Say Goodbye ...

Say Goodbye to a goal to ride 1000 miles in a given calendar month for the first time ever, this September.

With the rains now expected the next three days, there doesn't seem any way I can "sneak in" the requisite three 55-milers, one for each of the last three days of the month.  (Btw, it isn't that I won't ride in the rain, I have ridden in the rain, and enjoyed it during Alan's 300 km brevet back in April, it's just that I don't see the point of doing a just-riding-around-for-fun ride in the rain if I'm not really training for anything.) 

If two of the three days would clear enough to ride ... I cannot "sneak in" 83-milers.

Actually:

I lost the 1000-mile month in the middle of my first ride of the month:  the Tarheel 200 Permanent on Sep-04, when I did something to stress / strain my right leg / knee.  Instead for riding another 200 km the next day, and 100 km or so on Labor Day, I rested the leg / knee so all would be well for the BRP trip.  (Wish I knew what I did to the knee ... so I could avoid doing it in the future.) 


Say Goodbye to the quest for Super Randonneur this year. 

Tony's mountain-fest rides from Statesville to Little Switzerland, etc., would never have worked for me.  Tony's Labor Day Brevet-Fest included a 600 km, and the combined terrain may well have suited me, but the timing -- one week before the BRP trip -- was dangerous.

There remains Tony's "Seaboard-Fest" on Oct-09 starting / ending in Lumberton.  My butt got tired as soon as my eyes read "1068 ft 'climbing' in 382 miles".  I have never been a "get up out of the saddle" type rider -- I sit-and-spin my way up climbs -- and have never acquired the knack of standing and riding at the same cadence in the same gear at the same speed as when sitting.  Vance and Maria can verify how much trouble I had from sore / tired butt during Alan's 600 in May, from continual sitting with no reason or real opportunity to get out of the saddle and stretch the legs / give the buttocks a break.  (Actually, if Vance and Maria are being honest, they can verify how much trouble my sore butt caused them.)  If my 600 in May had not turned into "the bloody privates ride" it would have been "the incredibly sore butt ride"; the only semi-good thing about "the bloody privates ride" was that the pain from that completely blocked any pain messages from the buttocks to the brain -- insert joke about that not being very far for messages to travel.

"1068 ft in 382 miles"!  I'd rather face the 12 miles from the James River to Apple Orchard Mtn, again, without the legs being warmed up, again.

Maybe if I knew someone with which to ride.  Maybe if I trusted my car to go "into the wilderness" as far as Lumberton.  Maybe if I had a better idea of where the course went.  Maybe.

"1068 ft in 382 miles"!  And I thought Dean's Tarheel 200, with 1210 ft in 125 miles, was flat.

A Maria-style, gentler, kindlier 400 or 600 sounds interesting, because I could mix and match the terrain.  Maybe Byron's L-L-L (while I still have my BRP mountain legs), MikeD's Black Creek, and a non-RUSA ride (perhaps the "IR" Schley-HurdleMills-Stovall ride, or the "IR" Schley-Leasburg-GentryStore ride -- see the "route map roll" to the right).

If any IRs were interested in a group / club type 200k on the 9th, I could do L-L-L on the 8th, and suffer through Black Creek on the 10th.  Maybe.

It's all mental.  And I used a lot of mental on the BRP.  Even Tony's Lumberton 600 boils down to a mental thing -- and THAT is the true bottom line; I'm just not mentally "stoked" for it -- but, gosh, my buttocks start hurting as soon as I read or think "1068 ft in 382 miles".