Reaching the Summit: My Thoughts on Going "Over-the-Hill"

Reaching the summit of Trail Ridge Road at 12,183 feet above sea level
on Ride the Rockies in 2012 was one of the best feelings in my life!

One of things I love about long distance cycling is think time. Riding for hours on end my mind often wanders. Sometimes I think about work, sometimes about life, and sometimes I just can’t take my mind off that nasty hill looming at the end of my ride (even though I’d rather not)! Lately I’ve been reflecting on what it will feel like to turn 50. And now I know. How? Today is my 50th birthday!

Turning 50 is kind of a big deal.  I am going to make the most of it. We have a big family gathering at the Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse in Dallas’ West End tonight (my daughter is playing in the Women’s DII Club Rugby Nationals this weekend as a member of the Kansas Jayhawks Women’s Rugby Football Club – ROCK CHALK!). In addition to a great steak and German Sweet Chocolate pie (my birthday favorite), I expect to get lots of birthday cards with the words “over-the-hill” printed on them.

I’ve been thinking about those three words on the long bike rides lately. Am I over-the-hill? What does that even mean?
 

At the summit of Mt. Evans. 14,220 feet
above sea level. The highest paved road
in North America!

On the one hand, over-the-hill can mean “past one’s prime” (thanks, Merriam-Webster, I think you are past your prime!) or even better, “past the peak of one's youthful vigor and freshness” (compliments of The Free Dictionary). Peak of freshness? Seriously?! Have I passed my “use by” date? Do I smell bad? Is there mold growing on me?

Heck, according to the Urban Dictionary, I’ve been stale for 10 years already. They (whoever “they” are) describe over-the-hill as: “Meaning that you are 40yrs old, therfore [sic] you have reached the climax of your life time and your [sic] beggining [sic] to go "over the hill."

Kids today. What the hell do they know? They can’t even spell “therefore” and “beginning” and don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re.” Besides, isn’t 50 the new 40? I think Urban Dictionary needs to update their definition. But where were we? Oh yeah…

Every definition I found when I searched Google for “over-the-hill” was negative. Those birthday cards will probably be black, signifying the death of my youthful vigor and freshness. What message are we sending with all this negativity? At age 50 I feel better than I did at age 30. And there is no question that I am in better shape. I am more physically active, eat better, and have more energy than I did 20 years ago.


At age 30 (left) I weighed 270 lbs. By age 40 (right) I was a much leaner, healthier 215 lbs, which I have maintained eating beef almost daily in the past 10 years!

In cycling terms, over-the-hill is a good thing! It means you have reached the summit. The long uphill grind is over. It’s time to celebrate before you go screaming down the other side at full speed towards the finish line. As we often say at the summit of a day’s ride on Ride the Rockies, “It’s all downhill from here.” And that’s a good thing!

The finish line  in Breckenridge in 2005,
my first Ride the Rockies.

That’s the way I’m going to look at 50. I worked hard to get here. It has been slow and painful and sometimes difficult just to breathe. But it has been worth it. Reaching the summit feels good. I’m going to take time to celebrate then get back in the saddle, hold tight to the handlebars and fly down the other side whooping and hollering all the way to the finish line!

But I also realize that it’s never really “all downhill from here.” There will be more hills to climb. The aches and pains from the hard climb will begin to set in. I just hope that by the time I reach the finish line I’m ready for the ride to be over (I always am). There is no better feeling than crossing the finish line and the sense of accomplishment that comes with having given it your all and reaching your goal.

There will be six mountain passes and 2 mountains on Ride the Rockies 2014. That’s eight summits to celebrate. I look forward to every one of them. With each summit I will remind myself that the whole reason for the climb is to experience the thrill of the descent!


Rabbit Ears Pass, along the Continental Divide, is the second SHORTEST pass we will cross on Ride the Rockies this year! We crossed this pass on my second RTR in 2006.

So how do I feel turning 50? Frankly, I’m relieved that I made it to the summit. It’s good to be here and I’m looking forward to the rest of the ride. I don’t want it to be over yet, for sure, but on this ride the finish line isn’t on the map. You never really know when it will appear. My plan is to keep peddling until it does and rest when I get there. :)

Ride on!

Daren

Ride the Rockies 2014 Total Elevation Gain is Like Riding from Sea Level to the Summit of K2

I put together this infographic to illustrate the total elevation gain of Ride the Rockies 2014.

While I was riding yesterday I got to thinking about the total elevation gain of Ride the Rockies 2014. At 28,265 feet, the total elevation gain of RTR this year is equivalent to riding from sea level to the summit of K2, the world's second tallest mountain!

Then I saw Pikes Peak rising in the distance and it dawned on me that K2 is twice the size of Pikes Peak! I have hiked up Pikes Peak, starting in Manitou Springs at 6,720 ft. From there, the Barr Trail climbs 7,395 feet to 14,115. So essentially we will do that four times in six days and 473 miles of riding. Wow.

Ride on!

Daren

Ride the Rockies 2014 Training: Putting in the Miles

I've been having trouble getting motivated to write about Ride the Rockies training. Maybe that's because I've had trouble getting motivated to train! It could also be that there's just nothing very exciting about peddling for hours and hours on an indoor trainer. I'll blame it on a combination of both.

Logging miles in the saddle is an important part of endurance training. My goal is to ride 2,000 miles between January 1 and the start of Ride the Rockies on June 8. That would be the most I have ridden prior to the start in my previous seven RTRs. To date I have ridden just over 1,000 miles (three-fourths of which have been on my Cyclops Fluid2 trainer). However, I'm trying to do more than just log miles.

I've been reading up on the importance of mixing up workouts and doing lots of interval training as well as some "long steady distance" rides, also called "long slow distance" or LSD rides (I prefer "steady" to slow after reading this post on five mistakes to avoid in endurance cycling and this one on the myths of long slow distance). If you search "long slow distance" on Google you'll find posts touting both the benefits and the drawbacks but most experts seem to agree that both long, steady rides and shorter interval training rides are both beneficial in building endurance.



My MapMyRun workout calendar from February shows my typical workout schedule this time of year (except I was traveling the entire week of the 3rd while normally my travel is more spread out.)

From January through April I typically ride on the indoor trainer 10-20 miles 4-5 times per week and try to get out outside on the weekends for longer (30-40 mile) rides, when weather allows (we're getting hit with yet another Spring snowstorm as I write this!). In the coming weeks as weather warms up and the days get a little longer I will start riding to and from work (25 miles each way). Eventually I'll be able to put the trainer in storage until Fall. I look forward to that day!

It's hard to believe that two months from today Ride the Rockies will be OVER! That means we only have 8 weeks left to train. That means I need to average 130 miles/week to reach my goal. I've been averaging about 75. Time to kick it up a notch :)

Ride on!

Daren