Update 1/28/09: I’m going to be part of The Ride of Your Life virtual book tour. You could win a copy of the book for submitting a question for the interview.
Many recreational cyclists make doing a century ride their big goal. If you’re one of those cyclists and now you’ve become comfortable with century rides, what do you do next?
There are plenty of cycling options longer than 100 miles. There are organized double centuries and self supported brevets. Since brevets come from France they come in metric distances of 200, 300, 400, 600, 1,000 and 1,200 km.
Ok, there’s plenty of options for long bike rides but how do you prepare for one. If you’re a seat of the pants person like me, you just do some riding and then set off on your adventure. I first did a 160 mile unsupported solo ride when I was 15 and really didn’t do much planning.
That method isn’t the best way which is why I’ve used a coach for my racing. Now there’s a new book, The Ride of Your Life, by David Rowe of Ready to Ride to help long distance cyclists achieve their dreams.
David has experience in what he’s talking about. Like many other long distance cyclists he’s never raced. Instead he started out doing centuries and then going for long distances. He has completed some of the most challenging road cycling events in the Northwest, including the Cascade 1200, the Portland-to-Glacier 1000, and the Rocky Mountain 1200.
You might expect the book to be mostly about how to train. Instead it focuses on how to set your goals and fit long distance cycling into the rest of your life. David talks about coming up with an overall plan for your rides for the year but points to other resources to come up with a day to day training play.
David talks about your goals need to be inspirational. Being inspired to do something is what has given me many of my adventures over the years. It doesn’t do any good to set a goal of doing a double century if doesn’t inspire you to get out of bed at 5 AM on Saturday to do a training ride.
On the subject of fitting long distance cycling into your life, David writes
Most of us love riding, and we are exhilarated by the thought of riding farther. We also connect the thought of physical activity with its many benefits, including weight loss, muscular strength, aerobic capacity, stress reduction, and overall physical and mental well-being.
But few of us stop to think about the impact that increasing the hours devoted to cycling and other exercise will have on our relationships with our friends, and family and loved ones. More hours on the bike means fewer hours at home. And that can create stress in our relationships. Will the people in our lives be willing to sacrifice time they would normally spend with us, so that we might achieve our goal? Will they wish us well as we ride out of the driveway? Or will our rides be under a constant shadow of guilt, because our spouse or partner does not share our goal, measuring our time on the bike as hours lost from the precious time we would spend together?
And what about the impact increased riding can have on your job? If you are a career professional, you are very likely working 45 to 60 hours a week. If you are one who is known to arrive at the office at 7:30 a.m. every day, how will your boss and co-workers react when you start showing up at 8:30? Some work cultures would be supportive of any effort one makes to improve personal health. Others simply do not care, and will measure that lost hour as lost productivity, lack of commitment, or both.
David steps you through prioritizing your goals so it’s easier to make decisions to keep your life in balance. One thing is to be flexible and know mentally up front that adjustments will be needed to keep balance with the rest of life.
In addition to the planning for long distance cycling, David included interviews with 6 recreational cyclists that have achieved inspiring long distance feats. The interviews with Greg Paley, Jill Homer, Del Sharffenberg, Kitty Goursolle, Kent Peterson, and John Spurgeon will make you want to head out for a ride now.
I highly recommend The Ride of Your Life if you want to make the move from century rides to longer rides. Even if you’re doing shorter events, you’ll find valuable planning information. You can read a 34 page preview of the book or you can head over to RoadBikeRider.com to buy it.
How you can win a free copy of The Ride of Your Life
David is collecting stories from readers who overcame physical, mental, or equipment challenges to finish a challenging ride. You can win a free copy of the Ride of Your Life, simply by telling you story in 200 words or less.
David is going to publish a compilation of the best stories in an eBook, which he will make available free in the Spring of this year. If your story is selected for publication, you’ll win a free eBook. It’s that easy.
You can download an entry form here: http://www.rideofyourlife.biz/my_ride.zip. Be sure to mention that you learned about the eBook giveaway on UltraRob.com
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