With El Tour over it's time to start focusing on the next event. That will most likely be the Casa Grandes 200k brevet in early January. I dnf'd this ride last year because of a back injury, but I rode enough of the course to know that the first 60 miles aren't on the best of roads. Who comes up with these rides? Wouldn't you choose the smoothest roads available? I suppose in an effort to avoid traffic & stop lights, etc, it can be pretty tough to map out 125 or so miles of good road. Maybe it's just because my back hurt already, but I just remember the road beating me to death last year. And perhaps that's why I'm not super excited about this ride like I was El Tour. Well, excited or not, this is the path to my larger goals.
I rode 58ish (my GPS crapped out) on Wednesday and a lot of it was over rough to very rough roads. Gotta train for the event, right? But on the later miles I started to get very saddle sore, especially on the left ishial. I was riding the Talon with Aerospokes on the SMP saddle. Never had problems with that saddle before, even on a century, so for now I'm going to blame the soreness on the road conditions. And this brings me to a training point. While there certainly is value in training on rough roads, perhaps it would be wiser for me to first train myself up to the distance & then worry about road conditions. If I have the endurance to ride 125m, then I can handle some rough roads. Plus, I know that the last half of the Casa Grandes brevet is on a smoother road. I don't think it's exactly an A+ road, but in comparison to the first half it's a giant improvement.
Bike choice. I go back & forth on this one. Of course any races or events take place on the Talon, so it makes sense to train on the Talon. I've put on the very, very heavy Aerospokes for training so that I'm pushing more weight, and more rotational weight, during training. I like to be able to switch to my race wheels & feel like I'm on a rocket. My debate is whether or not to include other bikes in my training, and if so, how much. I have to ride the Talon enough to perfect the fit & position on the bike, but other bikes offer other advantages for training. The Surly smooths out the roads to protect my butt, it's heavy, it's easier to carry stuff, and the frame has some flex to it--so it really makes for a damn nice training bike. The C'dale Capo is a single speed which definitely builds muscle on the hills around here. And Mamasita, well, she get's awfully lonely. Mountain biking certainly builds power and anaerobic capacity, which is great for climbing & sprinting. I've thought about just rotating through the bikes. It would be an interesting way to keep my training fun, not to mention it would require me to keep all of my bikes in working order. Too often I cannibalize a part from one bike for another, just don't have things set up right. The Capo just needs new brake cables--I think the housing is all there. The FX needs to be stripped & rebuilt from the frame up as a road bike: the flat-bar thing just didn't work out.
Anyway, Casa Grandes, yes. That's the first of what I hope will be a 200k or greater brevet each month for 12 consecutive months, which would win me the R-12 award. And perhaps I will build up fast enough to complete a full brevet series of 2, 3, 4, & 600k for a Super Randonneur award. Regardless, I'm using these brevets as well as (hopefully) the Death Valley Double and the Cochise County Classic as qualifiers for the Furnace Creek 508. One step at a time.
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