Making Moves

Today I 'officially' registered for the Elephant Rock Century Ride in June. I've got about 4 months to man up and stop being afraid of my clip pedals.

After paying my registration fee, I quickly searched around for a training plan. Essentially, the biggest part of training is getting your sitting bits used to the saddle. I can attest to the importance; my sitting bits were quite angry with me after an hour spin class on Friday where we didn't come up out of the saddle for 45 minutes. I can only imagine how 6-7 hours on bike would feel.

The length and ultimate mileage of the training plans vary as well, some running 10 or 12 weeks and building up to anywhere from 60-70 miles before the main event. Similar to half marathon training, I won't be training the actual distance before the ride. The training plan I've liked best so far has 5 days of riding; I'm hoping to find one with 4. For the first 1.5 months, I'll also be training for a sprint tri in Nebraska (say what?), so I'll also want to sneak in some running and swimming. I want to have my training plan mapped out before my half in March so I can hit the ground running - if I give myself too much time off, I don't ever start again!

Of course, while I was looking up a century training plan, I also looked up training plans for the half ironman. They are intimidating, for sure. Not because of any individual workout, but because of the overall volume of workouts. I found an 18 week plan that I like, which gives me 2 weeks 'free' in June before I start up again. This weekend I will be with a buddy who trains for full ironmans, and I am curious to ask him how he balances life and workouts. I feel as though I could easily become a zombie who eats, sleeps, and works out. With all the camping, hiking, climbing, and kayaking I wanted to do this summer, I will have a full schedule to fit it all in!

For the century ride, at least, I have my good friend Morgan to ride with. She has already schemed about doing rides up Lookout Mountain before work at least once a week (a ride that she calls 'easy' - crazy girl!). I'm eager to remain on a training plan for the majority of the year (after both my tri and my half, I promptly stopped working out and got out of shape; I hate working out, just to workout, without a race to train for), but a bit apprehensive that my whole year is already planned out.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet around here. Another weekend of running and skiing, although with ice and flat light, the conditions at Keystone weren't all that great. Its another quiet work week filled with little odds and ends, but nothing overly filling.

Have you ever done a century ride? Did your butt survive?