Paris - Brest - Paris : the cycling journey.
In January of 2006 I had a guy come to me and say, "I would like to qualify and do PBP in France next year." My initial reaction was one of confusion with a lot of questions:
Q. What is PBP?
A. Paris - Brest - Paris.
Q. What kind of event is Paris - Brest - Paris (I knew it was Cycling..)
A. A 1200km Brevet.
Q. Did you say 1200km? And what exactly is a Brevet?
A. Yes it is 1200km... (I kind of got ill to my stomach and lost focus)
After a little bit of contemplating the nature of such an event, the journey began as George (the one that introduced me to randonneuring) and I started putting in some miles on the bike.
To really speed up the story, I'll create a short timeline of major events along the the way.
Major Event #1: 5/27/06 - Horsey Hundred - a 100 mile ride in Kentucky, George's first century ride. Flickr Photo Set
Major Event #2: 7/14/06 - 200km KY Brevet Route - we didn't do the official Brevet, but we went and tackled the course on our own later on. The ride is likely my most memberable ride in the last 3 years. (Since my ride across Iowa) It was full of unleashed-chase-you-down-the-road-dogs and one major hill climb that about put me six-feet-under. It was also my single longest ride in one day when we finished at 130 miles. Flickr Photo Set, Blog post about ride
Major Event #3: 3/31/07 - 200km KY Brevet
Major Event #4: 5/19/07 - 400km St. Louis Brevet, Blog post
Major Event #5: 5/26/07 - 300km Atlanta Brevet, a great course and ride. The ride starts on an amazing bike rail/trail called the Silver Comet Trail. While on the trail the ride is flat and stress free, but once you get into Alabama it got a little more challenging. Ok, a lot more challenging. At least we were doing the 300km and not the 600km Brevet that day because they had some bigger mountains to climb.
Major Event #6 - 6/2/07 to 6/3/07 - 600km St. Louis Brevet, George's Big Day! I didn't do the ride with him, for a lot of reasons: I had a wedding to attend, I didn't want try and recover from that kind of stress, I was a little bit of a chicken....
To let you know about the length of the event, Nikki and I stayed in St. Louis Friday night. I went to the start of the ride and watched them get set up and leave. Nikki and I traveled to Nebraska, meet up with some friends, went to a wedding reception, stayed out late, spent the night in Omaha, woke up and went on a longer run with another friend, traveled back to St. Louis... and drove a little bit of the course to see if they were about done. They were not finished. We felt a little guilty talking about how tired we were of driving, only to realize that George and the others had been on the bike the entire time. (I think they had a 2 hour hotel stay during the night...?)
My take home thoughts about this past 17 months:
1. Long distance cyclists are a little crazy!
2. In every ride there comes a point of "breakthrough". This is where you realize that the body is willing to do a little more, even though it might be uncomfortable... but the body isn't willing to carry on unless the mind has this specific breakthrough.
3. The amount of cycling and distances have helped me reframe my perspective of the Ironman bike leg. Prior to doing these mega-rides, I thought 112 miles was hardly achieveable as a stand alone ride. Knowing that I've ridden over double the distance in a single day instills a great mental boost.... even if the training isn't "Ironman specific" as some may say.
4. People are able to achieve some remarkable things when they want to. Think about it for a second. On the morning of May 27, 2006 George had never ridden more than 70 or 80 miles at one time. In 39 hours on June 2/3, 2007 he rode 373 miles.
That's Inspiration!
Thank you George for helping me remember what is possible.
Now as he begins a recovery period and preparation period for the PBP in August, I hope that I'll be able to transfer some of those miles into Ironman speed for myself.
Q. What is PBP?
A. Paris - Brest - Paris.
Q. What kind of event is Paris - Brest - Paris (I knew it was Cycling..)
A. A 1200km Brevet.
Q. Did you say 1200km? And what exactly is a Brevet?
A. Yes it is 1200km... (I kind of got ill to my stomach and lost focus)
After a little bit of contemplating the nature of such an event, the journey began as George (the one that introduced me to randonneuring) and I started putting in some miles on the bike.
To really speed up the story, I'll create a short timeline of major events along the the way.
Major Event #1: 5/27/06 - Horsey Hundred - a 100 mile ride in Kentucky, George's first century ride. Flickr Photo Set
Major Event #2: 7/14/06 - 200km KY Brevet Route - we didn't do the official Brevet, but we went and tackled the course on our own later on. The ride is likely my most memberable ride in the last 3 years. (Since my ride across Iowa) It was full of unleashed-chase-you-down-the-road-dogs and one major hill climb that about put me six-feet-under. It was also my single longest ride in one day when we finished at 130 miles. Flickr Photo Set, Blog post about ride
Major Event #3: 3/31/07 - 200km KY Brevet
Major Event #4: 5/19/07 - 400km St. Louis Brevet, Blog post
Major Event #5: 5/26/07 - 300km Atlanta Brevet, a great course and ride. The ride starts on an amazing bike rail/trail called the Silver Comet Trail. While on the trail the ride is flat and stress free, but once you get into Alabama it got a little more challenging. Ok, a lot more challenging. At least we were doing the 300km and not the 600km Brevet that day because they had some bigger mountains to climb.
Major Event #6 - 6/2/07 to 6/3/07 - 600km St. Louis Brevet, George's Big Day! I didn't do the ride with him, for a lot of reasons: I had a wedding to attend, I didn't want try and recover from that kind of stress, I was a little bit of a chicken....
To let you know about the length of the event, Nikki and I stayed in St. Louis Friday night. I went to the start of the ride and watched them get set up and leave. Nikki and I traveled to Nebraska, meet up with some friends, went to a wedding reception, stayed out late, spent the night in Omaha, woke up and went on a longer run with another friend, traveled back to St. Louis... and drove a little bit of the course to see if they were about done. They were not finished. We felt a little guilty talking about how tired we were of driving, only to realize that George and the others had been on the bike the entire time. (I think they had a 2 hour hotel stay during the night...?)
My take home thoughts about this past 17 months:
1. Long distance cyclists are a little crazy!
2. In every ride there comes a point of "breakthrough". This is where you realize that the body is willing to do a little more, even though it might be uncomfortable... but the body isn't willing to carry on unless the mind has this specific breakthrough.
3. The amount of cycling and distances have helped me reframe my perspective of the Ironman bike leg. Prior to doing these mega-rides, I thought 112 miles was hardly achieveable as a stand alone ride. Knowing that I've ridden over double the distance in a single day instills a great mental boost.... even if the training isn't "Ironman specific" as some may say.
4. People are able to achieve some remarkable things when they want to. Think about it for a second. On the morning of May 27, 2006 George had never ridden more than 70 or 80 miles at one time. In 39 hours on June 2/3, 2007 he rode 373 miles.
That's Inspiration!
Thank you George for helping me remember what is possible.
Now as he begins a recovery period and preparation period for the PBP in August, I hope that I'll be able to transfer some of those miles into Ironman speed for myself.
Labels: Atlanta, brevet, cycling, Horsey Hundred, kentucky, Paris-Brest-Paris, St. Louis
posted by gary at 7:51 AM
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