Apr 4/5 - it's a blur

Where do I start ? Ok, at the beginning.

Up and ready to go with only two hours sleep, nonetheless I felt great. We rolled out at 4 a.m.

Back at 11:40 a.m. the next day, I felt even better, because it was over. Riding conditions were perfect with light winds, no rain, supportive crew and friends -- what more could one ask for ? My first 600k was over. I was done ... done-in.

This one broke down into three very different rides:

-- 176 miles to the lunch stop;
-- from there to mile 243, back at the hotel;
-- from the hotel to the hotel, mile 243-375.

100 yards from the start I realized that I had not reset my cyclecomputer so I fiddled with it, trying to press the two buttons simultaneously but since I could not see it in the dark, couldn't tell if I was successful ... and then it popped off the bike. I stopped to retrieve it, ensured that it was reset and started off again, the riders only a short distance ahead.

Then I realized that I had not reset the GPS from the drive down, and while riding tried to reset that. It wouldn't reset. Oh oh, I needed to "stop navigating" before I could "reset". Fuss, fuss, fuss and finally I had it reset and turned on again. I loaded up the course and set out -- but was rolling while the course was loading -- it's a big file and takes a while. The riders were out of sight by this point but I knew where I was going in spite of the GPS still showing "100% complete" but not done yet.

Then I missed a turn, waiting for the GPS and navigating from the cue sheet -- or did I ? I was unsure, and backtracked a couple of blocks ... no, I was ok ... and a lone rider passed me. By this point, of course, the "peloton" was long gone.

All of this took place within the first 15 minutes of the ride. It wasn't a big deal, but defined the day's ride.

The GPS was running again after a few miles, having reloaded the route -- I was trying out the approach of using GPX files. I won't do that again -- more on that later.

So - the first 176 miles were spent overtaking the peloton. They had the advantage while rolling; I had the advantage while stopped at Controls. After a few miles I overtook a lone rider and then further still, another. Neither seemed inclined to pick their pace and work together so I continued. After about 20 miles I overtook another two riders -- one that I could see as I approached was on a recumbent; the other, as I got closer, I recognized for sure by his rear hub -- it's red, and that's Hamid. He introduced me to his fellow rider -- Skip, the mayor of Cocoa Beach. Hamid had been dropped by the peloton when he had to stop to fix a chain drop. I'll have to show him sometime how he could have done that without stopping.

I was riding faster at this point, so I continued on. The temperature was perfect, the roads were good; there was no traffic; my lights were doing their job and I did mine. Hamid and Skip drifted backwards for a while but then overtook me as I stopped by a guardrail to relieve the call of nature. I passed them again and pulled into a convenience store with them around mile 40. I thought that we might ride together but they were in no real hurry -- I was starting to feel cool standing around as my sweat evaporated, so I started out again, fully expecting that they might catch up later.

At the first control, mile 82, Dan Wallace informed me that the peloton had left 10 minutes earlier. By the time I left, having used the restroom and filling my water bottles, that put them about 20 minutes ahead of me. At the next control, mile 126, the fellow manning that control informed me that the group had left 1 minute earlier. It wasn't that I'd been riding quickly -- we were probably riding at the same speed -- but the group had spent a lot of time at the control.

I was riding on familiar territory. Some time was spent on US 1 around Bunnell -- I know that area well from my regular rides; I'd covered the rest, other than Dupont Road, on the DeLand Permanent or the 400k ride. That held true for the rest of the day.

Just before the entrance to the West Orange trail at the "DO NOT MISS 7TH Day Adventist Church Entrance" admonition on the cue sheet, I could see a couple of cyclists at a convenience store. I had no idea who they were or how many had dropped out of the peloton, because there were not that many cyclists.

Finally, I'm at the end of the West Orange Trail, the lunch stop. It was 3:15. There was a large group of cyclists including Judith, Terry from Jacksonville from Saskatoon and many others. I'd finally caught up to the peloton. I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich, refilled my water bottles, used the restroom and prepared to leave ... Judith and three other riders were leaving together and waiting for me. The "peloton" was no more.

Oh -- while at the lunch stop, Alain and Vita pulled in -- the tandem -- they were the ones at the convenience store prior to the West Orange Trail.

A side note -- a couple of weeks ago, while riding on Merritt Island, I'd seen a couple of tandems approaching me going north while I rode south. The first went by, I waved. The second went by and I nodded and then did a double-take but it was too late -- was that Alain and Vita ?? Sure enough, it was -- they'd done the same thing -- double-take -- was that Dave ?? They were on a ride from their home in Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville. That's 323 miles -- I think that they did it over two days.

