Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eric Peterson on June 16, 2009 at 10:31am

I'm signed up, got my Super8 reservation, and am looking forward to the ride.
Since I've only managed the GLR 200K so far this year I am a little concerned about the distance, but think I will be ready enough.
Hope to see a good turnout.

Eric Peterson

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 16, 2009 at 2:30pm

I've managed the 200, 300, 400k's so far, I each one I though I was pretty much not going to survive but the 600 really has me psyched out. Somebody said 90% of it is half mental (yogi berra?). I'm trying to talk my wife into saying things like "one more ride and you can achieve your goal" or "just try to ride to the next checkpoint and call me again" or maybe "You've been training hard, just keep the pedals turning" but she usually says "I'll come and get you, where are you?" and "You've ridden so far, it's OK to stop". "Why don't I pick you up and we can watch a movie on the TV?".

Any tips?

Eric Peterson said:

I'm signed up, got my Super8 reservation, and am looking forward to the ride.
Since I've only managed the GLR 200K so far this year I am a little concerned about the distance, but think I will be ready enough.
Hope to see a good turnout.

Eric Peterson

Permalink Reply by Michael Amico on June 16, 2009 at 3:19pm

Yes Joe, it's 90% mental. Eat lots of eggs a couple of days before the ride (for the the protein). Stay off the bike the Friday before the ride. Be sure to shower and sleep at least 3 hours after you come in from the first 400k. If you have somebody to ride with, that helps a great deal. Don't let the voices in your head talk you out of your mission.

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 17, 2009 at 4:10pm

I thought about trying to make it a quick stop at 400K....just get the card signed and go, not even change clothes or anything. Because if I stop there it might be hard to get going again!

Michael Amico said:

Yes Joe, it's 90% mental. Eat lots of eggs a couple of days before the ride (for the the protein). Stay off the bike the Friday before the ride. Be sure to shower and sleep at least 3 hours after you come in from the first 400k. If you have somebody to ride with, that helps a great deal. Don't let the voices in your head talk you out of your mission.

Permalink Reply by Eric Peterson on June 18, 2009 at 6:43am

EXCITING WEATHER NEWS

According to today's Tribune weather page, the jet stream is moving north, and the graphic indicates warm temperatures for the June.26 - July.1 period, with a thunderstorm corridor far to the north of the 600K route.

We are due for some good weather, hot and humid beats thunderstorms and tornadoes. I hope the forecast holds.

Eric

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 18, 2009 at 7:05am

You know they'll be some weather, on all of these GLR rides something happens. Even on the 400 with "good" weather we had a few hours of rain and temps in the low 50's. Optimism is good but you *know* what I'm sayin' :)

Eric Peterson said:

EXCITING WEATHER NEWS

According to today's Tribune weather page, the jet stream is moving north, and the graphic indicates warm temperatures for the June.26 - July.1 period, with a thunderstorm corridor far to the north of the 600K route.

We are due for some good weather, hot and humid beats thunderstorms and tornadoes. I hope the forecast holds.

Eric

Permalink Reply by Eric Peterson on June 18, 2009 at 8:24am

Splitting the ride into a 400K and a 200K makes it more manageable.

The ability to ride straight through depends on the individual. While I've ridden for 24 hours (and longer) what works for me is to get some sleep after 400K. Sleep cycles are supposed to last 90 minutes, so the advice for a 3-hour nap is good advice. The shower part is also important to minimize saddle sores - I got them on my first 600K. After that I started on the Bag Balm (available at Walgreens). You should also make sure to refuel before sleeping so you don't wake up starving, just hungry.

I'm shooting for finishing the 400K leg by midnight, which if I can average 16 MPH allows an average of just 15 minutes for each control, plus allowing 15 minutes for the ferry. I'm sure I'll blow that budget at the Baraboo sub shop. The weather also has a big potential impact on that plan, mechanicals to a lesser extent.

Oh yeah, it's at least 50% mental.

Eric


Joe said:

I've managed the 200, 300, 400k's so far, I each one I though I was pretty much not going to survive but the 600 really has me psyched out. Somebody said 90% of it is half mental (yogi berra?). I'm trying to talk my wife into saying things like "one more ride and you can achieve your goal" or "just try to ride to the next checkpoint and call me again" or maybe "You've been training hard, just keep the pedals turning" but she usually says "I'll come and get you, where are you?" and "You've ridden so far, it's OK to stop". "Why don't I pick you up and we can watch a movie on the TV?".

