It's the Final Countdown! (to Cycle Oregon)

As I was riding my bike on my indoor trainer this morning thinking about the remaining training days leading up to the start of Cycle Oregon, I got a song stuck in my head. Ten days from today I will fly to Sacramento to meet up with Johnny Rocker and drive north on I-5 to Myrtle Creek, Oregon. Ten days from tomorrow we will check in and pick up our rider packet, then check out the opening night party with Bad Assets, a "whiskey soaked country rock band" from up the road in Portland. 

But it's not a Bad Assets song I have stuck in my head. It's, you guessed it, the Final Countdown! 

Because when you are counting down the days to Cycle Oregon, it's what you do! And now you have it stuck it your head :)

With 10 days to go the question becomes, do I kick it into high gear and try to log a bunch of miles or kick back and start tapering towards the starting line? As I wrote in a post the week before Ride the Rockies 2014, "Most experts recommend decreasing mileage but maintaining intensity in the final week before a big event. Studies have shown this helps increase performance by reducing body fatigue while maintaining fitness levels."

But my reality is that with work travel, I pretty much just try to ride whenever I am home! In the final 10 days leading up to Cycle Oregon, I will be home three, so I plan to ride those three days: 50 miles the first, 40 the second, and 30 the third. So, in a way, I guess that's tapering :)

Riding 120 more miles in the next 10 days will put me just over 2,500 for the year. That's 500 more than I ever hit prior to any of my nine Ride the Rockies (which takes place in June). So I feel good about where I am with miles in the saddle. 

Perhaps more important, I hit my goal "fighting weight" dropping 20 pounds since June 1! That's a lot less to haul up the "Heroic Hills" on day two and the day we "Go Rogue" on a big climb up the Rogue River Valley in the Siskiyou National Forest.

I'm so excited! I just can't hide it!! 

Oh no, now I have a new song stuck in my head. And you do to :)

Ride on!

Daren