My 200 K brevet

This was quite more painful than last year. For once, it was not flat and warm Florida, but cold and hilly Maryland. And most of all, I was not quite yet ready after recovering from the accident. Anyway, I did it.
On Friday, I started the day with a short core workout, a one hour ride with a 5 minutes steady state interval and some stretching. I left home early afternoon hoping to be in Fredericks around 5:30 pm. I forgot about the rush hour in Washington DC and got there only around 6. My room was on the fourth floor. I took all my stuff up there and then tried to find an italian restaurant to get some pasta. All I found, based on not too good info from the hotel was a pricy restaurant where they had a "seafood lasagna" with very little lasagna in it. The decaf coffee to close the meal looked like tea, smelled vaguely like coffee and tasted like gargling water. I found on Sunday that there was an Olive Garden a few minutes from the hotel !
I got up at 4:30 on Saturday March 25th, and had my oatmeal and hot chocolate, first thing up. Then I prepared quietly and left the hotel early enough to get to the start a little after 6 am.
I did not know how to dress, and with the threat of snow and rain showers, put on almost everything except the rain pants which I carried with me. I had on balaclava and rain cover on my helmet, a winter undershirt, long sleeve jersey and rain jacket, cycling shorts and leg warmers, 2 pairs of socks, shoes and rain booties.
As the day went on, I should have shaved some of those layers but never did and I paid with excess sweating.
I was anyway very lucky as I found riders which were almost as slow as I am, and very pleasant. At the control of the Pennsylvania state line, I let them go and decided to come back with Liz and Matt. They were very experienced and probably faster riders than me. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for them, Matt was not feeling well with a flu, which was slowing me down and allowed me to stay with them.
After about 95 miles, I started to experience cramps on the adductors and it got worse and worse as the miles went by. It is a good thing that on my last brevet last year, I learned that you could ride through the cramps. It is painful but doable.
I also had the same problem that I had when I did a double metric with Mike on the Eastern shores. I had a big bubble or air up my oesophagus which was very uncomfortable and prevented me from drinking and eating properly. Since I cannot burp, there was no way I could get rid of that. At the summit of Crampton's gap, I stopped and tried to make myself vomit. Liz, who is a registered nurse, tried to help by tapping me in the back, on the stomach and so on. All I had was a tiny little burp, but it was better than nothing.
I had given my phone to Doug Young who was way behind us, in case he would need help, so I had no choice but ride back home. With the help of Liz and Matt, that's what I did, but I arrived in not too good shape. Actually, I had to get some help to put my bike on top of my car. However, we did it with 34 minutes to spare, and I am quite proud of that, given the circumstances. Last year, we took 11h12mn at an average speed of 14.1 on a flat course. This time, I took 12h55mn at an average speed of 11.9 on a hilly and cold course. I think I paid for mismanaging my hydration and nutrition. I should watch it next time.
Back to the hotel, I soaked myself in a very hot bath and tried to get some sleep but my legs were too sore for that. I got up at 6:00 on Sunday, took my time to take everything back down to the car, had some breakfast at a "Golden Corral", and headed back home were I arrived around noon.
All in all, a good experience, worth the effort. I will do it again.

Field test

On a cold and windy morning, Mike and I went about doing a field test to see where we are in terms of fitness. This time, we chose a course in Pungo, as there is no way I would use Shore drive again for my riding.
This was more painful than I can remember. After 2 minutes in the first run, I was already gasping for air, my arms were aching and I wanted to stop and give up. This first run was into a Northwesterly wind of 17 mph with a temperature around 36, and it felt cold and miserable. I crossed the line after 3.16 miles and 12mn 12secs 3 at an average speed of 15.5 mph. What a disaster ! The only good news was that I maintained an average heart rate of 168 with a max at 173.
I thought the return would be a lot better since it was with either tail wind or cross wind. Alas ! Still more than 10 minutes (10:23.1), with an average speed of 18.4 mph over 3.18 miles. My heart rate was still at 166 average and max at 173.
All day I felt bitterly disappointed by those results. Last year, almost at the same time, I did an average of 18.89 mph as opposed to 16.85 this year, with an average HR of 170 and a max of 175. There was less wind last year (13 mph) and it was not that cold (50F). Yet, it is a drop of 10 % in performance. This damn accident was costly ! I will have to work harder than last year to regain a similar fitness in time for the Tour de France cyclotouriste.

I got my new bike

At last ! After a long wait for the frame, I finally took delivery of my new bike. After riding since the accident with my hybrid, this one feels light as a feather and so much smoother. I am not really riding any faster, but it sure feels a lot better.
As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I will see on Saturday how the field test goes.