Vermont is spelled with a capital “V”, surely no coincidence. With the loads of mountains and climbs available, it had to start with a “V”. I mean, if it was mountainous enough to draw a runaway “loose” nun who left the church for a sailor, it must be good, right? (Great nordic skiing there””Trapp Family Lodge, if you are there in the winter months as well).
Anyways, being a seventh generation “V”ermonter myself, who was raised on a family farm on Rogers’ Hill in West Newbury, VT (which was hand cleared and settled in 1763 by my G-G-G-G-G-Grandfather and still owned by my father) I have a deep love and feel for VT, liberal politics notwithstanding. So when I heard about the 200 on 100 “Dumptruck of Awesome” that was available, I just knew that I had to do it. And not only that, I knew that I had to share this beautiful “Ode to the V in Vermont” with all of my best cyber-cycling-soul mates. Okay, soul mates might be going a bit far there, but you get my meaning.
So, enough with the intro.
Break out the rollers, get on the trainers, find your winter gear; lay off the seconds, nurse that one glass of booze, hold the toasting to one drink, dodge Cupid’s chocolates and shoot the Easter Bunny because training for this bastard started yesterday and you’ll be paying for it on the 28th of June, 2012 in spades!
See you in the pre-dawn hours on the Canadian border with our eyes firmly fixed on the prize of the Massachusetts border. Let’s drive this dump truck like Mel Gibson leaving the compound in a post-apocalyptic world, baby!
Route and location details on the Cogal Event Page.
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@Tim
Well done!
I do well until about 6 hours and then it REALLY starts to hit me.
I have been building a bunch of kilometers for the last 6 weeks and right now my legs have that really heavy feeling, no real pain but you can tell as soon as I give them a few days off that they are going to come back so much stronger.
That's the trouble with this ride and distance: Training adequately but not so much that you injure yourself. It's a hard, fine line to tread.
Man, this is going to be one hell of a day and, in the words of the immortal Obi-Wan, "the jundland wastes (or Route 100 in Vermont) are not to be traveled lightly."
@Buck Rogers
At least if we go blind or contract Enterobiasis from shared water bottles we will be in good hands?
@Buck Rogers
Me thinks the young Jedi afraid he is?
@Rob
Or if we are blinded by a shitstorm.
Just arrived in Paris for 2 serious weeks of detraining. Hope it pays off in the battle for the "Most Rested" jersey.
I can smell the blood in the air. Too loosely quote mtv's real world, this is when the man with the hammer stops being polite, and starts being real.
I'm doing the inverse taper, which is stacking on distance right up to this sick joke known as 2muchon100.
@Rob
Ontario Cogal this Sunday. ~185km. It might be my longest ride before Vermont. I'll be interested to see where my form is at (feeling good in spite of a chest thing and a bit of a sore throat at the moment). But no serious aches or pains, which is good. And also hoping to get myself past that intermediary hump. I find that somewhere between 1200 and 2500k on the year, my body starts to feel a bit sluggish and heavy (Ã la @Buck Rogers comment). Looking to be north of 2500 before the end of June, which should be fairly straightforward and not require too much extra riding. June should involve a series of 100k rides (twice a week) at a relatively comfortable pace, some moderate climbing, and then some shorter jaunts on the weekends. At this point, I'm fairly resigned to the notion that either I have "it," or not.
My coach, an ex pro coworker suggested nothing but light spinning two- three weeks prior. He said the risks of being overworked and under rested are far outweighed by any gain from long mileage or hard hammering that close to the big day. "you are where you are in terms of fitness.what you want to develop is the mental fortitude and confidence that you'll need after 200 k. Because you will be suffering at that point regardless. Well rested and limber legs are far less prone to injury at that crucial point when the brain says enough is enough." so that's my plan, sounds good for me, and it'll be what it'll be.
@Steampunk
It sounds like you are on track with only a slight reservation, thinking that you might want to do a few big k rides after the cogal, just to cement the form... But not to over do it close to, as Tim says above.
@Tim
I am all for this approach because I have heard for years that if you have not done that base work prior to 3 weeks your not going to add it on and may over train and come into it tired.
Having said this last night I was reminded that the Chatham, NY hilly 160k is June 10th and I am tempted to do it as my last hard effort. It's a little close but I will have recovered from the Long Island flat (hopefully fast) 200k and my thought is that if I rest in between and after, meaning easy short rides, it will be a quick way to hardening up for 300+k!
Really all this is sort of irrelevant because no matter how well we prepare, unless we have been training this distance after 250k it's going to be a test of how elegantly we can handle the misery... My worst fear is that I will become an incoherent/ babbling/ drooling mess.
On a bright note - last night on the Tuesday group ride I was able to stay near the front and actually had a conversation with Tim's friend Brian. THIS guy is our ace in the hole, man he can climb verticle, he can stay on the front forever at mind blowing speeds and he is not only nice he is egoless! We talked about how the best plan was to get the group riding well and not to go out fast but steady, 28-29 kp/h.
All in all it should be a great day!
@Steampunk
I liked your idea of riding the first half of 2much as training for the second half.
Sounds like everyone has a good plan, and it may not be the legs that scream the loudest torwards the end.
@xyxax
@Rob
xyxax! I land in Paris in 10 days. How long are you there for? I am there for two weeks, flying out on the 14th (but actually leave Paris for Roubaix on the 9th)
Rob, I am doing 210 k's on June 10th so I do not see why you should not do 160 hilly k's on the same day, that way, if it is a bad idea, you will not be the only one who is an incoherent/babbling/drooling mess. You know, the whole misery loves company thing.
I am also all about rolling along in the 27-29 kph range for as many hours as I can, hopefully in some form of slipstream, as this puppy is going to catch up with us around hour 8 to 10 and punish us for the last two to four hours after that!