The 2012 RAGBRAI XL overnight towns have been announced. While the detailed course will be announced a little later, this gives enough of an idea on the difficulty of the course for this year’s ride.   This year the ride is 471 miles, which is reported as the 18th shortest ride.  However, because there have been 40 of these rides, 18 means about the median so it is average length.  Still 471 miles is a lot any way you look at it and it means you should have plenty of miles in before your RAGBRAI journey begins. 

A good rule of thumb is to ride at least twice as many miles in preparation as you plan to ride during RAGBRAI, so if you are expecting to finish the entire ride, you should get in at about 1000 miles in training.   More is better.  Keep in mind that RAGBRAI isn’t something you can just come and do like an ultra endurance event without any preparation.  A week on the bike is just too long to go without training and expect to be fine.  As one of my cycling friends says “You can’t fake endurance”. And I’m not just referring to be able to do the ride without your legs giving out.  I’m referring to other body part too.  Sitting on a bike seat for 6-8 hours a day takes some getting used to, also.

And how about the hill situation?  This route is ‘relatively flat’.  It’s the 11th flattest out of 40.  But there is still a total of 16,125 feet of climbing (that’s over 3 miles straight up!). So don’t leave some hill climbing out of your preparation.  Despite rumors to the contrary, Iowa is not flat. 

So while this promises to be a gentler ride than some (according to RAGBRAI director TJ Juskiewicz only 8 RAGBRAIs have been easier),  it still will require preparation for long days in the saddle, the ability to make it up and over hills and dealing with the heat, humidity and long days.  But have no fear.  You can do it with proper preparation and remember that the better you are prepared, the more enjoyable the ride becomes.   I will be providing training tips through the next few months to address your questions and to offer training tips to help you have a very enjoyable experience.   So check back often to this website.  All training articles will be saved on the Training tab. 

You’ve already given me some great ideas and please continue to ask questions and provide your ideas for what topics you want me to address.

David 

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and Personal Trainer. He coaches the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team, the Iowa JDRF Ride To Cure Diabetes Team, the Above & Beyond Cancer RAAM Team, and he coaches individual cyclists.  He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com . He can be contacted at coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

Only 185 days until RAGBRAI XL!  The route announcement party is January 28 where we will find out how long (or short) and how hilly (or flat) this year’s course will be.  It’s not too early to start preparing (RAGBRAI speak for training) for the ride.  As I’ve done the past couple of years, I will be writing a training blog to give you helpful tips along the way and to give you some ideas of what to expect on RAGBRAI in terms of your physical fitness requirements.   My past blogs are archived on the RAGBRAI website if you are in a hurry and can’t wait to get reading. 

Some people scoff at needing to “train” for RAGBRAI.  After all, it is a recreational ride and isn’t a race.  However, it is about 450 miles of bicycling in one week.  That is a lot no matter how much you pace yourself.  Ask some of the veterans of this ride.  They will tell you that getting lots of riding miles in ahead of RAGBRAI will make the event so much more enjoyable and pain-free.  I will provide lots of ideas on how to ride – how far, how fast, hill training, what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, etc.   RAGBRAI is all about having fun, and being physically prepared is one of the most important ways to ensure you will have fun on the ride.

I’d really like to know what is on your mind, too.   I’d encourage you to write comments in the Training Blog forum when I post articles and suggest future topics for me to address.  I may overlook some of the obvious questions people have.  I want to make sure that I’m covering topics of most interest.  I will also be revisiting some of the topics covered previously that are just too important not to repeat.  So check back often and be sure to leave comments and questions in the forum.

Here’s to another great year of riding and RAGBRAI!

David 

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and Personal Trainer. He coaches the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team, the Iowa JDRF Ride To Cure Diabetes Team, the Above & Beyond Cancer RAAM Team, and he coaches individual cyclists.  He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com . He can be contacted at coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

Don’t forget to stop by and say hi to Coach at the Farmers Feed Us stop in Churdan on Tuesday!

