125 mile Audax Ride on Sunday, 24 May
The 2009 Spring edition, Audax 65 Mile Tune Up was this past Sunday. What a ride it was!
To begin with, the weather was spectacular. It was about as good as north Georgia can get in the Spring, and that is about as good as it is possible to get. The day was warm, without being hot. We had very low humidity. Skies were crystal blue, with a few cotton ball clouds for contrast. We had nice breezes, but no serious winds. The foliage was brilliant and vivid. Even the traffic cooperated. Yes we encountered a couple of jerks, but mostly the roads were only lightly travelled. In all, a near perfect day.
On top of the excellent conditions, the group was largely in tune and ready. We made very good time around the loop, with only a few bobbles.
Present were (in no particular order) Scott, Gary, Humberto, Ryan, Bob, Dan, Chris, Cindy, Deb, and your humble correspondent. It does my heart proud to see how far some of you folks have come, and to be present as you have added to your skills, capabilities and accomplishments. Everyone present contributed to this ride, and I would say it was a very successful one. Thanks a ton, group!
Statistics: Rolling Average Speed = 13.3 mph. Overall Average Speed = 11.2 mph. Distance = 65.4 miles. Elevation Gain = 3,278 feet.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
65 Mile Tune Up Outlook
Whaa---Hoo!!
Here's advice I just love to give. SUNSCREEN!
That's right. Bring sunscreen for Sunday's 65 mile Tune Up ride. The current outlook is for a sunny and warm day. Most of us haven't had a lot of sun exposure yet this year. So seriously folks. Apply sunscreen early, liberally, and plan to renew as the day goes on.
Carry at least two water bottles. We'll stop at least twice, with a third stop if needed, so you will be able to re-supply, but you will need to stay hydrated. It's suddenly going to be unexpectedly warm.
The current outlook is for a high in the 80s, mostly sunny, and a very low rain chance.
On that last note, please do carry a rain jacket. The weather can turn on a dime, and a "pop-up" thundershower is no problem if you have some cover. On the other hand, getting thoroughly soaked, and near hypothermia is a recipe for a miserable day. This is one of those "ounce of prevention" situations.
Let's all show up on time. We ride at 11:00 AM, promptly. Bring your best smile, and your cheeriest "can do" attitude. It's going to be a great day for a ride!
Here's advice I just love to give. SUNSCREEN!
That's right. Bring sunscreen for Sunday's 65 mile Tune Up ride. The current outlook is for a sunny and warm day. Most of us haven't had a lot of sun exposure yet this year. So seriously folks. Apply sunscreen early, liberally, and plan to renew as the day goes on.
Carry at least two water bottles. We'll stop at least twice, with a third stop if needed, so you will be able to re-supply, but you will need to stay hydrated. It's suddenly going to be unexpectedly warm.
The current outlook is for a high in the 80s, mostly sunny, and a very low rain chance.
On that last note, please do carry a rain jacket. The weather can turn on a dime, and a "pop-up" thundershower is no problem if you have some cover. On the other hand, getting thoroughly soaked, and near hypothermia is a recipe for a miserable day. This is one of those "ounce of prevention" situations.
Let's all show up on time. We ride at 11:00 AM, promptly. Bring your best smile, and your cheeriest "can do" attitude. It's going to be a great day for a ride!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
65 MILER THIS SUNDAY!
So, here we go. The 65 mile Tune Up ride is this Sunday. We start from in front of Bicycles Unlimited, at 11:00 AM. We will leave promptly. The ride will go in any weather. (Currently the forecast looks great, but it's early yet.)
I strongly recommend that you bring a rain jacket, regardless of the forecast.
This will be an Audax style ride. That means the group will stay together. The terrain is quite hilly. That means it will be challenging. Come prepared to compromise, do your part, and smile.
There is no charge for this ride, but you should bring some cash to purchase food and water along the way. There will be two to three stops at stores.
If you should elect to come along on this ride, you are not committed to doing the full 200K Audax Ride. On the other hand, if you have not done one of the Audax Rides in the past, you really really should consider this one a requirement. If you can do this, and are still feeling pretty good, then the full up ride should not pose an serious problems. If you have difficulty with this one, I'd plan to skip the long ride.
I'm looking forward to this. The route is a lot of fun, and the company is usually pretty great. Hope to see you all there!
I strongly recommend that you bring a rain jacket, regardless of the forecast.
This will be an Audax style ride. That means the group will stay together. The terrain is quite hilly. That means it will be challenging. Come prepared to compromise, do your part, and smile.
