Death Ride

[lightfighter]

Anyone training for the Death Ride in July?
http://www.deathride.com/index.html
129mi, 15,000ft climbing.

Let me know if you want to do some long climbing rides to train w/ me. I'm an ok climber in races, but I've never done that much elevation in 1 day. I'm still working on endurance. Last weekend was pretty intense, Sat 7500ft, Sun 100mi 8500ft. I was cracked this week.... I'm working on sustainable, endurance pace- Which is hard for me cause I'm not patient and always want to sprint :)

[Catrin]

WOW, that looks like quite the ride! I think it is great that you are going for it and wish you all of the best as you prepare for this event.

[maillotpois]

I've done the DR 6 times and have coached it for the last 5 years (before this year) as head coach for TNT's death ride program. It is a great ride. You really need to work on longer endurance rides. Being able to do 2 back to back rides is great, but try putting together a longer single day.

All of the training rides I used for TNT over the years have generally worked out to 100 feet per mile elevation gain (I think that's right) - in other words, for an 80 mile ride, 8000 feet elevation gain; 90 mile ride 9000 feet elevation gain.

I'm happy to share links to some of my training rides if you like.

I'm not doing DR this year, and the next few weeks are taken up with build and recovery for (and doing ;) )the Terrible Two. So I can't join you for a ride, but am happy to offer encouragement, ride strategy and training routes. :) We had a pretty amazing 5 pass completion percentage while I was working on the DR program.

Endurance pace is key, FWIW. You're not going to "win" the ride on Monitor, but you sure can lose it there.

[smilingcat]

Endurance pace is key, FWIW. You're not going to "win" the ride on Monitor, but you sure can lose it there.

This is so true!!!

Lovely ride.

One of the training ride is to check into a motel in Lee Vining. Next morning climb Tioga pass into Yosemite. Unless you are a worldclass rider, you can't sprint up the pass. It's just way tooooo llloooonnnnggg. And the summit is near 10,000 feet. It's a breathless ride. :D And oh, if you ride north of Lee Vining, there is another great long climb up from Mono Lake. A fun ride.

Do several hill repeats on Tioga Pass and you'll be good to go with DR. It's a bear of a climb. Before the DR, you should ride a 100miler with 10,000 feet of climb. Supported of course.

DR has become too civilized :( None of the rude 5:00AM wake up call anymore with Jimmy Hendrix music etc. Pitch tent anywhere in the camp ground... I understand you now wake up to some classical music. Last time I did was like over 20 years ago...

[lightfighter]

what is the Terrible Two?

[Veronica]

what is the Terrible Two?

It's a double century (http://www.caltriplecrown.com/schedule.htm).


Probably the toughest one on the schedule because of heat and the time cut offs.

This year it's one of the stage race rides, along with The Devil Mountain Double that was held in April and the Mount Tam Double in August.

MP rocked the DMD. I've got my fingers crossed that she'll end up being one of the stage race winners. :D

Veronica

[maillotpois]

MP rocked the DMD. I've got my fingers crossed that she'll end up being one of the stage race winners. :D

Veronica

Thanks, V. I just want to survive the TT - and if it's hot that may be iffy. We'll see. I don't know what kind of EPO I was on for DMD, but that was a good day. :)

Here's the TT site: http://srcc.memberlodge.com/TT

[smilingcat]

Even those of us in SoCal know what the Terrible two is all about. oui!!