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He is a coach with the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team, the Iowa JDRF Ride To Cure Diabetes Team, and he coaches individual cyclists.   He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website:  http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com . He can be contacted at coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

1. RAGBRAI is a bicycle RIDE; it is not a bicycle RACE

That means you don’t have to ride fast.  As a matter of principle, it should not be ridden fast or you will miss important things, like a turkey leg  or piece of strawberry-rhubarb pie, or a friendly Iowa farmer waving at you or a child wanting to high-five you as you ride into a town.  The objective isn’t to see how quickly you can ride through Iowa, it’s to see how much of Iowa you can experience.  Even if you ride 12 mph, you will have plenty of time to spend in the overnight town, so don’t shortchange the pass-through towns.   And while you are riding between towns, take your time and enjoy the scenery.  While Iowa doesn’t have a lot of (or any) mountains or seashores, we do have miles and miles of beautiful green rolling countryside.  Enjoy it. 

2. Be friendly

One of the reasons I believe RAGBRAI has become such a hit over the years is because of the wonderful hospitality of the people of Iowa.  Many of the towns you will be riding through have populations much less than the number of cyclists that will ride through them (which is about 10,000 cyclists per day).  These country folk are extremely friendly and enjoy guests.  Take the time to visit with your hosts and hostesses on your ride across the state.  You and they will come away enriched by the experience.  Also, another reason for riding at a leisurely pace across Iowa is so that you can hold a conversation you’re your fellow cyclists.   You will meet some very interesting people from interesting places if you just take the time to get to know them.  I have found that the slower I go and the more I talk to people, the better the ride becomes.

3.  Eat well but don’t gain weight 

One thing we are famous for in Iowa is lots of great food. Every town you pass through and every roadside vendor will be providing you with a plethora of delights from the heartland.  You should certainly sample these.  Food is a big part of the RAGBRAI experience.  From the breakfast burrito to the mid morning pork chop, to the piece of (daily) pie, to the best sweet corn in the world, to the wonderful Midwest church dinners, you will be surrounded by tempting and delicious food and drink all the way across the state.  I don’t think you can go more than three miles without having the option to stop and eat something.  But one word of warning – people can gain weight on RAGBRAI!  It may seem very odd that one can pedal their bike four hundred and some miles in one week and gain weight but it can happen, especially if you try to sample what every single town has to offer.  That amounts to about 10 meals a day if you are not careful, so choose wisely, try new things but don’t feel you need to try everything every day!  Take home wonderful memories, but not extra pounds.

4. Have fun

This should go without saying but I’m saying it anyway.  Riding your bike across Iowa in one week is hard work. It will be hot and humid, it will be windy, it will probably rain once or twice.  If you think this is going to be a luxury cruise you will be disappointed.  Not every mile may be totally enjoyable (just trying to prepare you for the worst).  And please be safe.  One sure way to ruin your RAGBRAI experience is to have an accident and bust your bike or your body.  But keep in mind, for every uphill there is a downhill.  For every hot, hilly final five miles, there will be a cold drink and hearty meal waiting for you.  For every rain shower there will be a bright sunny sky.   There is so much to enjoy on RAGBRAI that if you don’t have fun, it’s no one’s fault but your own.   So come to the ride with your eyes, mouths and hearts open and you could very possibly be experiencing the best week of the year, or maybe of your life!

Don’t forget, I look forward to seeing all of you at the Farmers Feed Us stop in Churdan on Tuesday.

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He is a coach with the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team, the Iowa JDRF Ride To Cure Diabetes Team, and he coaches individual cyclists.   He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website:  http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com . He can be contacted at coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

Bike:  Several things should be done this final week prior to RAGBRAI to ensure your bike is in good working order.  Start off by cleaning it thoroughly.  When you clean your bike you tend to look at it more closely than normal and you may see some things that need attention, such as a worn tire, frayed brake or derailleur cable, wheel or brakes out of adjustment, or even something more serious such as a crack in the frame. Take some time to look over your bike and inspect it as you clean it. If you need work done on it, get it done prior to starting RAGBRAI. There’s also the matter of pride. You just feel better riding a clean bike than a dirty one. 

