The BC Bike Race course for 2016 was announced this week. It’s still a grueling 300 kms, climbing over 10,000 metres. In an unexpected twist, though, the North Van leg has been reduced to only 15 kms, with a mere 857 metre elevation gain. Hmm. I’m sure this is some fiendish scheme to lull us riders into a false sense of security. Joanna is in Rossland this week so we can train together, but she will get right onto investigating the devilish deception this stage of the race presents upon her return home.
With spring, the winter cardio and strength-building phase of training has morphed into full-on bike time. Joanna’s spin time and Diana’s ski training have been replaced with road riding, and, increasingly, mountain biking. “Train in the sport you’re participating in,” they say. So the week went like this:
- Day 1 - Dodging rain and cold temperatures on road bikes, climbing to Nancy Greene Summit. Plus an evening strength class.
- Day 2 - Mountain biking alongside the beautiful Columbia River. Not much climbing, but a trail with its own technical bits and hazards, as Joanna’s sore knee can attest to.
- Day 3 - Starting at a fresh 6:40 in the morning, a 4-hr. ride up Red Mountain (yes, where we ski). Now, 4 hours on Strava (an app that measures how long you ride, how far you ride and how much you’ve climbed) means 4 hours of peddling. The clock stops when you do, so given the required rests here and there, a 4 hour ride usually takes about 5. We rode for close to 4 hours (just over 3 on the Strava), climbing over 1000 metres.
- Day 4, a “rest day” - an easy two-hour road ride
- Day 5 - another 4-hour mountain bike ride, 37 km and 1100+ metres of elevation gain.
I felt pretty good about our Day 3 ride, sure that we were starting to approach BCBR elevations, if not distances. Alas, climbs of less than a 1000 metres are a rarity in BCBR – just two of the seven days. A couple more are just over 1000, and three days require climbs of about 2000 metres or more. Our epic ride amounted to the same distance and elevation as the final, shorter day in Whistler. Sigh.
Okay, let’s take the optimistic view – we’re almost prepared for 4 of the 7 days, and we’ve got a whole 7 weeks left to train for the others. And while this challenge was not my idea (See BCBR: A Death Wish or a Bonding Opportunity?) today, I thanked Joanna for getting me involved in the BCBR. It’s been such fun riding with her! I’m seeing the fitness benefits already and know there are more to come. Yes, there will surely be sore muscles, bruises and tears, but I’m hoping once those tears of happiness start to flow at the end, the nastiness will fade into the background. Kind of like child-birth, you know?