Any tips?

Eric Peterson said:

I'm signed up, got my Super8 reservation, and am looking forward to the ride.
Since I've only managed the GLR 200K so far this year I am a little concerned about the distance, but think I will be ready enough.
Hope to see a good turnout.

Eric Peterson

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 18, 2009 at 1:13pm

On the 400K we had a few redneck encounters between 10pm and 1am...I'm almost thinking a 3 hr stop in Lake Mills or Whitewater might be just right. Thing settled down after 1am and were really nice. I just worry about my ability to get going again after the stop. Plus....you're only just a smidge over halfway at Lake Mills....be nice to go farther before stopping. I like the idea of a 3 hour sleep break. Heck, I had a 45 minute stop or two in the 400...at least it felt that way...so 3 hours wouldn't be a whole lot worse and if I slept a little.....and brought some extra shorts...

Eric Peterson said:

Splitting the ride into a 400K and a 200K makes it more manageable.

The ability to ride straight through depends on the individual. While I've ridden for 24 hours (and longer) what works for me is to get some sleep after 400K. Sleep cycles are supposed to last 90 minutes, so the advice for a 3-hour nap is good advice. The shower part is also important to minimize saddle sores - I got them on my first 600K. After that I started on the Bag Balm (available at Walgreens). You should also make sure to refuel before sleeping so you don't wake up starving, just hungry.

I'm shooting for finishing the 400K leg by midnight, which if I can average 16 MPH allows an average of just 15 minutes for each control, plus allowing 15 minutes for the ferry. I'm sure I'll blow that budget at the Baraboo sub shop. The weather also has a big potential impact on that plan, mechanicals to a lesser extent.

Oh yeah, it's at least 50% mental.

Eric


Joe said:

I've managed the 200, 300, 400k's so far, I each one I though I was pretty much not going to survive but the 600 really has me psyched out. Somebody said 90% of it is half mental (yogi berra?). I'm trying to talk my wife into saying things like "one more ride and you can achieve your goal" or "just try to ride to the next checkpoint and call me again" or maybe "You've been training hard, just keep the pedals turning" but she usually says "I'll come and get you, where are you?" and "You've ridden so far, it's OK to stop". "Why don't I pick you up and we can watch a movie on the TV?".

Any tips?

Eric Peterson said:

I'm signed up, got my Super8 reservation, and am looking forward to the ride.
Since I've only managed the GLR 200K so far this year I am a little concerned about the distance, but think I will be ready enough.
Hope to see a good turnout.

Eric Peterson

Permalink Reply by David Berry on June 19, 2009 at 5:28pm

Hey Joe,
That is great you are going to complete the 600 km (see how much confidence I have in you). You were fine at the end of the 400, so I have no doubt you can do it.

We finished at 2:53 AM. But, we probably burned 45-60 minutes by getting lost and doing about 12 "bonus" miles. So if you don't get lost, now you are back at 2:00 AM. Plus, we were pretty slow at the controls. A lot of that had to do with how much we were eating due to the cooler weather. I think if you stay disciplined at the controls, you can probably shave off another 45 minutes of our time. And that is all without riding any harder. So that would put you back to Delavan at 1:00 - 1:15 AM or so, 2/3rds of the way done.

I thin you are probably correct that getting going again will be the hardest part. Just take those first miles after the sleep stop slow and let your legs loosen up. I rode with you for 21 hours, so I know you are a strong rider and can do it.

David

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 20, 2009 at 2:27pm

Thanks for the encouragement! I rode the Horribly Hilly 100K today on a tandem with my wife...we ended up with about 70 miles and I'm really feeling it! I know it's freaking hilly and a tandem isn't exactly the easiest way to ride it but I couldn't help but think....70 down, 314 to go LOL :) Ouch!

David Berry said:

Hey Joe,
That is great you are going to complete the 600 km (see how much confidence I have in you). You were fine at the end of the 400, so I have no doubt you can do it.

