Training Update: 2015 Ride to Remember

Intro to the 2015 Ride to Remember
Training Update: 2015 Ride to Remember
Recap: 2015 Ride to Remember

It seems like so long ago that I signed up for a ride that benefits the Alzheimer's Association.  I had only been back on a bike for about two months by the middle of November when I went online and signed up for a three day, cross state tour of South Carolina.  I wasn't really sure how that would all work out since I had not really put my cycling to the test after a 10 month hiatus.  I did know one thing though.  This ride was important to Toni and that made it important to me.  Even though I had only started with training from pretty much nothing, I could see potential in my cycling once again.  There was no way to know if I was going to be as good as I once was or not, but I was getting the feeling that I would still have the legs to pull off a century ride which was the longest of the three days.  I like having goals in mind to motivate me when I'm riding a bike, and this sounded like a great goal to me.

My training for this ride actually took place while I was training for other rides.  I know that sounds a bit off, but the way things went this year, I had two other pretty demanding rides to prepare for, and both of them actually played into my training needs for "A Ride to Remember."  Whether I knew it or not, my training for all of these rides started in early September with my first ride on the new bike.

The moose was giving me CPR!

As you can see from the picture here, the maiden voyage of just over 50 miles had nearly killed me.  I had actually fallen asleep on the floor after doing my stretches.  This was not a very promising start to getting back to my ultra endurance riding style I had embraced 10 months before.  However, I have to say that doing 50 miles after riding a couch was pretty good.  I had my work cut out for me and knew that I needed to work on conditioning myself.  This was the start of my training, and it was going to be a very intense ride.

Just about the time I was getting back in the groove of riding, I was hit by a car, and my bike was deemed unsafe to ride on the streets.  That brought in the next phase of my training....Running.  Nah, I'm kidding about that.  I ran about four days and I decided that the only time I would need to run was if certain death was chasing me down.  I gave up on running and put the damaged bike on a stationary trainer and started doing intervals.

I continued with the interval program throughout the winter, even after I received my replacement bike.  I had signed up for the 2015 Assault on the Carolinas which was to take place in the middle of April.  That was on the leading edge of Spring and would not give me much time to train outside, so I had to simulate climbs on the trainer, and work on my power about six out of every seven days.  This training regimen worked better than I could have expected.  I had dropped a bunch of the weight that I had gained, and my legs were back to feeling normal again.  I was actually getting faster on the trainer than I had been in the peak of my cycling career just a bit over a year before.

Working my way to the front on the first big climb of the day!

I wasn't quite sure how my training plan would work out in practice since I've never relied quite so heavily on a trainer to build fitness.  I've used it to maintain and improve in years past and I knew it to be capable of that.  This year, though, I was using it to build from basically ground zero to a point where I would be able to successfully complete a 65 mile course that included a category 1 climb.  When the day came, I not only completed the course, I improved ever so slightly on my time from 2013.  The bigger story though was I really improved on the climbs of the day.  There it was, the numbers, and how I felt, didn't lie.  Spending the winter on the trainer had really paid off in a big way!

The next stage to my training was to take part in my second Double Down to the Beach.  This is a double century ride, 201.5 miles in one day.  Wait a minute.....200 miles in a single day?  The longest leg of "A Ride to Remember" is only 100 miles.  Why would this be a part of the training for a lesser ride?  Well, it is actually quite simple.  The three part stage ride will actually culminate in the century ride after two days of just slightly shorter rides.  That century ride will be a ride that is started in a fatigued state and will be harder than a typical century ride.  That is where Double Down comes in.

Settling in on a pace that I can sustain all day long.

Part of the training for a double century is doing a lot of century rides.  As I was logging the miles, I was paying very close attention to what kind of pace I needed to stay with in order to finish as strong as I started.  Pacing yourself is probably the most important part of a distance ride, and I needed to know where my comfort zone was.  In the years past, my endurance pace was about 17.5 which I thought was very strong.  I learned this year was going to be a bit different.  With all the time I had spent on the trainer, I had gotten much faster than ever before, and my comfortable endurance pace was now in the mid 19's...2mph faster than two years ago!

I went into Double Down expecting to finish in the low 20's since I would have the luxury of riding in a paceline with others.  The extreme heat of the day prevented that from happening, but I still saw a finishing average speed of 19.5mph!  That was almost a 1.5mph improvement from 2013.  Had it not been for temperatures over 100 degrees, I feel very confident that I could have done the ride at my goal of 20+ without too much problem.  The heat posed too many risks to push my body any further than I already was.

