This is another blog about a learning experience I had on my bike ride last summer. The bike ride is demanding and tough on the human body given that you ride on average 75 miles a day. That average is a little misleading considering some days you ride up to 125 miles a day with over 10,000 feet of elevation gain.
The ride started on June 1st, but the sign up date was at least 6 months earlier. Some guys even signed up a year in advance. That being said, we all had 6 months to a year to train for this demanding task. The Ability Experience even hired professional trainers to help us get ready for the journey. They set up different exercises for us to do and held webinars every Sunday. These exercises varied from riding 15 miles on an indoor bike to doing 3 sets of 15 squats on a squat rack. We even had to track our workouts through an app. We would have to go on the app start our workout, record our heart rate, calories burned, then stop the workout when we were finished. If we didn't record our workouts, we would get a phone call from an angry Scottish trainer who would reprimand us. The Scottish trainer I am speaking of has done close to 10 iron mans and was one of the most fit human beings I have ever met. Out of all the people to listen to about the difficulty of the ride, I should've listened to that guy.
Despite all of this, I didn't train. The workout app had one flaw that was exploited by me and my friend who were doing the ride. We would start the workout while laying on the couch watching TV, then end it an hour later and manually input our heart rate and calories burned. We never got any phone calls from angry Scottish trainers. We were actually showcased as being in the top 5 of cyclists that have trained the most.
This was incredibly stupid because the first day of the ride was an 85 mile ride in Northern California. It was also the hottest week Nor Cal had all summer. My friend and I were put in the first pace line out because we were supposed to be the fastest and most conditioned. The guys that also didn't train (like us) were put in the way back and only had to finish half the ride because they were so out of shape. Anyway, my friend and I pushed through that ride and frankly barely made it. We finished the ride sun burnt and with salt crystals all over our faces since we were so dehydrated. This was an incredibly rude awakening, and needless to say we were forced to get in shape fast. Day 4 of the trip featured a ride over Kirkwood ski mountain in lake Tahoe which was 80 miles of straight up hill and about 9,000 feet of elevation gain due to some up and down riding. Again, it was a tough test of our mental and physical endurance. After that ride, I felt I could do any ride they through at me. Basically from that point on, I was in the best shape I had ever been in my whole life. All it took was about a week of real, tough riding on the bike. I wish I would've known that in training because I would've actually put the work in and trained. Or at least I hope I would've.
All in all, I can't stress enough how important training is. I think I am going to try and do a triathlon, or half of one, soon, and I don't plan on making the same mistake of not training.
The ride started on June 1st, but the sign up date was at least 6 months earlier. Some guys even signed up a year in advance. That being said, we all had 6 months to a year to train for this demanding task. The Ability Experience even hired professional trainers to help us get ready for the journey. They set up different exercises for us to do and held webinars every Sunday. These exercises varied from riding 15 miles on an indoor bike to doing 3 sets of 15 squats on a squat rack. We even had to track our workouts through an app. We would have to go on the app start our workout, record our heart rate, calories burned, then stop the workout when we were finished. If we didn't record our workouts, we would get a phone call from an angry Scottish trainer who would reprimand us. The Scottish trainer I am speaking of has done close to 10 iron mans and was one of the most fit human beings I have ever met. Out of all the people to listen to about the difficulty of the ride, I should've listened to that guy.
Despite all of this, I didn't train. The workout app had one flaw that was exploited by me and my friend who were doing the ride. We would start the workout while laying on the couch watching TV, then end it an hour later and manually input our heart rate and calories burned. We never got any phone calls from angry Scottish trainers. We were actually showcased as being in the top 5 of cyclists that have trained the most.
This was incredibly stupid because the first day of the ride was an 85 mile ride in Northern California. It was also the hottest week Nor Cal had all summer. My friend and I were put in the first pace line out because we were supposed to be the fastest and most conditioned. The guys that also didn't train (like us) were put in the way back and only had to finish half the ride because they were so out of shape. Anyway, my friend and I pushed through that ride and frankly barely made it. We finished the ride sun burnt and with salt crystals all over our faces since we were so dehydrated. This was an incredibly rude awakening, and needless to say we were forced to get in shape fast. Day 4 of the trip featured a ride over Kirkwood ski mountain in lake Tahoe which was 80 miles of straight up hill and about 9,000 feet of elevation gain due to some up and down riding. Again, it was a tough test of our mental and physical endurance. After that ride, I felt I could do any ride they through at me. Basically from that point on, I was in the best shape I had ever been in my whole life. All it took was about a week of real, tough riding on the bike. I wish I would've known that in training because I would've actually put the work in and trained. Or at least I hope I would've.
All in all, I can't stress enough how important training is. I think I am going to try and do a triathlon, or half of one, soon, and I don't plan on making the same mistake of not training.
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