Check your bike to make sure the gears are working properly.  Run through all the gears in the back cluster to make sure they work and the gears run smoothly and don’t chatter or click, or that the chain doesn’t drop off the small cog or the derailleur doesn’t hit your spokes when in the largest cog.  Also check your front derailleur to make sure it shifts the chain on your chainrings in front smoothly and doesn’t throw the chain off.  Spin your wheels to ensure they are straight and don’t rub your brakes.  The last thing you need is to have your brakes rubbing all the way across Iowa.  Check your tires to make sure they still have plenty of rubber left on the center part.  Look for deep cuts or bulges in your tires and replace tires that have these or you may be doing it on the road next to a corn field. Flat tires always happen at the most inopportune times.  You should oil your chain. It’s recommended you use a lubricant designed for bikes as these work better than household oils.  If something isn’t working properly get it checked out by an expert.  Your first choice is your local bike shop, but be warned, if you live in Iowa, they are very busy this time of year with other RAGBRAI riders so hopefully they can get you fixed up before you have to leave.

Body:  Hopefully you’ve done an adequate amount of riding in preparation for RAGBRAI.  If not, it’s too late now. Any training you do now will not really help you but can possibly hurt you going in to RAGBRAI.  Here’s how I’d suggest approaching training for the last week.  Starting with the weekend prior to RAGBRAI (July 16-17^th), go for one medium long ride.  40-60 miles max is enough.  Remember, your goal is to maintain your fitness while allowing yourself to fully recover and refresh during the week prior to RAGBRAI.  The last week before RAGBRAI, keep your mileage down but do a few short, fast rides to keep your body tuned up, but again, not enough to fatigue you more.  Don’t worry about losing your fitness, you won’t lose very much at all by tapering the week before the ride.  What you want to focus on is resting and letting your legs fully recover. There should be no soreness in your legs this final week.  By being rested, you will be able to take advantage of all the fitness you’ve gained up to this point.  Many of you have to travel for a day or two prior to the start of RAGBRAI and that’s a good thing.  It allows your legs one final rest period before the big ride.   I would suggest going for a spin on Saturday when you arrive, to make sure you bike has made the trip okay and to loosen up your legs. 

You also want to hydrate well the final days before RAGBRAI begins.  Travel can dehydrate you as can the hot summer weather.  Work at drinking (water) throughout the day.  Eat well but don’t overeat or carbo load, especially on days you don’t ride.  There’s plenty of food available during RAGBRAI. Eat as you go rather than trying to store it all up before you go. You can store it, as body fat, which isn’t the ideal way to go.

Packing: Not only do you need to give thought to preparing your bike and body for the trek, you also should give some thought to what to bring along with you.  To help you out, here are some things to be sure to bring.  Warning, this list isn’t inclusive but does contain some of the more commonly forgotten items.  First, there’s the biking gear: shoes, several shorts, jerseys (the more shorts and jerseys the better so you don’t have to wash them as often), socks, gloves, helmet, sunglasses, hand or floor pump, and water bottles.  Be sure to bring along your tool bag containing at least these items: spare tubes (yes plural), CO2 cartridges unless you have a frame pump, mini tool, tire irons.  There are several bike shops that support RAGBRAI and they have lots of parts and accessories in the event you need something you forgot or need along the way.   Also, if you have energy drink powder or your favorite foods, be sure to pack some of these as you may not be able to get them on the road.   Don’t forget your sunscreen and detergent for washing clothes.  You can wash jerseys and shorts in a sink.  Just be sure to rinse well.  If you don’t, and it rains when you wear them next, you will foam. Take my word for that!    Oh, and don’t forget your bike.

Meet the Coach on RAGBRAI !!

