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LSR Brevet (300k) - CycleTour


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Mineral Wells, Texas
United States
Lone Star Randonneurs
75F / 24C
Overcast
Total Time = 00m
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Alrighty, first off this was not, I repeat not a race (not for me anyways), just a nice long ride. Just thought I would write up a report on it because Brevet's are really fun (well this one was my one and only, but it was fun). The time listed is riding time. Total time was about 15 hours and 20 minutes with stops at controls. Just a quick overview of that I already told you: My coach gave me the option of a 40 mile ride or the opportunity to go ride the 200k with the LSR group because I told him that I would like to do a few rides with them. So, I e-mail one of the guys in the LSR group and he says that I should do the 300k instead because it is a better route...not sure what's wrong with the 200k route, but thought, okay perhaps I can make 300k. Then he writes, actually, it would be even better if you did the 350k (first loop of the 600k). Okay, buddy were strechin' it now. That's 227 freakin' miles!! I've ridden that far twice in my life (training for the 24 hour and during the 24 hour). I had to train for that, 227 miles isn't a whatever ride for me, that's a long way! Well, you wanna know why he said I should do the 350k rather than the 300k?? Because there is no 300k! Okay, so there is, but it ends in Gordon, which is THIRTY miles away from the starting point. So, you have to have someone pick you up from there. Alright, my friends and family already think I belong in a straight-jacket for this "crazy" stuff I do, so I don't see them supporting my habit by driving out to BFE, Texas just to take me back to deeper BFE, Texas. So, 227 miles, I'm stubborn enough to finish something like that, but how long would it take me was the question. Plus, I was deathly afraid of being all alone and then something break down on my bike. Did I mention we were in BFE? However, the seed had been planted in my mind, so I had to try it. Didn't tell my coach and still haven't, I'll tell him tomorrow :) So, I was given a week and a half notice about the little extra mileage. My secretary said she was glad that I had such short notice because she didn't have to listen to me freak out for months like normal. I can't help it, failing scares the crap out of me!

So, my original plan of get up early, drive to Mineral Wells, ride 200k and drive back was out the window...needed a hotel. The hotel that the group stayed at was full so I booked a hotel in Weatherford. Dan, from LSR was like, no, you need to stay here so asked around and luckily, Brenda Barnell offered to share her room with me. Awesome! Brenda was the only female to finish the 500 mile RAAM qualifier back in October and now holds the course record there. Plus, she is competing in RAAM in the team tandem division. I get to room with a celebrity!! Of course, as soon as I told my best friend this, she says, "No, Gina!!" (Me) "What?" Lindsay "Don't let her talk you into doing RAAM!" (Me) "What? I wouldn't do something like that." Linds: "Yeah, whatever, I know you." I'm NOT doing RAAM though, I know my limits...I think.

