Manatees Roar into the 20s! CLOSED (Page 24)

OK, I have a dumb question for my gravel friends.  Dumb because I'm pretty sure the answer is in the "it depends" category.

If you are trying to estimate how long it will take you to complete a gravel event, how do you go about that.  For example. Loudoun 1725 ha s a 40 mile option with 2100 feet of climbing and a 60 mile option with 3400 feet of climbing.  On paved roads on my road bike I'd have a good estimate of how long it would take me to complete each of these distances.  It looks like Loudoun is mostly gravel roads (does not look gnarly from the photos) with at least one stream crossing. Is there a rule of thumb like gravel takes x% longer than tarmac?

I went ahead and made hotel reservations for the 2020 event and I plan to ride it. I'm just trying to figure out what I should sign up for! 

Kevin is not participating in the event. He may bring a bike and do his own thing.

In order to further sell him on this excursion, I did a little bit of research about Loudoun county vineyards and came up with this list of area wineries from Food and Wine’s Best Virginia Wineries to Visit, there are others around:
* Fabbioli http://www.fabbioliwines.com/
* Breaux https://www.breauxvineyards.com/
* Stone Tower: https://www.stonetowerwinery.com/
* Three Fox: https://www.threefoxvineyards.com/

From the course maps looks like the ride takes place in between the vineyards -- Greenhill, Bluemont, and Stone Tower (on the Food and Wine list). 

Jen Stewey and Laura, are you familiar with any of these?

I've heard of it, but not much more than that! But here is a thread on slowtwitch about it.

I've read about it on Slowtwitch and I think that it's come up on Ask a Cycling Coach but that's all I know.

Kevin said that since it's my first gravel event, I should sign up for the 40.  I'm still wavering a bit.

That is sound advice. My first (35 miles) was done on a hardtail MTB and it was NOT fun. My second (nearly 40) was on the same bike I now have and was more fun. Also, I rode the second one with TW on her e-assist, which always makes me happy. The second was much easier.

So, for me, the bike and the company matter!

ETA - If you don't have a ridewithgps.com login, you may want one. I download routes from there and it seems to have a ton of gravel routes around here on it. 

Also, I hope it goes without saying but if you are doing an event this close me, I will 100% be there to cheer and tour guide as needed!!!!!

....I hate the phrase "never skip a Monday" because when you do heavy volume all week and weekend, it's OK to recover on a Monday. 

That is just what people who have Sunday as their rest day say.  If Monday is your rest day then never skip a Tuesday.

Also...I have a similar question to the Gravel vs Tarmac time difference question.  I will be pacing my brother for 4-5 hours in his 135 mile trail run in two weeks.  I looked up his results from his last 100 mile trail run and he was a pretty consistent 16 min/mi from start to finish.  I have reached out to some of our running friends to see if they would be interested in being on the pacing grew and told them to plan on 16 min/mi pace.  My brother and I ran 550 mile with them from Mississippi to Oklahoma so I know that they all can run seven mile at 10 min/mile pace or better on paved surfaces.  The pacer duties will be about 7 mile segments and so I told them if they could hold 16 min/mi for 7 miles they could pace but a few of them have told me they would love to help out but they don't thing they could do any distance at 16-min/mi "on those surfaces".  Who in this group has done trail runs?  What is your difference in pace between the road and the trail?  Yes...I know it depends, but I have never done any trail running ever so I have zero frame of reference.  

Rest days vs Recovery days.  Everything I have read that mentions senior triathletes emphasizes the need for more frequent and increased recovery time.  My take on that for Jan/Feb has consisted of back-to-back short/medium workouts on Mon/Fri and long solo workouts on Tu/We/Th.  In retrospect, I guess I haven't really had any recovery days, only rest days.  For all of January I have been taking the entire weekends off, but I may want to re-think that.  I have noticed that my weight is invariably up on Mondays, probably because I haven't done diddly over the weekend.  I am thinking about adding a third walk on Sat, medium length.  That would result in 3xSwim, 2xBike, and 3xWalk.

