Unlike last year, I’m probably not going to be able to complete a full Super Randonneur series this year. There’s a small chance I might be able to sneak in a 600k in another region, but I’m missing the local 600k for a family thing and feel more or less at peace with that. I feel good that I did one last summer, than I can do these rides, and since I’m not going to be able to do Paris-Brest-Paris anyway, there’s no real need to do a full series. So. I’ll just enjoy the rides I can get to, maybe try a few new routes along the way, and continue dragging my friends along with me when I can.k

Last weekend, however, all my friends had legitimate, good excuses not to join in on this year’s Wachusett & Purgatory 200k, so I set off alone (okay: in a group). It was the same hard ride as last year, though funny enough the parts I remember being hard last year weren’t the parts I remembered being particularly hard this year (though there were then plenty of new hard parts). I did better than I did the last time I set off alone early in the season, insofar as I didn’t try to keep up with the first group off the start (who, apparently, finished the ride in just over seven hours, which is insane). I picked a secondish group and went off, making it to the first control at Wachusett feeling pretty fine and dandy.

I did pretty good so far as the eating and drinking was concerned, but (rushing as I always am), I hadn’t quite prehydrated enough, and so found myself cramping around mile 45 (even though I’d drank about as much water/electrolytes as I had intended to while on the bike). I also learned that, if I’m going to be cheap and use the Gatorade powder stuff, I really need to go well over the recommended amounts. I would subsequently do this at every stop when I refilled my "stuff" bottle,^[1] and that more or less worked. The weather was cool at the start, and never really got as warm as it was supposed to until the very very end, hours after the forecast said it should have gotten above 50. But this is April in New England, and to be expected. I was mostly warm enough but when it’s cold you don’t think to drink as much and I’m sure that contributed to my cramping. Oh well, oh well.

I was only about seven or eight miles away from the first staffed control when it got bad enough to affect my riding and so bit farewell to the group I was with and limped up the hill to Oakham. It was bad enough that on one particularly steep section I did give up and use my "two foot" gear — even though I now have a lower lowest gear (30-32), it was still steep enough that with the shape my legs were in, it wasn’t going to happen. But anyway, I did make it, and it was fine if colder than I wanted it to be (as the gazebo is on a somewhat exposed hill, and the wind was blowing). I used the restroom at the library there again this year and again thought that the library in that town is just too goddamn cute. After eating a bunch and letting my legs settle (but maybe accidentally shutting off my GPS recording?)^[2] I shoved off and my legs slowly came back to life. I was feeling fine enough again soon, though realized that I was well off my goal pace. And about that — 

Probably I shouldn’t set goal paces, but I did. Last year I tended to take about 5 hours (with stops) for every 100k, and this year I was hoping to bring that down to more like 4h30m. This route doesn’t really lend itself to that, though, just given the sheer amount of climbing and how steep some of the sections are. My computer this year said it was 8,763 ft of climbing. I did, for the first time, use a heart rate monitor, and was keeping an eye on that (though TBH I had no idea what the "heart rate zones" meant, so mostly just…​ kept an eye on it. Now I know what they mean in Garmin speak). This will help me pace in the future, I think. But mostly the point is that after I recovered from my leg cramps I knew I was well off the ideal 9 hour pace and just pressed on, riding at a pace that felt good.

I caught up with the stragglers of the group I had been with before, then caught up with the rest of the group. I didn’t really ride with them much just given that I had my own pace but it was nice to have company for a while. Mostly I got to enjoy my own thoughts (i.e., talking to myself) as I glided down the hills through the gray country and grunted the way back up them. Some of them passed me again when I stopped to use the bathroom at a Cumby’s.^[3] The other dumb thing I did was neglect to lube my chain before the ride, thinking it was still okay from the riding earlier in the week,^[4] but luckily Ted at the Purgatory control had some Pedro’s lube he generously let me use. This got me most of the way home in relative silence (though there was still some odd squeaking when I shifted between gears). Another lesson learned, and a somewhat ironic one given that I’ve been researching chain lubes ahead of finally finishing the shop-size bottle of Rock and Roll lube I’ve been nursing since I quit working at the bike shop a few years ago. But anyway.

The ride was pleasant though the weather was shit. I did feel the rest of the week’s riding in my legs by the end, but otherwise felt reasonably good endurance-wise. I blame all the climbing. I came in at just over 10 hours, which is about an hour faster than Adam and I did it last year, so that’s still progress (if we admit that I can’t help but set some kind of goal). At the finish there was Tsun and Sarah with pizza and I ate pizza and chatted a bit with Steve (whom I’d rode with a lot last year) and Robert and John, whom I rode in with at the tail end of the 100k at the beginning of the month. I will say that the new drivetrain worked very well save for the whole lubing issue and one of the shifters needing its D-ring tightened (because it didn’t have enough friction). I am not yet sold on the functioning of these new shifters if I’m being honest, but I do at least like how much narrower a profile they have than the Shimano ones I’d used last year. But all somewhat expected kinks to work out.

I’ve got a few weeks before the 300k to keep getting my legs and fitness back together (though if I’m being honest, I’m probably starting from a better/stronger place than I started last year), and hopefully I’ll have some company this next time around (which will help with the whole "goals" thing, since I’ll be riding at the pace of my compatriots, or at least will be planning to). The Boston 300k this year is going to be a slightly different route than the one that kicked my ass last year (which makes me a little sad, since I wanted to try it again), but maybe for another year — 

An interesting aside about this summer season is that it is a PBP year, so there’s lots of folks trying to qualify and get ready for that come August, and the New England Randonneurs have done the good thing and kept that in mind while making the summer schedule. Still, the fun thing about this ride — which they intend to be pretty fucking hard — was that it isn’t the only 200k offered this summer — not even the first one — and so it remained a hard, and good, day out on the bike. I did a little spin-down Sunday, took Monday (mostly) off,^[5] and returned to commuting yesterday. Have been feeling pretty strong this year, sure, but in the end, the point is still that I mostly just like riding a bike.