Anyways, left work around 3:30 on Friday, drove to Mineral Wells and got there a little before 7. The entire hotel (it's small) was either cyclists or oil/gas drillers. Everyone was hussling about, and I started to get that sick to my stomach feeling like I got at the 24 hr, but not to the point of lightheadedness so I consider that a good thing. Everyone just knew what they were doing and I felt lost. I called Brenda and found out what room we were in. I get to the room and meet Brenda in person (I saw her at the 24 hr, but didn't talk to her); man, she has the biggest quad muscles ever. Can you share just a little bit with me?? She was on her way to check in so perfect timing. Walked over to Dan's room and was handed my que sheet and brevet card. Everyone seemed to be doing either the 400k or the 600k, so I was starting to feel wimpy. I met so many people at once, that I knew I wouldn't remember their names. We then went back to our room and I unloaded my stuff and watched Brenda and Ronnie make adjustments to the tandem. Ronnie was going to be Brenda's captain on the tandem for the ride. After they made the adjustments they were going to test it out and I decided to head to the Italian restaurant next door. Dan walked me over and there was a table of cyclists. They just kind of came and went as they pleased. So, ordered some chicken parmesean and after listening to everyone's advice, decided to order some lasagna to go to eat Saturday evening since we would be getting in late. It was cloudy that night and the storms were building and the chance of rain for the next day was 60%. I didn't like those odds. Everyone was talking about what they were bringing. I just sat there thinking, 'don't have that, don't have that, no room for that, how the heck do I carry that, what the heck is that?' Confidence sinking even more. Everyone was just assuming that it was going to rain, no doubt (except for Brenda who kept insisting it wasn't going to rain). They were like, "And we're going to have to ride down Cherry Pie hill in the rain." I had heard of Cherry pie hill from road racing, never did that stage race though so never saw it firsthand. Hmmm, how can I get out of this?? Who can I claim died? They don't know me, let's go with grandmother. I did have a grandmother die...3 years ago. Incidentally, I actually missed her funeral. Once again I was romping through BFE Texas (deep south Texas) on a school trip doing some river studies. There was no cell phone service so didn't even bother bringing the cell phone. Well, my grandmother passed away and no one could get a hold of me. I told my mom where I was going, but I guess she forgot. During my few years in college I had been in a severe car wreck that should have killed me, car was hit in a hit and run, and then I was hit by a car while riding my bike...I guess I didn't exactly have the best track record in the world so after my mom couldn't get a hold of me on my phone, her next logical thing to do was call the Lubbock hospitals and police. That's my mom, jumping to the worst scenario. Anyways, by the time I got back, they already had the funeral. But I digress...so now back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Brenda and I watched the horror channel (the weather channel) and we were under a tornado watch until like 2 am. Lovely! Was I gonna sleep? Heck no! So, get tucked into bed and shortly thereafter another woman showed up, Cheri who would be sharing the room with us as well (she was also doing the 600k). Tossed and turned ALL night and listened to the rain and thunder.

Event warmup:

Alarm went off at 5:15 am. Yes, finally I can get out of bed since it was pointless anyways. The rain had stopped a couple of hours earlier so the roads were wet, but not raining for now. I got dressed and ate two bowls of oatmeal. Now, to load my pockets. It became a point of what do I HAVE to have because there was no room for even the slightest luxury item. No rain jacket even; it was just too big and if it rained, I was still going to be wet, so oh well. I quickly learned that everyone had the big trunk bags on the back of their bikes or camelbacks. I hate wearing camelbacks; if it were hot, I would have settled for it, but I knew I could get by on two water bottles between controls, but the camelback would have given me an extra spot to store stuff. I had my jersey pockets so stuffed I thought they were going to start ripping at the seams. I didn't have room for my helmet light in my pockets so just ended up hanging it from my aerobars for later. Almost resorted to hanging stuff from my pigtails. We then started gathering outside with everyone else. I saw a couple of guys with their reflective vests on and I thought, hey I could wear it all day and then I would have more room in my pockets for more stuff, but as I start to put it on, some guy said, "We don't have to wear those right now, it's daylight." "But I...ugh, nevermind." So start cramming it back into my pocket. So spent my last minutes watching all the hoss people dance around with glee. People would come up to me and introduce themselves and would say, "So I hear you did our 24 hour ride? I don't remember seeing you there." I heard that from EVERYONE. Trust me I was there! I felt every pedal stroke! My friends who I drove crazy, they can vouch for me, they wished I hadn't been there. I could ride that course blindfolded now. Finally it was time to shove off...so this is how it's all gonna go down? Well, if I gotta go, might as well be on my bike.
Bike
  • 13h 23m
  • 227.2 miles
  • 16.98 mile/hr
Comments:

Okay, so I guess they call the hotel as Control #1, so on to control #2.

