Ultra Rider: In Search of the Ultimate Long Ride

A bunch of updates

Its been a tough couple of weeks training. Non-stop, almost three full weeks. Running, spin, strength training. Time to ease it back a little bit and do some recovery.

The bulk of my training this year has been short, concentrated sessions focusing on overall strength. In past years, I have done a lot more volume, but I think with lesser results.

I’ve started to sprinkle in a few road rides here and there as time permits - not much to speak of, but these little forays are helping me understand what I need to work on in the few remaining weeks before the big event. I’m generally feeling good and strong, a small issue with my leg - some sort of minor hamstring or ligament trauma that I will go see the doctor about this week.

I took my new wheels out for a ride today. In the past few weeks as I worked through my final equipment preparation, I did the math on aero vs. non-aero wheels and realized that I would be cheating myself of valuable time if I didn’t invest in an aerodynamic wheelset.

Wheel manufacturers regularly make wild claims about the benefits of aero wheels - as much as 90 seconds advantage over the length of a regular time trial. I figure, even if the claims are off by as much as 1/2, this works out to a minimum of 20 minutes, and as much as 1.4 hours across 800 kilometres.

I bought what I could realistically afford, looking for a nice balance between aero and weight and eventually settled on a 58mm clincher for the front, and an 82mm clincher for the rear. I opted for clincher’s over tubulars after doing a lot of reading about what other ultra riders use. Even with the small weight penalty, clinchers are almost exclusively preferred due to the ease of which tires can be changed. After watching my ride group take 9 flats in one day last year when we rode across Canada, I can definitely appreciate the importance of being able to quickly change tires at the side of the road (and repair tubes with a patch in extreme cases if necessary).

I took them out mid-afternoon yesterday for a quick spin - nothing crazy, about 30 minutes in all. I’ll need to get a longer ride in to truly get a feel for them, but they did feel a lot “slippery-er” on the flats and pretty nimble on the couple of small climbs I got in. Weighing in at only 1753 grams or so (according to the manufacturer), they are less than a pound heavier than my lightweight Topolino’s which weigh in around 1350 grams.

Today will be a light day, just an hour in the spin studio in the morning and then I’ll take the single-speed out for an hour or two in the mid-afternoon - I don’t want to do anything crazy until I can get a doctor to weigh in on what’s going on with my hamstrings/ligaments in the right leg. I’ll also get her to start thinking about possible causes of my lower back pain - which can get excruciating after about 12 hours in the saddle (I didn’t blog it, but at Sebring, I almost packed it in at the 15 hour mark due to lower back pain that radiated all the way down my upper leg into my knee. Thankfully I had some super-extra-strength arthritis creme on hand which I used to keep the area numb).

I think I’ve finalized the crew and judges this week as well. I’ll post more in a day or so when I have heard back a final confirmation from one of the judges. It will be a good team - a great mix of cyclists, endurance riders, hardcore drivers and all-round awesome people. I couldn’t ask for more in terms of skills. I’m amazed that each of these folks would give up their time to help me reach this goal.