Bike planning

[dmaze]

I've been sort of saying I want to do more "real" bike rides this year (especially after failing to do any organized rides at all last year). I think "do all three CRW centuries" is a bit of a pipe dream, but what actually is when?

• CRW Spring Century, May 17. Looks like it's about a unit inland from the GSW Seacoast Century. I almost certainly can't do a full century then (both one and three weekends before I'm out of town) but the half or metric centuries could be interesting.
• CRW Climb to the Clouds, July 19. Will I actually do it this year? The hard part would be preparing myself for Mile Hill Road, the distance itself is probably doable (especially if I do ramp up to 60 miles by two months before).
• CRW Fall Century, September 20. I've eyed this before and it looks like it heads for the "northwest from Fitchburg" corridor, but never actually tried it. Reviews from before worked out to "somewhat scenic, rural, definitely easier than CTTC".
• GSW Seacoast Century, September 26 or 27. This is the one I've actually done. Easy terrain, but miles 70-90 can run into a terrible headwind.

In theory nothing stops me from doing all of these. Matching it up with the bridge schedule could be exciting. It's already reasonably bikeable now, though (my bike computer already has about 50 miles for the season) and if I'm serious about ramping up I really could do this. But, it also means being reasonably serious about my weekend biking, and probably a little more planning my weekends around it and going out even in not-perfect weather.

Comments

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Yeah, I am also trying to figure out what sort of bicycling stuff I want to aim for this year...

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

I will point out that doing both a Sept 20 ride and a Sept 26/27 ride might be slightly repetitive. Though they are different routes.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I remain bitter about CRW, what with their abandoning me and my broken bike on top of a mountain.

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

I'm not planning to do much biking this year, but here's the ride that has always appealed to me: http://www.mrvcenturyride.com/

[dmaze]

That's cute. (Century ride in upper Vermont last weekend of August, with host hotel.) I'd totally do that, though not alone.

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun...but I bet it's during rush. Hmm. Are you at all interested in going on some of the training rides with Quad Cycles in Arlington? They run them at 9:30 on Sat and Sun. I haven't tried it before, but it sounded interesting.

[dmaze]

This? I'd try it sometime. (I'm currently wondering if I can manage a 40-mile ride this weekend successfully without freezing or otherwise dying, but that's not incompatible with this.)

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My plan is to show up this Saturday at 9:15, and try to do some of the ride. I doubt I could manage the entire thing, but that would be ok.

[dmaze]

Okay, let's call that a plan. I will make an effort to not blow out a tire on the repair stand (again) before I leave home.

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

My "I'm not doing any biking this year" might be a total lie, as it turns out. But first, wheelworks sale next weekend! I'll get back to you after that. (Last weekend of August is already rush?)

[dmaze]

Somehow "I want to train for three centuries" winds up being a little harder core than the usual social group wants to do. :-)

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

Indeed, and it's better that everyone knows this upfront. I might end up wanting to do the Vermont one, though right now I'm mostly just playing with the idea of "hey, maybe I want to do crazy things and it'll be fun".

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I should figure out training beyond just commuting. The tricky bit is I don't want to train on Sundays and can't train every single Saturday morning as the house will collapse in filth.

Wonder if there's some equivalent to interval training to get you up to century distances without vast amounts of training time.

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

Well, show up for the QuadCycle training thing, and ask them :)

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

A casual google search (something like "century ride training") didn't get me anything too interesting. Does that work for running? One glorious summer, I actually had a reasonable base and did some intervals and it really did make me a faster runner, and was super-fun, but it made me faster for a 5K. :)