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			Training June Training Introduction & Getting Started Online Training Team Group Rides Hello Riders and Happy Independence Day! As we roll into the heat of July, it's time to heat up our riding. Now that you have a strong base of miles under your belt, we want to focus on some longer rides, tempo rides and hills in July. We've have heard from quite a few riders with concerns about hills on the Hershey's Tour d Pink. So, to help you prepare for the longer mileage, including lots of rolling hills, we will be emphasizing hills this month! Online Training Team Update: As of July 1st, the 27 riders who've joined our bikejournal.com team have logged more than 19,000 training miles. Sign is free and easy, so sign up today and start logging those miles! July Training Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Rest 15-20 miles moderate 10-15 miles easy 15-20 miles moderate w/hill repeaters Rest 30-35 miles fast 20-25 miles easy to moderate Rest 15-20 miles moderate 10-15 miles easy 15-20 miles moderate w/hill repeaters Rest 40-45 miles moderate 20-25 miles easy to moderate Rest 10-15 miles hills 10-15 miles easy 15-20 miles moderate w/hill repeaters Rest 30-35 miles moderate w/hill repeaters 25-30 miles easy to moderate Rest 10-15 miles hills 10-12 miles easy 10-12 miles easy Rest 30-35 miles moderate to fast 25-30 miles easy to moderate July's Goals Continued consistency of time spent in the saddle. This will be one of the most important things when you ride in October. In order to avoid burnout or boredom, vary your routes and join some organized rides through your local bike shop or riding clubs. This change of scenery along with a group pace will make you stronger and keep your mind and body fresh. Hills, Hills and more Hills! So try not to hate me, just know how beneficial these will be on the October ride. See the tips on hills below. One long ride this month equaling 50% of our longest days (40-45 miles). Make sure you follow this with an easy ride the next day. This is usually called a recovery ride. It's important that you train your body to get back into the saddle the next day. Get out of the saddle. That means doing some strokes while standing on the pedals. If you are already doing this, fantastic! If not, it will be invaluable to your hill training and helps the circulation where your body meets the saddle. Riding in the Heat Carry adequate water. If you often ride in the heat and humidity, you will need to make sure you have enough water with you. Consider purchasing a Camelback, which are available online or at your local bike or sporting goods store. Clothing. Wear wicking material on your upper body; it will keep you cooler and more comfortable.Even if you have one or two tops that you can rinse out for the week, this is extremely important. Sunscreen. Use this often, and, if you are going on long rides, bring it with you and reapply. You will sweat it off. Enough said! By the way, you will still have those "funny" tan lines. Consider them your badge of honor! Electrolytes. When you are riding on hotter and more humid days, you will need to replace the electrolytes that you use during your ride. If not, you can and will experience a "bonk." I know that a lot of cyclists use things like Gatorade and other beverages, which are helpful, but you will have to drink a ton of these to adequately replace electrolytes on a long ride. Most sports drinks are filled with high fructose corn syrup, not the most nutritionally sound option. I suggest that you stop by your local bike store or shop online and purchase some electrolyte capsules. Not only is the electrolyte content higher, you will absorb them faster and they are simple to carry when you ride. I put mine in a small pill bottle that holds 10-12 capsules. Hill Riding This is most riders' biggest fear. But, once you get a few rollers behind you, they can be a really fun part of riding. First, what are rollers? Rollers are hills that you ride up one side, down the other and continue on. Much of the first two days of the Hershey's Tour de Pink are made up of this type of terrain. The pro side is that you often get to go back down the other side, which can be fun and, well, not so intense! The con side is that, as your heart rate climbs with the hill, it may not have time to drop back down before the next climb, which means you are hitting the next hill in a more intensive zone. In other words, you will be a little more winded as you start to climb again, leading to more burn in the legs and the lungs. How do we help this? Simple, start training for it! Here are some ideas. Hill Repeaters. Riding the same hill several times with little rest. Rollers. Find an 8-10 mile route that has hills of various levels. Focus on keeping a steady cadence as you climb by changing gears. Get up! Stand up in the saddle as you lean forward to climb the hill. Be aware that this will increase your heart rate, but it's a way to get to the top when your other muscles are starting to fatigue. Breathing. Focus on using your breath as you climb as well as using it to get your heart rate back down. Try to inhale as slowly as possible through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Push and Pull!: Use both the front and back of your legs to drive yourself up the hill. Push down on one pedal while pulling up on the other. Keeping your heels down will allow you to focus on both. Sami's Hill Repeaters! I have a nice steep but short hill that is about 5.5 miles directly south of my house. I can easily skip it by heading west a couple of miles before the hill, but for the last couple of weeks I have added this hill to my workout in a repeater fashion. Here's what I do: I ride out from home (varied terrain mostly gentle rollers), 5.5 miles where I run into the hill. I ride up and over, typically getting out of the saddle the last quarter of the hill and push beyond for about 0.5 miles. Then I turn around ride back to and down the hill, finishing about 0.5 miles before the hill starts. I then turn around and ride back towards the hill, up and over and back again. I do these 2-5 times and, on my last time, head back to my original route. As I ride this each way is 1 mile, so an entire loop is 2 miles added to the total mileage for the day. I also do this with a section of rollers I have near my house. There are several fun sections that have very little traffic. My favorite is about 3 miles long. I typically ride this loop twice. Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with those long hills with a consistent grade. Currently, I'm not repeating here, but I will be adding this in for July training. Overall, what works for you is best. Some days I would rather not repeat anything and just cover the miles, other days I love to repeat to comparemy times, which provides me with an opportunity to see how I'm improving! If you have ideas for what you would like to see on the training page, please email me. Happy Riding! Sami [Back to the top] June Training Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Rest 10-15 miles easy to moderate 10-15 miles easy to moderate 10-15 miles easy Rest 15-20 miles moderate to fast 20-25 miles easy to moderate Rest 10-15 miles easy to moderate 10-15 miles easy to moderate 10-15 miles easy Rest 15-20 miles moderate to fast 20-25 miles easy to moderate Rest 10-15 miles hills 10-15 miles moderate 10-15 miles easy Rest 20-25 miles moderate w/hills 25-30 miles easy to moderate Rest 10-15 miles hills 10-15 miles moderate 10-15 miles easy Rest 20-25 miles moderate w/hills 25-30 miles easy to moderate Note: If you have a difficult time finding good hill routes, you can substitute speed bursts in a harder gear. We assure you they are there if you look; even where Sami lives in Kansas, they have some great rollers! June Goals Time spent in the saddle, get comfortable with your bike and all of its parts. Work on riding consistently every week, this will be beneficial during the ride. Determine your average pace and try to keep near that while you ride. It can be easy to space out and start to go faster (will cause quick burnout) or slower (doesn't keep you in a good training zone) Make sure you have the appropriate gear that fits you well (helmet, bike shorts, jerseys or cycling tops, shoes, sunglasses etc.) It can be expensive to get started, but everything will last several seasons. Tips to vary your ride: Every 2 miles, pick up the tempo for the last 0.5 or 0.25 mile. Try to make this 2-3 mph over your average. This will help with your overall speed, strength and endurance. At the end of each mile, focus on pulling or pushing for 20-30 strokes. This will help you develop all of the leg muscles needed for riding, especially when you get tired on longer rides. Printable version of June Training (Word document) [Back to the top] Sami's Introduction We are pleased to introduce you to our training guru Sami Papacek-Reis, who will be helping you with your online training for this year (as well as joining us on the ride). By profession, Sami is a personal trainer and cancer exercise specialist in Kansas City. Sami specializes in working with breast cancer survivors and is also a cyclist and avid exerciser. Over the coming months, Sami will be updating this page regularly, so check back often. The Hershey's Tour de Pink is an amazing event for so many reasons. We all know how important the YSC is and what amazing things the money raised from this event will do for young women with breast cancer. However, even more amazing is what you will get out of this event. Our group of riders is fun and supportive, the scenery is beautiful, SAG (support and gear) support is fantastic, the ride is well organized and safe, the food is awesome, the porta-potties are pretty clean, considering, and, seriously, there's chocolate everywhere! After 210 miles, you can even have a couple of extra pieces. Along with the building excitement, you probably have lots of questions. The Hershey's Tour de Pink committee is working hard to cover each and every detail and make this event as memorable as possible. If you have any questions on the training, you can contact Sami directly. For general ride questions, please contact tourdepink@youngsurvival.org. One of the most important parts of this ride is getting prepared for it both mentally and physically. For some of you, this may be your biggest physical challenge ever. We can assure you that if you get your body prepared, the mental part will follow. In order to be well prepared, it is vital that you spend sufficient time in the saddle. Sami has prepared June's schedule for you to follow as a training regimen. There are also other types of exercise that will prepare you for this event, and Sami will be providing more on them in the coming months. From Sami: Hello Everyone! It's that time again. Time to pad up, put on your helmet and gloves, click in and hit the road! It's hard to believe that we are rolling into another Hershey's Tour de Pink, but all I have to say is I'm so excited! Cycling is a summer love affair of mine, and I'm so happy the weather is getting nice so we can hit the road! This year is going to be the best yet. We are going to do everything we can to get you ready for the 2008 Hershey's Tour de Pink, so you will have the best time possible! Along with a training plan for all levels, I will be including tips on exercise to support your ride, stretching, gear, nutrition and hydration along with fun and important tips and resources to help you train, prepare, and get both mind and body in the best shape possible. For the survivors, I will be adding special training information just for you. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to email me. I look forward to answering any questions you might have. Sami [Back to the top] Online Training Team We've created a Hershey's Tour de Pink Riders club at bikejournal.com, a free, online cycling community, where you can easily track your training miles and connect with other riders to arrange group rides or share cycling information. First-time riders will find this especially useful for seeing how many rides and what distance others will be doing in preparation for our big ride in October. We've set a team goal of 250,000 miles for this season's training. At 150 riders, that's about 1,600 miles each between May and October. Join the Hershey's Tour de Pink Riders team and begin logging those miles. Remember to choose our team during registration. If you are already a bikejournal.com member, you can add us to your team list and even transfer your existing 2008 miles to our team total. [Back to the top] Group Rides If you would like to organize a group ride for people in your area, send an email to tourdepink@youngsurvival.org with "Group Ride" in the subject line, and we will list it here. Sunday, June 1st — New York Metro Training Ride Please join us to reunion with previous riders and get know some of new riders who have joined us this year. The plan is to meet at the Boathouse in Central Park and ride over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey and on to Nyack, NY. From Central Park to Nyack and back is about 50 miles. Average speed and distance will depend on who joins us and how strong we are feeling. There are flatter and shorter options as well as longer routes with more hills. If the consensus is to split into a faster group we'll accommodate that also. To join this ride, please contact Mitchell. [Back to the top]
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