Concerned about training

[Chile Pepper]

OK--this is mostly me feeling sorry for myself. My last ride was on Sunday the 10th--80 km that I did fairly comfortably. I haven't ridden since, first because of rain and now because I'm sick. I'm losing weight, which can only be hard-earned muscle. So, my concern is that I'm riding the Healdsburg metric on July 21st. I only have until around July 4th to really train, since we travel on the 6th. That first week of vacation I won't have a bike, so I'll be jogging and maybe spinning to maintain fitness. I'm planning on riding a couple of times the second week (the week before the century), not only for fitness but to get used to the rental bike (a Specialized Allez). Is this going to work?

[RoadRaven]

Focus on getting well, eat properly and get rest.

Gently ease back into training, and build up the rides over the few days left as soon as you are well to something like where you were at. I know you have only a couple of weeks left...

Don't fret too much about the week before the race - many training schedules recommend less training - sometimes none - in the week before - its called a taper - so treat this as a plnned taper...

Best of luck and looking forward to reading about how it all went.

[velogirl]

I rode Healdsburg in 2000 and I recall that it's fairly flat. I think you'll be fine.

[tprevost]

I rode Healdsburg in 2000 and I recall that it's fairly flat. I think you'll be fine.

+1... its a relatively easy ride and very pretty so you'll be distracted ;) Its also sort of a figure 8 so you can choose to complete the 37 miler (I think that's the length) if you need to ...

[Trek420]

Focus on getting well, eat properly and get rest.
....
Best of luck and looking forward to reading about how it all went.

Healdsburg Harvest Century? I rode that before, nice route, relatively flat very pretty quiet route ... it was very very hot that day, 104 dgrees. I'd planned to do my first century, did the metric. We "took over" a small store and bought them out of water :p :rolleyes: I grabbed a hose at lunch and doused water over my head.

But I love the town and area and would do it again.

Eat, hydrate, hydrate some more, let us know how it goes.

[Chile Pepper]

Thanks everyone. I'm feeling a bit better today, but not 100%--and it's about to rain again. So it looks like I'm taking Road Raven's advice to take it easy.

Yes, it's the Healdsburg Harvest Century. I'm from Napa, so I know what the weather can be like. I'm planning to get an early start to beat the heat (although I'm driving over from Napa--I'm a morning person, but not necessarily an hours-before-dawn person). I've never really ridden anything truly flat. Around here, even the flats are slightly uphill (downhill on the way home). I wonder what that will do to my average speed, not having that downhill boost when I'm tired.