Training Summary - Week 5

Last weeks training was the highest volume of the program so far.

The big event of the week was a long overnight during the weekend on the actual Colorado Trail. I wasn't feeling great this week so I deviated from the training plan a little bit, and put in some extra hours on the weekend. I really wanted to go far on the weekend, so this worked out well.

My weekend ride consisted of riding segments 1-3, plus the Bailey detour to Kenosha Pass and back.

In total it was about 135 miles of mountain biking, 17,000 feet of climbing, and almost 17 hours of pedaling. It was difficult, but I wasn't completely at my limit. I recovered quickly. My performance was much improved over last Summer's experiment on the trail. My average speed on Saturday where most of the climbing occurred was 7.7 mph with a fully loaded bike. I stopped less and went further in a single day..

I worked on nutrition and hydration strategies. In particular I set an alert on my computer to sound every 15 minutes to drink and eat, because I tend to zone out and forget until it's too late. This worked well for the water, but I'm going to continue to fine tune what and when I eat. I also tried to take some electrolyte supplements every hour which I did pretty well the first day, but mostly forgot to do the second day.

Clearly, I want to enjoy the scenery and the experience of these long rides, and I do. However, assuming a rider has the fitness to do these rides, the next issue becomes physical and psychological pain management. I always ride with music, but music is more of a background thing. I experimented with listening to books on tape this weekend, and they are very effective at making the time go by faster.

On Saturday while riding segment 3, I rode through a large group of riders resting at a trail junction. Seeing all the gear on my bike someone said "Cool", and then someone else said "I'll see you in Durango". I said "I'll be there", without seeing who was speaking. It was a cool exchange.

At Kenosha Pass I met another lone camper ( David ) who provided me with a beer, a camp fire and some good conversation. It was cold up there, but the sky was clear and the stars were bright. I should know, I woke up about every 20 minutes to look at them. :-)

Below is a map of the course I took.

As always, here are the totals after week 5.