There is no charge for this ride, but you should bring some cash to purchase food and water along the way. There will be two to three stops at stores.
If you should elect to come along on this ride, you are not committed to doing the full 200K Audax Ride. On the other hand, if you have not done one of the Audax Rides in the past, you really really should consider this one a requirement. If you can do this, and are still feeling pretty good, then the full up ride should not pose an serious problems. If you have difficulty with this one, I'd plan to skip the long ride.
I'm looking forward to this. The route is a lot of fun, and the company is usually pretty great. Hope to see you all there!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Spring Training
65 mile Tune up on Sunday, 26 April
125 mile Audax Ride on Sunday, 24 May
The single most important element to training for the 65 mile Tune Up ride and the full 125 mile Audax ride is… Saddle time!
That’s right, time on the bike counts for more than any other factor. In preparing for this kind of riding, consistency trumps intensity. In other words, it doesn’t much matter how hard you ride, but rather how often and how long.
What’s ideal and what’s minimal? Ideally, I’d like to see you spending 10 to 15 hours a week on the bike. More, that should be spread out over the entire week. That ideal week would consist of a couple of short rides in the hour and a half to two hour range, a couple of medium length, three hour rides, one long ride of four to five hours, and at least one day of rest and recovery.
Most of us have two major challenges to attaining this kind of effort. The first is finding the time amid all the other things we do. (I’ve written extensively about that in this blog.) The second challenge is weather.
As the weather in the last week might indicate, “Spring” in our climate is not a gentle, bucolic, paradise. No, we get weather. Weather with character! A daily temperature swing of about 20 degrees is normal, and a 35 degree excursion, is not unusual. We’ll see that today. That means we can go from freezing, in the morning to quite temperate in the afternoon. It also means we can see heavy rain, and pop-up thunderstorms almost any time. We do get a lot more clear weather than the nasty sort, but stretches of several days of rain aren’t exactly unheard of.
What’s a body to do? First, be prepared to be flexible. You may need to take a forced rest day due to unusually nasty weather. It’s rare that this happens more than once a week.. So a planned long day on Wednesday, might be swapped for a planned rest day on Friday.
Another strategy of great use involves equipment. If you don’t already have them, get a rain jacket and a helmet cover. During Spring Training in north Georgia, your rain gear is the first thing you pack. I might add, have a cap with a bill on it with you at all times. A ball cap or a cycling cap will do. The cap is worn under your helmet during rainy weather. It doesn’t help to keep your head any drier, but it does wonders in keeping the rain out of your eyes. (Incidentally, the visor on your helmet is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. It’s too high up, and too open. It does some good, but not much.)
So be prepared for rain, be prepared to deliberately go out in rain, and go out and ride as much as you can. Keep doing that until a couple days before the Tune Up ride. Give yourself a couple days off before the 65 miler, and use that as your long ride that week. Continue the program until a week before the Audax Ride, and you’ll be fine.
125 mile Audax Ride on Sunday, 24 May
The single most important element to training for the 65 mile Tune Up ride and the full 125 mile Audax ride is… Saddle time!
That’s right, time on the bike counts for more than any other factor. In preparing for this kind of riding, consistency trumps intensity. In other words, it doesn’t much matter how hard you ride, but rather how often and how long.
What’s ideal and what’s minimal? Ideally, I’d like to see you spending 10 to 15 hours a week on the bike. More, that should be spread out over the entire week. That ideal week would consist of a couple of short rides in the hour and a half to two hour range, a couple of medium length, three hour rides, one long ride of four to five hours, and at least one day of rest and recovery.
Most of us have two major challenges to attaining this kind of effort. The first is finding the time amid all the other things we do. (I’ve written extensively about that in this blog.) The second challenge is weather.
As the weather in the last week might indicate, “Spring” in our climate is not a gentle, bucolic, paradise. No, we get weather. Weather with character! A daily temperature swing of about 20 degrees is normal, and a 35 degree excursion, is not unusual. We’ll see that today. That means we can go from freezing, in the morning to quite temperate in the afternoon. It also means we can see heavy rain, and pop-up thunderstorms almost any time. We do get a lot more clear weather than the nasty sort, but stretches of several days of rain aren’t exactly unheard of.
What’s a body to do? First, be prepared to be flexible. You may need to take a forced rest day due to unusually nasty weather. It’s rare that this happens more than once a week.. So a planned long day on Wednesday, might be swapped for a planned rest day on Friday.
