What's ahead this season for Mountain View rides

Here's a preliminary look at training rides I'm planning to offer out of Mountain View this season. This isn't definite, and dates and specifics may change, but this information may help you in planning your training.

Beginning next weekend: A set of Cat-2 (10-12 mph average pace) rides continuing on Sundays through the end of December. The rides probably will run every other week at first, and then move up to every week, with time off around the holidays. The final ride of this series will be a 45-mile loop around the South Bay. Think of this as an "early-bird" set of rides in advance of the official ALC kickoff party in early January. Newcomers and returning riders are equally welcome.

Beginning in January: The Cat-3 Distance Training rides will return. This is a set of 10 rides for intermediate and advanced riders who want to get experience in riding extremely long distances. We'll start at about 40 miles and slowly increase to a final ride in early May of 200 kilometers (125 miles). These rides will not be extremely hilly, since we'll be focusing on distance. (But they definitely will not be flat, and some rides will have Quadbuster-ish hills on them.) The pace will be an average of 12-15 mph, and experience has shown that many riders who participate in Cat-2 training rides are actually Cat-3 riders and would have no trouble on these rides. You do not need to be a 15 mph rider! Rides will take place on Saturdays and will be approximately every other week, with some changes to accommodate major ALC events. Also, if we get rained out on any given weekend (it's likely to happen at least once around here), I will try to reschedule the ride for the following weekend.

If you're a ride leader (already certified or planning to become certified soon) and want to help lead these rides, drop me a note.

For riders who want to stick with Cat-2 rides, there will be a full set of about 20 weekly rides running out of Sunnyvale on Sunday mornings starting in the new year. (I'm not organizing these rides, though.) These also make excellent follow-up rides for our Cat-3 Distance Training rides, especially since you'll want to get experience in riding on consecutive days.