In this post, I will document my thoughts and conclusions regarding this 1200K and my overall strategy.
Volunteers were awesome. Vernon and Kyrsten on course everywhere. The folks at Walden who were keeping track of us and feeding us. No matter what time of day, someone was there to greet you when you arrived. Many thanks to all the volunteers who made this ride possible.
Weather was unpredictable. I learned during the SR600 that weather can change from hot to cold, rain, hail, sleet. Be prepared for any and everything. In 2021, I learned that rain sometimes comes to stay. It's not aways the 15 minutes and done or cross that pass and find sun. The climb up to Gore Pass and the descent were nearly enough to cause me to declare a DNF. Thankfully, I didn't.
Bring every kind of clothing you might need and use all of it as needed. I had rain legs in my trunk bag on day 1, but I removed these after day 1 to make room for the sunscreen. I think next time, I would keep the rain legs around my waist and use them if it rains.
Double shorts were a success. I learned about this from Dex Tooke via Amy Russell. My problem is that I bruise and the additional padding helps keep this problem to a minimum. I use a minimal amount of chamois butter and that is all that is needed to keep any sort of chafing at bay. I was sore at the end, but after a day, I didn't notice any more soreness. Success!
I climbed well in the high mountains. Don't know why, but my asthma isn't a problem for me once my lungs clear after the first few hours of day 1. I found that I could set up a rhythm in my 34x32 or 34x34 and just motor up the climbs. I am pleased this worked out. For the next time, I need to work on standing on the pedals more. I didn't stand many times during this brevet. Standing is key to keeping the blood moving and avoiding that pain you get from too much spinning. On hilly/mountain routes, this is much easier to do than on flat routes.
I prefer SR600 to 1200. The commutes between climbs on the 1200 were a problem for me. I enjoyed the nice views, but I think I prefer the SR 600K distance because the climbs are closer together. In general, I enjoy distances below 300K more than any other perm/brevet distance. When it comes down to 600/SR600/1000/1200, I prefer SR600 the most.
I enjoy meeting new riders. Every time I travel for brevets out of my home area, it's nice to meet people and ride with them -- even if only for a short while. I am not always compatible with every rider in terms of ability (most of the time I am slower). But even a few minutes to chat and learn where people are from, what they do when they are not riding bikes, and if they have family is something I really enjoy. I enjoyed meeting George, Luis, Michael, Andy, Kirsten, Sarah, ChrisA, Jack, and a few other riders. I also enjoyed seeing riders I have met before like JohnN and ChrisN. I didn't see much of them, but fellow Texans Russ and Byron were welcome sights as well. And of course, my friend and training partner Jeff. Having someone you know well is a big bonus. I certainly tip my hat to Jeff for his strength and leadership.
Learning new things. I always hope to learn something new when I ride a new route. One thing I learned during COVID-19 was how to ride longer distances without stopping. I rode my 50K and 100K routes during COVID without using stores until it became safe to do so. I no longer fear going 60 or 70 miles to a store. To be clear, if every control were that far apart, I would crack, but if a few are spaced out, I can cope. Saratoga on Day 2 was an example of this kind of situation. Having said this, a perfect route is one where services are available every 25-40 miles. Just saying.
New foods to power up. In the past year or so chocolate milk and ice cream have been my go to foods at stores. These were still appreciated, but I also found the Kirkland trail mix was a good boost for me. Of the food I brought with me, the Tuxedo (Oreo knock off) cookies were working well for me. The package of cheese crackers that Jeff handed me in the final 22 miles were also a nice boost.
Riding alone versus with others. I found myself alone a few times over the course of the 4 days. I missed having my induction earphones to help keep me motivated with a bit of music. I forgot the earphones at home. So, I just grinned and beared it. I still prefer to ride with others so that there is conversation.
Having some special things to look forward to. I always look forward to those stores that have things I like. The stop in Rustic on the return. The F'Real machine at the store in Steamboat Springs are just a couple of things I remember. I also looked forward to dinner and breakfast in Walden.
For those that are curious, I checked out of the Quality Inn after a nice morning featuring coffee and conversation in the QI kitchen. A few of us then met up at IHOP for breakfast. It was nice to be able to sit down and enjoy food after the ride and replenish lost calories.
After breakfast, we headed back to the QI and I packed up my bike back into the van along with the drop bag and my suitcase. I said goodbye to my roommate Russ and then headed to Denver where I picked up my wife at the Doubletree near the Convention Center. We discussed having lunch in Denver, but opted to look down the road closer to Colorado Springs. Traffic was heavy through the construction on I-25, but we eventually found it thinned out. We stopped in a suburb of Colorado Springs and ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall that also had Papa Murphy's and Subway as choices. The food was meh, but better than c-store/fast food. Price of gas in Colorado was high so we put 8 gallons of gas into the van and hoped to make it to Texas before having to refill again.
We drove south along I-25 until we reached Raton, NM. Here we exited the interstate and entered US-64/US-87 which travels south and east across New Mexico. We stopped again for gas in Dalhart, NM where gas prices were a little cheaper. We then decided we would drive straight through back to Austin. Every couple of hours we would switch drivers. My lower back started giving me pain from so much driving. We passed our time finishing up the audio book by Jeff Abbott called "An Ambush of Widows". I used to work with Jeff Abbott when he was a tech writer at Tivoli Systems. I love his novels and highly recommend them if you enjoy detective/crime/suspense genre.
We ate dinner at a What-a-Burger somewhere in North Texas. We also picked up coffee at at Starbucks near the W-a-B so that we could stay awake for more driving. Google eventually routed us to I-35W south of Fort Worth and we drove through city after city that I recognize as starting points for LSR brevets. Just north of Burleson, TX, we filled the van one last time with gas and switched drivers (I ended up driving the last 2 hours).
We arrived home around 4:30 AM and were so glad to see our home and driveway. I parked the van and opened the garage door. We unloaded a few things (suitcases and food) and then found that my sister in-law had locked us out of the house. I didn't bring my house keys and apparently neither did my wife. We both expected that our house sitters would be home when we returned, but they were away in Spicewood, TX for the day/night. We tried calling our son who lives nearby, but he did not answer. We drove to his apartment and knocked, but he was sound asleep. We left a message for him to call us when he got up. We drove back the house and made sleeping arrangements in the back of the van. I got about 1 and a half ours of sleep when our son showed up to save us with a key to the house. We brought the few items into the house and I immediately crashed asleep again. I woke up early on Saturday morning and finished unloading the van after a cup of coffee. I then made a trip to the car wash to get the van washed (it had a ton of bugs on it from the long drive). I brought the van home and plugged it in to recharge the Ev system. My MPG had dropped. from 56 mpg to 27 mpg over the course of the whole trip. Now that I am home, I can again run the car mostly on electrons rather than gasoline.
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