Training for the MS150

I am busy training for my first really long bike ride at the end of August - the MS150, a two day bike ride of 86 miles the first day and 60 miles the second day. (Interested in helping me? - click here) I am halfway through the training, which consists of me logging ~100 miles during the week, and a long bike ride on the weekends.

Today, on my long ride I biked 55 miles with a lot of hills to get prepared for the elevation change on the actual ride. The first stop I did was actually at the base of the Tram, a good 1000 feet and 16 miles from our house down in the valley. I made sure to take a picture, show on the left, because I was pretty oxygen deprived and hallucinating. (I seem to remember more giant ground sloths and dancing water bottles that obviously don't show up in the photo) On the right was my path down to the bottom of the Rio Grande Valley, with the far point marked with a vertical arrow, a good 30 miles away. (Click on the right picture to enlarge the photo). The ride down was a little harrowing, for the next 8 miles I needed to keep the brakes on just to keep my speed below 40 mph! (Serious hand cramps)

Most of the middle section was along the Bosque trail down by the river. Blissfully flat! Below left is a picture from the location marked with an arrow on the picture in the upper right looking back toward the mountains. Holy crap I went a long way! From that point, I looped up past the airport and then jumped into the neighborhoods near my house. Very long ride. I hope to be ready for the ride at the end of this month! My only goals are to try to finish the ride, and to raise some money for a good cause.