For the past couple of years I've been putting on about 5,000 miles annually. To keep my miles up I try to earn the Randonneurs USA R-12 award. It requires one to ride an approved route of 200k or longer once per month for 12 months in succession. This keeps a short range goal right in front of me all the time for motivation to stay in shape. 2016 will be my third R-12 earned if things work out; since PAC Tour's rides aren't part of the RUSA route network, I'll need to fit those into the July and August training calendar. They'll still count as training miles too! Having developed a near-obsessive habit of monitoring weather before long rides (my iPhone has 4 weather apps), poring over route details, elevation gains, available rest stops and more, I figured that I could build a training schedule that would get me in Transcon shape. Even before I signed up in February, I was thinking about and researching what kind of preparation would be needed for a Transcon. Following my own experience with long rides, and incorporating advice from Lon Haldeman, The Cyclist's Training Bible, The Complete Book of Long Distance Cycling and a few online sources, I set a goal to ride 3600 miles in training by the tour start on July 17. This includes some speed work (series of short 20-40 second sprints in quick succession), endurance training (series of several sustained 5+ minute high output efforts), and cross-training at the gym to maintain strength. I sketched out a daily calendar for rides, committed to put in miles 4 days a week and cross-train weekly. Long rides mostly on weekends, speed and endurance workouts on weekdays when time is scarcer. Long rides to get longer as I build up my base miles and can sit in the saddle for longer stretches (fear of developing saddle-sore type issues is always on my mind as this could derail training).
January's long ride, and then February's, were in the books so I had a good start for the warmer riding season.
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