Going Long and Hard.

@Steve Vai 's bikes are fork fluid, one day difference means nothing...LOL
 
I happened to come into a case of the Covids and have been dealing with that this weekend. I felt off at Jungle like my head was just fuzzy and it was difficult to hold lines through sections. I thought it was just the slippery rocks but during the drive home I spiked a massive fever and when I got home it was light’s out. Called out this morning but our GM may have had a kid and everyone with a key is away on Vacation so I went in at Noon to open the store and infect as many people as possible 😂 It’s not even a thing anymore, so wild. Like I don’t talk to people that blocked me during Covid and now it’s not even an excused absence 🤷
 
Spent the week recovering and sleeping and hydrating and taking supplements and whatnot. Easy ride at Sterling this morning to get moving again.

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Always a fun spot. Could be a little funner with a tiny bit bigger bike. The Garage Sale is supposed to be coming back so it might be a good time to pick up a play bike. If it happens.

Pre-Riding Cold Spring 200k tomorrow as my last prep for Endless1234k. It’s another 10k of Elevation route so 😳
 
Last training ride before Endless. Cold Spring 200k pre-ride. Lots of climbing. Rained for the last hour or so and slowed down the fun descents back into town 😢

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Didn’t push very hard but legs were good all day. Still good during today’s commute.

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Basically it. Just need to swap wheels and pack my drop bag, plan my days. First day is pretty brutal. But it’s all in familiar territory so that should take some of the sting out of it.
 
Last training ride before Endless. Cold Spring 200k pre-ride. Lots of climbing. Rained for the last hour or so and slowed down the fun descents back into town 😢

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Didn’t push very hard but legs were good all day. Still good during today’s commute.

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Basically it. Just need to swap wheels and pack my drop bag, plan my days. First day is pretty brutal. But it’s all in familiar territory so that should take some of the sting out of it.
STRONG !!!!!!!!
 
Last training ride before Endless. Cold Spring 200k pre-ride. Lots of climbing. Rained for the last hour or so and slowed down the fun descents back into town 😢

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Didn’t push very hard but legs were good all day. Still good during today’s commute.

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Basically it. Just need to swap wheels and pack my drop bag, plan my days. First day is pretty brutal. But it’s all in familiar territory so that should take some of the sting out of it.
where is that rails to trails in the 4th pic?
 
Taper week.

Set the bike up for Endless. Nothing crazy, need to keep the bike light because there’s 500 billion feet of climbing. Did a shake down today just to make sure it’s good to go. Making sure the dyno system is still OK, the aero bars are forward enough to stand all the time, position is good, etc. The brevets I’ve been doing have had a shit ton of climbing so I know about what my pacing will be and made my cheat sheet based on that timing.

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Made a big Skratch order just for this event. Splitting all of this up over 4 days. Plus I packed breakfast and dinners as to not put any stress on the volunteers. I’m the only Vegan in the group so I can fend for myself. Or, it’s PA so I should say HAVE to fend for myself. I map out all of my own stops because the Controls generally don’t have anything I can use…

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Packing and final cheat sheet prep. Good news is the volunteer at the first overnight messaged me a list of stuff he got for me so I can cut 2 meals out of my bag. Also overnight 2 and 3 are at the same hotel in Lewisburg and I’m pretty familiar with that area so I can probably dump everything I was planning to bring outside of on the bike food. I’ll weigh my bag tomorrow and make a game day decision.

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Endless 1234k Day 1

4am start from Philly. We rode to the Liberty Bell and back as a group and then the ride started once we hit Manyunk.

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Group quickly broke up as Nick DeHaan, current PBP Course Record Holder, picked up the pace.

I rode between people as everyone settled in during the first hundred miles. After Blairstown is when the climbing really picked up and the ride got legitimately hard.

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The only Control on course for the day was in Shahola at mile 150. Everything in town closes at 5pm and I was right up against the clock climbing out of Milford.

Got to the Hungry Goat at 4:50. The lady stayed open for us and I was able to sit down and have a meal.

Last resupply in Honesdale before heading into the hardest part of the route. Steep gravel climbs, dark, and pouring rain. First my rear taillight died leaving me pretty vulnerable to cars, then my GPS started fritzing because I didn’t have it covered in time.

Put the GPS in my bag and used my phone here and there to stay on course.

I was walking up some 20 whatever percent gravel climb and someone randomly drove up and said I didn’t have any lights and told me to meet them at the top of the hill. Ended up being one of the volunteers and he gave me a spare light.

Last 30 miles were flat along the river into Binghamton. Made it into the overnight a little after 3am, a 23 and change hour day. I was pretty wrecked. Shower, food, into bed at 4am with alarm set to 7am which would put me into Lewisburg around midnight on Thursday…

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Endless 1234k Day 2.

Woke up at 7am to pouring rain. Got all my rain gear out and was 3rd to last to leave. Or, I should 3rd to last of people that made to the first overnight 😳

About 10 miles out my GPS finally bricked. Pulled out my phone to switch to the RWGPS App but my fingers were wet so I couldn’t unlock it at all. Rode back to hotel but everyone was already gone. The desk guy let me use a towel to dry off and I called Chris who was driving the drops to Lewisburg already. We went over a bunch of options and in the end I decided to scratch, take a ride with the drops to overnight #2, work out my issues there, and restart the ride on Day 3.

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Endless 1234k Day 3

Restart in Lewisburg. Route basically went around the UnPaved course with the same out/back on the rail trail.

With fresh legs and 12 hours of sleep, it was just a good day in the saddle. Rode with Nick for a while, rode with Josh, finished 2nd on the day about 20 minutes behind Nick.

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Endless 1234k Day 4.

Last day was surprisingly bumpy. Wasn’t in a super hurry, but my legs were pretty good. I left 3rd to last again a few hours behind the main group. And I left at 4am 😳

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My GPS worked on day 3 but was dead for 4. One of the guys said he uses RWGPS with audible cues and listens to the route in his headphones. So I did that. It was actually pretty good outside of riding off route a few times.

Towards the end of the day my legs were legit good and was going over the rollers really hard. Took a bunch of KOMs in Amish land.

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Finished back in Philly with Martin just after 7pm.

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Really great event. Ridiculously hard. Sort of did this without actually training so it’d be nice to go through it again with some prep. I want to say 2 people completely DNF’d, 3 of us DNQ’d, and 12 finished? IDK.
 
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