We finished at 2:53 AM. But, we probably burned 45-60 minutes by getting lost and doing about 12 "bonus" miles. So if you don't get lost, now you are back at 2:00 AM. Plus, we were pretty slow at the controls. A lot of that had to do with how much we were eating due to the cooler weather. I think if you stay disciplined at the controls, you can probably shave off another 45 minutes of our time. And that is all without riding any harder. So that would put you back to Delavan at 1:00 - 1:15 AM or so, 2/3rds of the way done.

I thin you are probably correct that getting going again will be the hardest part. Just take those first miles after the sleep stop slow and let your legs loosen up. I rode with you for 21 hours, so I know you are a strong rider and can do it.

David

Permalink Reply by Eric Peterson on June 28, 2009 at 7:52pm

Someone said that 16 riders were there, I can recall 14 so I guess I'm missing a couple. A ride report by our RBA would sure be nice. What's interesting is that there were out of state riders from TX, TN(2), SC, and OH - 5 in all. A couple of them commented that some of the roads were pretty broken up, which is true, especially on the 200K portion I thought. Or maybe that's because I was so tired....
Personally I thought it a very tough ride. I almost managed my 16MPH goal for the 400K (15.8) and didn't quite get in by midnight - I burned some time going to a bike shop in Verona (I had forgotten my tire levers) and fixing a flat (hey I got to use my tire levers!). On the 200K portion my only goal was to finish.
From Baraboo back to Delavan I rode with Rich Becker and Mark Pernitz which worked well as we were pretty closely matched speedwise and also time spent at the controls. I managed to get 5 hours sleep and rode the 200K alone, which was a real bear on the return leg and its 20MPH headwinds.
MY GPS indicates 16,000 ft of climbing. On the 400K portion even after the "hilly" sections there were still plenty of rollers that slowly took it out of me. The 200K had some rollers and one nasty climb (Sugar Creek) but the main problem was the wind.
We were spared getting rained on Saturday as the severe weather was to the North and East. Only problem was some dogs that chased us at one point in the dark but we managed to yell them away. Not sure what the neighbors thought with all our screaming.
Frank Paulo commented that in terms of ridership that these days there are many other brevets in the area - OH, IA, MN (two series), southern IL, and a new one somewhere midstate IL (Quad Cities?). I've ridden the IA versions (but there are new routes this year) and would like to do so again (the 600K is in two weeks) as well as some of the other areas.

Eric

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 29, 2009 at 1:41am

Yeah, Saturday was great, Sunday was tough! I rode with a couple of guys Ron and Jay for nearly the entire 400K portion, we made good time at the controls and didn't go too crazy on the climbs. Amazingly didn't get rained on! And it seemed like a favorable wind shift so we ended up back in Delavan a little after midnight. We used room #126 that was set aside by the ride organizers, took showers, and got a couple hours of sleep, it was awesome! We were thinking about a quicker turn but with the Wind Lake control not open until 6am it was an easy decision to rest a bit.

I was so worried about getting back on the bike! Like I wouldn't have the fortitude to continue...but it wasn't all that bad...I was riding on the enthusiasm of my first 600K so that helped a lot :) We ended up getting split up on the ride to East Troy but I hooked up with a couple of guys from Madison doing there own 600K ride. They rode down to Edgerton Saturday morning, hooked up with out loop, then were going to head back a few miles after East Troy. They had ridden all night. Crazy! Jay was really tired at East Troy, decided he'd take some time and try to get going again. Ron was riding like an animal, he was already gone from the control when I got there.

So with the sun coming up I plodded along. The wind kept coming up and by the time I got to the lake it was blasting! 65 miles to go, might take awhile to get back LOL! I caught up with Ron in Wind Lake momentarily and we talked with a large group heading east. I was so impressed by the riders still going out! I mean, at that point I had 30 or 40 miles or whatever and plenty of time, the wind was strong but I had no stress. Some of those guys had to keep an eye on the time limits and the wind certainly wasn't going down. To push on into that kind of uncertainty, man, that took guts. I hope everybody made it by 10PM! Ron and I rode together on and off until the finish, it was nice to get a little draft, reminded me of the 300K LOL. Something about GLR rides...it's not just the distance...you've always got some weather to deal with too!

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