Last October I spent most of a week biking around Vermont with an old friend. The back roads in that part of the world are transcendent and also just very hilly. We had a great time, but we had to scale back our ambitions almost immediately. Our plan for day one seemed manageable—45 miles of scenic rambling around the towns where we grew up. 25 miles of steep, rocky, leaf-covered roads and “roads” took us more than six hours and we had to give up and take a shortcut to the end of our route.
I’m not an athlete. The appeal of bicycling for me has always been, at least partly, that I can just hop on and go. Unless you’re racing (I am not), you don’t have to “train”, you can just go for more bike rides. For me, planning for a ride has always meant mapping out a fun route, not thinking or being intentional about my own fitness. Alas, the Class 4 roads of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom informed me that I can’t get away with that approach forever.
I’ve got an idea for a fun bikepacking trip next summer, and I’m already excited to start planning the route and logistics. But: the reality that I will need to put some effort into preparing myself for the physical challenge is looming over the project. It’s a whole new paradigm for me and I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous. But the good part is: it still just means I have to go for a lot of bike rides between now and then.
What are your strategies for working up to a challenging ride? Wing it? A meticulous training plan? A few extra rides?
More Things to do this week:
- Saturday is also packed with fun stuff:
- Don’t miss our own colorful spring bash, the Bloom Ride & Spring Picnic!
- The Tree House Tour de Cookie is The Tree House’s annual non-competitive, family-friendly, fun-filled bike ride fundraiser.
- Black Women Bike are hosting a Family Biking Clinic!
- Celebrate the Marvin Gaye Trail with a clean-up and photography trail walk.
- Or, if you want to head out of town, check out the Maryland Coast Bike Festival
- Sunday: Join Ward 5 Family Biking for a Star Wars / Cinco de Mayo ride.
- Next Saturday: Got a stressed out high-schooler in your life? Send them on our chill ramble through the National Arboretum.
- Registration for our June classes is open.
- Join almost 5,000 people who’ve signed our petition urging Mayor Bowser not to cancel the Connecticut Ave bike lanes.
- Register for Bike to Work Day—it’s on Friday, May 17th this year and the t-shirts are a peppy orange. If you want to lead a convoy to a pit stop, sign up here.
- Our friends at the League of American Bicyclists are hiring an Ops Coordinator.
A fun route idea for the weekend:
It’s looking a bit damp out there so we’ll stick to the pavement (mostly). Here’s a trail-focused, net-downhill jaunt from the Glenmont Metro to the Court House Metro, via some trails, Chain Bridge, and the bike-laned rollers of Military Road.
Have a great weekend.