Longer rides…in spite of cold weather!

Feb 22

Challenges and more challenges. That is what this last week has brought us.

As we prepare for the Tour Divide, now less than 15 full weeks until the start on 11 June 2021, there are any number of challenges that we face. Some we are well aware of and are working hard to prepare for. Whether those challenges come in the form of something we can mitigate with equipment such as the correct bike, gearing, sleeping bags/quilt, tents, lights, bags, clothing, gloves, shoes, etc., or any other number of materiel choices we make, OR whether they come in the form of training challenges, we can prepare. How many miles do we ride this week, how many hours do we ride, how long should our longest ride be this week, how much gear do we carry to replicate our race weight load? ON and ON!!!

There are also the challenges we cannot plan for day-to-day. One of the absolute biggest of these is the weather we train in. We have planned our training out for 6-8 months. Planning means we have a daily mileage, time, and intensity level that we try to adhere to…every day between now and the race start. What we cannot plan for is a week of snowy, crappy weather. We try our absolute best to stick to our training plan, but quite simply there are days when the smartest play is to scrap the plan and modify our daily goal. Modifying our plans is usually done as a means of being smart in trying to avoid sickness or injury, but there are some days it is done because of us listening to our bodies. The goal is to to stress the body to adapt to bigger training stresses, but not so much that you dig a hole that leads to a malady that will eventually hurt your fitness. It’s a game played every week.

That said, with the really suspect weather early in the week, we took quite a few easy training days. Sometimes opting for only an early morning hike or run, and not riding for hours in COLD, wet, windy weather.

The silver lining was that this EASY part of the early week, really set us up for a bigger ride on Saturday when the weather finally improved.

To give you an idea of what a big ride on Saturday was like, here are a few highlights.

We started our ride at about 0530, running our klite Dynamo lights on our bikes, which we have now packed with about 18-20 pounds of gear. We rode for 2.5 hours and ended up at Milagro Coffee Espresso at 0800 and spent about 40 minutes enjoying a cup o’ joe and something to eat. We then headed out for another 5 hours or so, with a stop about 2.5 hours in at Bowlins Running Indian on I-25, for more food and beverages. Along the way we also ate what we carry with us, usually not the most nutritious food, but things with high caloric values such as Pop-Tarts, Almonds, Peanut Butter Crackers, Paydays, etc.

After almost 10 hours away from home, here are some statistics:

Total Time: 9:57:23

Ride Time: 7:51:38

Distance: 100.6

Calories: 4,578

BTW, we have some work to do, though we’re really not trying at this point, to minimize our break/down time.

At any rate, it was a good and tough day of training for the TD.

Ride ON!

Shane and Ray