Be careful what you wish for seems to be a common refrain in my adult life. A month or so ago I put my name into the lottery for the Unbound XL, a 350-mile gravel bike race that loops through the remote Flint Hills of central Kansas. Well I got in.
The first question I usually get asked about this event is: “how many days does it take?” The simple answer is one. Well actually one and a half. The time cut-off is 36 hours. This works out to an average speed of 9.7mph. To a seasoned cyclist this doesn’t sound like much, but in reality, it’s a tall order. Long distance cyclists known a randoneurs have a time cut-off of 40 hours for their 600 km (372 mile) events, which translates to an average speed of 9.3 mph. The rando rides are almost exclusively conducted on paved roads and quite often participants ride in groups known as pelotons. I will have almost no pavement, and I anticipate on riding solo, so I’m nervous.
What really freaked me about my first Ironman was the worry of could I even do it, I’m having the same worries now. I can’t just wing this thing, I’m going to have to have a serious well-balanced plan for getting this thing done.
Currently my plan is a three-pronged attack: endurance, strength and flexibility. I started doing daily yoga during the pandemic and will maintain a daily practice up to and well beyond the event, so I figure I have that covered. At age 59 I can’t simply rely on riding my bike in order to build and maintain sufficient muscular strength so I’ve added three days a week of weight training to my regimen. I’m going slow on this so as to not injure myself. Last but not least I’m going to have to log serious miles on my bike. I just don’t think that there is any alternative to time in the saddle.
The one question that I have is how much high intensity riding do I really need. I no longer race so high intensity workouts have gone out the window. I wonder if I need to revive them. Not sure yet.
Well I welcome you to follow along on this journey. It’s going to be a wild ride.