Another strategy of great use involves equipment. If you don’t already have them, get a rain jacket and a helmet cover. During Spring Training in north Georgia, your rain gear is the first thing you pack. I might add, have a cap with a bill on it with you at all times. A ball cap or a cycling cap will do. The cap is worn under your helmet during rainy weather. It doesn’t help to keep your head any drier, but it does wonders in keeping the rain out of your eyes. (Incidentally, the visor on your helmet is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. It’s too high up, and too open. It does some good, but not much.)
So be prepared for rain, be prepared to deliberately go out in rain, and go out and ride as much as you can. Keep doing that until a couple days before the Tune Up ride. Give yourself a couple days off before the 65 miler, and use that as your long ride that week. Continue the program until a week before the Audax Ride, and you’ll be fine.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Another Look at Preparing: The Tune Ups
We do three “Tune Up” rides before each edition of the Audax Ride. There are a lot of good reasons for this. The Tune Ups give riders a chance to practice an unfamiliar riding style. They provide a valuable training opportunity. They allow both individual riders, and me to gauge fitness and preparation for the actual Audax Ride.
To that end, the Tune Ups are deliberately designed to cover terrain that is, on average, more difficult than that encountered on the actual ride. The 45 mile Tune Ups are good preparation for the 65 miler. The 65 is great preparation for the 125 mile Audax Ride.
In a lot of ways, the 65 mile Tune Up is a key ride. If you are new to this, make sure you do the 65. It’s a great place to evaluate equipment, fitness, riding style, and even more important, desire. You just may find that you don’t want to do the long ride. Or you may find that you can hardly wait. Either way, wouldn’t you like to know sooner?
The 65 mile Tune is about a month before the actual Audax Ride. That allows some time to make adjustments. And, finally, it’s a pretty good ride in and of itself.
Hope to see a lot of you there.
To that end, the Tune Ups are deliberately designed to cover terrain that is, on average, more difficult than that encountered on the actual ride. The 45 mile Tune Ups are good preparation for the 65 miler. The 65 is great preparation for the 125 mile Audax Ride.
In a lot of ways, the 65 mile Tune Up is a key ride. If you are new to this, make sure you do the 65. It’s a great place to evaluate equipment, fitness, riding style, and even more important, desire. You just may find that you don’t want to do the long ride. Or you may find that you can hardly wait. Either way, wouldn’t you like to know sooner?
The 65 mile Tune is about a month before the actual Audax Ride. That allows some time to make adjustments. And, finally, it’s a pretty good ride in and of itself.
Hope to see a lot of you there.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Rainy Tune Up Ride
The weather seriously dampened turn out for Sunday’s Audax Tune up. (Sorry about the pun.) Only three of us showed up.
I’d like to extend a hearty “way to go” to Cindy. She hasn’t had much rain riding experience, but she was game to go. Chris is a more experienced rider, but it was raining for her too. Both these ladies showed a lot of pluck, dealing with the conditions with good cheer. I am truly impressed.
The hardest thing about a rain ride is throwing your leg over the top tube. After that, you ride. Your rain gear works, or it doesn’t. Eventually, you get wet. Your focus changes a lot in the rain. This is even more evident when it’s not particularly warm. Chatter tends to go away. Riders focus on the essential tasks, watching traffic, matching gearing to the conditions, communicating road hazards. At the same time, idle chatter drops off. It’s not an easy thing.
For a long time, I’ve maintained that a good rider should seek out and actively ride in less than ideal conditions. In this fashion, one learns how to handle the adverse before one has to do so.
Good job, ladies. Bravo!
I’d like to extend a hearty “way to go” to Cindy. She hasn’t had much rain riding experience, but she was game to go. Chris is a more experienced rider, but it was raining for her too. Both these ladies showed a lot of pluck, dealing with the conditions with good cheer. I am truly impressed.
The hardest thing about a rain ride is throwing your leg over the top tube. After that, you ride. Your rain gear works, or it doesn’t. Eventually, you get wet. Your focus changes a lot in the rain. This is even more evident when it’s not particularly warm. Chatter tends to go away. Riders focus on the essential tasks, watching traffic, matching gearing to the conditions, communicating road hazards. At the same time, idle chatter drops off. It’s not an easy thing.
For a long time, I’ve maintained that a good rider should seek out and actively ride in less than ideal conditions. In this fashion, one learns how to handle the adverse before one has to do so.
Good job, ladies. Bravo!
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