My plan was to do the Transamerica ride the summer of 2022. As mentioned earlier I was diagnosed with a hernia just days before my departure and put off the ride until summer 2023. My training began in earnest in July of 2022 once I recovered from hernia surgery. Back on the bike, I set my sites on doing a long fall tour

Between July 5, 2022 and September 29 I logged 800 miles with 7 long rides in the 30-50 range. This got me ready for my fall bike tour of 650 miles across 13 days riding from Rochester, NY to Pittsburgh, PA to DC. You can read about this tour HERE

I finished my fall tour on October 11th in DC. Upon returning to Rochester,  indoor cycling season started. Looking forward to a May 2023 start date for the Transamerica, I had 7 months to build more cardio endurance and keep my core strong. There has been a good bit written about starting a long tour and cycling yourself into shape. This might work to an extent with someone in their 20s or 30s but since I am pushing Medicare age, starting my tour in good physical condition felt like a must.

Over the winter I had a 3 day routine that I stuck with from mid October through the end of March. Strength exercise day 1, indoor spinning class day 2, and a day of rest.

Strength exercises consisted of seated row, lat pulldown, chest press, leg extension, leg curl, leg press, tricep press, arm curls, shoulder press, planks, crunches, pushups, and pullups. Indoor cycling classes were typically an hour long and involved a lot of high intensity work with cadences in the 90-105 RPM range

Indoor spin classes are nice but still cannot take the place of riding outdoors and keeping my butt in the seat for hours on end. Once the weather improved in April I started getting out 3-4 days a week logging rides in the 20-50 mile range. I hope to get in about 400 miles during April and early May before my departure date of May 10th