Time to start training

I’ve just returned from vacation and the rain has finally abated in Vancouver, so it is time to start working up to the bike ride. 

So how does one train for a long distance ride like that?  Well, as I’m relatively new to cycling, I haven’t got any professional answers to this.  Last year when I went on the BC Lung Association ride I did train and this consisted of my daily cycling commute – which is 16 miles, plus usually one long ride on a weekend – eventually building up to a full days distance the weekend before (in the region of 65 miles).  Looking at some of the advice on some Internet sites this appears to have been a good way to go about it.

I’m still figuring out my strategy for this and I will post more on this in the future.  One plan I have is to extend my daily cycle to work from 8 miles to include a detour down the Vancouver Airport, this will give me more distance and also take me on one of my favorite routes – cycling should be enjoyable!!!!

In the meantime there are a range of websites that offer advice on such activities, below are a couple that I’m looking at.  Looking at these and others one quickly becomes aware of just how seriously some people take their cycling, I don’t think I’ll be going quite as far as some people do (where’s the fun in eating an exact number of calories in a day?) – not yet anyway!  One important point about this ride though is that it is not a race, the goal is to complete the distance so this is somewhat different to working up to absolute pace.

http://www.bikeforums.net/  (just discovered this big online big forum)

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=47 (the touring forum, this seems the closest to what I’m doing)

http://www.bicycling.com/channel/0,6609,s1-4-0-0-0,00.html?location=_*topnav*  (bicycling.com seems to be a huge website with lots of interesting things on it)

http://www.bv.com.au/  (this is an Australian website and these guys seem to have lots of useful tips under bikes and riding)