Up until the point that I'd had the sandwich, I had a liquid diet consisting of water and the Hammer product Perpetuem. At every stop I would make up a bottle of Perpetuem using one of my pre-measured packages of 3 scoops and filled the other bottle with plain water. By the time I got to mile 176, however, I'd used up any reserves and felt less and less inclined to drink so I got a little dehydrated. Between there and the Day's Inn Control, I stopped at a couple of convenience stores and had a Diet Coke -- for the caffeine and for the water -- but stuck with the diet version, because I didn't want the sugar. I stuck with the Perpetuem, but did have two of the Carb-Boom gels that I carry with me.

I started off with Judith's group and was able to hang with them for a few miles as we climbed the hills around Sugarloaf mountain, but was having trouble on the flat. I was too tired to draft closely; it was 86F and we were in full sun; it was dry and I was dry. I dropped back and finished the day on my own. Another rider -- Gator - I don't know his real name -- dropped from the group before I did. I was feeling pretty bonked by the heat.

I pulled into the Control at mile 205 (BP station at Okahumpka) just as Judith's group was leaving. I had my second diet coke and set out again. 10 miles later there was a "secret control" -- a sign with a package of stickies attached that you needed to afix to your Brevet Card at the same time as you noted time of passage. That was to ensure that you didn't take any short-cuts.

Finally, around mile 230, it was cooling off. Between the cooler air and the extra liquid, I was getting my second wind and feeling good again. I pulled into the Days Inn at 9:15 pm. 248.8 miles and 17.25 hours later -- that's a much faster pace than I'd maintained on the Central Florida 400k brevet four weeks earlier.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have had the peanut butter sandwich. I probably carried it with me to the Days Inn. I needed some quick sugar by that point mixed with the Perpetuem, perhaps Gator Ade or perhaps real Coke, instead of Diet Coke. I was probably down by two water bottles in terms of hydration by the time I pulled into the lunch stop. I should have stopped at one more convenience store for a refill rather than stretching out my supply. I'm learning. I had no upset stomach this time.

Tim had plenty of food organized at the Days Inn. I still had not decided what to do, in terms of resting, delaying that decision until after I showered. Was I ever dirty, especially my legs. I might has well have rolled in the dirt. The suntan lotion combined with sweat are like dirt magnets. It felt good to get the grime off me.

Pizza ... hmmm ... how will that sit on my mostly-liquid-diet stomach ? I didn't really feel hungry, per se, but I ate three pieces. I also grabbed a couple of mini-pretzel bags ... but after eating a couple of pretzels, didn't eat any more. I had another diet coke ... and then later, up in the room, a sunkist orange soda from the machine.

At 9:30, Alain and Vita arrived, and then later, Hamid and Terry (not together). I asked Alain what their plans were, and they were planning on leaving at 10:30 ... ok, I'll join you ... great. Hamid was going get some sleep -- I heard later that he'd left around 3am but I was gone from the hotel before he got in.

I went back up to the room, had my orange soda. I was feeling pretty good but didn't want to turn on the TV. I did however, clean my chain. I had picked up a newspaper downstairs and put that on the floor under my bike, used WD40 to flood the chain removing the grit and coming sparkling clean. I oiled it and was ready to roll again. At 10:30 I was downstairs waiting; Alain and Vita showed up a little bit later, at which point Terry was down there too and he decided to join us. Terry had not cleaned up yet but we encouraged him to do so -- we set out around 11:10.

It was still warm. I put my vest on, keeping my long-sleeved jersey in the pack as a reserve. I did need that before dawn, so it was worth carrying it.

We pulled into the Tangerine FL Post Office at 11:53, marked the date and time on our post cards and mailed them. Just as we were setting out, Judith and two other riders (I'll have to learn people's names) pulled in and I told them that too bad, I'd stuffed the mail box with USA Today and there was no more room for mail ... just kidding of course ... and we set out. We'd dawdled at the Post Office ... by the time Judith et al were dating their post cards it wasn't 4/4 anymore, it was 4/5. Either way, it was dark.

The Post Card approach to Controls is simply to show that you've been physically present. Obviously there is no way of checking the time; obviously there's no way to prove that it was you vs someone else -- but that holds true with the brevet cards as well. When you get right down to it there's no way to prove that you didn't drive from point-to-point ... but then again, it would be pretty boring sitting around in a car all day as you drove from Control to Control, waiting around so that the times would be reasonably biking times rather than driving times. Biking is much more fun than driving ... sometimes ... even when it's late at night.

