On Saturday I’ll be riding 88.6 miles around the Denver metro area. It’s part of the Denver Century Ride, an annual one-day cycling event with several distances, including a full century.
I’m riding with two friends who are also doing their first distance ride ever. I’m balancing nervousness and excitement, trying to keep in mind that even if it’s difficult, it’ll be a beautiful ride and will feel good once we’re done.
Training
I didn’t have workout plans with directions like “Do 2 X 20 minutes. Minutes 1 to 18 for each effort at 90-93% of your FTP”. In part, because a lot of these sites assume you know what FTP means and it wasn’t immediately intuitive to me. But more than that, it didn’t seem like an enjoyable way to prepare for a ride I intend to enjoy, not race.
Instead I did something closer to what Bicycling Magazine recommends and took my bike in to make sure I wouldn’t get any surprises on the road.
Long rides:
18 miles around NW Denver, April 27
Many of the longer rides I did were in NW Denver, Wheat Ridge, and Lakewood. The first one followed about 7 miles of the ride’s route into the area north of the Federal Center, I then circled around and came back on a familiar route along Garrison St. through Lakewood and Wheat Ridge.
19 miles on Clear Creek, S Platte River trails, May 4
This was a good endurance training route. It’s long enough that attempting to ride with minimal stopping and it’s built with some distance flexibility. Both trails meander along with convenient exits back into neighborhoods. On this particular route, I cut off on 15th St. to return pretty directly into NW Denver.
Total weekly mileage: 41 miles.
39.8 miles along the Century Ride route, May 12
One of my co-riders (teammates? we don’t have kits but we’re acting like a team) and I met at REI and followed the route we will ride on Saturday for the middle 40 miles, including a first attempt at the biggest climbs. I wanted to try to tack on the next 20 at some point but ultimately didn’t make it.
Total weekly mileage: 52 miles.
40 miles in Seattle, May 20
I went to visit my brother the weekend of May 20 and took it a little easy on the training while I was there. I rented a commuter bike for the flexibility of using it for getting around and exercise. I think I’d probably spring for a road bike next time because I could really (for the first time) feel the difference in gearing and frame geometry as I rode. Still, it was a good, if exhausting ride, from Seattle to Snohomish. I got in some sustained climbs over steep grades. It was also a beautiful trip through exurban Seattle that made me want to try the STP ride sometime.
27 miles meandering around the Boulder Tpke, May 24
In a funny looking ride, I found my way to the Denver-Boulder Turnpike trail and then wound my way back into Denver through the northwestern suburbs. This route gives huge views of the front range and was a great route to re-acclimate to the altitude.
Total weekly mileage: 37.6 miles.
Two weeks before the ride: 81 miles total
Two weeks before the ride I joined my friends or for a trip to Boulder. I think we all would have rode back to Denver if we had 1) started earlier 2) it wasn’t so damn hot and 3) we didn’t stop for a meal in Boulder. We were all pretty creaky by the time we got there but 34 miles was good training for all of us, and the climbing distribution is similar to how we’ll be climbing on Saturday.
On top of that ride, I added a 24.5 mile loop around the South Platte Trail, looping into the Lakewood Gulch trail to get back into NW Denver, and an 18 miler similar to the one I did at the beginning of the month. I capped off the week with a 41 mile trip careening down Garrison St. through Lakewood to meet up with the Bear Creek – South Platte River – Clear Creek trails. This 41 miles I did largely without stopping and was racing the sunset. A+ ride, I highly recommend it.
Interval training
One thing I knew I had to get better at before the big ride was climbing, especially in short, steep bursts. I did one high altitude ride, attempting to reach Loveland Pass (on my birthday). I was really not ready for that kind of ride but I managed to make it about 6 miles up before I was out of water and time. Sure was pretty up there though.
The more meaningful interval work I did was repeatedly riding up and over the Regis hill, starting at Lowell Blvd, and working my way west. It’s a little hard to describe concisely but the Strava map shows the short bursts of steep climbing spaced by longer descents and gentle climbs back up on the next block. These rides had the effect of pushing my heart rate and muscles for short periods spaced with long active recovery sessions. The last time I attempted this, I managed a PR on the climb back up Lowell which felt pretty great. I’m hoping it help with the more residential, suburban parts of the ride where the roads are steeper and often seem to have stoplights at the top.
Denver Food Rescue
It’s not about the training but it certainly helped my train: I started riding for Denver Food Rescue this summer. In total, I think I’ve hauled about a ton of food on my own bike, and in total, me and fellow riders have easily rescued 5 tons of food since I started in May. I think I carried about 300 pounds last weekend. Learn more about Denver Food Rescue and how to ride with them on their website! Here’s a picture of my DFR trailer loaded up last weekend.
Are we ready?
I’m as ready as I’ll be! I think no matter how many mile I logged, I’d still feel like there was one more ride I could have done to help me prepare. The ride starts at 6AM Saturday morning!