Feeling I’m over thinking things but wanted to see what others think. The short of it is I’m a 40+ yr old cyclist that never trained consistently, been off the bike for 4 years from an accident and job change, have 5+ months of training with TR repeating SSB 1 & 2 LV, ftp/kg is 2.3, and worried I’m not fit enough for the Carson City off road 50 miler.
My future plan is starting sustained power build, and Century LV to finish training 2 weeks before the Carson City Off-road. I have 2 B level gravel events in April I could do to get ready but again I feel I would barely be able to survive them. Am I over thinking this and should just sign up and see what happens?
I believe that you’re over thinking things, unless you’re expecting to turn up and win.
Have you ridden any of those events before? Do you know from past experience that you’re not in the place you’ll need to be?
Set yourself a couple of ride/race takeaways that you’d like to achieve and shoot for those. I know that this strategy works for me and if you surpass those, your self belief will rocket.
If you don’t enter, I’m willing to bet that you’ll be playing the ‘what if…’ mental game for a while.
Some times a really meaningful challenge is one where finishing isn’t a certainty.
Make finishing your outcome goal, keep training and enjoy the day. You’ll get a massive sense of achievement and validation when you do cross the line.
Whatever event an athlete - pro or amateur - enters, they rarely, if ever, feel 100% ready.
Just give it a go! You’ll have fun, gain fitness and learn a lot about how to race.
When you’re 80 you won’t remember hitting those giddy W/kg numbers: you’ll remember what you did on your bike! Enjoy
Great advice. I was an overweight guy that needed a ‘kick’ to get myself into a healthy state (I was nearly 120kg at 5’11), I bought a bike and TT and I was getting some good results, then my brother signed me up for the Tour of Flanders sportive (237km). If he hadn’t have done that I would have probably not stuck to the training, the fear/challenge of completing the event pushed me on and the feeling when I crossed the line having completed it is one of the best moments of my life. It sounds dramatic but the achievement of completing it really was that big for me. Now I’m totally hooked on riding and a LOT healthier for it!
So I agree, go for it with the outcome goal of completing the event in before the broom wagon, and give yourself a bloody big pat on the back if you succeed, and if you don’t succeed then use that as fuel to make sure you nail it next year :).
You will invariably rise to the occasion on the day. It might be hard but you can be assured it will be worthwhile as a well as memorable as @GregH points out.
Yes it might not work out but if we assumed that in life we would not get anywhere. Just start of very steady and build up in the last 15 miles if you have anything left
In his “Faster Road Racing” book, Pete Pfitzinger advocates entering marathons and only running the first half of it as a viable tactic for half-marathon race-pace practice.
Those B-races you want to enter are all part of the plan and will help make Carson City even better