I am going to be out at one of the towns on RAGBRAI this year.  My employer, Iowa Corn, is sponsoring the Farmers Feed Us stop in Churdan on Tuesday.   Throughout RAGBRAI, FFU is going to be hosting stops featuring Iowa’s abundant agriculture.  For a week, you are riding through the world’s more productive farmland in the world!  Stop and spend a few minutes learning about the precious land you are riding across.   At each stop they will be giving out spoke cards and an opportunity to win an iPad®.  So watch for the Burma Shave type signs coming into Churdan on Tuesday.  I will be there to tell you anything you want to know about corn or cycling.  And get your picture taken with a tractor!  If you have been reading these posts, please stop by and say ‘Hi’.  I’d enjoy meeting you in person.

So as you approach your final week before RAGBRAI, now is the time to get your bike and body prepared for a fun and successful ride.

Have a great time at RAGBRAI!  – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He is a coach with the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team, the Iowa JDRF Ride To Cure Diabetes Team, and he coaches individual cyclists.   He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website:  http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com 

He can be contacted at coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

THE most common mistake I see new riders make is to use too large of a gear and pedal too slowly.  This may feel like the right thing to do, but pedaling faster can make you faster and make you less tired.  Let me start by clarifying some terms which can make this subject confusing.   

Your bike has a series of gears.  A ‘high’ or ‘large’ gear is one which feels hard to pedal and your feet go around slowly.   A ‘low’ or ‘small’ gear allows your feet to go around fast.  This is made even more confusing by the gears on the bike.  Multi-gear bikes typically come with two or three chainrings in the front (the big gears attached to the cranks that your pedals are attached to).   The larger chainring results in a larger gear ratio.  

Then there are anywhere from 8-10 gears in the back attached to your rear wheel.  These work the opposite way.  The largest gear in the back results in a lower gear, or easier pedaling.  So the highest gear on your bike is to use the largest chainring in the front and the smallest gear in the back.  The best way to learn this is to play around with your bike and try different gears in the front and back and see what happens.  ‘Cadence’ is a term used to describe how fast or slow your feet go around in circles.  A high gear results in a low cadence (slow pedaling).  A low gear results in a higher cadence.

When people new to cycling begin riding, they almost invariably start out with a cadence that is to slow, in other words, they use a gear that is too large.  There may be a couple of explanations for this.  First, when we walk, we tend to take about 60 steps per minute.  So 60 is pretty ingrained in our mentality.  When we get on the bike, 60 rpm feels ‘normal’.   But 60 rpm is not the most efficient cadence for long distance riding.  Another explanation may be that people believe that by using a larger gear, they will go faster.  This may be true for the short term, but trust me, after 70 miles on a day of RAGBRAI; you won’t be going very fast if you have pedaled slowly all day pushing a high gear.

When you push the large gear, you are exerting a lot of force with your legs on the pedals every pedal stroke.  This requires you to recruit more muscle fibers every time you pedal which tires the leg muscles out fairly quickly.  It’s kind of like lifting weights where you use a large amount of force, but you also get tired quickly.  The same thing happens on a bike.  Push a high gear and your leg muscles will tire quickly.  Pedaling 60 RPM compared to 90 RPM means your legs have to work 50% harder per pedal stroke.  This adds up over a day and week of riding and you will pay for it with tired legs. 

Please try this out for yourself and you will see what I am talking about.  So try this on your next ride.   Pay attention to your cadence.  Some bike computers have a cadence attachment that goes on your bike down by the crank.  If you don’t have one of these, you can count the number of pedal strokes you make with one leg for 6 seconds and multiply by 10 to determine your cadence in rpm.  If your cadence is below 75, then you should work at speeding up your cadence.  Do this by shifting to the next lower (easier) gear and increasing your leg speed.  This will feel unnatural at first but over time, but don’t give up.  With enough practice it will come second nature.  

When riding your bike, you should almost never need to use the large chainring in the front.  If you have two chainrings in the front, spend most of the time in your smaller chainring.  If you have three chainrings, use the middle one for most of your riding.  You should only need your large chainring when going downhill.

So go for spin, literally!