Mineral Wells to Lipan, Control #2
The ride started off at 65 degrees, 90% humidity and cloudy. Roads were wet. I found myself up towards the front right from the beginning, not good. All of a sudden Tom, Mark and Brenda & Ronnie take off. I wanted to go with them, but purposely made myself sit up and not go. I would never survive the day if I tried to ride that fast in the beginning. There are still lots of people behind me, so no need to worry about being left behind yet. We were heading out West along Hwy 180 towards Palo Pinto. Nice rollers. I decided from the get go that the little ring would be my friend. I was gonna soft pedal the whole way! The first few miles of the ride were quiet and no one rode with me and I began to get sad thinking that I may be out riding all by myself all day. Occasionally I would go by someone, or someone would go by me. After making the turn in Palo Pinto I caught up to Ronnie and Brenda so was relieved. Perhaps I can ride with them. I knew Cherry Pie was around somewhere soon, so kept looking for it. Finally Ronnie said, this is it coming up. Ugh! I immediately slowed way down. Steep downhills, with tight turns, on wet pavement just isn't my thing. Every corner was like, Oh sh*t, oh sh*t, oh sh*t...5 guys came zooming by me. I finally made it to the bottom and the pressure was finally gone. Woohoo! No titanium face for this chica!(LSR horror story, you don't want to know...just FYI, I will NOT be riding in Italy anytime soon) For some reason that hill had me so worried. Knowing that was the worst of it, I was ready to face the day. But first, time to play catch up because my taxi had left me. So, tried to ride as hard as I could for a couple of miles until I finally caught back up to the tandem. The guys that had passed me on Cherry pie were up ahead and stupid racer's mentality got the best of me. Without even really thinking I was trying to slowly reel them in. I finally caught them, but would fall off the back, play catch up, etc. Gina! Get a grip! No going fast!! We were almos to Lipan so I told myself that after that control, I was no longer leaving the tandem and I would let the fast people go. We arrived in Lipan and for some reason I was excited that I survived to my first control, a mere 38 miles. Everyone jumped off their bikes and made a mad dash into the store for the bathroom, liquids, fuel, and get their card signed. I go to the bathroom and realize I forgot to bring in a chamois butter packet for reapplication. Oh well, next control. Since I had no room for solid food, all of my fuel had to come at the controls...my gels were for bonking purposes only. So, I'm tootling around, la de da, such a nice day. Meanwhile, everyone is getting ready to go already. Crap! I'm shoving pb crackers in my mouth. I had cheeks like a chipmunk. Don't worry guys, I'll eat on the way. One of the guys, Brannon, shows up and Brenda says, "You wanna ride with us?" He says sure, give me a few minutes. Brenda, "You've got two." Yeah right, more like 2 seconds, I felt like I had to do a flying leap on to the bike to take off with them. Geez, Dan wasn't kidding about them taking short control stops. I'm gonna have to work on my routine a little better at the next one.

Lipan->Glen Rose
So off we go again. Mark and Tom were way way WAY up ahead of us, but Brenda and Ronnie, me, Rich, and Pat and shortly thereafter, Brannon were the next group in line. The scenery the entire day was just gorgeous, I loved it. I loved the hills and wildflowers and all the little running streams along the roads, which were actually running since it rained the previous night. The roads to Glen Rose were pretty quiet and we actually got to chat a litle bit. I quickly realized that I did NOT like riding with a tandem. They would bomb down those hills so fast, I could not hang on to save my life. True, I always caught them on the uphills, but it just came to the point where I looked forward to the next uphill so I could get a breather, how sad is that? We single bike people managed to drop them towards the end of this section though. We had to climb a really steep hill right before Glen Rose that got the legs burning, ugh. I was getting hungry and it sucked watching everyone else eat their little buffet they had with them. For some reason I was craving frito's really bad. Anyways, we make it to the control a couple minutes before the tandem. Good! This gives me a little more time to breath. I bolt to the bathroom, doh! Forgot chamois butter again! Next control. Grab some trail mix and a bag of fritos, of course, get the card signed, top off my water bottles and start cramming in food. I managed to get some trail mix down and about a handful of fritos. Man, I hated to throw the rest of those away. I still had some trail mix left though so I crammed and crammed and finally got it in my pocket. Control #3, success!

