First post...133k weekend

When my dad (Chuck) emailed me and asked me if I wanted to come to Colorado and ride Ride te Rockies with him I was excited because it's an event I've always wanted to participate in. So I checked my adventure race schedule and made sure I didn't have any big races and said yes. It wasn't until after we'd gotten in that I checked the distance and the elevation gain. That's when I realized that living at sea level and in a relatively flat area meant that I was going to have to spend a lot of time in the saddle over the next several months.

This past weekend I got in 61k on Saturday riding out to Great Falls and back with a couple of repeats on the Mass Ave hill (approximate route). Sunday I got up early (for me) and went out with the Bicycle Place for their group ride. Lots of people decided to take advantage of the great weather and there were over 100 people riding. The main ride goes for about 55k but I opted to do the Rock Creek extension without about 7 other riders and we did about 72k. The ride is similar to my Saturday route and I've tried to approximate the route here though I'm a little fuzzy on how we got on Democracy Blvd from Oaklyn. I felt great on the hills after riding hard on Saturday and was keeping up with the front of the pack on the climbs.

This week my goal is to get in around 200 miles. The rider manual recommends 150-200 miles per week by mid-May. That seems really low to me considering we'll be riding 500+ in June and will have to do that at elevation and with some serious climbs.