Here’s the plan: I’m going to ride Al Johnson‘s brevet tomorrow, the 300k option, and then ride another 300k by myself on Sunday. This was Mr. Helpful’s idea; I was going to do 100 miles a day for five days in a row, but he thought I’d be better off doing just two longer rides with minimum rest in between, to mimic the wall I’ll probably hit toward the end of Wisconsin week.
Hmm. I’m not worried about the first 300k; that’s a reasonable jump from 200k, which I’ve done twice. But two days in a row . . . That’s 600k. Umm, that’s a lot of miles–360, to be exact. That’s the longest brevet. Last time I did that all in one weekend, I got a total of two hours of sleep. Hmm . . .
Needless to say, my anxiety level has been pretty high the last couple of days. I figure that today I need to get everything ready for both days–measuring out little baggies of Accelerade powder, making sure all the clothes I’ll need are clean, plotting a route for Sunday, all that stuff.
And I’m having a light problem. I put my handy-dandy dynamo wheel on my bike on Tuesday, attached the headlights, and went for a ride at about 9:30 that night. The primary light was way too dim. So Wednesday I changed the bulb and tried again. No luck. Something’s wrong in the back of the light where the base of the bulb is supposed to contact the electrical bit of the light. Being electronically challenged myself,I have no idea what to do about it, so I emailed the shop that I bought the system from 4 years ago. I haven’t heard back from them yet, so I guess I need to go swap wheels again and dig out the battery operated light. I’m less than thrilled; hopefully I’m faster than I was four years ago, because I don’t relish the thought of an all-night ride without my trusty dynamo–batteries run out. Maybe I’d better go stock up on spare batteries.
Okay. My to-do list for today is officially getting out of hand. I’d better get to work. If anyone’s looking for a someone to ride (slowly) with on Sunday, let me know, ‘cuz I’ll be pedaling . . .
I really, really want to go knit something pink and fuzzy now.