtail(?) lizard that was sunning itself on the road..they're just too cute to pass by. The rest are just roads along the ride route.

C

[jobob]

One thing I've noticed when I drive a route - it always seems longer when I drive it than when I actually ride it.

I don't know why that is, I guess when I'm on a bike I'm not as aware of the distance. Does that make sense?

[jobob]

Looks like a neat route! Make sure you have lots of water with you.

Perhaps , since it's so remote, the brevet organizers might have a roving SAG with water, but don't assume it. It might be good to email the organizer and ask if there will be any sort of support provided. (Or it might actually say on the brevet info, I didn't look - still, would be good to double check w the origanizer).