Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Century, Metric or Otherwise, Are you Ready?







The Picture of the photo of myself and Ashley is one of my Favorite photo's Taken by our friend and professional photographer, Alex Mcknight. The bridge my lovely wife and I are standing on is called the Gandy Bridge in Tampa, FL. It was the old connector bridge from Tampa to St. Petersburg, FL. It is approxiametly 3.5 miles long. We would run, skate, and ride over this bridge A LOT when we lived in beautiful Tampa, FL. Now, they do not allow anyone on it! So, this is not only a piece of history, but also a big part of our training back in our Florida days. We actually use to do hill intervals on that little rise you see in the background, you know the rise on bridges so small vessels can get under the bridge? Yep, that was our one hill near our house! How times have changed? Even living in Kansas, I can easily get in 1500-2000 feet of climbing in a 30 mile ride, if it is planned out correctly. The other picture was taken back in May at the top of Brasstown Bald Climb, near Helen, GA. It is significant to understand what my friend went through this past weekend.

The guy behind the len's of the photo of Ashley and I just completed the Six Gap Century in Georgia. The 6 Gap is a huge task! 100 plus miles over 6 Mountain Gaps in Georgia. The highest Peak is over 4 thousand feet. I was at a training camp in May riding all of those Gaps on a daily basis. They are inspiring and humbling all at the same time. Add in 100 plus miles and you could be on the bike for over 7 hours! It takes a lot of preparation to tackle this event. I completed in 2007, but have ridden my bike over those Gaps a lot back in the Tour De Georgia days. I highly recommend a trip to this area! It is family friendly and just spectacular.

I am happy to report that Alex finished in fine fashion and is recovery from the achievement. But, not without some doubts along his journey. You could tell as he sent messages, he was up and down. Just like any other distance event you may enter, you will have some really high moments and some really low ones. It is how you handle or have prepared for the event that will carry toward the finish line. Sounds a lot like life dosen't it?

So, let's get to the real point of this blog post! I have a very good friend who has been my coach in the past and will have some future implications on a lot of great things moving forward in 2012. I thought I would add a well written article that Jeb Stewart of Endurofit Coaching published in the September Issue of Florida Cycling. The article discuss's training for a Century event. Since we have been putting in the work for this Saturday's Tour De BBQ, I felt like this would be a great read to make sure you are prepared in all aspects before the ride? So, enjoy the information and you can always email me your questions concerning training, preparation for events, and equipment needs to shoressports1@yahoo.com.

Here is the link to the article: Training for a Successful Century

GO!

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