10 Days Until the VT Super 8
Here we are, in the middle of September, and only 10 days away from my first bike packing race/adventure, the VT Super 8 . Over the past weekend I completed what will likely be the last "long" hard ride (75 relatively flat miles at heart rate Z4) and am finalizing my gear in preparation for next week. While the amount of training I have done is likely only a drop in the bucket compared to what folks more experience in the realm of endurance events do, I am leagues ahead of where I started in January. My first long trip was in April. It was 150 mile, 50% gravel 50% paved route from Boston, MA to Hartford, CT for which I averaged about 11 miles an hour. Several months later (August), I did basically the same single-day trip again, albeit longer (180 miles), and averaged 12.2 miles an hour. Again, for the experienced folk out there, this is something that isn't impressive, but for a chap like me, who spends most of his day behind a desk, being able to go faster and longer wa
