Saturday, June 8, 2013

My second 300 km Brevet.


My second 300 km Brevet.

 This was my second 300 k Brevet for this year and I was excited to do it. My first 300 went well. I am really enjoying being the first one to finish this year instead of the last one. I know a Brevet is not a race but it still is fun to finish an hour or more ahead of everyone else.  I was really looking forward for this Brevet. My average speed goes up each week as I get in better shape. I got lots of sleep and took Friday off to rest my legs. I was ready to burn up those 300 km. So I was really disappointed to see only 3 people at the start. A local road race was happening that day so there went some of the regulars. And the strong wind forecast scared off the others. Mark, who was the most experienced one of the group asked me, if I could stick with the group to help the new guy finish. The new guy was only doing his second Brevet. He was young and is good shape but riding a new bike that was just fitted to him this week. This made for a longer ride as the speeds were a lot slower. There was lots of stops for adjustments on his shoe cleats and to stretch his sore muscles. But at the same time I got to look around and see more of the country side.  It was still fun, but in a different way. At the end of the day he finished his first 300 km Brevet. He was one happy tired fellow. He was going to be very sore the next day. I went home and took the Huskies for a 5km run. Our next Brevet is our 400 km on June 22. That should be a great test for me and the Quest.
            When I decided to buy a Velomobile I decided on the Quest XS and it was fortunate that BlueVelo was making them in Canada. The other model that is soon to be available in Canada is the Milan. I have been following the build for a while at Velomobiles.ca    and  I am now following the assembly of another in Milan in Nico's blog Milan - sl . I find the building very interesting but I am glad I bought mine complete as I am having a great time riding it.  Check out those blogs if you are interested in the building end.
            That's all for now from my part Canada....

9 comments:

  1. Hi Kevin,

    Congrats! Even you seemed not as satisfied as last time, it still is a great performance, 300 km is quite a distance! And on top of that you was able to help a fellow cyclist to finish his tour, wich is good work!
    Succes with the 400 km next run, I'm sure you manage that one too in a satisfactory way.

    Greetings, Adri.

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  2. Hi Kevin , What a life you have , a 300 and a 400 Brevet in one month , i road nearly a 200 yesterday but my ankles are really sour , i hope that goes better with my new Xs next month.
    Good luck on your 400 trip

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    1. Hi Gerrit,
      Did you get a carbon XS? My XS has shorter cranks and it took some time to get used to them. I had to move my cleats on my shoes closer to the heels and that seem to fix everything. I look forward to reading your blog when you get it.

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    2. No , its gonna be a glass Xs and all of the Xs have shorter crancks (155mm) because the height of the Xs.
      I dont have to get used off them because i have them also in my Mango but i hope the 2kg less of the xs and the better shape is doing the right thing for me.
      When i have the time i will also ride brevets in holland next year.

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  3. Congratulations Kevin! I know it's darned hard to down-shift when you were looking forward to a very fast ride but what a great thing to do for a fellow cyclist!

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  4. Going slow is the hardest thing to do sometimes. My average heart rate for that ride was the lowest it's ever been. I also had to stop and pee more often than I normally do. I guess I wasn't working up a sweat as much as normal. Still it felt good to see how happy the new guy was to finish his first 300.

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  5. Way to go Kevin! Are you going for a super randonnee this year? I always have admired anyone who took on the challenge of doing any kind of Brevet. I have done a few metric centuries and 1 Us century. I just get too bored pedaling all day unless I have someone to ride with. Will be rooting for you on your 400 and possible 600 ( now that's a challenge!)

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    1. Hi Larry,
      Yes this is the year for a Super Randonee. I haven't made it past the 400 before but the Quest together with the winter driving (training?) has made things easy this year. Next year will be 1200?

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  6. Congratulations! 400 km at low speed is maybe even more challenging indeed. I'm impressed by 100km already.
    You'll get your speed share later...looking forward to your next brevet report.

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