Evolving into ‘Super’ Cyclists

It’s not that Bruce and I had NEVER been on a bike. As I mentioned, I loved biking as a kid. But for the past few decades we were casual cruisers, not super cyclists. I have a cruiser and sometimes Bruce will borrow Matthew’s mountain bike and we will cruise around the Bruneau Sand Dunes or the Green Belt in Boise. We’ve gone several times over the years with our family and cruised the famous Route of the Hiawatha in North Idaho.

But this was no cruise. We signed up with Bicycle Rides Northwest to ride a 350 mile loop from Walla Walla, Washington into several Oregon towns before making our way back-in 6 days. All included we needed the oomph to tackle the mileage and the 24,000 feet of elevation gain too. As I looked at the route map and the numbers, I didn’t really know what all that meant, except I was certain we could do it. Mr. Darwin said it best:

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does

knowledge…” – Charles Darwin

I had started regular walks in February, but March is when the rubber hit the road. After acquiring our bikes, and perhaps more importantly padded bike shorts and Chamois “Butt’r” for the comfort of our back ends, we started our training in earnest.

Our training logs are posted below. My default setting is walking so I still did as much of that as I could, but I also started a lot of indoor cycling. I got up at 4:15 am and cycled as many mornings as possible before work to get time under my belt, and to start building my cardio and leg muscles. I also dedicated time to yoga and strength training. Lots of stretching and healthy eating- fruits, veggies, simple carbohydrates and plenty of protein- especially after my workouts was essential.