Calling all randos...

[Tri Girl]

no advice, but HOLY MOLY!!!! I'm so impressed. I can't wait to hear all about it!!! Promise you'll write a report and share it with us?

[Pedal Wench]

Think my first reponse got lost...

I'm one of the crazy randos!

Tips: EAT! You'll need a steady supply of calories, and since you're at controls anyway, why not grab some potato chips?
Be prepared for the chill of night. After being sweaty all day and getting tired, you'll be colder at night than you think you'll be.
LIGHTS! Bring every light you have! Nothing worse than not being able to see, especially on a descent. And try to find someone to ride with at night. Safety in numbers, plus the lights combine to make it easier for everyone to see.

Edit: and bring a helmet light too - I like being able to see what's rustling in the brush next to the road. And, have an easy way to read the cue sheet, and backup if you're using a computer.

[Susan Otcenas]

Think my first reponse got lost...

I'm one of the crazy randos!

Tips: EAT! You'll need a steady supply of calories, and since you're at controls anyway, why not grab some potato chips?
Be prepared for the chill of night. After being sweaty all day and getting tired, you'll be colder at night than you think you'll be.
LIGHTS! Bring every light you have! Nothing worse than not being able to see, especially on a descent. And try to find someone to ride with at night. Safety in numbers, plus the lights combine to make it easier for everyone to see.

Edit: and bring a helmet light too - I like being able to see what's rustling in the brush next to the road. And, have an easy way to read the cue sheet, and backup if you're using a computer.

Food - My longest brevet to date is a 300K (I couldn't do the 400K in the series due to a scheduling conflict.) I definitely stayed on top of my food. I have a bento box and stashed plenty of odwalla & luna bars in there, as well as a bunch of Gu. I prefer real food, but Gu is a great quick shot of energy at certain points. I also carried some bananas & peanut butter banana sandwiches. I also ate at every control (except info controls) and sat down for a real meal at a cafe at around 160km. I have a pretty good idea how much I burn per hour (based on my VO2 max testing) and when I tallied up my consumption at the end of the day, I was really close to my burn estimate, so that was good.

This 600K is completely unsupported except at the overnight control, which will have some snacks. So anything I consume I'll have to bring or buy. On the 300K, I was careful to study the cue sheet ahead of time, so I'd know where I could buy food, and when I'd be in the middle of nowhere so I could be sure to have supplies. I'll do the same for the 600K. Plus, I can send a small bag to the overnight control, so I can "restock" at that point (360K) from my own supply.


Lights - I figure I'll have 2-3 hours of riding in the dark. I think I'll hit the overnight control between 11pm & 12pm. I do plan to sleep there until sun-up and set out again around 5-6 a.m. I know that many of the other riders plan to go straight through, but I don't think I can do that. And fortunately, I usually ride at a pace that should allow me that long of a break without any worries on the time limit. My only time goal for this brevet is to be done before dark on Sunday. With only 240K to cover, that should be no trouble, assuming I'm not completely spent.

I appreciate the suggestion for a helmet light. I usually use bar mount only, but was contemplating how I would best see my cue sheet. Plus, I know for sure that there's a long-ish descent with 10 miles of the overnight control, which I will definitely be doing in the dark. And as you said, a back up is a really good idea. My lights failed on the 24 hour TT I did in September, which left me 3 miles out of town in the pitch darkness. Not fun!!

I suspect I'll be doing this ride mostly solo. There's 17 other people (all men) signed up so far. I recognize many of their names as being much faster than me. I'm no slouch, but I also know that if I try to ride their pace, I'll blow up later. But maybe I'll catch some of them later in the day. That happened on the 300K. I let the boys go at mile 25 at the start of the first big climb, then started passing some of the slower ones at mile 100. Tortoise and the hare.

[Biciclista]

hm, that's the ride my DH just backed out of.
Pay really good attention to any minor irritations. A wrinkle in your shorts early on can result in nasty damage 200 miles later.

Seems like you already figured out; take short breaks... if you're not fast, that's a great equalizer.

Good luck

[Pedal Wench]

I like my Garmin 705 so much for brevets - I can set it on a really, really low backlight and see it all night long - plus, I load the route ahead of time so it beeps to alert me for all upcoming turns. Makes seeing the cue sheet at night less essential.

Great idea on bringing lots of food. I had one emergency promeal bar, and was about 20 miles away from a control when I needed it. Broke it open, took a bite and was gonna nibble from my bento box. Sure enough, I hit a bump on a descent and it bounced out. Desperate, I turned around to go get it, just in time to see a car completely nail it - totally smushed. Guess there were some happy squirrels later that day. So, yeah, some backup food is a great idea.

Add a few hours to your battery life on lights - you never know what could happen that could throw off your timing and as you know, getting caught even for a mile without enough lights is really scary.

I wish I could come and ride with you!

[Pedal Wench]

Disclaimer -- I have NOT done a 600K, but a 400, a few 300's and two 200K's, a fleche (360K), and a few 24-hour (road) races, where I did about 344 miles, so about a 555k! . So, no advice on how to handle an overnight. On the fleche, I was SUPER jealous of the guys who brought a change of shorts (actually, they changed into tights at night). I would have paid big bucks to have had new, CLEAN shorts.

[Susan Otcenas]

I was SUPER jealous of the guys who brought a change of shorts (actually, they changed into tights at night). I would have paid big bucks to have had new, CLEAN shorts.

I'll have leg warmers for morning and evening. Fresh change of clothes in my overnight bag. I imagine that event the guys who plan to ride straight through might change clothes at that point. I sure would!

[Trekhawk]

no advice, but holy moly!!!! I'm so impressed. I can't wait to hear all about it!!! Promise you'll write a report and share it with us?

What tri girl said. I am looking forward to hearing all about it.

[Catrin]

Yes, do let us know how things go! I am interested in eventually trying this. I am not interested in racing, but would like to try my hand at a brevet when I have enough experience to do so.

[sundial]

Susan, no tips to give but I do wish you a great ride and I will be looking forward to your report.

[tulip]

Once again, Susan, you are an inspiration to us all. Can't wait to read the ride report.

I have Paris-Brest-Paris on my someday list, but really, I'd prefer to just tour there and stop and sleep and explore the villages! Night riding is not high on my list.

[Pedal Wench]

Another thread reminded me of this. I use aerobars on brevets, for a variety of reasons. Besides the opportunity to give my hands/wrists a break, and slightly for their obvious aero advantage, I use the bars to hold my cue sheet. I laminate it, punch holes and use cable tie loops to hang it over the aerobars - flipping pages at controls. It's also great to have to hang things from. Lights, batteries, and spare armwarmers-legwarmers. I'm not the most aero thing rolling down the road like that, but I've got everything I need.

[Susan Otcenas]

Once again, Susan, you are an inspiration to us all. Can't wait to read the ride report.

Well, I'm glad I can inspire people to sign up for nutty things. Since, at this point, all I've actually *done* is been crazy enough to sign up.

For inspiration, I'm looking to Maillitpois http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=6299 and Pedal Wench and the others amongst you who have successfully tackled this stuff.

I will definitely do a ride report, assuming I can remember what happens during the ride. I suspect things may get kinda hazy at some point.