Training? Ha!

A few words on a highly subjective issue.

I decided early on not to obsess about training. My plan was simple, and based on a guideline I heard somewhere along the way. If you can ride 3 consecutive 100 mile days and still walk, you can do Tour Divide. (I would modify that to say "You can show up at the start line and keep your breakfast down".) So that was my goal. I achieved that goal twice in the 3 weeks leading up to the start, and mostly didn't ride for a week before Banff. Of course I started with a good base in the winter and built my mileage up, but really my intensity didn't hit crazy-he's-away-on-his-bike-again levels until two months before the start.

I found that not just miles were important, but consecutive miles. In my last training month I would aim for 50+ without stopping, and my breaks would be shorter and shorter, to where I would allow a 5-10 minute stop on a 100mi day. On TD, when you can throw down 70 before noon, it's mentally no trick to throw down another 30. 40? 50? Now we're getting somewhere!

There are no mountains that I know of near Dallas. This is a problem. Fortunately, I took notes (okay, I remembered a few things) regarding my trips to CO in years past, and I developed a sort-of method for acclimating to altitude. When I'm at my flatlander best, I can jump into 5,000 feet without too much trouble, just back it off a notch would-ya? Lucky for me, that's about where Banff is, and it's a few days before the real altitude challenges begin. I kept an attitude for the start of the race that I was still training for the hard stuff.

Weight: Terribly important! For my last month of training, I carried at least 90% of the weight in gear I planned to carry. I strapped ankle weights to my top tube, carried rolls of quarters in my pack, and carried way too much water. If you don't train with weight, you will be in for a shocker on day 1!

Train to eat on the bike if you can't already.

Train for night riding. It's a different place mentally, and really fun, so long as one outpaces Beelzebub, his pitchfork taking aim behind.

Practice some rest methods while moving. Stretches, standing, riding no hands and stretching, no hands and searching for stuff in your pack, no hands while fully standing, all terribly useful on the trail.