← Blog/August 5, 2026 · 2 min read
Short Legs on a Wednesday
13 miles, 57 minutes, average watts that would embarrass a lot of riders. Three weeks out from 135 miles, this is what the training log actually looks like.
The numbers
- Distance: 13.25 miles
- Moving time: 57 min
- Elevation: 375 ft
- Avg watts: 108W
- Work: 370 kJ
What happened
Wednesday afternoon. I got on the bike at 3:30. I had 90 minutes in my head, maybe more. I ended up with 57 minutes of actual moving time and called it.
Nothing dramatic happened. No mechanical, no emergency. I just felt flat. Legs had nothing, power was low, and somewhere around the turnaround point the honest answer was: this is a junk ride if I keep going. So I didn't.
108 watts average. My FTP right now is 216W, which means FTP is roughly the hardest effort you can sustain for about an hour. 108W is half of that. This was not a training stimulus. It was a spin.
Three weeks out
August 29th is 24 days away. That is close enough that I can feel it, and far enough that I can still influence the outcome. The window for big fitness gains is basically closed. What matters now is consistency, staying healthy, and not digging a hole I can't climb out of before the start line.
Cutting a bad ride short is part of that. A 57-minute ride that I finish beats a 90-minute ride that wrecks my legs for Thursday.
I'll be honest: this is the part of training buildup that doesn't look good on paper. The mileage isn't impressive. The watts are low. But this is also the part that is most real. Most people who want to ride 135 miles in a day are not sitting on monster fitness numbers right now. They are riding when they can, cutting it short when they have to, and trying to string together enough weeks that their legs show up on race day.
That is exactly what I am doing.
What comes next
The next couple of weeks are about getting the longer rides in on weekends while keeping the weekday rides manageable. I am not trying to peak right now. I am trying to arrive at August 29th intact, with enough base in my legs to turn the pedals for 135 miles around the Bay.
If you have been watching this training log and wondering whether you could do something like this, the answer is probably yes. Not because I am impressive, but because this log is proof that the path to 135 miles runs straight through weeks like this one. Ordinary rides. Short rides. Rides you cut early. That is the whole plan.
Come find out for yourself.
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