Northern California - Enough Climbing Already

So, if one was to be training for a ride like the Death Ride, is there a point where one feels like they've climbed enough? Or, put another way, how do you all keep a proper level of fitness for this ride, without overdoing it?

Or put another way, how does one get excited about riding all day at 5-6 mph uphill. Share your thoughts?

I am riding between 700-900 miles per month. I average between 35 and 42k/month climbing. At this point, I am feeling pretty strong, however, nothing prepares you for climbing at altitude. If you can get up there 3-4 days ahead of the ride and acclimate, you will be much better off. I have a close friend that has ridden the DR at least 10 times. We are about equal in riding ability. However, he spends 7-10 days at Tahoe prior to the DR, whereas I don't. When the day comes, he is just gone.
As far as getting motivated, you will be riding with 2500 of your closest friends that are all going through the same thing you are. It is beautiful scenery, the descents are a blast, the food is great and it is a well run event. You will definitely like it - if you are in shape. Make sure you have a long taper.
Good luck

No, no way to tell. Just have to go with what you've got.

VG, that's a lot of riding. You're blowing my mileage counts out of the water!

Joel, remember that I'm getting ready for STP. If it rains, then the DR is the backup. Gotta get that kind of mileage in if we are going to get a sub 10 hr. I am following rydaddy's suggestions on mileage and climbing. Don't concern yourself with mileage. You accomplished so much in the last year that blows anyone away. Told you that you were going to be an animal. You have become one.

So, if one was to be training for a ride like the Death Ride, is there a point where one feels like they've climbed enough? Or, put another way, how do you all keep a proper level of fitness for this ride, without overdoing it?

Or put another way, how does one get excited about riding all day at 5-6 mph uphill. Share your thoughts?

Last year I rode 1 good ride every weekend from about 6 weeks prior to the final weekend. I didn't follow a prescribed elevation/mileage regiment, just rode some hilly 70-90 mile routes in the foothills and coastal mountain range. This was in addition to lot's of hard effort commutes to and from work (which are pancake flat). Sometimes I went for distance with climbing, and other times I did hill repeats until I went insane. Most of it was nervousness about tackling such a ride and making sure that I was prepared. The litmus test, I think, was being able to do 3 Diablo climbs in one ride. If you can walk away from that, then you are likely to do fine at the DR. As VG said, the atmosphere itself is good for an extra boost.

The altitude thing is hit or miss. I found it to not be an issue at all for myself, while my friend suffered quite a bit. And he's generally a stronger rider than I am too. It would be good to get to the higher elevations for a training ride if possible. I did notice that my heartrate was about 10 bpm higher than at lower altitudes for the same effort.

This year I have done esssentially no DR training. :o I did some pretty serious double centuries earlier in the year, and I have lots of miles in the legs already, but lately life has just been to busy for me to get out for long hilly rides. I'm hoping for a little muscle memory to get me through the ride.

If you're starting to question whether you're overdoing it, ease up a bit and get one more quality training ride in. Good luck, and see you there!

Enough? Never enough!

http://www.mudncrud.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=32860&g2_serialNumber=1 (Ride details (http://www.mtbguru.com/trip/show_static/10057-20090614-a-ride-up-to-skyline-blvd-five-times))

I subscribe to the theory that footage matters more than mileage, well, for DR training anyway.

^Nice looking ride. :thumb:

I'm jealous.... this is what I had to deal with

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.mb?xy.domain=totalDistance&xy.ranges=elevation&xy.histogram=false&xy.legendVisible=false&xy.primaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.secondaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.rangeTitlesVisible=true&xy.domainAxisVisible=true&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&episodePk.pkValue=5999104&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&xy.autoFit=true&xy.width=1000&xy.height=450

Enough? Never enough!

That's a pretty hard core solo training ride. I haven't been able to face more than 10k' on a solo ride.




I subscribe to the theory that footage matters more than mileage, well, for DR training anyway.

Yep. The best way to get used to a lot of climbing is to do a lot of climbing. But if that's a drag, then do it on your one long ride day each week. I like doing long endurance paced climbing rides on weekends and then shorter faster group rides (with climbing) during the week.


As far as altitude goes, the worst thing you can do is to show up a few days or a week before the event. If you can't spend two weeks acclimating, the next best thing is to arrive the night before (or morning of) and ride. Visiting but not staying at altitude before the event doesn't acclimate you at all- you quickly lose any physiological changes when you go back to sea level. For physiological acclimitization, going up on weekends before the DR is a waste of time. However, if you have not ridden at altitude before, it may be good mentally, because you will find out how you repsond, and hopefully learn that it's not as bad as you think. And of course it's fun riding.

The first time I did the DR I was having trouble breathing in the car as we drove over Ebbets pass the day before! But I was fine on the ride.

So, if one was to be training for a ride like the Death Ride, is there a point where one feels like they've climbed enough? Or, put another way, how do you all keep a proper level of fitness for this ride, without overdoing it?

Or put another way, how does one get excited about riding all day at 5-6 mph uphill. Share your thoughts?

I just did a ride with nearly 12k of climbing over 110 miles. At the end of it I felt OK, not great, but not terrible. I know that were the final climb in front of me, I could have covered another 4k over 20 miles. And this was self-supported, so I expect to feel better on the DR with the more frequent refill points and easy calorie grabs.

I am not a good descender, so I prefer the climbing most times to the descent. Climbing is what I like about being on the bike. Being outside, seeing the sights go by (slowly), feeling my heart/breathing, and dropping Jack with a massive counter-attack on Sandhill Rd. :love:

....and dropping Jack with a massive counter-attack on Sandhill Rd. :love:

It was massive. :notamused: