Total 200 — Advice and Roll Call

[culimerc]

@Megabeth 55520 wrote:

Roll call! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gflUUZzhu_Y

I’m attempting the entire enchilada with Mark. And, would love to build a little train of folks (I will not be pulling any Tim Kelley heroics and am about surviving the day…)

Also, I have to do a 125 mile ride this weekend. Have no access to car so I’ll be starting in Arlington and I don’t want to build in any insane climbs. I will be most likely be riding by myself so will need easy and often water stops. Thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

If you want to ride with me on Sunday, I’ve got space on the bike rack.

[culimerc]

@Mark Blacknell 55510 wrote:

I’m in for another T200. Thirding/fourthing advice to go for two bottles. Support is pretty great, but it’s good to have a margin built in. If it’s an especially hot day, I’d recommend making one of the bottles insulated. Ice + drink = incredibly helpful on such a long hot day.

Looks like an interesting ride, Culimerc. I’d be up for that, if I weren’t going on a ride the day before.

I want to do that one too, the 16k feet of climbing seemed like a bit much for just 2 weeks before the Total.

[creadinger]

I won’t be riding it this year, but I definitely recommend 2+ bottles. I was out riding during some of the hottest days last year and my method was to put a frozen bottle wrapped in a small towel in my handlebar bag. On a hot day the airflow around a bottle mounted to your frame will make it warm water in less than 30 minutes. I get really sick of warm water after a while.

I like to use three bottles on hot rides – One for energy drink, one for electrolyte drink (nuun), and one for water so I can douse my head. When I finish the energy drink that one becomes water too.

[Tim Kelley]

@culimerc 55542 wrote:

I want to do that one too, the 16k feet of climbing seemed like a bit much for just 2 weeks before the Total.

How much recovery time do you need? What doesn’t challenge you, doesn’t change you!

[culimerc]

@Tim Kelley 55547 wrote:

How much recovery time do you need? What doesn’t challenge you, doesn’t change you!

Let me hear you say that when your old and fat like me.

[Tim Kelley]

@culimerc 55548 wrote:

Let me hear you say that when your old and fast like me.

Fixed that for you.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@culimerc 55548 wrote:

Let me hear you say that when you’re bold and fast like me.

@Tim Kelley 55550 wrote:

Fixed that for you.

Fixed again.

[Amalitza]

@mstone 55521 wrote:

Is there just not enough room on the seat tube? You can clamp a bottle rack on even if there are no braze-ons, unless (of course) it just won’t fit. (Once upon a time, that’s how they all were. )

well… now that I look at it… if i take your suggestion a step further and used *two* clamp-on cages (one on downtube and one on seat tube) and moved the downtube cage up the tube from its current location utilizing the braze-ons, a small bottle would fit. But the braze-ons for the downtube cage put that bottle in the way of a possible bottle on the seat tube.

At this point, I’m pretty accustomed to my current set-up. If in the future I decide I need to clear out the space on the handlebars, I’ll keep this thought in mind.

[DismalScientist]

Old touring bikes took an additional cage underneath the downtube. A clamp-on might work with sufficient distance between the crank and front wheel.

[mstone]

@DismalScientist 55586 wrote:

Old touring bikes took an additional cage underneath the downtube.

So do new touring bikes.

[vvill]

Some not-old touring bikes have three cage mounts too!

I have a somewhat unique pump mounting system – it’s double strapped to my seatbag (elastic strap that’s part of the seatbag, plus an additional velcro tie), and somewhat resembles an exhaust pipe (as part of the pump handle fell off ages ago; doesn’t affect it). My seatbag has a QR mounting system and doubles for either my road or CX bike so it also “doubles” my pump, and I stash it in a pack or jersey pocket when riding my other bikes.

I’ll usually take 2 water bottles (in cages) on any ride of substance and sometimes a third in a jersey pocket just in case.

I’ll be giving moral support to anyone riding this. I rarely have much in my legs beyond 60-80 miles of a ride, so 200 (miles or km) is a feat.

I use the same kind of bottle cage on my bikes, they are “ELITE”. Never had a bottle fall out. Comes in a ton of colours too
http://www.elite-it.com/custom-race/

[eminva]

Thanks for all the advice! I have a Topeak mini morph pump; I will have explore other mounting options so I can free up the second bottle holder. Or just go with the Camelbak. I find I have a tendency not to drink enough when riding but I always drink plenty when I have that thing. Only one way to get the weight off the back . . .

Looks like this Sunday is the day for long rides! I hope to put in some distance but I have to kill two birds with one stone and ride a bunch of miles on the C&O to get used to that surface (I am not a gravel grinder veteran like so many of you). Also, I doubt I can keep up with culimerc and whoever is joining him. Have fun wherever you are going!

Thanks again.

Liz

[Tim Kelley]

It’s been a couple days so hopefully people have recovered enough to share their experiences on the Total200. I know the heat got to some people and they dropped out with worries about medical issues, and there were others that slogged on through everything, including getting lost in the last 10 miles.

I’d like to hear what people had to say, especially Hans and Hoofnagle! For those that dropped–are you going to do it again next year?

Here’s the recap I put up on Facebook on Saturday evening:

“Day went well. Started at 4:30am with a ride from home to the start. Got into a big group of 25 or so that slowly whittled its way down to 3 other riders: a super strong Cat 1, a 120lbs climber from New England, and another Ironman. We averaged about 19.7 for the actual ride. (19.2 average including the ride to and from the start/finish) Had a nice ride home–all in all it was about 12 hours of moving time and 15 hours out. TSS of 525 at a FTP of 350w.”

Here’s the Strava link: http://app.strava.com/activities/65228786

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3261[/ATTACH]

[eminva]

First, serious congratulations to Tim and those of you who made it all the way. It was great to see culimerc looking so strong at the last rest stop. Congrats to those of you who even attempted it.

I rode 200 . . . um . . . cubits? furlongs? There must be some unit of measure . . . anyway, it was 102.7 miles. I took the 200K course and called it a day at the last rest stop. I was experiencing chills and was seeing stars, moons, clover and heffalumps by that point. Once I mentioned that to the rest stop crew they pretty much ruled out my continuing. The next guy who came in had to be carted out by ambulance.

It was hot and humid and I think this took a toll on many. I saw a lot of people calling for rides at each rest stop from the second one (49 miles) on.

I made a mistake and went too fast at the beginning. I lined up with the 17 mph pace group, but they were going about 20+ mph for the first hour. I hung on because I didn’t want to end up alone. But I ended up alone anyway, for at least 70 of those miles. In retrospect, I knew then and know now that I could have ridden 125 miles on my own without a paceline if I had just stuck to my own pace. But I wasted too much energy, probably got a little dehydrated and couldn’t pull it out when I needed to. Ironically, there were people I ran into at later rest stops that I probably could have worked with had I been in a position to. I can’t bear to look at Strava to see how slow my last ten miles were.

Would I do it again? I have done a metric double already, so there is no need to hit that benchmark. I might be interested in other long distance events, but I usually don’t repeat the same event so we’ll see.

In sum, it was a live and learn moment.

My smart alec brother suggested I redeem myself with this: HH100. Ha ha, younger brothers are so funny.

Liz

[eminva]

Oh! I forgot to add a huge thanks to the organizers and volunteers. It was a very well run event for being a shoe string operation. Thanks to DaveK for volunteering and giving me lunch. Thanks to Chris and Jan, out there somewhere, who gave me a ride back to my car.

I saw a lot of official-looking photographers, so if anyone knows where we can see the pictures, please advise.

Liz

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