A
week
ago,
I
participated
in
a
242 km
bike
ride
from
Bedford
to
the
Harpoon
Brewery
in
Windsor.
This
was
an
organized
event
with
about
700
people
registered
to
ride
it.
I’ve
done
a
number
of
group
rides
in
the
past,
but
never
a
major
event
like
this,
so
I’m
going
to
brain-dump
about
it.
(As
a
brain-dump,
it
is
not
as
organized
as
it
could
be.
Shrug.)
This
was
not
a
race,
so
there
is
no
official
timekeeping
or
ranking.
TL;DR:
I
rode
242 km
in
11
hours
and
8
minutes
and
I
lived
to
tell
the
tale.
The
Course
The
full
course
was
a
one-way
242 km
(150 mile)
route
with
four
official
rest
stops
with
things
to
eat
and
drink.
The
less
insane
riders
signed
up
for
truncated
rides
that
followed
the
same
route
and
also
ended
in
Windsor,
but
skipped
the
beginning.
There
was
a
182 km
option
that
started
at
the
first
rest
stop
and
a
108 km
option
that
started
at
the
second
rest
stop.
Since
I
did
the
full
ride,
I’m
going
to
ignore
the
shorter
options.
The
above
link
to
RideWithGPS
has
the
whole
course
and
you
can
zoom
around
to
your
heart’s
content,
but
the
gist
of
it
is:
Rest
Stops,
Food,
Drinks
The
four
official
rest
stops
were
at
58 km,
132 km,
169 km,
and
220 km.
The
route
passed
through
a
number
of
towns
so
it
was
possible
to
stop
at
a
convenience
store
and
buy
whatever
one
may
have
needed
(at
least
in
theory).
Each
rest
stop
was
well-stocked,
so
I
didn’t
need
to
buy
anything
from
any
shops
along
the
way.
There
was
water,
Gatorade,
and
already-prepared
Maurten’s
drink
mix,
as
well
as
a
variety
of
sports
nutrition
“foods”.
There
were
many
Maurten
gels
and
bars,
GU
gels,
stroopwafels,
bananas,
and
pickle
slices
with
pickle
juice.
Maurten
was
one
of
the
sponsors,
so
there
was
a
ton
of
their
products.
I
tried
their
various
items
during
training
rides,
and
so
I
knew
what
I
liked
(their
Solid 160
bars)
and
what
I
found
weird
(the
drink
mix
and
gels,
which
I
describe
as
runny
and
chunky
slime,
respectively).
My
plan
was
to
sustain
myself
off
the
Maurten
bars
and
some
GU
gels
I
brought
along
because
I
didn’t
know
they
were
also
going
to
be
available.
I
ended
up
eating
the
bars
(as
planned).
I
tried
a
few
B2VT-provided
GU
gel
flavors
I
haven’t
tried
before
(they
were
fine)
and
a
coconut-flavored
stroopwafel
(a
heresy,
IMO).
I
also
devoured
a
number
of
bananas
and
enjoyed
the
pickles
with
juice.
Drink-wise,
I
had
a
bottle
of
Gatorade
and
a
bottle
of
water
with
electrolytes.
At
each
stop,
I
topped
off
the
Gatorade
bottle
with
more
Gatorade,
and
refilled
the
other
bottle
with
water
and
added
an
electrolyte
tablet.
The
one
item
I
wish
they
had
at
the
first
3
stops:
hot
coffee.
With
the
exception
of
the
second
rest
stop,
I
never
had
to
wait
more
than
30
seconds
to
get
whatever
I
needed.
At
the
second
stop,
I
think
I
just
got
unlucky,
and
I
arrived
at
a
busy
time.
I
spent
about
5
minutes
in
the
line,
but
I
didn’t
really
care.
I
still
had
plenty
of
time
and
there
was
John
(one
of
the
other
riders
that
I
met
a
few
months
ago
during
a
training
ride)
to
chat
with
while
waiting.
In
addition
to
the
official
rest
stops,
I
stopped
twice
on
the
way
to
stretch
and
eat
some
of
the
stuff
I
had
on
me.
The
first
extra
stop
was
by
the
Winchester,
NH
post
office
or
at
about
111 km.
The
second
extra
stop
was
at
the
last
intersection
before
the
climb
around
Ascutney
which
conveniently
was
at
200 km.