Glen Rose->Meridian
This is one of the worst sections where we had to go through Tandem sprint interval hell. The first part of this section was really rough chipseal and we managed to gap the tandem for a little bit, but then here comes the whistle...Ronnie would always whistle as he came by to let you know he was coming. Not that it mattered, by the time you heard it, the gap had been made. I was hanging on a little better though. For some reason I can't really remember much else about this section, but it was only about 24 miles long. We arrived in the cute little town of Meridian where evidentally it was town garage sale day. I'm serious, it really was. They had little signs posted. I saw a number as high as #149. Rich, who was visiting from North Carolina said he wanted to buy something totally off the wall and carry it the rest of the ride, but he didn't. This stop we took a little longer. Someone mentioned that it was 1:something and I couldn't believe it. For once in my life I hardly looked at my watch or odometer that day. It was weird because I always have to know what time it is. When I was little, I went fishing all the time with my dad. I would always ask, "What time is it?" My dad would get so frustrated and say, "Why?! You taking medicine?!" I just needed to know, another one of those Anal-Engineer-Type-A things I guess. But today I knew it was going to be a long day, no sense getting worked up over it. I did look at the computer more towards the end, but it was a feeling of, 'wow, I only have this far left, etc. rather than oh my gosh, we still have this much to go.' Mile 103 is in the books and it's time to roll on.

Meridian->Hico
Brenda says that this is one of the longest sections to her, but this was my favorite section. Coming out of Meridian you got to do some climbing. Woohoo! Uphills! Sad, I know, but I needed a break from the tandem sprints. Somehow Brannon and I dropped the group. I didn't feel like we were going hard, but oh well. Poor Brannon, I sucked his wheel like crazy on Hwy 6. He had the perfect pace going though. Nice and controlled on the uphills, comfortable on the downhills. Now this is how I like it. Nice medium pace the whole way. No speed so fast it makes me want to puke, nor the going so slow uphill I was going to tip over. Once we turned off of Hwy 6 it was the quietest road ever. A car went by maybe every 20 min. It was awesome. The fields were so pretty. Brannon and I rode side by side at this point so found out that he was from Houston and that he had done this ride several times. He had that que sheet practically memorized. Woohoo! I'm staying with you! Rides my pace and knows where he's going. I told him about my plans to do the double and he (along with several other LSR people) thought I was crazy. Do what?! Alright, you crazy people who eat 600k's for breakfast. That's like the pot calling the kettle black. They crack me up. Brannon and I arrived in Hico just as Tom was heading out. Woohoo! We saw one of the hoss guys, we saw one of the hoss guys!! The others thought it was cool that we were that close. Who knows if he had mechanical issues, etc., but no one needs to know if he did. The point is, we saw a hoss guy! So, normal control routine: bathroom (crap, forgot chamois butter again!! I'll save the writing...I forgot chamois butter the ENTIRE day, other than before the ride. My packets were in my bento box, along with my gels and I forgot to grab one every single time I went inside, what a dorkus). I start to grab something quick, but Rich and Pat arrived and they were ordering real food (there was a little grill there). Sweet, no prepackaged food. So, I got an imfamous convenience store fried burrito as I prayed that it didn't take revenge on me later. Now, when doing these rides, food all of a sudden tastes better than ever. Every chip, etc. you will swear was the best chip ever, but on the burrito, not so much, but perhaps that's because I am Miss Mexican food. I could eat mexican food every meal, every day for the rest of my life and be a happy chica (one that would weigh about 500 lbs too). Oh, and guess what, they actually sat down to eat. What? we get to take more than 5 minutes at the control?? I don't know what to do, all this extra time...should I get a jigsaw puzzle? We finally rounded up and it was off to Dublin, home of the real DrPepper (too bad I don't drink soda anymore).

Hico->Dublin
A nice smooth, short section from Hico to Dublin. I kept finding myself ahead of the group and that worried me, I didn't want to miss a turn. I didn't look at the que sheet the entire day. I came up to the top of a hill and there was this HUGE turtle on the shoulder so decided to take a break and look at it while the group caught up. We had seen quite a few turtles that day, but this was the biggest. I wasn't sure if he was alive because his head was sticking out, but he wasn't moving. I move a little closer and he moved his head about halfway back in. So, he is alive. The guys caught up to me and Pat starts to scoot the turtle off the road with his foot so he doesn't get ran over. That turtle went Rambo on him! It started hissing an everything. Alrighty, time to move along. Riding, riding, and I keep dropping the group. I felt really guilty because the group had pulled me all day long and I did nothing, but sit back. They had the huge bike bags and camelbacks and I just had the bursting at the seams, pockets. I had aerobars and they didn't. I definitely had it easier than they did. Pat caught up to me so we rode into Dublin together and he looks at his que sheet and says that we make a right on 67 and "something" mini mart is on the left a little ways down. Alrighty, make the right and I'm looking for a mini mart. Keep gonig, going, going. Finally reach the end of civilization and we're going out of Dublin now. Hmmm, I don't think this is right. Pat supposedly had done this route before, but didn't remember the store. So, we turn around and we see the bikes from the rest of the group at a store. Doh! They changed the name of the store. Brannon is laughing at me. Okay, so, no more leaving the group from here on out. We get ready to head out at about 5:45 pm and it's 36 miles to Gordon. We can make it there before it gets dark so we'll get out the night stuff then.