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching. He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com 

Let’s start with some terminology. In case you haven’t noticed, there are all sorts of pedals and associated shoes and cleats available now.  Basic inexpensive bikes tend to come with platform pedals.  These are simply a rubber or metal pedal on which your feet rest.  There is nothing to hold your feet in place other than the rubber or teeth of metal.  Back 30 years ago, most people rode those early 10-speeds with metal pedals and tennis shoes.  These pedals would bite into the bottoms of shoes and cause our feet to ache.  We’ve come a long way since then. 

The next step up was to have toe clips and toe straps.  This includes a toe clip and strap that attach to each pedal.  The strap would wrap around the shoe and hold it in place.   This served the purpose of allowing the cyclist to push and pull on the pedals, to help generate power through more of the pedal stroke than just the down stroke.  These also helped keep the feet from slipping of the pedals when standing or when wet. 

The next era brought clipless pedals.  These are pedals that don’t look at all like pedals.  They have some sort of small platform and in some cases little more than just an axle, and they all have a system for attaching to customized cleats that fit on the bottom of the shoes.  One of the first companies to make clipless pedals was Look, the same company that makes ski bindings.   It’s the same concept – we fasten our ski boots to the skis and we fasten our cycling shoes to the pedals.  There is now a wide variety of different brands of pedals available.  It has become a very personalized decision as to which pedal system we choose.  So much so that you may have noticed that new bikes don’t come with pedals.  That’s because everyone makes their own choice of pedals to use.  Once you have selected a pedal, you have to use matching cleats on your shoes.  People typically stick with one type of pedal if they have multiple bikes and/or pairs of shoes.

So which system should you use? It’s purely a personal decision.  If you have a real fear of having your feet attached to your pedals in any way, use the platform pedals. If you want to get more power going to the pedals and keep your feet more securely on the pedals, then I’d recommend the clipless route.  The new clipless pedal and cleat systems now work very well and are easy to get in and out of, with some practice and assuming they are adjusted properly.

If you choose a clipless route, then your next decision is the brand.  If you do a lot of recreational riding such as RAGBRAI, where you do a fair amount of walking around in you cycling shoes, I’d recommend going with a system such as the SPD pedals.  These require small cleats that fit in the bottom on your shoe and don’t stick out.  You can get a shoe with some rubber knobs on the bottom which keep the cleat from every touching the ground when you walk.  If you get the type with the larger plastic cleats, these are not as easy to walk in and walking will wear them out. If you go this way, be sure to get a pair of cleat covers to protect them and keep from getting mud in them.

If you use clipless pedals, as I mentioned above, these can add to safety by helping to keep your feet securely on the pedals when standing or when your shoes are wet.  However, they can also create some danger if you do not have a lot of experience getting in and out of them.  If you decide to buy a pair of new shoes, cleats and pedals for RAGBRAI, make sure you practice with them several times before heading out on the ride.  Some brands take a little getting used to when getting your feet ‘clicked in’ and getting them back out.  Typically you can get clicked in by stepping on the pedal and pressing straight down.  This requires some practice as you need to do a few pedals strokes to get up enough speed to coast while you click in.  If you slow down too much while fumbling around with your pedals, you can guess what happens.  Also, there is a tendency to look down at the pedals while trying to get you feet in.  This means you aren’t watching the road ahead of you – not a good idea with a few thousand other cyclists out there. 

With enough practice you can click in without looking down at all.  Likewise, you need to practice getting your feet unclicked and become expert at this.  It seems there is a rite of passage when graduating to clipless pedals.  You need to come up to an intersection, stop and then realize your feet are still attached and boom, down you go, usually in front of a car or a bunch of your laughing friends. This is embarrassing at least and dangerous at worst.  All of this is cured with practice.  I highly recommend using clipless pedals.  Once you get used to them, you won’t go back.  So don’t let this discussion scare you away from getting clipless pedals, but just be warned that if you decide to get some this year,  make sure you practice well before starting RAGBRAI so you can have a safe and enjoyable ride.

I just ran across a great article on pedals in this week’s newsletter of RoadBikeRider (www.RoadBikeRider.com).  If you love cycling you should sign up for this very informative and very free newsletter.