Since
I’m
on
the
topic
of
food,
the
finish
had
real
food—grilled
chicken,
burgers,
hot
dogs,
etc.
I
didn’t
have
much
time
before
my
bus
back
to
Bedford
left,
so
I
didn’t
get
to
try
the
chicken.
The
burgers
and
hot
dogs
were
a
nice
change
of
flavor
from
the
day
of
consuming
variously-packaged
sugars
and
not
much
else.
Mechanics
Conte’s
Bike
Shop
(also
a
sponsor)
had
a
few
mechanics
provide
support
to
anyone
who
had
issues
with
their
bikes.
They’d
stay
at
a
rest
stop,
do
their
magic,
and
eventually
drive
to
the
next
stop
helping
anyone
along
the
way.
They
easily
put
in
12
hours
of
work
that
day.
Thankfully,
I
didn’t
have
any
mechanical
issues
and
didn’t
need
their
services.
Weather
Given
the
time
and
distance
involved,
it
is
no
surprise
that
the
weather
at
the
start
and
finish
was
quite
different.
The
good
news
was
that
the
weather
steadily
improved
throughout
the
ride.
The
bad
news
was
that
it
started
rather
poor—moderate
rain.
As
a
result,
everyone
got
thoroughly
soaked
in
the
first
20 km.
Rain
showers
and
wet
roads
(at
times
it
wasn’t
clear
if
there
is
rain
or
if
it’s
just
road
spray)
were
pretty
standard
fare
until
the
second
rest
stop.
Between
the
second
and
third
stops,
the
roads
got
progressively
drier.
By
the
4th
stop,
the
weather
was
positively
nice.
None
of
this
was
a
surprise.
Even
though
the
weather
forecasts
were
uncertain
about
the
details,
my
general
expectation
was
right.
As
a
side
note,
I
find
MeteoBlue’s
multi-model
and
ensemble
forecasts
quite
useful
when
the
distilled-to-a-handful-of-numbers
forecasts
are
uncertain.
For
example,
I
don’t
care
if
it
is
going
to
be
13°C
or
15°C
when
on
the
bike.
I’ll
expect
it
to
be
chilly.
This
is,
however,
a
very
large
range
for
the
single-number
temperature
forecast
and
so
it’ll
be
labeled
as
uncertain.
Similarly,
I
don’t
care
if
I
encounter
10 mm
or
15 mm
of
rain
in
an
hour.
I’ll
be
wet
either
way.
I
kept
checking
the
forecasts
as
soon
as
they
covered
the
day
of
the
event.
After
a
few
days,
I
got
tired
of
trying
to
load
up
multiple
pages
and
correlating
them.
I
wrote
a
hacky
script
that
uses
MeteoBlue’s
API
to
fetch
the
hourly
forecast
for
the
day,
and
generate
a
big
table
with
as
much
(relevant)
information
as
possible.
You
can
see
the
generated
table
with
the
(now
historical)
forecast
yourself.
I
generated
this
one
at
03:32—so,
about
2
hours
before
I
started.
Each
location-hour
pair
shows
what
MeteoBlue
calls
RainSpot,
an
icon
with
cloud
cover
and
rain,
the
wind
direction
and
speed
(along
with
the
headwind
component),
the
temperature,
and
the
humidity.
I
was
planning
to
better
visualize
the
temperature
and
humidity
and
to
calculate
the
headwind
along
more
points
along
the
path,
but
I
got
distracted
with
other
preparations.
Temperature-wise,
it
was
a
similar
story.
Bad
(chilly)
in
the
beginning
and
nice
(warm
but
not
too
warm)
at
the
end.
Clothing
The
weather
made
it
extra
difficult
to
plan
what
to
wear.
I
think
I
ended
up
slightly
under-dressed
in
the
beginning,
but
just
about
right
at
the
end
(or
possibly
a
smidge
over-dressed).
I
wore:
bib
shorts,
shoe
covers,
a
short-sleeved
polyester
shirt,
and
the
official
B2VT
short-sleeved
jersey.
The
shoe
covers
worked
well,
until
they
slid
down
just
enough
to
reveal
the
top
of
the
socks.
At
that
point
it
was
game
over—the
socks
wicked
all
the
water
in
the
world
right
into
my
shoes.
So,
of
the
242 km
I
had
wet
feet
for
about
220 km.
Sigh.