Dublin->Gordon
If I had to have a least favorite section this would be it. This section was into the wind and all I could focus on was the big dark clouds in the direction we were headed...it did NOT look good. The first several miles felt painfully slow. Man, we're never going to get to Gordon. Brenda promised a nice downhill after the dairy farms though. So kept looking for the dairy farms, but wasn't seeing them. Finally, found them and we couldn't get by them fast enough, not the most pleasant smell in the world, but then again, I did live in Lubbock with the stockyards, I know all about that stuff. After that, Ronnie an Brenda came back to life and it was time for sprint interval mania. It became a joke really. Rich said, "You have to watch the signs for them to pounce. There's the popping sounds of the gear changes and then Ronnie stands up on the pedals." It's true, it was like a roller coaster ride. You know how they make that 'clink, clink, clink' sound as they slowly creep to the top and the first carts even start down the hill slowly as the final carts make it to the top, then it's bombs away! Ugh, here we go again! We hated the tandem being behind us...what are they doing back there?? What are they planning to do. We tried to make a barricade across the road, but it was no good. Here came the Ronnie whistle and the Brenda cackle. Brenda was cracking me up because she was so giggly on that section. She claimed it was the DrPepper. Hmmm, perhaps I should have had one after all. We would crest the top of a hill and see the long downhill on the other side and just groan. Are there any real uphills left? If we keep going down anymore we're going to reach China pretty soon. We were getting close to Gordon though were technically I was finished. Brenda joked that I could probably find some ranch boy willing to take me in. Yeah right! With my ugly looks, only thing I would see would be the barrel of a shotgun aimed at me. It's a Texas requirement for every household to have a shotgun, you know. I did hear of one other guy doing the 300k and his wife was coming to pick hiim up and some suggested that I might be able to catch a ride with him. I wasn't waiting on a maybe (FYI, it was a good thing I didn't, he ended up having mechanical issues and his wife came and picked him up out on the course). Besides, I felt fine and knew I could make the last 30 miles just fine. We arrived in Gordon and I bought some pop-tarts...the bestest tasting poptarts in the world! We got our bikes ready for darkness and it was finally time to finish up the last stretch. I was gonna make it!

