KarthiK S

So many targets on personal miles and a fixed target on brevet miles - that's how 2013 started.. Actually, I consider November through October to be a year, being in sync with the brevet calendar, so targets where pretty much fixed even before december 2012... For the people who don't like boring stories,

The medal for the Chennai GST - 400 BRM reached me, thanks to Silvester ... Didn't attend the medal ceremony, and so missed happenings.... Many thanks to the Madras Randonneurs, especially, Partha Datta , Arun Ramachandran and Pradeep Chandar who organized the ride, Sundar Sir who helped me at the U turn control with awesome snacks and lemonsoda, Ashokji with whom I rode completely and finished the BRM... This 400 BRM was the first brevet where I clocked riding average more than 25 kmph and total average more than 20 kmph... The first ride which gave me confidence that I could attend and finish a 1000 km brevet... Though I had done a 600 before, this brevet felt a bit more special, and same is the feel with receiving this medal...

18 months passed by, after writing an " About me ".. Only the numbers on the side, in the dailymile widgets got updated... Still the goals remain same and in fact more goals got added too To explore all the greeny areas within 200 km radius around Bangalore. Cycle atleast once, to my native place and back from there to Bangalore. Eventhough I ride 100s of kms here, when I reach native place, the views completely change. For example, when I plan to visit my relatives who live some 20+ kms away from my home, (on a TVS XL super), riding the moped for 20 kms still makes me feel like it is a tough job.. I want to take my cycle there and feel what I think when I do the same on my cycle. Still, Coimbatore (which is 60 kms away from my village), Tirupur (20 kms), and Erode (50 kms) looks too far as I haven't experienced cycling there.. There are awesome hills available to climb, within 100kms of reach from home. Ooty is around 100 kms, Kodaikanal is around 160 kms, there ...

Super Randonneur - 1500 kms of Journey - Part 1 - here Tristate / Spirited 600 and Anchetty 200 - definitely tougher options compared to the alternatives in Bangalore. Tristate BRM challenges with the variety in route. As Mustafa says, after 165 grueling kms, you will still be only 45 km away from the city - an option you can choose - reach Bangalore by riding 450 kms (take up the challenge, continue, finish brevet) or 45 kms (drop and return ;-) ). After Palamner comes a most boring, tiring, rolling 40 kms to Mulbagal. And then till end, you will get monotonic, even more boring 150 kms to end, which will challenge your patience.

PreRide Stories... BRM 1000 (Bangalore - Belgaum - Bangalore) was always a dream for me, starting from the day I knew about Master Brevet series. I was mad enough to register for 1000K ride last year, with only one brevet (KGF - 300) completion as the history. Somehow I had to change my mind and I went for (Bangalore - Ranebennur - Bangalore) 600K BRM and managed to complete it. I planned too much for the BRM from the year start but couldn't execute or follow much. I found sleepiness as a problem in Spirited 600 brevet. Yeah, I am the guy who slept on the bike while riding, hit the divider between highway lane and service lane, and fell down. And I didn't take any step to overcome the problem. More than that, no ride after mid april, which crossed 200 km. All I could do was, three rides in june.  Every weekend I rode 180+ kms, including some nice climbs.

Mustafa's awesome ride report on our the trip to Agumbe -> here I couldn't have written such an excellent report, for sure. I re-lived the days when I read the report. All the time through the trip, I was with the group, except while climbing the Kundadri peak. Well, the reason, as Mustafa rightly said, the leechy dreams. And I never cared much about trekking in both of the trips where we actually had trekking as main plan. All I cared was, whether I had biked to my entire satisfaction or not.

With the Anchetty 200km Brevet last week end, I completed my super series for the first time and became Super Randonneur.  For those who are new to the terms,  A Super Randonneur title is given for those who complete 200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevets (super series) within one brevet calendar year of november to october and the rider can buy a medal for the completion. The title is valid for that one season. Newer to the terms brevet and randonneur also? Read the following pages. 1. Randonneuring . 2. Brevets and Medals (link copied from Gokul's blog ) 3. Some more links (link copied from Gokul's blog )