Training Actually Needed - RAGBRAI 2013 Part V

Despite what I was saying yesterday morning about the bike ride not being everything, you still have to go a minimum of 400+ miles to complete a week of RAGBRAI.  People hear from many different sources that the recommended number of training miles prior to the event is somewhere between 700 and 1,000.  I'm amazed each year at the number of people who tell me that they have trained less than 100 miles.  A few of these people will do just fine because they have a cycling background from years past.  Most of these under-trainers will be the same ones who are whining and complaining on the easiest of days.

This year the easiest day had to be Tuesday from Perry to Des Moines.  It was a route with few hills and a tailwind for most of the way.  Athletically, I wasn't challenged that day.  However, as I was hanging around camp while waiting for the pizza that one man in our charter group graciously buys for us one day each year, I ended up being the sounding board for two ladies of our group.  These two ladies are probably in their upper fifties and I refer to them as Debbie Downers.  I don't usually care to even speak to them for fear that their pessimism and constant complaining might become contagious.

I was trying.  I was really trying to be sympathetic to their concerns about the ride that day.  That day was the easiest day of riding I have ever had in my 4 complete years of RAGBRAI.  I think I held in my reaction fairly well until I asked them how much training they had each done.  They said something like 50 miles apiece.  I think my face gave away my reaction.  I recovered quickly, but not quick enough, I guess.  Thankfully I was saved by some other distraction.