Ride the Rockies 2015 Training: Rain Delay

One week ago I posted optimistically about kicking my Ride the Rockies training into high gear. My plan was to ride to and from work several days this week (a 50-mile round trip). Then the rain came, and kept coming, and hasn't stopped yet. Actually it's is supposed to turn to snow tonight and tomorrow, which would make it the second straight snow on Mother's Day here!

One perspective is to truly be prepared for Ride the Rockies, you should train in all weather conditions. After all, last year on Day One we encountered thunder, lightning, hail and snow! But I have no plans to go out riding in the snow tomorrow morning. I personally believe in avoiding adverse riding conditions whenever possible :)

So this week I hooked my bike back up to my CycleOps Fluid2 Indoor Trainer and logged 57.5 miles in a variety of workouts mixing up intensity and spending more time in my third ring (yes, I ride a triple and will be very glad I do when we tackle the Royal Gorge climb on Day Six!). That brings my total to 791.5 miles since January 1, compared to 1,315 by May 9 last year. But my legs feel strong and I logged my fastest ever 10-mile time on the trainer this morning (27:35. 21.8 mph).

That little bump starting at mile 50 is a steep climb up to the south rim of the Royal Gorge on Day Six. 

According to Google Earth , the climb is nearly 750 feet in 2 miles!  That's an average grade of 7.1.

Hopefully I'll be able to get outside to ride sometime again soon. There's simply nothing like riding on real hills to prepare for riding on real hills!

Ride on!

Daren