Gravel season returns, set your goals
SUMMER’S ALMOST OVER!!!
As August draws to a close, let’s all take a moment to remind it that we all hate it and it’s a shitty month and it can fuck off. And take February with it.
Set Your Goals
With that out of the way, August is almost over and I haven’t got out mountain biking nearly as much as I would have liked, but that’s okay. A lot of life has been happening, and we deal with it a day at a time.
This spring, you will recall that I finally accomplished my goal of doing the 100km+ ride from our home to my gfs family’s farm for Easter. This was my first ride to cross the 100km mark and the conditions were sub-optimal. The windiest day of the year so far as a crosswind definitely didn’t make that ride any easier and I was not in the greatest spirits as we crossed the finish line.
So the obvious thing to do is to create a new, more ambitious goal. So here it is:
Myself and my bicycle, Grimey, will hereby attempt to complete an “imperial century” ride of 100 miles or more by the end of October of this year. We begin at Buckingham Palace and the Queen herself will drop the green flag.
Of course, I will be renaming our house Buckingham Palace for the occasion and Ashley will be happy to accept the Queen monicker until the mutinies start.
That sounds awful
It’s funny because we all keep up with our own version of the Joneses. My youtube feed is full of 150 or more mile ultra-endurance races, so doing a ride like this seems quite tame in comparison. But I mention it to normies (aka friends and family) and they are quick to point out that how do you do that it’s so far? Same way as you eat an elephant I suppose.
Making a plan
So this ride will be in less than two months, and possibly within a month or so. Which does not leave a heap of time for training and conditioning. Shit.
I’ll create a more formal plan for myself, but in the meantime, how to prepare:
- Spend more time on the bike. Just in general. Get the body used to it.
- Hill training. Head out for less than an hour and repeatedly ride up the biggest hills in the area at full gas, recover on the way back down. It’s high-intensity intervals and it sucks but it will build some strength and should hopefully provide quick/substantial cardiovascular gains.
- Longer, mellow rides. Head out to the rail trails and just cruise for two hours or more. Sometimes go for a second ride that day, make sure the body is okay with having to go when it doesn’t really want to.
- Eat and ride. When you’re out for extended rides and want to make good time, you need to train your body to expend energy and digest at the same time. So bring a substantial snack to eat at the start of the ride, or even at the halfway point.
On the last ride, my guts felt gross in the second half from eating the [high-calories == crap] food, so I might need to experiment with this a bit more.
Stay tuned
The last ride clocked in around 135km and lasted about seven hours, I think? So planning to tack on another hour, which hopefully won’t destroy me.
If anyone want to loan me a drone and wants to come out for a small section to get some aerial shots, that’d be awesome. No pay!
I’ll keep you posted as we move towards R-day.