Death Ride: Training Rides

Dec 11, 2009... my phone vibrates... "I'm in!" read the text message. It was Jon. A few minutes later I got the same basic message from Sandie. That made three of us. Okay... looks like we're doing this thing.

We didn't get to really start training until one month before the ride. Luckily we all ride pretty much all year. This means we all have a good base at all times and just need to start ramping it up. I sat down and thought about all of the local rides I have done and built a nice little plan to get us where we needed to be.

Training ride #1: A nice 30 mile loop from home over Lakeview to the Washoe Valley loop. We took East Lake Blvd to 395 to Franktown Rd then back over Lakeview with a stop at our favorite pizza joint, Brugos for pizza and beer. Jon missed this ride as he was out of town but did his own ride.
Training ride #2: The plan was to do a 42 mile loop from home out to Dayton and up Six Mile Canyon to Virginia City. Then head down the truck route and back to home. Unfortunately the roads around VC were closed for a special event. I had to make an adjustment. We did the 5 Hills of Carson ride. Kings Canyon, Timberline, Coombs Canyon (Lakeview), Duck Hill, then the Franktown Loop, and back over Lakeview. Once again finishing up at Brugos. Once again Jon had to do his own ride as he had baseball that day.
Training Ride #3: The plan was to do the Diamond Valley Loop from Target. This would give us a relatively flat 60 miles. We opted for a 40 plus mile mountain bike ride planned by our friend Jeff instead. This ride took us from home up Kings Canyon to Spooner Summit with a loop around the Flume Trail, then down Red House Flume to Lakeview back to Carson City. We skipped Brugos this time and everyone came to our house for chips, salsa, and margaritas! MTB rides have to end with Mexican food. This ride gave us a ton of time in the saddle and the climbing strength we needed for the Death Ride. You can read about this ride and see some great photos HERE.
Training Ride #4: Our final real training ride took us from home to Genoa then into California with a loop around Diamond Valley. This is in the area of the Death Ride. We stopped to refuel and get some cold water at Woodfords Station. The people here LOVE cyclists! Back on the bikes and back the way we came to Carson City and once again... Brugos! It was an absolutely PERFECT day for 80 miles of beautiful scenery and good friends. The battery in my Garmin died so the end of the ride is not included in the Google Earth image, but you can get a good idea of what we did anyway.
We were ready...