SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE -- Check with the ride leader before coming out to make sure rides are on.

NEWS 9/21/07 -- Monday rides now starting at 5:30 from Wheelworks.

Team-In-Training Rides are colored green (and boxed, if you don’t have a color printer). Rides in black are optional, but suggested. You should try to ride enough on your own to meet the weekly mileage goals, especially during the TNT weekend ride weeks. Just attending the TNT training rides will get you through your century, but doing the extra riding will assure you thrive during the ride – which is more fun than just surviving it.

Most rides will leave from Wheelworks Bicycle Shop, 106 Village Drive, State College, PA. We’ll probably have a few rides in the Tyrone/Arch Springs area to join up with Dave in Altoona, and some from other starting points that’ll I’ll announce before the ride (I have transport for 3 bikes on my vehicle).

Rides are listed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. For the suggested rides, you can move them around or split them up as fits your personal schedules. TNT Saturday rides weather cancellations will be ridden on Sunday or the following Saturday. Monday cancellations may or may not be made up.

In case of rain, the rides will generally still be on (‘cause you never know what you’ll be riding in on the 6th). Thunder & Lightning, however will definitely postpone the rides. I’ll send e-mail announcements the day before the ride and late-breaking news e-mails on the day of the rides. If you prefer a phone call or text message, just let me know. Riding in the rain can be as fun as doing other things in the rain if you have the right mindset. (It can also really suck, but we call that character building. ;)

There are a lot of rides (and miles) listed on the schedule-- don't be daunted by that -- most of them are optional. The mileage for the weekend TNT rides (nine weekends, about every other week) totals 500, and if you do the suggested "on-your-own" riding during the TNT training weeks, that mileage totals about 600. If you do all the rides on this schedule, the total is about 1100 (and you'll be ready for the Tour de France next year! ;)

Intervals (optional, but suggested): Find a nice, flat section of roadway and set a stopwatch, your bike meter, or “one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, etc., to count to 30 seconds. During that 30 seconds, pedal full out in as high a gear where you can still spin the cranks, but also have some back-pressure on the pedals (meaning, you’re doing some work moving the bike forward). After the 30 seconds is up (or as long as you can keep it up), cool down for about 2 minutes or so, then repeat. Do this 3-5 times in sucession. You’ll be tired, but you’ll find that after a few days of rest, those little rises that vexed you are much easier to get over, and hills won’t seem quite as hard.

Hills: A good percentage of the rides I’ve mapped for the century trainer are relatively flat. The Seagull Century is *very* flat – from 0 to 50 ft. We’ll not be doing any major climbs, unless, of course, I hear cries from the masses for some hills to climb.