My Ride the Rockies Blog

On March 2nd, I found out I was one of the lucky 2,000 riders selected for the 2012 Ride the Rockies. In the six days from June 9th to 15th, I will be riding 442 miles, including 24,937 vertical feet! Riding from Gunnison to Fort Collins, I’ll ascend (assuming I survive!) McClure Pass, Independence Pass, Fremont Pass, Ute Pass and Milner Pass, riding through some of the most beautiful country in the world at an average of about 8,000 feet above sea level and peaking at over 12,000!

What has possessed me? I am a fairly typical “old man” (58) in reasonable, but not great shape. I have never done anything this physically hard for this extended a period of time. I did quite a bit of bike riding in my 20s, but not that much since until last year. Still, if you live in Colorado and if you like riding bikes, this is THE ride to do. I am excited, terrified and determined to do it.

I do have a few things going for me. I live in Denver, which is at a mile high, and we have a condo in Dillon, which is at over 9,000 feet elevation, so I will be able to train at altitude. Also, living in Colorado, it is just the norm to be out there doing stuff in the outdoors. After years of not doing much biking, I finally got back into it last summer, and was regularly doing 75 miles a week, with regular weekend jaunts added on. Of course, I am going to have to do a damn sight more this year!

The folk at Ride the Rockies randomly select about 2,000 riders every year and while the majority are young and dedicated bikers, there are plenty of just regular folk, so they are geared up to help people like me. They have a great web site with a suggested training regimen, etc. etc. Their suggested training began on Feb. 29th, but I didn’t really start until this weekend, but I figure if I put my mind to it, I can do the training necessary to not only survive (#1 goal!), but to enjoy the experience.

This blog is supposed to help me keep at it. If I put my training and then ride up on the web for anyone to see, it will be very embarrassing if I fail. I should be able to keep it up even without this, but it never hurts…