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OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride?
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Friend wants me to do it with him. I'm in VA and this isn't in my training regiment but it looks interesting and I'm thinking about doing it. Have a few logistics questions for any past participants.

TIA
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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tmshokie wrote:
Friend wants me to do it with him. I'm in VA and this isn't in my training regiment but it looks interesting and I'm thinking about doing it. Have a few logistics questions for any past participants.

TIA

I've done it once. I was interested in repeating this year but it's the same day as the FL70.3. I live in Tampa. The year I did it my wife and I drove over to the other coast and spent the night there. I biked from the hotel to the start...then across the state. Counting the 2 miles from the hotel and a few miles losing the route in Kissimmee I ended up with 175 miles for the day. After about 10 miles of warming up, we formed into a main pack that was going 26-30mph for a good while. After hitting the first gas station in St Cloud, things starting splitting up as people eased into different paces and took breaks here and there. Some folks had sherpas with sling bags and some like me stopped at gas stations here and there. By the afternoon, I was sometimes alone, and sometimes with a small group, breaking apart and reforming depending on who wanted to stop where.
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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HuffNPuff wrote:
tmshokie wrote:
Friend wants me to do it with him. I'm in VA and this isn't in my training regiment but it looks interesting and I'm thinking about doing it. Have a few logistics questions for any past participants.

TIA


I've done it once. I was interested in repeating this year but it's the same day as the FL70.3. I live in Tampa. The year I did it my wife and I drove over to the other coast and spent the night there. I biked from the hotel to the start...then across the state. Counting the 2 miles from the hotel and a few miles losing the route in Kissimmee I ended up with 175 miles for the day. After about 10 miles of warming up, we formed into a main pack that was going 26-30mph for a good while. After hitting the first gas station in St Cloud, things starting splitting up as people eased into different paces and took breaks here and there. Some folks had sherpas with sling bags and some like me stopped at gas stations here and there. By the afternoon, I was sometimes alone, and sometimes with a small group, breaking apart and reforming depending on who wanted to stop where.

Tks. Good info.

Would you happen to have any wattage or PE estimates for your main pack effort and when you were solo (how fast were you riding and what were you putting out)? I've never ridden in a large group like that. My local group rides are only 6-8 riders and we do 22-25mph.

I'm trying to figure out the overall effort I'll need to sustain for pack riding and solo. I'm also trying to figure out how to train for this. Other than just crushing my taint by sitting on my trainer for 10+ hours, I just don't know how to plan for this. There are absolutely ZERO Google hits on a training plan. How much riding did you put in?

FWIW I'm a 47 yr old MOP racer. Most of the my local Tris I ride around 22 mph (mostly olys) at 185-200w avg. It's moderately hilly where I race. I can hold that for 30 or so miles and still run effectively. Longer races I'm more like 19-21 mph and 175-190w.

I'd like to do the CFR in 10ish hours. I'm guessing I'll be putting out around 110-125w in a large group holding 20 mph. Does that seem reasonable? Currently I'm trying to hold 150-160w at 19mph for 100-125 miles on my trainer. This is proving harder than I thought. I don't think I have the time to build up the strength/endurance to hold that for 170 miles.

Just wondering if that distance (125) and effort (150w) will give me enough in the tank to make the 170.
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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Effort will be totally dependent upon wind.


-----------------------------------------------------------
"No more hurting people - Peace"
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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I was older than you by at some 6 years or so when I did it. I think it took me about 10.5 hours and my effort was very inconsistent across the day. Riding in the big group was easy until the young cyclists put the hammer down, I hung on for awhile and then let go realizing it would kill me. Staying in a group all depends on whether you can refuel at the same time as the others in that group which frequently wasn't possible. I had told my wife to sleep in, eat breakfast, and then find me. I was over halfway across the state before she caught up, and then I didn't need to stop at gas stations when I was out of fuel. I think my greatest output of the day was when I ejected a bottle that I needed and went all out to catch a small pack that I was with at the time.

To get ready I started pushing my long rides up every other week and made sure I had at least 6 over 100 topping out at a longest ride of about 130. If you can do that, the event itself will pull you the rest of the way. BTW, I haven't looked to see this year's route, but it's very flat except when you come across the hilly area from around Dade City to Brooksville, then starts flattening out again as you approach the other coast. So you are going to hit some hills when you have over a 100 miles on your legs.

On the down side, I flatted about 8 miles from the end when the adrenaline was really pulling me to the finish...that added 10 mins. Aargh! Make sure your bike and tires are in excellent condition.
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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HuffNPuff wrote:
I was older than you by at some 6 years or so when I did it. I think it took me about 10.5 hours and my effort was very inconsistent across the day. Riding in the big group was easy until the young cyclists put the hammer down, I hung on for awhile and then let go realizing it would kill me. Staying in a group all depends on whether you can refuel at the same time as the others in that group which frequently wasn't possible. I had told my wife to sleep in, eat breakfast, and then find me. I was over halfway across the state before she caught up, and then I didn't need to stop at gas stations when I was out of fuel. I think my greatest output of the day was when I ejected a bottle that I needed and went all out to catch a small pack that I was with at the time.

To get ready I started pushing my long rides up every other week and made sure I had at least 6 over 100 topping out at a longest ride of about 130. If you can do that, the event itself will pull you the rest of the way. BTW, I haven't looked to see this year's route, but it's very flat except when you come across the hilly area from around Dade City to Brooksville, then starts flattening out again as you approach the other coast. So you are going to hit some hills when you have over a 100 miles on your legs.

On the down side, I flatted about 8 miles from the end when the adrenaline was really pulling me to the finish...that added 10 mins. Aargh! Make sure your bike and tires are in excellent condition.

Awesome. Tks. All good info.

The other factor I'm concerned with is heat. It's like 25 degrees here right now. Prob won't be much out of the 60's by the end of March. Any of m long rides will be COLD. I will literally melt if it's 93 for the CFR.
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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Haven't done this ride but have done other big day rides. In my opinion you're overthinking it. Just ride as much as you can to be comfortable in the saddle that long. Then just take what the day gives you. Sometimes you'll be lucky enough to float along in a large group a high speed with low watts. Other times you'll be solo or in small groups and have to work a bit harder.
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Re: OT: Any done the Cross Florida Ride? [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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I've ridden from Naples to Ft. Lauderdale (and then back the next day). Had a shotgun pulled on me for taking a picture of some redneck's "property" and had to occasionally stop to let gators cross the road. But it's an interesting ride and there's no shortage of boiled peanuts. The interior of Florida is something else.
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