It was a long night. I had high hopes that we'd be in around dawn or shortly after, after all, there was only 135 miles to ride. 15mph hour average would have us in around 8am; an extra hour for stopped time would get us in by 9am; we arrived at 11:40. In between there were many stops and we didn't even come close to a 15mph moving average.

Here are some stats -- checking the computer now:

Days Inn to Days Inn, first time: 244.3 miles (I would have lost a couple due to the resets and gained a couple due to whatever) -- 15.98 mph average, 15:17 rolling time; 17:15 elapsed time.

Days Inn to Days Inn, second time: 10:00 rolling time, 134.3 miles; 13.41 mph average speed (faster than I'd thought), 12:25 elapsed time.

Cyclecomputer total stats -- 376 total miles, 24:58 rolling time -- 15.06 mph average -- not too bad, considering.

Note that the GPS counts 378.6 miles vs the cyclecomputer 376 miles -- the 25mm tires are probably just a little bit wider in circumference than assumed so the cyclecomputer counts a slightly shorter distance. It's less than a 1% difference, however, which is probably as good as it gets ...

Total Brevet, official time -- 31:40 vs the time limit of 40:00. Brevet completion time is all about elapsed time.

As you can tell, we had a lot of stops and there were periods when we were cycling quite slowly. Being tired, following another rider and going at a slow speed is mesmerizing. I caught myself starting to drift a couple of times but I was in great shape compared to Terry. We were losing him, I was sure that he was heading into the ditch a couple of times -- either voluntarily to sleep or involuntarily. We refused to leave him, nursing him along to a place where we could stop. From 4am to 6am was the toughest, in terms of staying awake. I could have ridden faster and the extra blood flow would have helped me stay awake -- but I wasn't sure of that and it was more important to have company. We found a Circle K and stopped just before getting onto the Van Fleet Trail, letting Terry and Vita put their heads down on tables to have a power nap. Soon after we left the sky started to lighten and staying awake was not a problem. Soon I was stripping off my long sleeved jersey and vest ... it was getting warm again. It was going to be another hot day but we finished the ride before that.

What did I eat ? -- well, I brought 14 self pre-packaged portions of Perpetuem -- that would be 21 scoops of the product -- I used 7. I had the pb&j sandwich at mile 176; the three pieces of pizza, the sunkist soda, a small bag of chex mix, a hot-dog-bun ham and cheese sandwich towards the end of the ride, and 4 or 5 Carb-Boom gels. 4500 calories, perhaps 4750 at the outside -- I probably burned 10,000 calories assuming 400 calories per hour and 25 hours rolling time. That doesn't include passage-of-time calories -- who knows, I could be 5000 to 7000 calories short.

How do I feel ? Well, today I feel good, ready to ride again. Yesterday, after the ride, I was tired, naturally. I used the hotel room to shower and change (boy that felt good). I went north on 441 and got a very crappy but huge milkshake that was so liquidy that I could almost have poured it. Next time I'll find a McD or BK -- more consistency, or drive the extra miles for a DQ. Heading back south, it only took a few miles before I realized that I wasn't going to make it -- I was a menace on the road. I pulled into a parking lot, left the car running and had a power nap. 15 minutes later, feeling much better, I hit the road again. Had I been going a longer distance I would have stopped again. I should have stopped again ... but made it home safely. In two weeks time, coming back from Gainesville, I'll have to stop a couple of times minimum, if my ride profile is similar.

Safely home, I snacked, of course, and had an 1.5 hour snooze before Sandy got me up so that I could go to Mass. Earlier in the week I did some phoning around and found a church that had a Sunday evening Mass. No doubt I'll be hitting that again in a couple of weeks, assuming that I'm back in time from Gainesville.

After the nap I felt great. I stayed up until 10 and was up at 6. I'm not trying to fool myself though, I'm still in a backlog situation, in terms of sleep, and should take a nap sometime today.

There's likely more to write, but I'm tired of writing. I've got lots of food for thought for planning the next 600 and ultimately the 1200.

Oh -- I mentioned the GPX files. The Garmin unit did something funny with those files loading them, creating a couple of places on the route where it was zig-zagging off course. I couldn't always trust it but of course I was checking the cue sheet at the same time so it didn't matter. On the second part of the ride, I loaded up the TCX file -- the "course" in Garmin terms, and it was right on. I'll double-check the setup of the first section on bikeroutetoaster to ensure that it wasn't my fault, but at this point I'm convinced that using TCS files is the way to go. It seems to want to do some auto-routing with GPX files that shouldn't happen since that feature is turned off ... but like anything else, it has bugs.

The other advantage of using TCX files which are designed for training is that as I pulled into the Days Inn the GPS said "course complete" -- yay !

Later ...