Our last two “major” training rides were last Saturday, and yesterday.  Last Saturday we rode 107 miles, and at mile 85 we added  a climb that we do frequently, but never with 85 miles in our legs.  The results were astonishing:  We both set PRs going up the climb! I’m not sure how we were able to do that, but we were certainly pleased with the results.

Our total ride time was 6:44 (6 hours, 44 minutes), and we averaged 16 mph.  We had our regular breakfast of bacon and eggs plus coco butter coffee, and on the ride we had 2 Quest protein bars, and some peanuts.  I also had a SuperStarch drink about halfway in, but Jonathan opted for a third protein bar instead.

Sunday’s ride was 121 miles with just  under 4,000 feet of climbing.  Our total ride time was 7:20, and our average speed was 16.5 mph. We were very happy with that as it was faster with more miles than the previous ride, and we faced a cross/headwind most of the way out, and half the way back.  Same breakfast as the previous weekend, and on the bike we had 2 protein bars, some nuts, and we both had SuperStarch about 80 miles in.  The SuperStarch really helped us through the last part of the ride.  We did not feel as hungry as we had the prior week.  We’ll definitely plan to take it at least once, if not more, during Lotoja.

We’ve also started sharing a small RedBull during the ride to get a shot of caffeine and other vitamins.  The ketone supplement was upsetting Jonathan’s stomach so we haven’t been using it, and honestly, I haven’t really missed it.

We will now taper off our riding pretty significantly before Lotoja so we go into it with fresh legs.  We will do a recovery ride in the next day or so, and over the weekend we’ll do some shorter rides.  We both feel very good about our training and look forward to the challenging ride on September 12th!