I
should
have
packed
spare
socks
into
the
extra
bag
that
the
organizers
delivered
to
rest
stop
2
(and
then
to
the
finish).
They
wouldn’t
have
dried
out
my
shoes,
but
it
would
have
provided
a
little
more
comfort
at
least
temporarily.
For
parts
of
the
ride,
I
employed
2
extra
items:
a
plastic
trash
bag
and
aluminum
foil.
Between
the
first
rest
stop
and
the
200 km
break,
I
wore
a
plastic
trash
bag
between
the
jersey
and
the
shirt.
While
this
wasn’t
perfect,
it
definitely
helped
me
not
freeze
on
the
long-ish
descents
and
stay
reasonably
warm
at
other
times.
I
probably
should
have
put
it
on
before
starting,
but
I
had
(unreasonably)
hoped
that
it
wouldn’t
actively
rain.
At
the
second
rest
stop,
I
lined
my
(well-ventilated)
helmet
with
aluminum
foil
to
keep
my
head
warm.
When
I
took
it
off,
my
head
was
a
little
bit
sweaty.
In
other
words,
it
worked
quite
well.
As
a
side
note,
just
before
I
took
the
foil
out
at
the
third
rest
stop,
multiple
people
at
the
stop
asked
me
what
it
was
for
and
whether
it
worked.
Pacing
&
Time
Geekery
Needless
to
say,
it
was
a
very
long
day.
My
goal
was
to
get
to
the
finish
line
before
it
closed
at
18:30.
So,
I
came
up
with
a
pessimistic
timeline
that
got
me
to
the
finish
with
23
minutes
to
spare.
I
assumed
that
my
average
speed
would
decrease
over
time
as
I
got
progressively
more
tired—starting
off
at
26 km/h
and
crossing
the
finish
line
at
18 km/h.
I
also
assumed
that
I’d
go
up
the
3
major
climbs
at
a
snail’s
pace
of
10 km/h
and
that
I’d
spend
progressively
more
time
at
the
stops.
Well,
I
was
guessing
at
the
speeds
based
on
previous
experience.
The
actual
plan
was
to
stay
in
my
power
zone
2
(144–195W)
no
matter
what
the
terrain
was
like.
I
was
willing
to
go
a
little
bit
harder
on
occasion
to
stay
in
someone’s
draft,
but
any
sort
of
solo
effort
would
be
in
zone
2.
I
signed
up
for
the
15 miles/hour
pace
group
(about
24 km/h),
which
meant
that
I
would
start
between
5:00
and
5:30
in
the
morning.
I
hoped
to
start
at
5:00
but
calculated
based
on
5:30
start
time.
Here’s
my
plan
(note
that
the
fourth
stop
moved
from
218
to
220 km
few
days
before
the
event,
and
I
didn’t
bother
re-adjusting
the
plan):
Time of Day Time
Dist In Out In Out
Start 0 N/A 05:30 N/A 00:00
Ashby climb 51 07:27 08:09 01:57 02:39
#1 58 08:09 08:24 02:39 02:54
Hinsdale climb 121 10:55 11:37 05:25 06:07
#2 132 11:37 11:57 06:07 06:27
#3 168 13:35 13:55 08:05 08:25
Ascutney climb 198 15:21 16:15 09:51 10:45
#4 218 16:25 16:50 10:55 11:20
Finish 241 18:07 N/A 12:37 N/A
To
have
a
reference
handy,
I
taped
the
rest
stop
distances
and
expected
“out”
times
to
my
top-tube:
(After
I
started
writing
it,
I
realized
that
the
start
line
was
totally
useless
and
I
should
have
skipped
it.
That
extra
space
could
have
been
used
for
the
expected
finish
time.)
So,
how
did
I
do
in
reality?
Well,
I
didn’t
want
to
rush
in
the
morning
so
I
ended
up
starting
at
5:30
instead
of
the
planned
for
5:00.
Oh
well.
Until
the
4th
stop,
it
felt
like
I
was
about
30
minutes
ahead
of
(worst
case)
schedule,
but
when
I
got
to
the
4th
stop
I
realized
that
I
had
a
ton
of
extra
time.
Regardless,
I
didn’t
delay
and
headed
out
toward
the
finish.
I
was
really
surprised
that
I
managed
to
finish
it
in
just
over
11
hours.
Here’s
a
table
comparing
the
planned
(worst
case)
with
the
actual
times
along
with
deltas
between
the
two.
