Quote:
Originally Posted by Anteraan
Sharky,
Absolutely do the RAIN. It's a great event, and has a pretty cool jersey almost every year (this year's is particularly badass, imo - http://www.bloomingtonbicycleclub.or.../rain.html#jer).
Illinois in the morning, Ohio that night - can't beat it! The other nice thing about the ride is that there is a fair number of riders, so you can usually find a paceline that fits your speed. That helps a ton, allows you to conserve energy early in the day so you're more fresh from mile 100 on. Training tip for RAIN - think of it as two rides - a century and a metric. Once you knock out the century, then it's just a metric to the finish. And once you find you have plenty of time to knock out that metric, you can relax and not worry about the clock.
My goal for riders trying RAIN for the first time: Be able to do a century in 8-9 hours without being totally wiped. If you can do that by say, mid-June, you are golden! |
Yeah, I am pretty excited about it. I know right now I can do a century in 8 hours without being completely wasted, but never 160 in the middle of July heat. I have an overall target time of 10 hours for my first RAIN, not sure if its gonna happen but thats what I am training for.
I did a 35 mile ride early last week at 18.6 mph avg, 300-400 feet of climing through rolling hills with 15-20 mph winds in my face, got onto a relatively flat section with some wind coverage, went to the drops and stroked her out to 27-28 mph for a good bit, maybe 2 or 3 miles, and rolled into a slight downhill sprint. Couldn't muster enough leg to break 40 mph while in the saddle, and didn't want to get up. Good enough for a personal best of 39.7 mph, not good enough to get up any faster. Recovery spun myself out the last 10 miles or so. Cycling is fun - and my legs hurt.