New year, new updates

So it turns out winter break isn’t all that restful when you’re a grad student! Between traveling home, grading final papers, visiting family, submitting PhD applications, making book chapter edits, celebrating an anniversary, and lots of biking to meet my 2021 distance goal, I finally feel like I’m on break… and the spring semester starts on Monday.

But that’s okay, because the 4K training plan officially starts on Monday, too! I’m currently taking a bit of a break from my bike after riding ~250 miles in two weeks in a last-ditch effort to meet my yearly goal of 3,000 miles. I took a lot of time off in November (as evidenced by the line graph below) and it was a struggle making those up, but I did it! It’s crazy to think that I struggled to ride 3,000 miles in a year and will be doing 4,000 miles in 70 days, but the training plan will definitely help prepare me for that. It will also help to be riding with my teammates. The rides I did with my mom and boyfriend, James, passed by much quicker than the ones I did alone.

Just to give you an idea of what training will entail, the plan provided by 4K has us starting out with around 55 miles a week plus some cross-training, working up to 140 miles a week and then tapering off a little in the weeks before send-off. Most weeks have 3-5 rides ranging from 10 to 70 miles each, and the plan additionally recommends paces and intensity for each ride (tempo rides, recovery, hill repeats, etc.). A goal of mine for this year is to build my strength so I’m hoping to get more comfortable lifting at the gym, but that will definitely take a while- James and I did a chest/tricep day on Tuesday and I’m hurting!

I can’t end this blog without mentioning one of the most exciting things I did over break: plotting out my tentative 4K route!!! The riders this year have been dubbed Team Zion, named for the beautiful national park we will be passing through in Utah! We were also given a tentative day-to-day route, which I took the time to plot out while I was avoiding the papers I needed to grade:

Many things are still subject to change but seeing that direct path between Baltimore and San Francisco made my heart rate pick up a bit, especially after I saw that elevation profile! But, to modify the common expression, we’ll cross that mountain when we get to it :)

Much love,

Lauren