{"id":729,"date":"2024-12-20T17:16:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T17:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2024-12-20T17:33:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T17:33:53","slug":"stressing-over-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":"Stressing Over the Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in the day I taught class on expedition mountaineering.  I emphasized that extended trips into remote mountain ranges are as much (if not more so) mental as they are physical and technical.  I stressed the need to find \u201csome kind of peace.\u201d  If you\u2019re continually fighting your gear, the weather, the mountain, your partners you\u2019re going to, sooner rather than later, end up exhausting your will to continue, and once that will to continue is gone well buddy pack it up and go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mountains I was good at finding that peace.  I was happy to be away from computers, phones and the other diversions of modern living.  I embraced the simple rhythm of moving up a mountain.  On the bike, however, I\u2019m not so Zen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I typically don\u2019t ride with a computer, the numbers frustrate me: time goes by too fast and the miles too slow.  Power?  Don\u2019t even get me started.  If you want to suck the joy out of cycling get a power meter.  But hey that\u2019s just me.  My tactic for long distance riding is to leave the watch at home and only use my bike computer for navigation: I pay no attention to miles and time.  I worry that this strategy might not work on the XL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I look at the 2024 results I see that my buddy Jan finished in 27:24 at an average pace of 12.85 mph.  Jan is a lot faster than I am.  I mean a lot faster.  So no way am I going to beat 28 hours \u2013 let\u2019s just be realistic about this.  The max allotted time is 36 hours.  Now let\u2019s stop and think about this, the race starts at 3:00 PM on Friday.  I\u2019ll probably be awake at 6:00 AM Friday.  This means that at the time of the first pedal stroke I\u2019ll have been awake for nine hours.  If I do a Jan time I\u2019ll have been awake for 37 hours.  If I straggle in just before the cut-off I\u2019ll have been awake for 45 hours.  That\u2019s essentially two days, and close to impossible without either a nap or methamphetamine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I start jumping into what\u2019s possible and what\u2019s impossible let\u2019s go back and review my resume:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of years ago I did a 24-hour mountain bike race that started and ended at noon.  When I crossed the finish line I\u2019d been awake for a bit over 30 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years back two buddies and I rode the Festive 500 (500 Km) in just over 27 hours elapsed time.  We broke the ride into two segments with a six-hour sleep break in the middle.   So that\u2019s a total of 33 hours for 313 miles.  So that\u2019s an average speed of 9.5 mph.  Coincidentally, this is the slowest possible speed one can ride to finish the XL in the allotted 36 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, in preparation for the Unbound 200 my buddy Mykenna and I rode a 300km brevet with the Seattle International Randonneurs which ended up being 252 miles in just under 22 hours for an average speed of 11.5 mph.  Push that out to 350 miles yields a finish time of 30.6 hours.  Okay this is reasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Tired but happy, finishing the 300 Km<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Assuming that there will be minimal stop lights and stop signs to deal with on course, an average speed of 11.5 mph will require an \u201con bike\u201d speed of approximately 13 mph in order to compensate for stoppage, which is always longer than one originally plans for.  Now back to the original question: can I ride 13 mph without being paced by a bike computer?  Maybe.  I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is the paradox: if I ride with a computer I risk getting stressed, chucking my bike in the ditch and calling my brother for a pick-up, if I ride without a computer I risk fumbling around too long and missing the cut-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the solution might be to do my long rides in the 13 mph sweet spot to get a feel for the pace.  I think that during the XL I will occasionally have to check my pace to see how I\u2019m doing, but if I can find the relative perceived exertion (RPE) required for 13 mph I won\u2019t have to suffer having the numbers continually flashing in my face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the day I taught class on expedition mountaineering.  I emphasized that extended trips into remote mountain ranges are as much (if not more so) mental as they are physical and technical.  I stressed the need to find \u201csome kind of peace.\u201d  If you\u2019re continually fighting your gear, the weather, the mountain, your partners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gravel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventurescript.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}