Stubborn

To be a good endurance cyclist you have to be stubborn. I've always said the key to completing long bike rides is to not quit. It may seem obvious, but wait until you get on the bike and try cycling 200km or more. There will be times when you don't feel like you can finish - like you should never have tried - like you never want to do a long ride again. Fortunately we have several sprightly septuagenarians in our group, and when I feel like that I just think of them and suck it up.

I've also grown to understand that negative thoughts are normally caused by poor nutrition. I can tolerate pain and sore muscles, lack of sleep and sheer exhaustion, but the thing that knocks me off the bike more than anything else is simply bonking. Thank goodness for top-tube bags and trail mix. I have come to believe that 24 hour gas stations are California's greatest gift to the world. How do riders in other parts of the world manage without them?

Amber and I once rode a 600k in Colorado and we were dumbfounded when we got to a gas station that was closed! We were counting on it for calories and caffeine. We kept riding and the next one was closed too. We had to abandon the ride. OK - so the second most important thing about long distance cycling is good planning. Maybe the third.

RUSA offers an award called an R12. To get it you have to ride at least one 200km+ sanctioned ride for twelve consecutive calendar months. To a long distance cyclist this sounds fairly easy but it actually requires a lot of commitment.

My friends, Greg and Stacy Kline, have ridden 39 200km+ rides in a row. January was a serious challenge as Stacy had hurt her leg earlier and two attempts to ride my 200k permanent towards the end of the month ended in failure. So she borrowed Willie's 'bent and rode her first 'bent brevet on the last day of the month. It took 13 hours which is an exceptionally long time for her, but she managed it. That's stubborn. I sure hope she feels better soon.