Great job and wonderful report! Glad it hear it went well. Keep it up! On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 3:53 PM, René Sterental <orthie...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all, > > I'm exhilarated at having completed the 72 mile bike ride around Lake > Tahoe today! I was quite apprehensive last weekend, but then took control > over my negative thoughts and decided to just ride it and see how far I > got. And I got to the end! > > I drove to LT yesterday and brought my Homer. Just for kicks, the Homer is > equipped with 35mm Bon Jon tires with latex tubes, Honjo fenders, Compass > Rando 44mm bars taped with Brooks leather tape, C17 Cambium rust saddle, > front Sackville Trunksack small, rear Acorn large original tan saddlebag, > standard Sugino triple crankset 24/36/46 and 9 speed 12-34 cassette (o how > I love thee), DuraAce down tube shifters and flat pedals. > > I transported the bike on my new 1UP 2" Super Duty Single Bike Rack (first > time I use it) with the adapter for bikes with fenders. The rack is > outstanding! The bike didn't budge the whole way even when I hit 85+mph on > the freeway. I also got the extension to be able to carry a second bike, > but don't need it right now. An additional benefit of the single rack is > that even when stored up, it doesn't interfere with the trunk door on my > Highlander. https://www.1upusa.com/product-SDquikracksilver.html > > Wasn't sure about how I would do on the ride with my LCHF diet, so after > mulling my options and getting discouraged to bring hard boiled eggs by a > friend who said they go bad very quickly and easily, I decided to bring > sardines in olive oil instead. I got them out of the can and into a ziplock > bag and brought a spork. I also bought a bag of smoked almonds for the salt > and taste and backed it all up with a couple of packets of GU chomps, just > in case. > > I only had a black coffee in my room before leaving at 6:06 am and rode > without eating anything for the first two hours, including the Emerald Bay > climb. At hour two I decided to start taking the GU chomps (only one at a > time) to ensure I had enough carb support and wouldn't bonk later on. > Honestly, I think I could have done without them, at least until the second > half of the ride when the climb to Spooner almost got me. I refilled my > water bottles with just plain water at the first rest stop and had a banana > on the second rest stop as well as a handful of almonds. On the third rest > stop (lunch rest stop) at mile 42 I had my sardines with just some water > and promptly continued. There's a water stop half-way up the climb to > Spooner at mile 54 which I almost thought I wouldn't make. I had more Gu > chomps (I had been eating them throughout the ride), but had to stop > regularly during the climb. The sun was hot, my Garmin read all the way up > to 107.4 degrees and there was no shade. I would stop when I felt my butt > and legs needed a rest, wait a bit, and then continue. All throughout the > ride I had made it a goal to pedal at a high cadence (for me) between 85 - > 95 and that helped "save" my legs tremendously. Additionally, since there > was very little load on the pedals, my feet didn't hurt until the very end > when I was pedaling harder on the series of climbs you hit on the last 12 > miles. Then they bothered me a bit. It also helped that I found a pair of > really comfortable wide shoes in the Shimano Click'R CT71 with the SOLE > Dean Karnazes custom foot beds reinforced with the Pedag Metatarsal Pads > from Natural Footgear. I don't wear the shoes clipped in, but they offer > the option. These are now my favorite shoes enhanced as described above. > > I wore my MUSA RBW wool zip top (black) under my MUSA RBW blue thin wool > jersey. I was planning on removing the zip top when it got warm, but I > actually kept it the whole time, even when during the Spooner climb when > the temps hit 107.4. The breeze was cool and I just didn't feel the need. I > wore AeroTech Designs (excellent for the larger among us) knickers for the > whole day as well. Thin wool socks to complete my outfit. I forgot to bring > a wool beanie and long fingered gloves, but even with the 41F morning > temperatures, I did fine with my short fingered classic gloves. > > Now for some interesting (for me) stuff I discovered. As you may know, > I've been training using the Maffetone method for the past 8 weeks and it's > been great, coupled with the LCHF diet. You know the piece about how the > diet worked during the ride, or better yet, how I managed it. On my next > long events, I'll just do the almonds and the sardines, plus the bananas > available at the rest stops. On my regular rides I don't eat, just drink > water. > > The Maffetone method has you training exclusively at your MAF (Maximum > Aerobic Function) heart rate, which you estimate by substracting your age > from 180 and fine tuning it for your state of fitness, illness, etc. For > me, at 56, it meant that my maximum HR is 124, and even though in some of > my training rides it goes up to 126 or 127 during climbs, Maffettone is > very specific that that is a big NO-NO. This means you need to actually > train at 120, to allow for the delay in the HR when you do a small > additional effort. Maffetone (and Sisson) recommend a minimum of 8 weeks of > base building at the MAF HR and optionally doing very high training for up > to 3 weeks after the 8 weeks of base reducing the volume a lot. The main > emphasis is still on the base building which is what you should be doing > almost all the time. The premise, of course, is that even though at first > it feels like it is too slow, as you get aerobically fitter, you start > riding faster without elevating the HR, therefore reducing inflammation and > stress from excessive training. After 8 weeks, I'm a convert. > > I haven't finished reading Maffetone's big book on endurance training, but > there were comments made in his book and in Sisson's book that usually > during events, you go a bit harder; I just didn't know what it meant for > me. So my plan was to ride the first half of the ride at my 124 MAF HR so I > would be as fresh as possible for the Spooner climb and to be able to > finish. And here I found my first glitch. At the Lake Tahoe elevation of > about 6200', my HR was higher than that even at the start. The only way to > hit 124 was coasting downhill. At the same perceived level of exertion, > when riding flat terrain, my HR was around 144. So I went with it. My > average HR during the ride was 144, my HR during the climbs when I was > pacing myself to keep a high cadence (24/36 combo I love you!) was around > 152 and only at the end, when I pushed myself harder did my max HR get to > 167 briefly, hovering mostly around 162. So for me it's pretty clear. I'll > continue using the Maffetone method, losing weight with the LCHF diet and > ride into the sunset, faster and faster at my aerobic pace! > > Switching subjects, I got quite a good number of compliments on the bike, > with the usual assessments that I was riding a vintage bike and/or old > school. One rider recognized it and turned to give me a huge compliment. > There were a couple of other riders riding true vintage steel bikes that > also offered their compliments. The best assessment was from a volunteer at > the rest stop on Spooner (last rest stop). He hovered over my bike while I > was filling my water bottles and offered his assessment: This is probably > the coolest bike of the whole ride I've seen; well, there were a couple of > Moots bikes that were awesome, but this one is the best. Everyone else is > on the boring carbon bikes with wireless DuraAce... How boring is that! :-) > > The biggest surprise of the ride happened during the Spooner climb at the > arrival to the water stop mid climb. A gentleman named Tom, from the Carson > valley, I believe, was riding a gray RBW Protovelo that I identified as a > pre-Joe Apaloosa. He was less young than me, fitter than me (no overweight > load to carry up the climb) and was also having a great time. I took some > pictures, because they tell the whole story! :-) > > I'm writing this as I have a luxurious dinner of lamb rack and other > stuff, not all LCHF but it's my reward (also not too off either). I'm a bit > sore, but as you can guess, extremely happy and proud of myself. I didn't > really think I would be able to do it, but I did. > > The Homer behaved perfectly, but I discovered a couple of quirks that > don't show up in my regular rides. > - My FD was a bit off, and in the high speed descents (I hit 39 mph in the > morning coming down from the first rest stop) it would drop the chain to > the outside. It never did that before, so on the second rest stop I asked a > mechanic (volunteer service) to take a look at it and after complaining > that the bike was SO HEAVY when he put it on the stand, he made some small > adjustments that took care of the problem. Now the front shifting is better > than ever! It's so incredibly smooth I'm completely mesmerized. All he did > was rotate the rear of the cage slightly outward and bring the high limiter > in a tiny bit. I'm going to take photos from all angles to use them as > reference for all my other front derailers. > - On the same high speed descents, when I would stop pedaling and bring my > feet to a stop, the inertia from the chain and rear wheel would cause it to > "bunch" on the top and then as the XT rear derailleur extended, it would > snap back and kick the bike. There was no harm, but it was annoying. On the > descent from the Spooner stop on the 50 Freeway, I hit 42.3 mph coasting. > The Homer with the Compass tires descended so well that I didn't even feel > scared one bit. I remember doing this descent years ago on my carbon road > bikes with 23" tires and being scared sh__less. It was the only times > during the day when I passed other riders. Everyone passed me on the > climbs! :-) > > All in all, the Homer was awesome. I did this ride pretty much > self-supported and it was awesome. Needless to say, I'll have to test how > my upcoming custom compares against it when I receive it. I'm hoping it > will be ready to do the Metric Century at the Marin Century in August, but > we'll see. > > Photos are coming shortly, after I do a bit of editing and get WiFi to > upload them. > > Thank you all for your support, and for reading all the way to the end! > Now looking forward to meeting some of you on the Riv ride in late June, > trying to come in for the day on Saturday. > > Best! > > René > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Robert Harrison Honolulu, HI rfharri...@gmail.com statrix.com Wu Name: Tha Eurythmic King of Nowhere -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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