San Francisco Randonneurs 200k ride report

[Toshi Takeuchi]

The Russian River 200k comes in at a little over 200k with 126 miles.  I consider myself a lazy randonneur.  I prefer to train as little as possible, while also trying to minimize the suffering on the event day as much as possible.

I'm not unfit because I commute to work on my bike (Cheviot). During the school year, I drop my daughter off at school, park the car nearby and ride my bike to work and back to the car after work.  It's about 5 miles and ~600 ft of elevation gain.  My base is therefore 40-50 miles a week (4-5 commute days) and two weekends I did a 15 mile loop from my house.  It's enough training to finish the 126-miler, but I wanted to ride without suffering unduly.

I drew on my experience:

1. I know what my body likes to eat on long rides. 

My go to recipe: rice bars-I think of it as an elevated spam musubi

https://www.skratchlabs.com/blogs/recipes/dr-lims-bacon-and-egg-rice-cakes

I put in chicken apple sausage instead of bacon and skip the maple sugar/brown syrup.  I wrap the rice/eggs/sausage in seaweed like a sushi roll and plop it in a sandwich baggie.  I didn't have to stop for anything yesterday except some water and a quick bathroom break.

2. I know that with my base of fitness, I need to stay within a very narrow range of effort.  If I put in too much effort, then my body won't be able to recover.

--This means that I need to go slow out of the gate and not get caught up in the excitement of the start, and I have to take it easy on the hills and spin in my low gears.  If I follow this strategy, then I can maintain energy until the end without struggling to the finish line.

(Conversely, a countless number of times, have I gone too hard at the start and limped along to the end!)

It was a chilly start and forecast for 38 degrees, which on a steep downhill is practically ski weather, so I put on my ski gloves on top of my fingerless gloves to start the day off.

As expected, out of the gate it was fast.  I kept it slow.  I was riding alone that day because my friend was just returning from Germany and was jet lagged, so I went at my own pace.

Soon, I was the last one of the 60 or so riders and the only people I saw were the late starters who were passing me. 

It was cold as expected, and it was also foggy with condensation on my glasses, so visibility was poor for a while, but gradually the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.  I met up with another Riv that day--a rider with a beautiful A Homer Hilsen (I'm sorry I missed his name).  He caught a nice picture as the sun started to come out and we had a beautiful view of the rolling hills. 

I made my way through the grazing cows and worked through the Russian River valley over to the coast where it was a really beautiful day.  We headed back down the coast and then back to the start at San Rafael.

--In terms of time allowed for the ride, the minimum pace is roughly 10 miles per hour, including stops, giving about 12.6 hours to finish.

I exceeded my target goal of 10-11 hours and came in under 10 hours. I only had 18 minutes of time stopped (a record low for me), including a couple of construction 1-lane delays, so that helped me maintain a good time.

For the 300k, I'm going to add in some 28 mile training loops. I figure if I go hard on the 28-milers, then it will be enough to finish modestly well on the 300k. 

Until next time,

Toshi in Oakland

[Stephen Durfee]

Meanwhile, I am such a lazy randonneur that I stayed home. Sounds like you had a great ride, where you got to meet all the predetermined goals.

[Brady Smith]

Lazy randonneuring is smart randonneuring. I have no qualms about going to the wall in a Zwift race every now and again, but if I'm out for 10-20 hours, I'd better enjoy it. Congrats on your ride!

Brady in SLC

[Bill Lindsay]

This should be inspiring to anybody who thinks they can't do a long ride just because they only do short rides.  If you ride several times a week and believe that your bike fits you, then you can do a long ride.  The only thing stopping you is you choosing not to do one.  Choosing not to ride a long ride is a perfectly logical choice, mind you.  Just Ride!

BL in EC

On Sunday, February 11, 2024 at 11:12:09 PM UTC-8 ttoshi wrote:

[RichS]

Toshi, congratulations on your ride. Thank you for the ride report and the rice bar recipe. I'm impressed by your 18 minute total time stopped. That's a page from Jan Heine's playbook. "Inspiring" for sure to quote your fellow rando Mr. Lindsay.

Looking forward to your report from the 300k.

Best,

Rich in ATL

[Keith P.]

Wow Toshi, congrats on what seems like a fantastic ride! Well done!

The pace and spirit of it sounded so fun.

When you wrote “rice bars” I mistakenly pictured freeze dried, mealy mouth cakes, but these are some onigiri type wonders.

Can’t wait to try them out.

What is the overall elevation gain in that race?

&

Any pictures from the day or just of your bike?

- K. In L.A. 

[Eric Norris]

The “Lazy Randonneur” perfectly captures my current level of ambition.

--Eric Norris
campyo...@me.com
Insta: @CampyOnlyGuy
YouTube: YouTube.com/CampyOnlyGuy 

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[Bill Lindsay]

Keith asked:

What is the overall elevation gain in that race?  about 6800 feet.  My Strava recorded 6827ft.  By SFR standards, this was a relatively flat route.  Toshi will back me up on that.  

&

Any pictures from the day or just of your bike?  Like Toshi, I was looking to not waste time, but I did take this selfie for an update text to my family.  Of course the text was undeliverable because I had no cell phone coverage out there.  The Sonoma County coast near Bodega was unbelievably beautiful but the whole day was scenic with all the hills emerald green.  It was like being in Ireland.  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/53525573846

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Toshi Takeuchi]

Thanks for all the encouragement!  I am VERY lucky to have a custom Riv made for randonneuring. 

https://rivbike.tumblr.com/post/165236855564/toshis-custom-i-dont-care-who-you-are-or-what

My new acquaintance on the AHH took a nice picture and I'm hoping to share that here.

I agree with Bill regarding elevation.  I think the major difference from other 200k events is the start in San Rafael instead of San Francisco cuts off an up and over Camino Alto into Fairfax and the same out on the return and the "oh so fun" climb out of Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's always a challenge to end the ride with the hills.

Speaking of Sausalito reminds me of one of my favorite randonnees ever, where I rode with my 5 yr old son on a Populaire 110k on our tandem (pre-Hubba times) in 2010.  The only way we could make the time cutoff was to have my Skittle-powered son climbing out of the saddle and up the hill to the bridge.  He was so inspiring that several other populaire riders got motivated to finish too!  Now my son's in college and I'm eligible for a senior discount at IHOP.  Time flies.

I found an itty bitty picture from that day:

Toshi

[Bill Schairer]

Such a refreshing write-up!!  The current obsession with "FKT"s for anything and everything has sort of turned me off.

Bill S

San Diego

[RichS]

Bill, you've got that right. Just Ride is good enough for many of us.

Best,

Rich in ATL

[ascpgh]

I love the objective of "enough".

Enough insight on food to get the good without the bad.

Enough discipline to dose yourself over the whole ride and all of its bits.

Enough effort to conclude the day within the limit.

On long non-event rides I like to add a few others:

Enough time for a few pictures, not everyone will appreciate them but a few will.

Enough reserve and insight to look up from the stem because if I can't, the latter miles won't be pretty.

Enough trust in others to not have to make every mistake myself with my bike and gear. 

Enough adventure, effort and opportunity to be a reward motivating me to do it again!

I'm already scanning the calendar for opportunities to ride a two day out and back trip, balancing how many layers I'll need for the weather contingencies and the range limits it will imply until spring is here. 

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

On Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:43:28 AM UTC-5 Bill Schairer wrote: