My buddies at Road ID asked me to share some training tips that would help you to prepare for, and ride, my upcoming King Ridge Gran Fondo here in lovely Sonoma County, CA. I know you’re all signed up for the GranFondo, right? And you are all training, right? Of course you are. Because as great as air conditioning, beer, and bag after bag of Funyuns are, they won’t get you up and over King Ridge.

For those of you who haven’t heard of the GranFondo, put down the rotary phone and the butter churn for a second. I put this event together last year to celebrate the great riding around my hometown of Santa Rosa. Not a race, but not just a ride, this would be a timed, mass start event on a challenging course, all for charity. We raised $100,000 for the Tour of California’s return to Santa Rosa, Livestrong, and Forget Me Not Farm, a local animal shelter that’s close to my heart and my wife Odessa’s. It was a great success and we’re making it bigger and better on all fronts as we host 6,000 riders this year!

So, back to the question at hand: how would I prepare for a ride like this?

I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you’ve got your bike picked out. I’d suggest investing in a custom bike fitting from a reputable shop to optimize comfort and decrease injury over the long climbs we’ve got here. Yep, long climbs. Lots of them. My official recommendation for the GranFondo is a 39x27 gear option somewhere in your drivetrain (that’s a front chainring with 39 teeth and a rear cog of 27 teeth). If you’ve got a gear this low on your bike, it’ll become your new GranFondo happy place as you crest ridgetop after ridgetop.

Above all, make sure your bike is in good working condition. No one wants to be on the side of the road with a busted chain or your fourth flat of the day. Even worse, no one wants to cause problems by operating an unsafe piece of equipment shoulder to shoulder with 5,999 other cyclists.

Of course, the best piece of equipment you’ve got is your own body. So, in lieu of a list of training rides you should do, I would suggest keeping the following in mind:

• Ride with people better than you: No matter how hard you ride on your own, there’s no substitute for having other people push you to excel. You can learn a lot about your physical limits and the finer points of road bike handling in a group setting. And maybe occasionally, you can paste your friends to the wall.
• Push your comfort zone: If you average 15 mph on your regular ride, push yourself to do it in 15.5 mph. It may not sound like much, but consistently squeezing a little bit of benefit from every ride is key.
• Recovery: While pushing yourself is good, it’s important to let your body rebuild from the training stress you’ve put on it. Take a day off, go for a swim, or try a short, flat ride at an easy pace.
• Find the time to ride: “But Levi, I’ve got a job, kids, soccer practice, Scrabble tournaments, etc.” It’s a busy world out there, so take advantage of the late sunsets by incorporating post-work rides. Better yet, start riding your bike to the office. Don’t just commute, sprint. Take the long, steep way home as often as you can. And if you’re pressed for time, it’s okay if cyclists go for a run occasionally. Really. It can be our little secret.
• Wear your Road ID: Yeah, yeah, I’m preaching to the choir here, but that doesn’t make it any less important. No matter how short the excursion, wear it. It’s the safe thing to do.

When you’re training, try different foods to see what works for you at both mile 25 as well as mile 95. Experiment. Carefully calibrated calories from gelatinous energy blocks doing the trick? Great. Last night’s leftover paella keep you pedaling? That’s good too. Remember to always wash it down with water. A lot of water. You deal in quarts and gallons, not ounces. Above all, listen to your body. It’s smarter than you are most of the time.

How do you know you’re ready? You’ll be confident, calm, relaxed, and just a bit nervous. When the words “103 miles” and “8500 ft of climbing” don’t strike fear and terror into your heart, you’re in a pretty good spot. Remember, the point of this ride (any ride, really) is to have fun and get as much adventure out of your GranFondo experience as you’d like.

We here in Sonoma County know you’ll do great. We can’t wait to see it for ourselves.

Thanks for reading.

--Levi (and your friends at Bike Monkey)