Planned Actual Delta
Dist In Out In Out In Out
Start 0 N/A 00:00 N/A 00:00 N/A +0:00
Ashby climb 51 01:57 02:39 01:53 02:17 -0:04 -0:22
#1 58 02:39 02:54 02:17 02:33 -0:22 -0:21
Hinsdale climb 121 05:25 06:07 04:59 05:41 -0:26 -0:26
#2 132 06:07 06:27 05:41 06:10 -0:26 -0:17
#3 168 08:05 08:25 07:34 07:55 -0:31 -0:30
Ascutney climb 198 09:51 10:45 09:13 09:37 -0:38 -1:08
#4 218 10:55 11:20 10:08 10:20 -0:47 -1:00
Finish 241 12:37 N/A 11:08 N/A -1:29 N/A
It
is
interesting
to
see
that
I
spent
1h18m
at
the
rest
stops
(16,
29,
21,
and
12 minutes),
while
I
planned
for
1h20m
(15,
20,
20,
and
25 minutes).
If
I
factor
in
the
two
pauses
I
did
on
my
own
(3 minutes
at
111 km
and
9 minutes
at
200 km),
I
spent
1h30m
stopped.
I
knew
I
was
ahead
of
schedule,
and
so
I
didn’t
rush
at
the
stops
as
rushing
tends
to
lead
to
errors
that
take
more
time
to
rectify
than
not-rushing
would
have
taken.
I’m
also
happy
to
see
that
my
10 km/h
semi-arbitrary
estimate
for
the
climbs
worked
well
enough
on
the
first
climb
and
was
spot
on
for
the
second.
The
third
climb
wasn’t
as
bad,
but
I
stuck
with
the
same
estimated
speed
because
I
assumed
I’d
be
much
more
fatigued
than
I
was.
To
have
a
better
idea
about
my
average
speed
after
the
ride,
I
plotted
my
raw
speed
as
well
as
cumulative
average
speed
that’s
reset
every
time
I
stop.
(In
other
words,
it
is
the
average
speed
I’d
see
on
the
Garmin
at
any
given
point
in
time
if
I
pressed
the
lap
button
every
time
I
stopped.)
The
x-axis
is
time
in
minutes,
and
the
y-axis
is
generally
km/h
(the
exception
being
the
green
line
which
is
just
the
orange
line
converted
to
miles
per
hour).
The
average
line
is
21.7 km/h
which
is
the
distance
over
total
elapsed
time
(11:08).
If
I
ignore
all
the
stopped
time
and
look
at
only
the
moving
time
(9:43),
the
average
speed
ends
up
being
24.9 km/h.
Nice!
Power-wise,
I
did
reasonably
well.
I
spent
almost
2/3
of
the
time
in
zones
1
and
2.
I
spent
a
bit
more
time
in
zone
3
than
I
expected,
but
a
large
fraction
of
that
is
right
around
200W.
200
is
a
number
that’s
a
whole
lot
easier
to
remember
while
riding
and
so
I
treat
it
as
the
top
of
my
zone
2.
Fatigue
&
Other
Riders
I
knew
what
to
expect
(more
or
less)
over
the
first
2/3
of
the
ride
as
my
longest
ride
before
was
163 km.
In
many
ways,
it
felt
as
I
expected
and
in
some
ways
it
was
a
very
different
ride.
At
the
third
rest
stop
(168 km),
I
felt
a
bit
less
drained
than
I
expected.
I’m
guessing
that’s
because
I
actively
tried
to
go
very
easy—to
make
sure
I
had
something
left
in
me
for
the
last
70 km.
Sitting
on
the
saddle
felt
as
I
expected:
slowly
getting
less
and
less
enjoyable
but
still
ok.
It
is
rather
annoying
that
at
times
one
has
to
choose
between
drafting
and
getting
out
of
the
saddle
for
comfort.
What
was
very
different
was
the
“mental
progress
bar”.
Somehow,
160 km
feels
worse
if
you
are
planning
to
do
163 km
than
if
you
are
planning
to
do
242 km.
It’s
like
the
mind
calibrates
the
sensations
based
on
the
expected
distance.
Leaving
the
third
rest
stop
felt
like
venturing
into
the
unknown.
Passing
200 km
felt
exciting—first
time
I’ve
ever
seen
a
three
digit
distance
starting
with
anything
other
than
a
1
and
only
42 km
left
to
the
finish!
