Happy First Anniversary (Plus One Day)

My returned brevet card for Quadzilla 2010, signed by organizer Mark Frank, with my time of 39 hours, 18 minutes, arrived in the mail today.  It’s appropriate timing.  Quadzilla was my big goal of the year and yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of this blog.I haven’t decided on my goal for 2011, though the early favorite is Paris-Brest-Paris.  I’ll decide by the end of the calendar year, most likely.  I like setting goals.  It makes the year seem so much more focused.

Looking back at that card, I can see what time of day I made each checkpoint and can remember how I felt at each one.  I made my goal this year, but it hasn’t always happened that way.  In 1997 I tried to finish the Longest Day, my first attempt at a double century, and got dehydrated and overheated and dropped out.  In 2002, I tried to finish the Hillier Than Thou century in under eight hours and dropped out after two hours in heavy rains and dangerous descents.  Then in 2007 I dropped out of PBP with Shermer’s Neck about 80 percent of the way through.  That was the most painful DNF of all.

The past couple of weeks I’ve cut way down on mileage.  Did a couple of Princeton Freewheeler rides, including a hilly 39-mile ride in the Sourlands Saturday and a 49-mile flat to rolling ride on Sunday.  The Saturday ride my wattage numbers were 150 regular watts/222 normalized power, including a 306 watt stretch for five minutes up Lindbergh Road.  Sunday was 171 watts regular and 213 watts normalized. This Sunday ride tends to feature short intense stretches where it’s easy to get dropped.  This time I was able to stay with the group for the most part, or what was left of the group.  For various reasons, a starting group of eight dwindled to three by the end.I’ve already lost some fitness in the past month, but that’s to be expected.  This is essentially my off season.

WEEK 9 hrs 25 minutes
GOAL 7 hrs

Jud