Ride the Rockies 2017 Training Update: Three Weeks to Go and We Still Have Snow!

Egad. There are only three weeks remaining until the start of Ride the Rockies 2017. How did that happen? It still feels like winter in Colorado. Maybe that's because a late May snowstorm hit us this week dropping more than a foot of snow the Denver area. Fortunately this year's route is in the Southern Rockies!

Spring snowstorms in Colorado are not unusual and quite beautiful.

The late spring on the Front Range continues to make it difficult to get in some long rides on the road. I've only been out four times so far in May. Normally I would be logging some serious miles riding two/from work by this time. However, I have been hitting the trainer hard and am feeling pretty good about my training to date. 

Rocker and I riding along the coast in LaJolla, California.

This past weekend my family gathered in San Diego for my nephew's graduation from San Diego State, Mother's Day and birthday celebrations. Brother Jon (Jonny Rocker) brought his bike so I rented a nice ride from The Bike Revolution and we went on a couple of short morning rides (32 and 20 miles). Rocker said he is finally feeling excited about RTR and could "do it today." I agreed but am still glad we have a couple of weeks to reach the peak of our conditioning. I don't want to just ride the Rockies; I want to rock it!

The view from the Mt. Soledad National Veteran's Memorial is well worth the ride up!

I've recorded 1,469 miles in the saddle since January 1 in 96 workouts burning a whopping 129,354 calories (according to my Garmin 810, which notoriously overestimates calories). My goal is to ride 2,000 before the start of RTR. I'd have to ride 183 miles per week in the final three weeks to get there. That's still possible but factoring in tapering it's not likely. Besides, I haven't ridden that many miles in a week yet this year!

My goal at this point is to pack on as many miles as I can in the next two weeks then scale back the final week. The sun is out today and the streets are fairly dry so I am going to venture out. 

Ride on!

Daren