Leaving
the
fourth
rest
stop
felt
surprisingly
good
because
there
were
only
22 km
left
and
tons
of
time
to
do
it
in.
In
general,
I
was
completely
shameless
about
drafting.
If
you
passed
me
anywhere
except
a
bigger
uphill,
I’d
hop
onto
your
wheel
and
stay
for
as
long
as
possible.
Between
about
185–200 km,
I
was
following
one
such
group
of
riders.
This
is
when
I
really
noticed
how
tired
and
sore
some
people
got
by
this
point.
One
of
them
got
out
of
the
saddle
every
30–60
seconds.
I
don’t
blame
him,
but
following
him
was
extra
hard
since
every
time
he’d
get
up,
he’d
ever-so-slightly
slow
down.
That
group
as
a
whole
was
a
little
incohesive
at
that
point.
I
tried
to
help
bring
a
little
bit
of
order
to
the
chaos
by
taking
a
pull,
but
it
didn’t
help
enough
for
my
taste.
So,
as
we
got
to
the
intersection
right
before
the
climb
around
Mount
Ascutney,
I
let
them
go
and
took
a
break
to
celebrate
reaching
200 km
with
some
well-earned
crackers.
After
the
long
and
steady
climb
from
that
intersection,
the
terrain
is
mostly
flat.
This
is
when
I
noticed
another
rider’s
fatigue.
As
I
passed
him
solo,
he
jumped
onto
my
wheel.
After
a
minute
or
two,
he
asked
me
if
I
knew
how
much
further
it
is.
I
found
this
a
bit
peculiar—knowing
how
far
one
has
gone
or
how
much
is
left
is
something
I
spent
hours
thinking
about.
I
gave
him
how
far
I’ve
gone
(216 km),
how
long
the
course
is
(240 km),
did
quick
&
dirty
math
to
give
him
an
idea
what’s
left,
and
I
threw
in
that
the
rest
stop
is
in
about
3 km.
Then
about
a
minute
later,
I
realized
that
he
dropped
while
I
continued
at
200W.
After
the
mostly
flat
part,
there
was
a
steep
but
relatively
short
uphill
to
the
fourth
rest
stop.
This
is
when
I
stopped
caring
about
being
quite
so
religious
about
sticking
to
200W
max.
Instead
of
spinning
up
it,
I
got
out
of
the
saddle
and
went
at
a
more
natural-for-me
climbing
pace
(which
isn’t
sustainable
long
term).
To
my
surprise,
my
legs
felt
fine!
Well,
it
was
not
quite
a
surprise
since
I
know
that
my
aerobic
ability
is
(relatively
speaking)
worse
than
my
anaerobic
ability,
but
it
was
nice
to
see
that
I
could
still
do
a
bigger
effort
even
after
about
5000 kJ
of
work.
One
additional
observation
I
have
about
long
non-solo
events
like
this
is
that
unless
you
show
up
with
a
group
of
people
that
will
ride
together,
it
is
only
a
matter
of
time
before
everyone
spreads
out
based
on
their
preferred
pace
and
you
end
up
solo.
People
(perhaps
correctly)
place
greater
value
on
sticking
to
their
own
pace
instead
of
pushing
closer
to
their
limit
to
keep
up
with
faster
people
and
therefore
finishing
sooner.
I
noticed
this
during
the
last
B2VT
training
ride
and
saw
it
happen
again
during
the
real
ride.
This
is
much
different
from
the
Sunday
group
rides
I’ve
attended
where
people
use
as
much
effort
as
needed
to
stay
with
the
group.
Conclusion
Overall
I’m
happy
I
tried
to
do
this
and
that
I
finished.
My
previous
longest-ride
was
163 km,
so
this
was
48%
longer
and
therefore
it
was
nice
to
see
that
I
could
do
this
if
I
wanted
to.
Which
brings
up
the
obvious
question—will
I
do
this
again?
At
least
at
the
moment,
my
answer
is
no.
Getting
ready
for
a
long
ride
like
that
takes
long
rides,
and
long
rides
(even
something
like
5–6 hours)
are
harder
to
fit
into
my
schedule,
which
includes
work
and
plenty
of
other
hobbies.
So,
at
least
for
the
foreseeable
future,
I’ll
stick
to
2–2.5 hour
rides
max
with
an
occasional
100 km.
)
