The PBP 1200 km bike ride is in 2027, and if I am ever going to do it, it will be next year. My daughter offered to support me at the overnight controls by finding my hotel and carrying my extra provisions and clothes to the hotel. How can I pass that up?
With that goal in mind, what is the minimum effort I can put in and still have a comfortable and fun ride? In the case of training, it's either time in the saddle or increased pain while you are saddled. You can look up the peer reviewed literature, but the ratio can be 4:1. That is, 30 minutes of painful intervals can be worth 2 hours of endurance riding. Well, my only riding this year has basically been commuting to work and back. I have a 7.5 mile commute each way, and with ~900 feet of climbing on the way home, it takes about 45 minutes home. If I can achieve a 4:1 ratio, then a painful commute can be worth as much as 3 hours of moderate endurance riding. So far this year, I did a 200k and 300k with basically nothing other than my commutes. 2026 was my 7th time doing the SFR Healdsburg 300k and it was my fastest time ever by nearly an hour! What happened? Well, there was some luck involved, as there were no flats or mechanicals. My friend with whom I rode the 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k was much stronger this year and paced us quickly through the wind. However, I think my biggest difference is the use of a power meter and Garmin watch to do power-based interval training. My Garmin puts me through the wringer several times a week. The hardest are the sets of 20 second, sprint intervals. However, doing the "threshold" interval of 15 minutes gets me home a full 5 minutes faster than my fastest previous time! I think my body is learning to recover more efficiently from hard pushes, allowing me to go more quickly over rollers on the road without wearing out. The longer moderate power intervals help me put out more power on climbs without wearing out. You can do all out sprints without a power meter, but the moderate intervals are really helped by the power meter keeping me honest about exactly how much work I am doing. I have a 400k in a few weeks. In order to prepare for that, I added a longer way home with an additional hill, but I am not planning on doing any weekend rides. By the end of the work week, my legs feel like I did an all day bike ride, so I feel good about using the weekend to recover my legs for the following commute week. I'll report back after my 400k and 600k in May. These rides should be enough for me to get registered for PBP next year... Toshi in Oakland (RUSA 7220) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAGB59xxGp1D7pA3BLEDUW1CCapupiSJKiwD-C9MdL2Vxn%2B2%3DVg%40mail.gmail.com.
