Fifty Plus (50+) - Goal to get me working.

Inspired by Velo Diva and red rider doing their Time trial- I have decided to set myself a goal. I train for a ride each year and once that is over- I slacken off on my training. Still stay pretty fit overall- and at the drop of a hat- I would be able to do a metric- without it even bothering me. Probably still be able to do it offroad aswell but that may hurt a bit. 100 miler may cause a problem the next day- But I do seem to be able to retain my fitness all year round but with a peak for those special occasions.

I am currently in the "Recovery" mode- no mountains planned to climb- No 100 milers till October so I feel as though I am just ticking over. So to sharpen myself up- I need a target to aim for. Still don't feel like Going offroad so It will have to be a road target.
Since getting the new bike- I have been putting off a couple of rides that I used to enjoy on the Giant. Reason for putting them off is the Higher gearing on the New bike. About time I stopped being a Whus and found out if My legs are as strong as I think they should be.

So my target is a double one- Do the 65 miler with lots of short sharp 15%ers-- and to do the Hilly ride over the downs that takes in 3 Hills. a 10%, a 12% and a 15% and each one for about 1 mile.

Have to admit that I can't do them for a couple of weeks thanks to work commitments- So My target date to do them in is the End of September

So what's your Goal till the end of Summer?

Jet Travis, Bobby C, and I are planning to do the Blue Ridge Extreme (http://www.blueridgeextreme.com/) at the end of Aug in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I am sure there will be a report.

Kind of depends on the new puppy but I want to complete a 40 mile ride.
If I end up with enough time, I'll shoot for 50 but that might be an EOY goal.

Meanwhile, I have doubled my monthly mileage

My goal:
Near the end of the month there is a NorCal forum ride to the top of Mt. Diablo. I want to do it, and live.
Just finishing will be enough. Speed isn't even an issue.

My longer goal is to get down to under 140 for just 1 second. If I can I'm going to buy myself that cool "Poser" jersey as a reward.

Here's the last 200 yards-- the WALL
http://bp3.blogger.com/_hSZo5vjiPmQ/RpEpHB-soII/AAAAAAAABAs/TOMz4_TvUn8/s400/2007-07-07+019.jpg

My goal:
Near the end of the month there is a NorCal forum ride to the top of Mt. Diablo. I want to do it, and live.
Just finishing will be enough. Speed isn't even an issue.

My longer goal is to get down to under 140 for just 1 second. If I can I'm going to buy myself that cool "Poser" jersey as a reward.

Here's the last 200 yards-- the WALL
http://bp3.blogger.com/_hSZo5vjiPmQ/RpEpHB-soII/AAAAAAAABAs/TOMz4_TvUn8/s400/2007-07-07+019.jpg

That wall is pretty tough, but the overall climb is not too bad. The views are awesome, and the traffic is generally light and respectful.

While training last year for the Death Ride, my GF and I climbed it twice in the same day. And we chatted with another rider who was on his 4th climb of the day. :eek:

That wall is pretty tough, but the overall climb is not too bad. The views are awesome, and the traffic is generally light and respectful.

While training last year for the Death Ride, my GF and I climbed it twice in the same day. And we chatted with another rider who was on his 4th climb of the day. :eek:

Unreal. I like the ride to the Junction, but from there the top is a killer. I can't imagine doing it 2 times the same day. But then I'm not death ride material.

Maybe if there were some sort of training software I could use to help me get stronger. To help me ocus my efforts. Something brilliant. Something that would run on my Mac...;)

Unreal. I like the ride to the Junction, but from there the top is a killer. I can't imagine doing it 2 times the same day. But then I'm not death ride material.

Maybe if there were some sort of training software I could use to help me get stronger. To help me ocus my efforts. Something brilliant. Something that would run on my Mac...;)

If you have one of the newer Macs based on Intel chips, you're good to go.

Mac users have finally been freed from the proprietary prison of Mac-only software, and can now run many of the insanely great programs that have been available to Windows users for years. :D

Jet Travis, Bobby C, and I are planning to do the Blue Ridge Extreme (http://www.blueridgeextreme.com/) at the end of Aug in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I am sure there will be a report.

If there isn't a report, please send out the park rangers.

Now that MTB racing is done, I have been thinking about some goals to keep me motivated. Since training for the races has kept me from doing many really long rides this year, a century is probably a good thing to plan for. So I'll say I want to do a century before my birthday in October. BRAG's Georgia Bike Fest will be the last weekend in September (28th-30th). That might be a good one to shoot for. I can probably get in 2 or 3 metrics between now and then.

For August, I'm going to see how fast I can do the Hotter 'N Hell Hundred (http://www.hh100.org/). Then, in September, I'll be doing the Tejas 500, which is a 500 mile relay race, as a part of a four man recumbent team at The Texas Time Trials (http://www.tt24tt.com/).

My goals are always mileage related. I take the mileage I did last year and try to stay ahead by 10%. This has worked very nicely for the past 4 years. It has motivated me to ride more often and longer distances. I realize, of course, that there will come a time when I'll probably have to reverse this. That is, my goal will be not to lose any more than 10%. I'm hopeful that I'm a good many years away from this happening.

My main goal is to get another 10lbs off the engine weight and to continue to pick up my speed on my daily rides. Yesterday was a personal best of 21mph average over 18 miles which included a couple of stop lights. When I can do this at 25mph average I feel I have probably reached my physical limits. I am also working on my cornering which has been tentative in the past, I am now able to take tight corners in excess of 20mph.

Little things that I can focus on day in and day out.