My plan is based on two Build weeks followed by one lighter Recovery week.  I'm in the middle of my Recovery week right now.  My upcoming long walks are 55-60 minutes.  My thought is to drop 5m to make my medium (50-55) walks and 5 more to make my short (45-50) walks.  Walk/run intervals don't start until some time in March or April.

Hmmmm, this could require re-writing my plan for February.  Bummer.  Do y'all think that taking Sunday completely off will be sufficient?  It's not like I have a really heavy training load, not like you folks who are doing HIM and IM training.

So, wondering about how you all manage sleep. I feel like this is the missing part of my training equation. I know i am in that part of life where sleep is pretty precious - my kids wake up early and are still young enough that they need us up with them. I track my sleep with my garmin and know that most nights i don't get 8 hours. I usually get at least 7, sometimes less but rarely less than 7, sometimes broken up by night waking. I definitely feel better when i do get 8 hours but now with getting training under way and know i need to use my evenings effectively for training. But already i am feeling like my body will demand at least one night a week to get more sleep when i am in the build for HIM training. 

I guess in the vein of the rest/recovery days, should i just plan and realize that at least one night a week i need to make sleep a priority over my training?? 

What say you?

I apologize for the slew of messages all at once.  I looked up this event and it is hosted by EX2 Adventures.  You really can't go wrong with that group.  I have never done (or heard of) this gravel series, but I have done many of their events and have not been let down.  The trail races that Laura is looking at for this year are all hosted by EX2 Adventures.

OK, I have a dumb question for my gravel friends.  Dumb because I'm pretty sure the answer is in the "it depends" category.

If you are trying to estimate how long it will take you to complete a gravel event, how do you go about that.  For example. Loudoun 1725 ha s a 40 mile option with 2100 feet of climbing and a 60 mile option with 3400 feet of climbing.  On paved roads on my road bike I'd have a good estimate of how long it would take me to complete each of these distances.  It looks like Loudoun is mostly gravel roads (does not look gnarly from the photos) with at least one stream crossing. Is there a rule of thumb like gravel takes x% longer than tarmac?

I went ahead and made hotel reservations for the 2020 event and I plan to ride it. I'm just trying to figure out what I should sign up for! 

Kevin is not participating in the event. He may bring a bike and do his own thing.

In order to further sell him on this excursion, I did a little bit of research about Loudoun county vineyards and came up with this list of area wineries from Food and Wine’s Best Virginia Wineries to Visit, there are others around:
* Fabbioli http://www.fabbioliwines.com/
* Breaux https://www.breauxvineyards.com/
* Stone Tower: https://www.stonetowerwinery.com/
* Three Fox: https://www.threefoxvineyards.com/

From the course maps looks like the ride takes place in between the vineyards -- Greenhill, Bluemont, and Stone Tower (on the Food and Wine list). 

Jen Stewey and Laura, are you familiar with any of these?

TECH/APPS

I would have to describe my self as a VERY casual triathlete.  And, as such, I have found minimal tech works just fine for me.  I currently get almost all the info I want from my Timex Ironman 50 wristwatch.  I do  have to admit that I enjoy getting the HR info from the Expresso bikes at the Y.  Somewhere back at the house my daughter and her kids are living in there is a Timex HR monitor from 2012 (can't remember the model).  I might spend the money for another one later this year, after my social security kicks in.

Wondering if anyone  has done a head-to-head comparison of the Under Armor Mapmyride vs Ridewithgps apps.  I have the MapMyFitness app on my phone already and it seems to do the job.  What "benefit" is there to switching to ridewithgps?

And finally, 10 years ago, when we were going to WW's meetings they had a pretty neat app for tracking nutrition.  Does anybody recommend a good nutrition tracker?  Especially one that has all the carbs/proteins/fats data for a boatload of different foods.  Maybe even one where I can input the recipe and the app does the rest for me.