51 Miles, Six Weeks Out

The ride

Thursday morning. 9:47 AM roll. 51.39 miles, 204 minutes of moving time, 704 feet of elevation, 101 average watts.

Average watts won't impress anyone. 101W is a comfortable, aerobic pace, the kind where you can hold a conversation and still feel like you're doing something useful. For context, my FTP (functional threshold power, the watts I can sustain for roughly an hour at full effort) is currently 216W. So 101W is about 47% of that. Zone 2, mostly. That's intentional.

Where I am in the build

TheBayRide is August 29th. That's six weeks away. This is not the time to be doing heroic interval sessions and blowing up my legs. This is the time to log miles, stay consistent, and make sure my body remembers what it feels like to be on a bike for a few hours.

51 miles in just over three hours is a meaningful training block. The full ride is 135 miles, so I'm not pretending this is a simulation. But it's a deposit. Every ride between now and the 29th is a deposit.

What the numbers tell me

Distance: 51.39 mi
Moving time: 203 min (3 hrs 23 min)
Elevation: 704 ft
Avg speed: 15.2 mph
Avg watts: 101W
Work: 1,225 kJ

1,225 kilojoules of work done. Roughly equivalent to the calories burned, give or take. That's a real training load even if the watts look modest.

The honest part

I started the year with fitness on the floor. My peak FTP was 295W in July 2022. Right now I'm at 216W and 209 pounds. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm moving in the right direction, and this morning's ride is evidence of that.

Six weeks is enough time to make a difference. Not enough time to recover from skipped weeks, so I'm not skipping weeks.

Will you be ready?

I keep asking that question because I mean it. The 135-mile loop around the Bay is a real commitment. If you're doing it, you should be riding now. Not to be harsh, just honest. Six weeks goes fast.

If you're newer to distance riding, the 35-mile option from SF to Oakland is a legitimate challenge and a great entry point. Either way, start logging miles.

I'll keep posting the numbers, good weeks and off weeks both. That's the deal I made when I started sharing this publicly.

See you on August 29th.

Ride on Strava ↗