The Secret to Training for RAGBRAI

By Kerri on April 4, 2014 in Blog

photo by Channone Arif

It’s one of Iowa’s favorite weeks of the year—RAGBRAI. For one week in late July, thousands of people from all over the world flock to Iowa to bike across the state.

Sounds pretty simple, but don’t be fooled. RAGBRAI riders go through months of training and preparation to ensure success on the week-long ride. David Ertl, Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team coach, shared his expertise on training for RAGBRAI on their blog yesterday:

“I am going to reveal to you a well kept secret for bicycle training for RAGBRAI.  I will share it with you if you promise not to tell anyone else.  OK?  Here goes.  The secret to training for riding RAGBRAI is to ride your bike – a lot.   That's it.  Aren't you glad you didn't pay for this bit of advice?   But it's very truthful.  For a non-competitive ride like RAGBRAI, you need to train your body for endurance, first and foremost.  There are other things you can do like intervals and hill training, which will help you become a stronger and faster rider, but if your goal is to get through RAGBRAI feeling good about yourself and just plain feeling good, you need to be able to go the distance, i.e. have endurance.”

Read the full post here.

What are you doing to get in shape for the big ride? Let us know in the comments!