Understand your limitations.

[Manuel Acosta]

Good time riding to nowhere and back. Doing my first Populaire last year I got to riding with Esteban who told me when nearing the end of his 300k and there's a zen feeling with nothing around you in sheer darkness.  It was a humbling opportunity to ride with so many strong and experience cyclists. 

Some highlights.

-Riding with miles of wildflowers.

- Tagging along with Ian's group till River Rd. 

- The beautiful rolling hills after Healdsburg.

- Coastal tailwinds all the way to the Marshal Store. 

- Riding with and talking to Jenny Oh about her aspirations in finishing a Randonneur Series( good luck to her)

Good sense of learning happened.

-Always jump on the tandem train. They can take you to wonderful places when you are hurting. 

- Riding in sheer darkness on a quiet road by yourself is zen-like.

- Jump in groups to break up the monotony of riding alone. 

- Let groups go when you know your cooked.

- Understand  the wonderful healing properties of Slim Jims.

- You can and will get dropped by everyone riding anything. 

- Bring extra everything. Food, clothes, gloves, lights, stories, smiles. You know the essentials.

- Getting stung by a bee sucks. Specially when you get stung near the saddle area...

Pictures Proved that it's pretty at nowhere:

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEhBB7R

-Manny "What there's no burrito place open at 11 at night?" Acosta

[Michael]

How did you train for this, Manny?

 

[William]

Savage, bro. Savage.

[Joe K]

Saw your pics. I am envious. All those miles of beautiful road and
scenery. (Speaking as a resident of NYC.)

(I wouldn't call that "nowhere.")

Joe

On Mar 10, 11:53 pm, William <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Savage, bro.  Savage.

[James Chang]

Wow Manny.  You competed all 300K?  That's quite an achievement.  Looks like a lovely ride.

 

James Chang

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[Mike]

- Understand  the wonderful healing properties of Slim Jims.

I say the same thing about corn dogs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41335973@N00/4468436719/

Looks like the ride to nowhere was fun. 

--mike

[Andy Smitty Schmidt]

You go, girl! 

[Manuel Acosta]

@ Michael
Training? I don't think I really made an effort to plan my riding to make it liable for any training. My "training" varied from doing my commute to work twice a week to doing hard, fast and short rides over the weekend. But in terms of mileage don't think I did a ride longer then 60 miles this whole pass month. It did help that I started the series on time though.
If your interested in doing long rides to no where and back I highly suggest talking to a veteran about it. I'm still making it up as I go.
Hope this helps

[Deacon Patrick]

Congratulations, Manny! That sounds and looks like an epic ride!

Going long distance is a whole other beastie than the 40-60 mile range (distance can be deceptive, as terrain and road/trail conditions can make 10 miles be like 40 on pavement). My longest ride on my Hunqa is 70 (so far) with 3 mountain passes and all of it above 10,000 feet (Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail, Indiana Pass et al near past Summit, CO). I've found that being fat burning rather than sugar burning makes it far more enjoyable and so that I do not rely on food I carry. In fact, I rarely eat on a ride any more and find it wonderfully freeing, not to mention a slew of other, more primary benefits of shifting my diet to high fat, low carb.

From your love of Slim Jims, it sounds like you may be in the fat burning camp?

With abandon,

Patrick

[Cyclofiend Jim]

Passed along congrats in different online venues, but here's another one Manny!
Well ridden.  Well related.

Keep it rolling!

- Jim

[Lynne Fitz]

Beautiful pictures!  And congrats on finishing a 300k!

On Sunday, March 10, 2013 8:35:25 PM UTC-7, Manuel Acosta wrote:

[Michael]

Manny,
Thanks for the info. I am not one that likes training.

You seem like a daily, riding-for-fun, non-trainer also, so I was wondering how you prepared.

I did a metric century and a 75 miler last year based in my 12 mile round trip commutes for "training" and it worked out fine, except my knees complained afterwards for a while.

But beyond a 75 miler, I think I'd have to train. My handling got sloppier as I got tired.