The knowledge that I took from this ride was I could ride extreme distances in extreme conditions.  I learned how my body reacted, and found out just what it was capable of doing which was far beyond what my brain thought that it could.  I learned important lessons about hydration and feeding through my training that I was pleased to learn worked out pretty darn well over the 200 mile ride.  While this is much further than I'll ride in a single day at "A Ride to Remember," by the time I get to the century ride, it will actually be a lot like the second half of Double Down.  I will be putting those lessons to work!

So, I've progressed from logging virtual miles in the office, to climbing mountains, and doing ultra endurance events in the heat.  What is left to train for?  The one element of "A Ride to Remember" that I have not experienced before.  It was time to concentrate on progressive distances.  The Tour to Tanglewood is about the closest event that I have done to "A Ride to Remember."  While it is also a multi day event, with distances in excess of 100K, there are some big differences that make the two events very different.  The Tour to Tanglewood is a two day event with the century on the first day, followed by a metric century on the second day.  Essentially, you get the meat and potatoes out of the way with your fresh legs and the following day you get a long recovery ride.  That is not the case with "A Ride to Remember."

The first day in South Carolina I'll be riding a metric century which is no big deal at all.  The second day will be roughly 88 miles, which again is no big deal.  The last day is a full 100 mile century which is fairly easy for me to do.  The trick is that these are consecutive days with mounting distances.  No longer can I put everything into the first day and relax on the second day.  This time, I'll have to know my pace and stick with it despite knowing I can go harder.  Personal control will be the key for this ride.

Steady and consistent is the goal.

On my last training century for Double Down, I introduced what I referred to as a fatigued century.  I started out with a 25 mile ride, followed the next day by a medium intensity 50 mile route, before ending it with a 100 mile century on day three.  While this was my hardest century in a very long time, I was still able to maintain my mid 19 average which turned out to be what my double century average was.  After Double Down, I returned to my training and did something that I had not attempted before.  I did back to back...to back 100K routes and pushed myself on each day.  Again, I found that my average speed by the end of the set of days was in the mid 19's.  I still had the ability to go further each day which was great, but I didn't want to push the distances just yet.

This is the full three day route with elevation chart

One thing that "A Ride to Remember" has that I haven't mentioned yet is decreasing elevation gains for each day.  In fact, the overall altitude drops significantly over the 252 miles.  This plays into my training approach in two different ways.  First of all, with a total elevation gain of 5,984 ft, that puts this 252 mile route in line with my 200K training route that I do in one day.  That kind of removes climbing as being a hurdle to get over.  Second, there is no real need to actually train the full mileage of the route because that would result in over-training since 252 miles around here would be roughly 13,000 ft of elevation gain...twice that of "A Ride to Remember."

Much like Double Down, the gradual decrease in altitude will make for a much faster ride, and if I do it with a group, even faster.  That puts me in the same spot I was in with Double Down.  What group to get in with, and what pace should I aim for.  I know based on training and a double century ride that I am most comfortable at 19.5 mph.  I also know that I can do all of these distances solo which takes a lot of pressure off of my planning.  I'm speculating that I will try to get in with a group that will ride at about 20 mph for all three days, expecting a bit faster for the last day since there are no climbs to speak of.  This will have to be adapted based on the weather, of course.  I do think that I will be able to pull it off though.  If I ride solo, I'll probably be 19-19.5 the first two days, and then try for a 20+ on the last day.

Regardless of how fast I complete this ride, I can look back on nearly a year's worth of training and know that given the time, I have achieved something fantastic!!  When I was starting to get the stirrings of wanting to ride a bike again last year, I figured that my days of distance riding and pushing the speed envelope had passed me by and I would not get a second chance to regain my former fitness level.  That quickly changed as I realized that not only would I be able to match what I had done in the past, I was going to surpass it, and reach a different level of cycling than I ever thought was possible for me.

The 2015 "Ride to Remember" will certainly be a ride that I will remember for a very long time.  In addition to what it means to Toni and me, I will get to share this experience with her as she volunteers on each of the days along the way.  We will be together for the whole weekend working toward this common goal.  I will also get to see the completion of my longest stage ride which will be pretty impressive.  Part of the fun of this ride will be that I'm not based out of home.  Toni and I will be hopping hotels as we progress across the state.  That means that I'll be doing bike maintenance in rudimentary settings, which adds to the adventure aspect.  It's really going to be a fun weekend, and full of firsts for me.  I don't have many worries about this ride, but I sure am starting to get excited about it!