4/17 Saturday Ride and Proposed Training Schedule

There has been some discussion about the prospect of using the Saturday morning rides as a training vehicle for the CCCP Memorial Day ride through the White Mountains. The good news is that the level of interest has convinced us that it's worth given the idea a try. The bad news is that in order to be effective, we really need to start adding some hillier terrain starting this week. The really bad news is that weather forecast for Saturday is not pretty.

I have convinced a very small contingent of folks to head out rain or shine. Therefore, I am planning on being at the shop on Saturday morning regardless of the weather. The route will be about 35 miles and include both Mountain Rd. and Dutton Hill (MapMyRide route). I'm not going to pretend that 40 degrees, 15 mph winds and rain/drizzle ranks high on my list of enjoyable biking conditions, but if you have a jacket and are willing to brave the elements I can promise it will be an adventure.

As for the rest of the training program, we are going to try to incorporate a long ride each Saturday for the folks interested in preparing for the Memorial Day ride. The tentative plan is as follows:

• 4/24 Saturday Ride: Mountain Rd., Dutton Hill and Sligo Rd. (MapMyRide route)
• 5/1 Saturday Ride: Brunswick Loop (MapMyRide route)
• 5/8 Saturday Ride: Mountain Rd. and Mast Rd. (MapMyRide route)
• 5/15 Saturday Ride: Mountain Rd, Dutton Hill and Depot Rd. (MapMyRide route)
• 5/22 Saturday Ride: Raymond Hill loop - leaving from Cumberland (MapMyRide route)
• 5/29 Saturday Ride: Middle Rd, Tuttle and Greely (MapMyRide route)
• 5/31 MEMORIAL DAY RIDE (MapMyRide route)

Each of these longer Saturday rides (with the exception of the Raymond Hill loop on 5/29) will be an extension of a regular route that is more in-line with the traditional Saturday rides. As we have done in the past, we will all ride out together and at a designated point the folks interested in the longer ride will break off.

We would like as much feedback as possible regarding this plan so we can anticipate exactly how many people are interested and tweak the schedule if need be. So, please either leave a comment or drop me and email with your thoughts.