2011 Conditioning Rides for RA2011

In mid-March 2011, some of the RA2011 group started doing conditioning rides with full panniers, designed to get us used to lugging around 70-90 pounds of bicycle and gear.  It seems better to do this now rather than get a rude awakening trying to cross the Cascades.

Some of these conditioning rides have blog posts (if I brought a camera), while many others do not.  For those interested, this will at least give you an idea of what kind of training we did:

10/29/2010 Scottsdale Trial Ride, 65 miles
3/20/2011 South Mountain TV Towers, 64 miles
3/25/2011 Fountain Hills, 61 miles
3/27/2011 Queen Creek, 58 miles
4/1/2011 Bartlett Lake, 63 miles
4/4/2011 Fountain Hills, 58 miles
4/5/2011 Tempe IHOP and vicinity, 51 miles
4/11/2011 Fountain Hills, 51 miles
4/12/2011 Tempe IHOP, 39 miles
4/18/2011 Fountain Hills, 58 miles
4/19/2011 Tempe IHOP 39 miles
4/22/2011 Tempe Mekong Market, 32 miles
4/26/2011 Tempe IHOP, 45 miles
4/29/2011 Tempe Jack-In-The-Box, 55 miles
5/2/2011 Fountain Hills, 55 miles
5/3/2011 Tempe IHOP, 42 miles
5/9/2011 Fountain Hills, 59 miles
5/10/2011 Tempe IHOP and REI, 48 miles
5/16/2011 Fountain Hills, 57 miles
5/17/2011 The Great Semi-Annual Dental Ride, 18 miles
5/23/2011 Fountain Hills, 64 miles

So far, I’d say the legs are in good shape, and the bicycle weight isn’t an issue.  All these miles have been particularly useful to make comfort adjustments on the bike.  I have been playing with seat position, shoes, and cleat position throughout.   Even so, I remain a little concerned about my twingy knees.