Gordon->Mineral Wells
We left Gordon at 8:15, so I was thinking we would be in Mineral Wells around 10:15 or so. Darkness came and I turned on my headlight and helmet light (backlight already on). Quickly discovered that I grabbed my bad headlight (the one that flickers). I bought two headlights for the 24 hr and learned that one of them was bad because it just flickered, even with new batteries. I don't know why I didn't separate it from the good stuff at the time. I guess after the 24 hr I had to switch gears so fast to running since I was doing that 50k trail run so all night bike stuff got shoved into a box and forgotten about until now. Anyways, at least I was with the group and still had my helmet light. I felt so bad because I wasn't used to riding with a group at night so when talking to someone I would turn to look at them and blind them with my light. Doh! Sorry! I can't count how many times I did that. I had heard the rumors about Apple pie hill. Supposedly not as bad as cherry pie, but still a HR booster. Every hill I was like, is this apple pie? No. Is this apple pie? No. Once we hit it, I knew that was it. Oh gosh did that hurt. I was cranking, cranking, cranking as I wound up the hill. I finally came to the top and went to switch into my big ring and it wouldn't go. I look at my computer and realize that I had been in the big chain the entire time. Hmmm, no wonder that hill hurt. Oh, and Brenda also pointed out that I don't have a triple. No, I thought that was the norm. The roadies would kill me if I rode a triple, but apparently it's acceptable in Randonneuring world. However, for the places I ride, I don't need one. I'm still trying to learn how to use the little one I've got :) Pat and I reach Hwy 180 first so we wait for the rest of the gang to catch up. This is where we part ways with the 400k'ers. They took a left, and we headed back for the hotel. As we are saying our goodbyes a state trooper pulls up and says we need to get out of the intersection. Okay, okay, we're going. Bye Pat and Rich! Brenda, Ronnie, Brannon and I were only 12 miles away. 12 miles until lasagna! That's what it's all about, baby! Brannon decides to slow down to start letting his body cool down because he was going to sleep a few hours before heading out for the 150 mile loop. So Brenda and Ronnie and I rode together. They would drop me on the downhills, but this time it was more a matter of I was chicken of hitting something I couldn't see rather than not being able to keep up. I always caught them on the uphills though. With about 7 miles to go it started to rain, not bad though, more like a heavy sprinkle. Only lasted a few minutes and then stopped. Then, it started up again, but was short lived as well. Whew, I can handle that. I finally saw the Mineral Wells city lights (all two of them) and couldn't help but pick up the pace. Woohoo! Back at the hotel! I'm alive! And in one piece! And it was fun! And I don't hurt!

What would you do differently?:

All in all, I road pretty well. I've got to learn to ride my pace and not others, I can't hang with the fast guys and that's okay. I should have shared at least some of the workload with the group; I was such a moocher. It was my first Brevet, so I'm learning. I still can't see putting a big bag on my bike though, the roadie and triathlete in me just can't come to grips with that yet.
Post race
Warm down:

LASAGNA! Shower, TV, bed. We arrived at the hotel at 10:20 pm. Brenda said that was a really good time. I had no point of reference so had no clue if I did good or bad. Ronnie and Brenda got ready to head back out and left around 11:45. I finally turned the TV off around 12:30, not much on at that time, imagine that. Cheri arrived at the room around 1:00 am. She was going to sleep a few hours so we set the alarm for 4:45 am since they were planning to leave at 5:30 am. I told myself that I would sleep until I woke up after that, but woke up at 7 am. I knew I would wake up early, I can't sleep in even when I wanted to. Piddled around for awhile and finally headed out a little before 9 am. Sad to leave, I had so much fun.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Junk in the trunk and I'm not talking about a bike bag!

Event comments:

As I stated several times before, I had a great time. All that worrying for nothing. However, it was the perfect day...cloudy, cool, little wind. Had it been hot as usual, I know it would have been a lot tougher on me. Great company, everyone was so nice.

I do have mixed feelings though. Starting Friday night, Ronnie kept saying I should do the full 600k. Are you crazy?! I was only supposed to do 200k, I think 350k is plenty. All day long Saturday, he would say, Gina, you need to ride the 600k with us. No! Gina, come ride with us. Sshhh! No! Gina, you can do it! No! That's further than I've ever ridden! I didn't feel guilty at the time, but Ronnie said I would regret it later and he was right. Grrr! Brenda and Ronnie kept saying that I had to live life and I said that I was, but perhaps I'm not. I'm not pushing myself. Why can't I push myself?! In races, I can't break out of my little comfort zone, I'm too scared of pain. Now this, I was too scared to ride that far. I wasn't tired or hurting when we made it back to the hotel, why not try? I tried to look at it from the point of view that 375 miles would wipe me out if I made it and my workouts the next week would suffer for it. I've set my sights on the double ironman so I don't need to something to destroy my chances of it. But dang it! This is killing me now! There is this evil force between long distance cycling and long distance triathlons. I like both and want to do both, but in order to do well in one, I've got to limit the other. I hate that!





