This year I’m planning to ride in at least two cycling events: TD Five Boro Bike Tour in May, and Bike MS in September. I’m on the look out for another event around July which will make it nice and even 2 months between events.

Five Boro Bike Tour

This tour is approximately 40 miles long and since the furthest I’ve ridden in a single day was 23 miles last September, I have some work to do! What I have figured out is that I need to train my body to be able to ride the months, meaning:

• January = 15+ miles
• February = ~25 miles
• March = 30-35 miles
• April = 40 miles

My training regime so far consists of two indoor trainer ride in Tuesday and Thursday evenings using videos from The Sufferfest, and a weekend ride on the road. As the weather improve in February and March (fingers cross!), I should be able to ride outdoor on Tuesday and Thursday too. When that happens, I’ll need to choose my route carefully so that I get the necessary interval training, not just endurance/distance. I’ll also be joining the local cycling groups on meetup.com and Princeton Freewheelers for long ride during the weekends.

I’m pretty sure I will be able to tackle the full distance since the route is pretty flat, except very short climbs up the bridges.

Bike MS

There are a number of Bike MS events in NJ in September with various route length. I don’t think I will be able to tackle the century route (100 miles or 100 km) this year yet so I’ll look out for 40 miles or 50 miles event.

These routes, compare to the Five Boro Bike Tour, have long hills to climbs (1000+ feet elevation with 5-7% gradient). I’ll have to adjust my training regime accordingly to improve my climbing ability. There are a few short but steep climbs around my area but nothing that is long and less steep. For that I probably need to drive to Sourland Mountain where Sourland Spectacular was held.