Coach David Ertl shares his Training Plan for RAGBRAI LII. He has been writing training tips for RAGBRAI since 2009.
As I’m sure all of you are aware by now if you are reading this, the overall route of RAGBRAI has been announced. After a couple of hilly, long RAGBRAIs the past two years, this year’s course appears a little easier. But face it, riding 406 miles in one week still isn’t easy and I am here to help guide your preparation for this year’s course so that you are able to complete the ride feeling good and feeling good about yourselves.
And while July 19 is a full five months away, it is already time to start preparing your body for this adventure. Believe me, July will be here before you know it. So what’s the plan? Because RAGBRAI is a long distance tour (not race), the main thing you have to ready for are hours riding at a comfortable pace. You don’t necessarily have to be fast but you need to be able to sit on a bike saddle and pedal for hours, seven days in a row. That means you need to have endurance and the only way to get that is to get on the bike and do a lot of riding. You need to build gradually each week, doing longer rides and doing more total miles per week.
Here is a general training plan you can follow to get yourself ready. If you more or less follow this progression, you should be ready to roll in July and have a successful ride. This plan, like those in past years, provides a guide on how far to ride each day and each build to gradually build your endurance and ability to sit on a bike for the hours that are going to be required. It’s not necessary to follow this exactly but in general you should be striving for hitting the mileage of the longest ride listed each week, and to aim for the total miles each week.
The plan begins on February 10. For those of you who live where it’s warm enough, go ahead and get out and start riding, if you haven’t already. For those in the north, if you can’t get outside yet, consider riding your bike on an indoor trainer or attending spin classes. Get those leg and butt muscles going!
So here’s the plan. It is available as in PDF that you can print off and as an Excel file that you can download to use to fill in your mileage. In coming weeks I will be elaborating on the types of riding you should be doing and encouraging along as you get wheels and legs turning.
Download the RAGBRAI 2025 Training Plan
So let’s get this party started! Stay tuned for more training tips for RAGBRAI, our blog will post every other Friday leading up to July.
Coach David Ertl
David Ertl is a USA Cycling Advanced Certified Coach. He coaches individual cyclists through the Peaks Coaching Group. He also provides cycling training plans and eBooks at his website: www.CyclesportCoaching.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].
