Randonneurs

[Susan Otcenas]

7/13-14.

This is PERFECT. :-) It's two weeks before LEL, which would be excellent timing as a final big training weekend! Taper after that! :-) I did a 300/200 double three weeks before PBP in 2011 and loved it. Felt really strong and ready to tackle the big event.

[maillotpois]

Excellent!

[maillotpois]

I just had a new permanent route approved (RUSA # 1873) and rode it yesterday. Super fun! I wanted to make something a little easier than my first perm, and this one features FIVE possible bakery stops right in the cue sheet (3 are controls, the other 2 are optional). Not for those on a diet....

[Veronica]

I wanna do this ride!

Veronica

[maillotpois]

I wanna do this ride!

Veronica

It's a good one! Any time you want.

(There's actually a secret sixth bakery in there that I should really put on the cue sheet....)

[Susan Otcenas]

I wanna do this ride!

Veronica

Me too! :-) I'm actually working on a fleche route that will feature bakery and sandwich shops for all it's controls. As few gas station convenience store stop as possible! Our team name is the Ladies Tea & Crumpets Society.

[maillotpois]

Me too! :-) I'm actually working on a fleche route that will feature bakery and sandwich shops for all it's controls. As few gas station convenience store stop as possible! Our team name is the Ladies Tea & Crumpets Society.

Awesome! Reminds me of the local WOMBATS (womens mountain bike and tea society).

When's your fleche? Ours was this weekend - I actually bowed out due to illness. My husband stayed on the team and they had a great time and - this is a minor miracle - he is now talking about building up a brevet bike. I love the fleche.

[Susan Otcenas]

Awesome! Reminds me of the local WOMBATS (womens mountain bike and tea society).

When's your fleche? Ours was this weekend - I actually bowed out due to illness. My husband stayed on the team and they had a great time and - this is a minor miracle - he is now talking about building up a brevet bike. I love the fleche.

May 3-5. Ours is usually later due to the colder weather. The later in the year, the better. Although, we did just have a stunningly beautiful and WARM weekend.

I've never done a fleche. Looking forward to it! Any words of advice? I should point out that we do not plan to be overachievers. We are going for the flattest route between two points, the minimum distance, and lots of tasty food along the way... ;-)

[maillotpois]

I love the fleche. You already know how you react to sleep deprivation and riding at night, which is huge. It's mostly about having fun.

Planning out realistic control times is huge so you can stay ahead of the controls and have plenty of down time. A flat route makes that a lot easier - sounds like you are right on track there! My team last year was always chasing the controls because the route ended up being a lot harder than we expected, so we never had more than about 30-45 minutes at our controls. My husband's group this weekend, by contrast, had about 8 hours off the bike and tons of time at the controls. They had a couple of beer stops along the way as well.

[Anelia]

Yesterday we rode another 200k. On Saturday the others rode 300 and I was sorry that I didn't ride 300 instead of 200. Not because of the distance but the weather on Saturday was fantastic (20-24 degrees) and it completely changed on Sunday. We started riding with head wind and finished the last 40 km in rain. The temperature dropped to 6 degrees! Besides that, I had a side stitch that lasted about 2 hours!!! It was incredible pain and only sticking with the group helped me get to the gas station at 130 km where we had some rest and the pain stopped. Maybe I had my breakfast only 30 min before the start and that triggered it I felt like lying in the ditch near the road but I kept riding with tears. After that I was very happy that the pain is gone and the rain wasn't an obstacle. Because of the pain and because the other 2 people from my group were very tired, we didn't ride fast, my HR was about 110-130 and had a big rest at lunch but nonetheless, the speed overall wasn't too bad, we finished in less than 10 hours.
http://www.openrunner.com/index.php?id=2310887- this is the route, I'll post some pictures later (if there are any, nobody wanted to take pictures in rain

[maillotpois]

That's great Anelia. Good for you for riding out the side stitch. I have found that on very long rides, something will hurt for a while and then it will stop. And then something else will hurt. So it's good to know you can ride through it, even if it's something really painful (as long as you know it's not life threatening.)

[Trek420]

There's this for your rest years:

http://blog.cascade.org/2013/02/erra...n-their-bikes/