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching. He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com 

First, the going UP part.  Hills tend to intimidate people, and there is a reason for this.  Hills make you work.  On the level, you have to overcome a little bit of rolling resistance and wind resistance.  But when the road tilts up, you now have to overcome gravity as well.  The more ‘gravity-challenged’ you are, the harder you have to work.  Hills force us to work no matter how slowly you go.  But most hills can be overcome by pacing yourself and by using ALL of your gears.  Your bike probably has at least 10 gears and maybe as many as 24.  You have them, use them.  Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed to use your ‘granny gear’ if you need to, to get up hills comfortably.  As I said, most hills on RAGBRAI are quite short so you can power up and over them without too much effort.  Where they get hard is when you have them all day long, over and over the hills.  But keep the same strategy.  Pace yourself, slow down and use your easy gears.  Of course, training for them ahead of time should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway.  Expect a lot of short hills on RAGBRAI this year.  Make sure you go out and find hills to ride as you are preparing for RAGBRAI.  If you only have one hill handy, ride up it several times.  The more you ride hills, the more fit you will become but also the more confident you will become that you can indeed handle the UPS.

Now, the going DOWN part. For every uphill there is a downhill so you will need to be comfortable riding down as well as up.  Believe it or not, the going down freaks some riders out more than going up.  Add in 10,000 of your fellow cyclists out on the road and it can make downhills even more frightening.  Here are some tips for handling the downhill part.  Control your speed.  Yes, it’s fun to zip down hills but you need to remain in control and also be considerate of your fellow cyclists who may not be as comfortable going fast.  Just as in driving (you don’t tailgate do you?!?), you should keep a reasonable distance between you and the riders in front of you.  ‘Reasonable’ means that you have adequate stopping distance between you and the riders in front of you.  If they were to fall, would you have time to stop without crashing into them?  Remember, stopping distance increases considerably the faster you go.  You need to be looking ahead farther when going downhill as well, for the same reason.  Obstacles in the road such as bumps come at you faster and with more force, so be prepared for them.  It’s best to maintain the same speed as others around you, but if you feel the need to pass, be sure to pass ON THE LEFT side (passing on the right will really freak people out because they aren’t expecting that) but don’t cross the center line in the road (RIDE RIGHT). If you don’t have room then don’t pass.  Wait for an opening.   Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is to give people room and don’t scare them.  Flying by people 20 mph faster than they are going with inches to spare is a great way to frighten a rider which may cause them to lose control.  Be considerate of your fellow riders.  If you see someone going downhill slowly, realize that they may not be as comfortable as you with speed.  Give them plenty of leeway when passing. 

Finally, it’s important to keep both hands on the handlebars when going downhill and in a position close to your brake levers.  I often keep my fingertips on the brake levers (but not applying any pressure) when I’m in a situation where I know I may need to brake quickly.  So remember to ride in control, be able to slow down or even stop if necessary, and watch out for slower riders.  Enjoy the hills of RAGBRAI, but don’t make downhills a downer, for you or the other riders.

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching. He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com 

The first thing that goes with age is the ability to recover.   Once one gets into their late 30s, the ability to recover starts to decrease. You will notice that after a long or hard ride, it may take a good two days before you feel good again, maybe even three as we get into our forties and fifties.  There are a number of things that can be done to enhance recovery, and cyclists of every age should be doing these, but it becomes even more important as you get older to pay attention to these.   First, be sure to rehydrate and refuel after rides.  The quicker you can get food and fluid into your body, the faster it can get to work on recovery.  You should also listen to your body and heed its need to recover.  If you had a hard ride two days ago and your legs are still sluggish, give them another day before hitting them hard again (this is in reference to preparing for RAGBRAI, not once you are there!).  The other thing you should do is do active recovery on your days off between harder rides.  This means going out for a nice easy spin in a very easy gear. Let the legs spin around with little pressure on your pedals.  Spin quickly.  This gets the muscles loosened up and the blood circulating. It’s a means of giving your legs a massage.  This will help you recover more quickly than not riding at all for a couple of days.

