Riding Ragged

I've been training my ass off. Literally.

A buddy and I are training for STP again – but this time the goal is to ride the entire route from Seattle to Portland in one day. TBH, I'm not sure we're going to make it. Our average speed needs to be ~17+ mph over the entire day, and that's factoring 10-12 hours of time in the saddle.

I've been following a consistent and structured training program, and have even increased my FTP to 240. My VO2 Max workout days are gnarly, with 300W intervals (or more) being a regular feature. They hurt, but my legs are probably stronger than even when I was fresh out of the School of Infantry.

Recently I did a ~56 mile ride as fast as I could manage and only came in at 16 mph average speed. I was really happy with my time, but when I finished all I could think was "there is a 0% chance I could do that same effort, and faster, 3 more times back to back to back.

Not to mention that this route had minimal climbing. The STP route has ~5K feet of elevation gain, which isn't bad over that distance; really just a couple notable climbs.

At this point, we could comfortably do it in 2 days again. It's an enjoyable weekend: ride all day, hang out with other cycling nerds... it's such a fun community event. I think that's probably what we'll end up doing this year, but I plan to keep my training plan going so we can maybe try for 1 day again next year. But who knows. Maybe we'll just YOLO :)