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berner - agreed - I ramped up 5 miles per week for the first four weeks and now have kept miles flat and just added more vertical per week, so I think I've tried to manage building a foundation and training on top of it so far. No pains or injuries yet, at least!
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Carbonfiberboy - thanks for the advice on time, that's exactly what I'm short on unfortunately which is why I've been doing the shorter / harder rides! I'm probably at 5 hours of riding per week right now, so only around what I expect the 65 ride to take. I'm definitely planning on stretching my longer rides the next two weekends before taper, so that should help. The 1.5x the ride time is a great rule of thumb to know!
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chasm54 - very interesting. Like you said, I'm probably at low volume enough right now that any workout is helpful to improving my bike fitness, but I'll have to make sure to do a longer, easier ride whenever I can find time instead of just making every ride as hard as I can!