2024: The Epicness will be sixfold

So the transition year is over, and I am motivated to get out of the bad pandemic-driven habits - why? 

A TrainerRoad workout back in 2018

Well I signed up for a big-ass scary bucket list event is why! I am signed up for the Breck Epic six-day mountain bike stage race in August! I am sure I could struggle-bus through it at my current fitness/weight, but it would be BRUTAL and not enjoyable in the least. I don’t necessarily want to be competitive for the overall in my category, rather I want to be fit enough to enjoy the race and be competitive on the day when it makes sense. 

 At this point in time my plan is to use TrainerRoad to build fitness. This is pretty much exactly what I did back in 2018, but that platform has come a long way and is even better than before. I’ve created a Plan Builder and will continue to add events as they come up to build to August. 

Giant Yukon with Pogies

The first event I have on the calendar is the Gravel Worlds Winter Endurance ride/race in the fat bike category in February. I chose the fat bike category for two main reasons. 1) I have really good pogies on the fat bike which make keeping my hands warm a lot easier. 2) I need longer events to get ready for the Breck Epic, and the longest way to do the Winter Endurance is on ye old fattie. 

Quick note: I have tried a few different pogies over the years, including some very expensive ones, and the Wolf Tooth versions are may favorite. Once you get the bar plugs installed, you just leave those in year round. Then when you need the pogies it is all of a 5 minute job to get both sides installed. I like to throw little hand chemical warmers in each one on the really cold rides to create little mini furnaces.

 I am excited to start working in bigger rides on Saturdays, and at some point will be planning a bit of a home-based dry-run to have a handful of days in a row on the mountain bike for ~4 hours each. It would be awesome to plop the old camper trailer out at Platte River State Park for that, but MAN do the weather and campsite registrations make that tough. 

Our camper out at Platte River State Park in September

I also want to work in some weekly strength conditioning and am looking into this guy called Derek at “Dialed Health”. I’ve got the yearly subscription and will start figuring out how to work that in. I know one of my weaknesses on long events (especially MTB) is the strength in my lower back, so I need to start addressing that now.

So far my training is going pretty dang well! Numbers are coming around, and I feel really good!