Last fall I suffered an injury when I jumped on my new bent for two 100K rides. It was fairly minor, but I had to stop riding all my bikes for a month to allow it to heal. That was a huge bummer and a situation I don't care to repeat.
My first brevet is a 200K on April 21st. In order to be ready I am planning to do the following rides prior to the event:
My first brevet is a 200K on April 21st. In order to be ready I am planning to do the following rides prior to the event:
- 25K
- 50K
- 75K
- 100K
- 150K
I think this will give me enough of a gradual progression to avoid injury and be ready for that first 200K brevet. I'll also be commuting to work 50K a day on my road bike when weather permits which will get me some more non-bent specific base miles.
Since the weather is so variable this time of year I am not going to plan to do the rides on specific dates. I'll just have to jump on any window of good weather and when it turns crappy use that as a rest period.
Since the weather is so variable this time of year I am not going to plan to do the rides on specific dates. I'll just have to jump on any window of good weather and when it turns crappy use that as a rest period.
3 comments:
Vik,
Was your injury fit related? Try to get that all dialed in now - either on the trainer or rollers or on short shakedown rides. Fit I think is more important than gear, lights, and raw power on the bike. A fit cyclist is a comfortable cyclist - and that is a cyclist that can ride for a long long time.
If you are healed and have your fit dialed in I think you can easily up the mileage in your plan. If you are currently commuting 50k you should be able to stretch that to a 100k ride. Making the leap to an imperial century would be the next benchmark, before your 200k. Remember that the time limits in randonneuring are fairly generous - even with a lot of climbing on the route.
I like the Volae rigged for Rando. I might check out some of those frame bags for my distance machine.
Good luck!
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the input. What happened was a comedy of errors last fall. I was in good shape from a season of biking and the first snow fall wasn't long away when I got my new bent. So I jumped on it for two 100K rides to beat the snow. Part of my problem was not having used my muscles in the way the bent demanded and not being 100% on the fit. Add to that new shoes and new cleats that I ended up adjusting mid-ride. The result was a minor, but irritating overuse injury.
I am not commuting at the moment as it is full on winter here in Calgary and my commute route is a major highway that does not have plowed shoulders - not to mention it is -31 deg C today with wind chill!! I hope to be riding my bike to work in a month.
I agree that my mileage plan is not very aggressive, but I just want to take it easy with the new bike and getting those muscles used to how they need to operate on the bent. I'll definitely end up doing more riding than the ones listed in my post, but I want to do those as a minimum. I am riding the bent on a fluid trainer and I think I have the fit dialed in.
The weather is such a crap shoot in March & April here that you really need to stay flexible. It could be warm and sunny or it could resemble the North Pole - sometimes both can occur in one day!
I am not too worried about the initial brevets - I'll be doing three 200Ks in April & May. The problem I have is that I'll be undergoing minor surgery on 23 April two days after my second 200K. I'll have 4 small incisions that will require stitches - making bending over and probably cycling impossible for a while. I hope to back on the bike within 7-9 days, but I don't know if that is optimistic???
Anyways I appreciate all the advice and I'll definitely be looking for more feedback once I am actually able to get my bikes on the road again...=-)
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