Last updated: 2006-05-07 12:00 AM
Biking
13:23:00 | 227.2 miles | 16.98 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance:
Wind:
Course: Well, I don't feel like writing out the que sheet, but here are the towns we rode through: Mineral Wells -> Palo Pinto -> Lipan -> Tolar -> Glen Rose -> Walnut Springs -> Meridian -> Fairy -> Hico -> Dublin -> Lingleville -> Huckaby -> Gordon -> Palo Pinto -> Mineral Wells Hilly terrain, a few eye openers, but most weren't too bad. Most roads were quiet with little traffic, but did occasionally have to ride on some busier roads, but they had nice shoulders so no biggie. Road surfaces ranged from ugly chipseal to baby butt smooth; for the most part road surface really wasn't an issue.
Road: Rough  Cadence:
Turns: Bad Cornering: Bad
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Drinks: Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]

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2006-05-09 8:35 AM

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Expert
736
50010010025
Longview, TX
Subject: LSR Brevet (300k)


2006-05-09 12:51 PM
in reply to: #418537

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Veteran
213
100100
Los Angeles, CA
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)
Hey Gina,

Great race report. It sounds like your mom is just like mine. : ) You did the right thing sticking to the 350K there is a brevet series every year and so next year can be your year for the 600K because we both know once you do the 600K they'll push on you to do one of the big 1200K events like PBP, BMB or one of the others. Great ride.

Mike
2006-05-09 1:39 PM
in reply to: #418537

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Master
2052
20002525
Colorado
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)
Wow! What a cool ride! What did you coach say? That's quite a distance increase from what was planned I bet!
2006-05-11 9:18 PM
in reply to: #418537

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Master
2381
2000100100100252525
Frisco, Texas
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)

Great race report.  I love reading your race reports.  You write so well.  I feel like I'm there with you.

Don't beat yourself up too much over not riding the 600.  You have a goal - the double.  Focus on that and you'll do well.  At the end of the year you'll look back and see all that you have accomplished.  And you'll be happy and proud.

TJ

2006-05-11 10:00 PM
in reply to: #418537

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Champion
7542
5000200050025
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Bronze member
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)
Great story.

I remember driving through some of those towns on our last trip to Texas.
2006-05-12 8:56 PM
in reply to: #418537

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Extreme Veteran
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CT
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)
Awesome!!!!!!
I really would love to know what your coach said! But in all honesty, you are an amazing person, who has accomplished what many don't even dare think of doing. It is amazing to think that you think that you don't push the limits of you comfort zone. I guess we all are our own worst critics. Keep up the great riding!


2006-05-13 6:22 PM
in reply to: #418537

Champion
8903
500020001000500100100100100
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)

Nice report Gina!  I remember doing hilly double centuries and always wondered what it would be like to do something even longer.  Sounds like you should come up our way and do the Boston-Montreal-Boston event some time!

 

2006-05-17 11:08 AM
in reply to: #418537

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Expert
1070
10002525
North Carolina
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)
Wait a minute.......you write a novel about your 200+ mile bike ride and hardly anything about your Ironman. Just kidding. Good report and great job!!
2006-05-17 11:27 AM
in reply to: #418537

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Pro
3705
20001000500100100
Vestavia Hills
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)

Gives new meaning to a LSD ride ... 'cept, of course, 17 mph for 225+ miles is a pretty dang hefty average!

Congrats on the physical endurance + mental toughness to complete a race of this length.

2006-05-17 12:31 PM
in reply to: #418537

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Master
1728
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Pulaski TN
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)
You continue to impress me!! Great job
2006-05-24 10:56 AM
in reply to: #418537

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Champion
8766
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Evergreen, Colorado
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)

GREAT report. Gina!  I'm sorry I finally got around to reading it...I'm slow I know...

I can't believe you can remember even the minute details of who was in front of you when and stuff....WOW!



2006-05-25 7:26 AM
in reply to: #418537

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Crystal Lake, IL
Subject: RE: LSR Brevet (300k)

I wish I had seen this RR when it first came out, it was great.  Thanks.

Here's a thought, you know how you said you wish you could push youself to perform outside of your comfort zone?  Well, first of all, you are an amazing athlete doing things even most of us on this website only dream about, not to mention people in general.  Second, perhaps the reason you are able to continue pushing yourself onward toward ever-increasing goals is that you have not pushed youself to the point of injury or burnout before this.  Maybe your brain knows what's best for you more than you think.  I say roll with it, or maybe, hang loose.  <wink>

 

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