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.

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