The brilliance of RAGBRAI is that you can do it however you want. Fancy tent set-up and more food than you'd ever eat; finding a tour that actually books you into someone's home; to just getting your duffel bag of stuff hauled by the RAGBRAI truck from town to town. There are so many choices to make it's like scrolling through Amazon until you have so many choices you can't decide. Think about what you want first and then focus on that.
I'll talk about the training. I did it 6 years or so ago when I was in my late 50s. I started making sure that I had a base of mileage starting right about now. In DC we have few days when I can't ride, so getting in a base of 50-75 miles a week was doable. For younger folks, perhaps the ramp up time would be less, but I would want to be doing serious training at least 4 months out so you can get up to 150 miles per week by the end of May. For me, the training was most important so that I could learn about where my max heart rate would be so I could make sure that I would know when to back off on my pace and on the climbs. I found this to be a key things to understand because the earlier you run into the red zone, the less you have for later in the ride. Multiply that by 7 days of riding and it is something well worth knowing. I invested in a heart monitor for training but did not need it for the ride itself. Weight training is helpful for those bike specific muscles other than your legs. Not huge weights or anything, but getting in several sets on your non leg muscles will be a big help. I also focused on deadlifts for more power in my riding. Another thing you must train for it riding in the heat. A buddy of mine who lived in Florida where, of course, there were no hills had things pretty dialed in because he had trained in the heat. So this is something that you can't really do until late May and June, which is when I might focus on longer rides in the heat that challenge your body to get used to sweating and replenishing your fluids with whatever works. It was Gatorade for me. One thing that surprised me quite a bit was actually how many fancy bike racers were seriously challenged by the long, rolling hills. I rode my non-Riv road bike with an 11-34 rear cluster and a compact front crankset. So almost inevitably, the fancy Dans would come speeding down the prior hill and started hammering up the next hill. But these were rarely hills where you could just hammer and crest the top. They are rolling like mile or 2 mile climbs. So the plastic bikes rode fast for the first third of the climb and then I would pace past them. Not because I was a stronger rider but because racing bikes are typically not geared properly for sustained climbing. My way of saying that a well geared Rivendell is a much better choice for the ride. On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 8:02:11 PM UTC-5 George Schick wrote: > Not sure why you'd want to go through the trouble to travel all the way > over to the Western end of Iowa for this ride particular ride given the > distance to get there, the logistics, accommodation issues and the sheer > mass of riders (some of whom seem to like to stop at every bar along a > portion of a daily route until they're so inebriated that they crash into > trees, etc., vehicles that have run over cyclists in sleeping bags, etc.) > just for the notoriety when you could enjoy a multiple number of great > rides right in your own backyard, so to speak. Have you considered > https://lmb.org/events/ride-calendar/? > > On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 6:47:36 PM UTC-6 R. Alexis wrote: > >> Leah, >> >> I took the opportunity to ride the first day of RAGBRAI last summer. I >> live in eastern Nebraska. I happened to be off that weekend, heard it was >> starting that weekend and that it was the 50th anniversary of the ride. Had >> always thought of doing at least the first day, but never took the >> opportunity to look into it and would find out the morning of when local >> news would do reports on it. I took the opportunity. I enjoyed it, even if >> I tried to bite off too much in the process. I think if you are going to do >> the whole thing you best look at the dates and locations and figure out >> hotel/motel stays now. It is not a race, but definitely get conditioned for >> the heat, humidity and hills before hand. My plan was to ride to the second >> to last city location and double back in order to get in a century. I fell >> short of that and wished I would have just rode to the end city and called >> it a day. First day miles to the end city was 77. I estimated I did about >> 64 miles in my attempt to ride back to Sioux City. Sag truck ended up >> taking me to Storm Lake, IA where and I ended calling out a mayday to a >> friend to pick me up and get me back to Sioux City to my car. >> >> I rode my Rivendell Mountain because I felt it would be the most >> comfortable with it's Softride suspension stem and Thudbuster Uni-Pivot >> post. The next bike I was considering was the OX Brand Ti Cruiser 29er. Got >> some compliments on the Riv. Ran into some fellow RBW/iBOB members and >> chatted for a bit. >> >> The logistics can be much. Deciding if you want to park on the west Iowa >> and get shuttled back after or park in east Iowa and have your >> transportation handy once it is done. Ran into some folks at the first day >> stop. One gal had threw in the towel after the first 5 or so miles. She >> ended up hitching a ride to the final to retrieve her vehicle so her and >> the rest of her group could could use it for camping purposes the rest of >> the ride. >> >> Amtrak does run through the state out of Chicago going to California, The >> Omaha station will probably be the closest one the start location. One of >> the folks I chatted with said she had a friend that took Amtrak to Omaha >> and rode from Omaha to Sioux City to start the ride. >> >> Good luck with getting things figured out. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Reginald Alexis >> >> On Monday, January 15, 2024 at 5:33:07 PM UTC-6 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! >> wrote: >> >>> Who knows about Bike Film Festival? >>> >>> I paid for the pass to watch this year’s videos and it was money >>> well-spent. I got to the RAGBRAI documentary last night. Wow. I had heard >>> of it but really knew nothing about it and now I would just love to figure >>> out how to ride it this year. It just looks like such an experience. And >>> I’ve had very few experiences, because I’m late to the bike adventure scene >>> AND I’ve been raising kids! But now they are teenagers and might not even >>> know that I’m gone so maybe I should ride this epic ride! >>> >>> There are a ton of logistics I don’t understand. I think you need a >>> “charter” to haul your stuff, yes? And to bring you back across the state >>> after you finish? And if you use these “charters” do they trash your bike >>> in their racks or will they have something that can handle a a mixte with >>> fenders? Is there are charter that is more friendly to Riv bikes than the >>> others? >>> >>> Also, no camping. I’m really hoping to end up in a hotel or some sort of >>> dwelling. I don’t have any tents, don’t know how to pitch tents and so on. >>> This may be the thing I can’t plan my way out of, because there are so many >>> riders moving through tiny host towns. >>> >>> I’ll look up more info tonight after I get my chores done! But it really >>> is so exciting to imagine riding my bike across a whole state… Also, it’s >>> Real Winter here in Michigan, so maybe that’s why this hits different. >>> >>> Leah >>> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4880a7a2-3ee8-4201-8c46-56f64ce5d320n%40googlegroups.com.