The other thing you will notice is your speed isn’t quite as good as it used to be as you age.  However, the better trained you are, the more slowly your speed will decrease.  I am the Director of the Iowa Games Cycling Time Trial event.  Two years ago, first, second and fourth places went to riders 50 and older.  Age shouldn’t have to be an excuse for slowing down.  With modern advances in equipment, nutrition and training, it is possible for some people to continue to get faster despite getting older.  I still refuse to use age as an excuse, so long as there are older people who are faster than me!

The other tendency is to put on some extra pounds as we age.  This doesn’t have to be the case.  We aren’t programmed to get fat as we get older, but it seems that way.  A number of things happen as we age.  We tend to get jobs that become increasingly sedentary, thus we burn less calories all day long.  Second, we get busy with careers and families and often neglect our own fitness and health.  Fortunately, cycling is a great calorie burning activity that can be done as we age as long as we make it a priority and get it done.  Third, our metabolisms do decrease somewhat as we age. But this is mostly due to loss of muscle mass and loss of physical activity as we age.  Metabolism can remain quite high as long as we exercise regularly and vigorously, and as long as we maintain muscle mass.  Cycling is great for maintain muscle mass in our legs, but cyclists can lose upper body muscle as we age if we don’t continue to do upper body strength training.

However, the one aspect of fitness that tends to hang in there quite well as we age is endurance.  If you look at the results for 24 hour races, you will notice that many of the winners are in their 40s and 50s.   You even see people in their 40s in winning Olympic gold medals now.  Endurance is gained by years of riding long distances.  Physical changes take place in your body such as increased number of mitchondria and blood vessels in the muscles, a larger heart muscle and increased blood volume.  These are changes that take a long time to gain (many years) but also take many years to go away, as long as you keep riding.   So this is very good news for you as RAGBRAI riders. You may not go as fast, but you can still go as far.

So the bottom line is this:  There are some things that change with age, but if you are healthy and fit, these effects should be minimal until you reach your late 50’s.   A greater dropoff in fitness is observed in the 60s and certainly in the 70s.  However, do not use age as an excuse or it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I know some amazing cyclists who continue to ride into their 80s, and quite fast at that.  Keep riding, maintain your weight and stay healthy and you will riding riding into your 80s and maybe even 90s! 

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching. He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com 

First, I have provided mileage recommendations for four days of riding each week, Saturday, Sunday and two weekdays.  The two weekdays can be done any day you can fit them in your schedule but ideally should be done on Tuesday/Thursday or other midweek days to allow some rest and recovery before and after the weekends (i.e. Monday and Fridays off).  I have given you less miles on the weekdays, as I’m assuming you have to do your riding around work.  You don’t have to do the miles exactly as laid out, but you should aim for the weekly total each week. 

Second, these mileages are suggestions.  Experienced riders will look at these as low. The first week has very short rides.  Some of you are already riding much more than this. That’s fine.  If you can ride more, go ahead and do more. You probably will have no problem preparing for RAGBRAI.   But this plan has to cover a wide variety of riders and is designed to give the minimum amount of riding you should do if you are serious about preparing properly for RAGBRAI, especially if you never have ridden RAGBRAI before.  You can also ride more days per week than the four provided if you wish.  However, it’s a good idea is to take one or two days off each week.  Too much riding and too little rest will wear you down.

Third, there is a line under each week’s mileages where you can record what you actually rode, in the event you want to track your mileage.  Feel free to copy this plan to your computer or print this plan off and hang it on your refrigerator or by your desk. 

Click here to download a PDF file of the training plan and log: 
RAGBRAI Training Plan 2011

Click here to download an Excel files of the training plan and log: RAGBRAI Training Plan 2011

As you can see, you can easily build up your riding to levels adequate to conquer RAGBRAI, as long as you start far enough ahead.  I’d suggest getting out and ride starting this week, if you haven’t already.  But you certainly want to start training by the 17th of April.  Good luck with your riding.  Get started now while you still have plenty of time to get ready.

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching. He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com