Upcoming Organized Northwest Rides.

[Susan126]

Jessica I'm planning to ride in the STP this July too. I want to do it in one day. The first time I did the STP I did it in two days so I'm challenging myself this year by trying to ride it in one day! I've participated in many of the local rides at least once if not more. Many are very challenging. The only way to be ready for your rides is to train. Increase your distance over the weeks; if the ride you're training for has hills, train on hills. Increase your saddle time. Do 20-30 mile rides two to three times during the weekdays and a long ride once a week, usually on a weekend. And increase that long ride until you meet your goal distance.

Of the rides you mentioned I do plan on riding in the Daffodil Classic in April. And maybe the May Day Metric. I haven't decided on what other rides I will do this year. I'm sure I'll be adding to my list!

[XMcShiftersonX]

Jessica I'm planning to ride in the STP this July too. I want to do it in one day. The first time I did the STP I did it in two days so I'm challenging myself this year by trying to ride it in one day!

Awesome! My husband is doing the one day this year. I'll probably do that someday, but I've never done STP before, so I figured I should start small, haha. Well, good luck and thanks for the advice!

-Jessica

[XMcShiftersonX]

Wow Mary - thanks for all the advice! You're a very accomplished cyclist, good work! I know STP doesn't have much climbing, but I'd eventually like to be able to regularly do 5,000 feet of climbing in a day, someday. Maybe not this year, it looks like most of the rides I have planned are around 3,000ft. But I'd like to know that I could do hills on long rides just in general. Last summer I regularly did 25 mile rides 3 days in a row, etc. Of course I was on a hybrid bike at the time, so my road bike should be a little more efficient, and I'd like to up those distances. So I'll definitely use that advice and practice longer rides, two days in a row before STP. I was kind of worried how I would feel the next morning after all that work and sleeping in a tent!

-Jessica

[MM_QFC!]

Wow Mary - thanks for all the advice! You're a very accomplished cyclist, good work! I know STP doesn't have much climbing, but I'd eventually like to be able to regularly do 5,000 feet of climbing in a day, someday. Maybe not this year, it looks like most of the rides I have planned are around 3,000ft. But I'd like to know that I could do hills on long rides just in general. Last summer I regularly did 25 mile rides 3 days in a row, etc. Of course I was on a hybrid bike at the time, so my road bike should be a little more efficient, and I'd like to up those distances. So I'll definitely use that advice and practice longer rides, two days in a row before STP. I was kind of worried how I would feel the next morning after all that work and sleeping in a tent!

-Jessica

Hi again - your reference to 'sleeping in a tent' prompted me to suggest that you consider and plan for whatever lodging arrangements you make for Sat night. If you're going to camp at the halfway point in Centralia - then you may want to make a goal to get there early and stake out the best tent location for your needs (close to the bathrooms, away from the band, not in the middle of all of the other tents, etc), as it gets pretty crowded there. I used it for a bathroom and lunch stop on the 1-day and so I didn't see too many 2-day riders there yet, but I did see all of the gear trucks and piles of gear bags and tents all over, plus I heard accounts from friends who've camped there on Saturday night and they said it was very busy, and noisy. I've done quite a few AIDS fundraising rides over the years and learned while camping with 1500 others to make sure and bring ear plugs! Even when things quiet down @ 10PM or so, you're sometimes only inches from your tenting neighbor and campgrounds tend to offer a cacophony of all types of sounds at night! Also, no need for an alarm clock as you'll be awakened by lots of 'zipper' sounds in the morning: tent zippers, gear bag zippers galore!
I learned to try and anticipate, then incorporate the whole experience in planning for myself, as I've found that after riding all day, I need to shower, eat and get good rest if I'm going to be able to ride comfortably again each day. My goals were always pretty simple: train to be able to complete - safely and without injury - whatever event ride I was doing and to have fun throughout!
I'm sure that you'll have a great training and riding season; tailwinds to you!
Mary

[evangundy]

I've ridden STP 10 times - 9 as 2-day and 1 as 1-day. A good training "guide" is found on the Cascade Bicycle Clubs STP website on this page: http://cascade.org/EandR/stp/stp_mileage.cfm

Scroll near the bottom of the page - the charts give you suggested mileage, increasing weekly. I haven't stuck strictly to the mileage, but used it as a guide, some weeks my miles were lower, some were higher. I found the most comfortable STP years were when my training miles were at the high ends of the suggested mileages, so these charts do help.

Some of the most important words of advice I can give is to have fun and to stay aware of your surroundings. Don't go out too fast - you'll feel burnt out later in the day. Keep smiling and have fun. There are LOTS of riders out there, can be crowded sometimes - stay aware of those around you to avoid accidents. There are probably more crashes and flats in the first 20 miles than in the rest of the ride. STP feels like a rolling party - so have fun :-)

Edna

[XMcShiftersonX]

I've ridden STP 10 times - 9 as 2-day and 1 as 1-day. A good training "guide" is found on the Cascade Bicycle Clubs STP website on this page: http://cascade.org/EandR/stp/stp_mileage.cfm

Scroll near the bottom of the page - the charts give you suggested mileage, increasing weekly. I haven't stuck strictly to the mileage, but used it as a guide, some weeks my miles were lower, some were higher. I found the most comfortable STP years were when my training miles were at the high ends of the suggested mileages, so these charts do help.

Some of the most important words of advice I can give is to have fun and to stay aware of your surroundings. Don't go out too fast - you'll feel burnt out later in the day. Keep smiling and have fun. There are LOTS of riders out there, can be crowded sometimes - stay aware of those around you to avoid accidents. There are probably more crashes and flats in the first 20 miles than in the rest of the ride. STP feels like a rolling party - so have fun :-)

Edna

Cool! Thanks for that link! I printed out the mileage page along with the CTS riding schedule and plan to attend as many of those group rides as possible. I'm happy to say I already met my first week goal, but only in one ride! haha, and I'll do a little 20 miler at the end of this week as well. So, it sounds like I'm right where I should be, if not a little farther.

-Jessica

[Aint Doody]

Don't forget about the CROC over Memorial Day Week-end in Pendleton. Lotsa TE ladies and dh's have done this one. Website is www.cylcependleton.com. It's a blast.