Rest week (?) and weird weather

Feb 15

As we prepare for the Tour Divide, we become almost fanatical in our training. Perhaps that is exactly how one should be, considering the distance of the event (2,750 miles +/-) and our goal to finish in 20-30 days. That said, how much training is too much?

It’s pretty obvious that we need to be training a LOT, in order to be able to ride 100-135+ miles a day, day in and day out. But as we train, we also have jobs, and lives that also can be seen as adding stress on our physical and mental systems. All the physical training stress as well as these other stresses accumulate into the overall stress on our systems. Adapting to the stresses is what we strive for, but too much stress and the body starts to breakdown and the inverse of adaptation happens; we begin to actually lose fitness or at least capability to ride. Occasionally one must take an easier week to let the body and mind recover from the constant stresses.

Now certainly there are MANY folks out there that train others for a living and might have big problems with what I’m saying, but, from what I’ve read and studied, rest weeks (and easier days in general) are critical for the body to continue to build fitness and for us NOT to get broken down and get sick. That’s what our “rest” weeks are for.

For the past several weeks, we have been increasing our training load, without exception. We are now at about 21 hours a week on the bike, and it was time to take an easier (less volume/intensity) week to allow our bodies to recover. This week saw us with about 12 hours on the bikes (Ray and I each have different training schedules so our numbers are not exactly the same, but it’s pretty close that the above statement is true). It just so happens that this was almost a perfect week to take a recovery week. The weather was just plain weird!!

In order to get our rides in, Ray and I have taken to riding in the morning before work starts, so we get out on the road at somewhere around 0530. Now, the weather man (or woman) might tell you that the overnight lows last week were in the Mid 30’s. That is a LIE!! Ray and I say 25*F every morning we went out and rode. Good opportunity to figure out our cold weather gloves and gear!!

Then came Tuesday afternoon, where Las Cruces saw highs in the mid 70’s or higher! Perfect days to ditch the leg warmers and let the legs see the sun. Then we were back to seasonal temps….until Sunday where the high for the day was in the mid 30’s at sunrise and then it started getting colder and colder! Perfect time to try out the rain and cold gear, so we went for a 2 hour MTB ride with Lola!

So we’ve seen moderate temps and extremely cold temps (75*F-to-16*F) in the span of 4 days.

Perfect TD training weather!!

Ride ON!

Shane and Ray