Congrats on such a big accomplishment! Are you going to do the next Rando series ride? What is it, like, 600k or something?

[Toshi Takeuchi]

I can say from experience that you don't need long training miles to finish the ride if you have some good intensity in your training.  What you just can't train for is to figure out what your body is going to say about the food you are eating on the second day of a 600k. I got a little sour stomach, and there's good suggestions for those who know this may be a problem (pre-emptive Prilosec, eating bland foods, ginger candies, avoid raspberry hammer gel--a definite for me!)

 

However, I won't know if any of this stuff helps until that next 600k, because training doesn't substitute for the event...

 

--It may be crazy to do these rides that may make your body revolt, but I gotta do PBP at least once in my lifetime!

 

Toshi

 

 

 

[Deacon Patrick]

I benefited greatly from applying Phil Maffetone's "Maximum Aerobic Function" (keep your heart rate at or below (180 - age = MAF). His "Big Book of Endurance Training" was very helpful. I now run up mountains far more easily because I have a solid aerobic base.

With abandon,

Patrick

[Tom Goodmann]

Congratulations--and thanks for sharing your photos and the nuggets of wisdom gained in your quest!  "Understand the wonderful healing properties of Slim Jims" is my favorite, at a first pass. --Tom

[Ely Rodriguez]

Too funny.
Indeed, this is why I put a beef jerky outer sleeve on the left side of that little brevet bag I make. No joke.
And yes, I too have been dropped by everyone, on every type of bike.
Good job Manny,
Ely

On Sunday, March 10, 2013 8:35:25 PM UTC-7, Manuel Acosta wrote:

[Kellie Stapleton]

Congrats!! I'm looking to do my first populaire later this year on my new Rivendell.

On Sunday, March 10, 2013 8:35:25 PM UTC-7, Manuel Acosta wrote:

[Manuel Acosta]

After a couple of rando events under my belt I now understand the major rule about any rando event. 

When it comes to the experience of the actually event in the end the mileage doesn't matter. 

One of my buddies when I first embarked on these types of ride told me something that stuck with me every time I do any type of these rides.

"Oh you're doing a rando event? Is that one of those races where the whole point is to have as much fun as you can?".
Seriously the mileage is super negligible. Granted it's tough and if you're in for those kind of rides. Jump on it. But if you're not having fun what would be the point? Be it 600k or 10 miles?

While I'm happy I got to finish the ride, I'm more than happy for the experience of riding to wonderful looking places with the company of amazing people, while bumming off their food.

-Manny

[cyclotourist]

Bumming food is what bicycling is all about!

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Redlands, CA

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[René Sterental]

Impressive feat, from where I sit tweaking my bikes and doing short rides... Maybe one day I'll ride 40 miles again...

[Toshi Takeuchi]

Here's my AHH set up for the 600k, but I ended up using a medium acorn saddlebag in the rear because I had ample drop bags for the ride (3 opportunities to get items).  If I had less access to drop bags, I probably would have used the larger saddlebag.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42771204@N00/6988274342/in/photostream

 

Toshi

 

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 9:41 PM, samh <rbwo...@yahoo.com> wrote:

It sounds like you had a wonderful adventure.  One thing I am always interested in is the bike setups you guys use for those long rides: bags, racks, lights, etc.  Any more pics of how that Homer was equipped?

Thanks for the pics.

 

[Tom Goodmann]

What a beauty!  Congratulations again on the achievement.

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[Brian Hanson]

Nice ride, Manny!

Brian

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[David Hays]

Beautiful bike, Toshi.

My AHH frame arrived today and I'm starting to put it together.

What bars and stem are you running?

Are those Hetres tires with fenders? If so which fenders?

Thanks.

David

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[Toshi Takeuchi]

Thanks David,

The bars are Nitto Randonneur (145 mm) and the tires are Pari-Moto tires. I splurged on the stem with a Nitto Lugged stem.  The fenders are cream SKS Longboard fenders. Enjoy your bike!!

Toshi