Diary of a Randonneur – Episode 9 – The Grassy Knoll 300

Ride Report and VLOG from a 300km DIY Audax.

Music used under license from bensound.com

First 300 I have done for a while, and I really enjoyed it. Few points that I didn’t mention in the video.

• Feet really suffered after the ride. My toes had spells of being numb while riding but nothing that I hadn’t experienced before. Not sure if it was the cold or my boots too tight. The difference this time was that they have ached for a few days afterwards, that’s new. Going to buy some thinner socks.
• Had a small problem with my left hand since the ride. The little finger grip strength is really crap. I seem to have full movement but just weak.
• I tried out taking chamois cream and wet wipes with me and re-applied several times during the ride. This seemed to help as I didn’t get sore while out at all, but the next day I was still a little tender. Nothing bad at all though.
• Moving all the spacers to back under the stem seemed to help my neck. It wasn’t until about 200km that I felt any stiffness that I dealt with a few times by stretching.
• Some things about fueling and my guts.
  • There were a couple of points when eating really picked me up in a big way. This makes me think that I wasn’t eating enough between stops in terms of energy.
  • Possibly I spaced what I did eat correctly though to keep my digestion going as I didn’t have any discomfort or bad guts at all.
  • I think I eat the right amount when I did stop as I never felt like I was riding around my guts for 45min afterwards.
  • Being able to take a dump at the first stop probably did wonders for this as well. I often find this a problem when on the bike for a long time.