Transcontinental Race No. 6 - TCR6 - #TCRN06 - 2018

Fork and head tube seem a lot beefier?

Just a perspective thing and probably seems beefier in the orange I think .
I am wondering if a carbon bike would have been a better choice as I've loved riding my planet x over the last few days. Better up hills and a less fatiguing ride. Wondering if a Carbon frame would have been a better choice?!?

I've a CAAD10 (alu) wound't want to ride it far.
But lots of people like alu.

I like steel for comfort. Don't know if carbon is much better than alu. It's pretty damn stiff.

Wheels make a massive difference, to comfort. My 32 spoke hed beligums are a world apart from 24 spoke zipp404s. The zipps are brutal.

It's all in your head.

Meh. Just run fatter tyres / lower pressures.

Agree, frame material makes no difference to ride, the tyre pressure and type is what you can feel.
A carbon one would have been 3-400g lighter but, other than that, no problem with an aluminium frame.

Agree, frame material makes no difference to ride, the tyre pressure and type is what you can feel.
A carbon one would have been 3-400g lighter but, other than that, no problem with an aluminium frame.

Fair enough! It's done me fine for the last few longish rides I've done.
Starting to over think all of this! :)

Interested in how much training everyone is doing. No idea how much is enough but it's tough trying to navigate the balance of sitting in an office all day, being a reasonable father and getting the miles in.

I'm currently doing between 3-400km per week made up of the following :
1 or 2x midweek afterwork hill sessions @ 50km each
80km of commuting
1 x longish ride on the weekend of approx 200km.

Conscious that I'll be needing to ride at least 320km per day so will be needing to ramp this up!
What chu doing and for those that gave ridden before, what was the max you were riding per week pre TCR?
Also see that some people hit the gym etc so also interested in what the benefits of this might be on ultra racing.

Ask @bananaskid how much training you need.

That's a decent amount of training.

I'm also doing 3 to 400 a week mixed with some long rides. Did a 360km all nighter last week. Planning a few 2-day rides in may and june as well to test the full setup and get some extra miles in. Gym-wise I'm doing 2 core sessions per week to strengthen my back and neck.

Mon - recovery day
Tue - Terrible Tuesdays, beer drinking until 5am
Wed - still can't stand smell of alcohol
Thu - sun's out, cocktails at preferred outdoor bar
Fri - ok, but i'll only stay for the one
Sat - NULL
Sun - wake up in strange hospital with alcohol poisoning

I'll be needing to ride at least 320km per day

Isn't the finishers party 16 days out this year instead of 15?
I thought daily average to make it last year was only ~250k?

Sure is but want to head straight off on a family holiday from the finish!
:)

Starting the race with plans immediately after that put you on a deadline is one of the biggest mistakes I've seen over the years.

What skinny said.

I always have time after planned - partly as contingency for fuckups but also if I finish in my usual ~12 days I have a couple of days to rest before the party. If you're doing 320/day which is about what I normally manage you won't be feeling like doing anything afterwards.

I get ya, maybe I'll get the family to spend the week in Meteora then they can see me roll in and we can chill afterwards.
Really appreciate all the useful advice. As you can clearly see, I'm new to this stuff.

What hoppy said. You’ll be completely done when finished, you won’t want to walk or even talk but just sleep. There are a few exceptions to this. But I don’t understand them.
Meteora is a great place with good food and beautiful surrounding countryside.

Having somewhere to be puts you on a deadline, and a lot of people will crack when they can’t make their deadline. Scratching 1000s of km from the finish as they’ve lost their schedule and now know they can make the deadline. So just be aware of that.
You’re going on this amazing adventure, and the most important thing is to finish. So don’t make obstacles to that.

I just want a shower and a drink normally. After a while appreciate a bit of normal food and then tend to feel quite sick. After a proper night's sleep I'm normally substantially better but even the next few days in Turkey or Greece I was really unlikely to take kindly to moving more than a few hundred metres at a time.

Felt for the missus not being able to do tourist shit but when she went to the beach I had a sense of humour failure half way there and just HAD to go into a shop for a drink/ice cream to cool down and take a moment. Once at the beach I couldn't be fucked going in the water, I sat in the shade and drank beers.

You might only have to carry 75kg over Europe but fatigue will still add up. Good luck running after kids afterwards. :S

the most important thing is to finish

This.

Meteora is quite nice. We were in a nice hotel and just chilled out by the pool, ate ice cream, drank beer, cheered all the riders in, rinse, repeat. One day we went up to the monastaries for a closer look but didn't go inside any just wander slowly a couple before getting lunch somewhere out of town.

After TransAm I was actually fine. I think I suffered so much in the early stages by the time I finished I was in better condition! Met a mate who'd flown down from Canada and got on it. Happy days.

What hoppy said.

Now, he does drink a lot of beer, but ... :)

Zing.

Mon - recovery day

Tue - Terrible Tuesdays, beer drinking until 5am
Wed - still can't stand smell of alcohol
Thu - sun's out, cocktails at preferred outdoor bar
Fri - ok, but i'll only stay for the one
Sat - NULL
Sun - wake up in strange hospital with alcohol poisoning

Jeez, I could have been an ultra racer in my teenage years with that kind of training.

To be fair, that is old hippy, you know, the hippy from about a month ago. I'm much better now. ;)

Comments above on imposing deadlines on yourself are absolutely right.
On IndyPac I had a schedule in mind because I had a flight to catch and needed to be back for work. Once that schedule looked hard to keep to, after about a week, it drove me mad. I was constantly working out how many km I needed to do that day, worrying about what things I would do in what order if I got to Sydney just in time, thinking that, as I didn't have time to get to Sydney, I might as well stop riding now, etc, etc.
I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't that worry and could have just ridden.
A big part of this stuff is escapism.
It's a great feeling to not know what day it is, and not care.