As you know, I’m planning to ride a century next month — the 18th, in fact. I’m pleased with the way my preparation is going. I ride three times a week — Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday — and have been ramping up my weekly mileage as well as the length of my long Sunday ride.
This week, that’s all down the drain.
We’re flying to Chicago Friday, and will be there all weekend, attending the wedding of our close friends’ daughter. So I’ll miss my Friday ride, which would have been about 25 miles, and I’ll miss my Sunday ride, which would have been about 55-60 miles.
Pat wants to rent bikes in Chicago Friday afternoon, and do the lakefront ride we did in June. That’s fine, but it’ll be a nice easy pedal in the park. We probably won’t go as far as 15 miles, and we’ll average between 8 and 10 mph. Big wup.
I’ll get back to my regimen Tuesday. But — how much of a setback (if any) will those two missed longish rides cause? Frankly, I’m training to finish the century, but probably not to finish in style. I just want to survive it.
It’s my hope that because my fitness has markedly improved over the summer, I’ll be able to make up the lost ground relatively easily. Thoughts, anyone?
I’d say you’ll be fine, in fact it might be exactly what you need. A few days of rest or active recovery will help your body rebuild from the training. Now when you get back you’ll be fresh to hit the road and we can preride the Outlaw course!
Since you’ve been riding consistently, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference. Rest is very important too. Traveling and being at a wedding will add enough stress without worrying about not riding.
If you do end up doing the easy ride, you could do a few 10-15 second very hard efforts. Some intensity will make up a lot for not riding more. If the ride doesn’t work out or you don’t feel like going hard, don’t worry about it.
I agree with Mike & UltraRob. You’ll be fine, but try to get a little interval exercise in during your ride in Chicago. But if you can’t, then I still think you’ll be fine! And lastly, like Lance said in his press conference, ‘if the mind is ready, the body will follow’.
I think we all agree. Don’t sweat it. You have already got over 2000 miles under your belt and some significant rides.
You say you just want to finish. My bet is you could go out tomorrow and do your century. The weekend isn’t goint to hurt. And the break might even help.
Oh…and just a couple of additional thoughts. I have found that after a break like that I might feel a little weak on the first ride. On second ride after that I generally feel stronger than before the break.
I post earlier in the week on my first century ride.
It was very hard. I think you are probably a lot more prepared now than I was. What I don’t know is how the age factor figures in. I have no idea how old your are. 🙂
I agree with the others. I think you’ll be fine with your current fitness. It’s not like you are looking to complete it in record time. Pace yourself and enjoy the ride! Good luck!
If you were training to race, it would make a difference – I have heard that for performance athletes a single missed day takes about 2 weeks to make up. But since your goal is finishing you’ll be fine. You have the base fitness needed (judging by the routine you mentioned) and a week off won’t do much to limit that. Like Red said, you might have a ride or two where you feel a little sluggish compared to normal, but that should drop away fairly quickly.
Ditto the other comments – it’s ok to miss these two rides. R&R is also important, mentally as well as physically. And you’ll be rarin’ to go when you get back.
BTW, I’ve heard a good rule of thumb is that you can expect to do a ride that’s 3x the distance of your average ride. Sounds like you’ve got some good miles in. My prediction is that you’ll nail it!