# Doing Death Valley Double this Feb



## ucancallmejoe (May 17, 2006)

I am wondering how I should maintain my fitness base. I usually crank out a few hundred mile rides the month before but in winter this is requires a good bit of planning and luck with the weather. Of course I shouldn't whine -I live in Sonoma California so it is certainly doable. But my base mileage drops significantly over the next three months mainly because of the incessant rain. 

I did the October DVD this year -fantastic -with little problem by the way. I want to hold on to my base endurance fitness well enough to make this ride enjoyable. I have done a few DCs without proper training and they are death marches the last fifty miles.

Cheers,

Joe


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## 200miler (May 7, 2008)

ucancallmejoe said:


> I am wondering how I should maintain my fitness base. I usually crank out a few hundred mile rides the month before but in winter this is requires a good bit of planning and luck with the weather. Of course I shouldn't whine -I live in Sonoma California so it is certainly doable. But my base mileage drops significantly over the next three months mainly because of the incessant rain.
> 
> I did the October DVD this year -fantastic -with little problem by the way. I want to hold on to my base endurance fitness well enough to make this ride enjoyable. I have done a few DCs without proper training and they are death marches the last fifty miles.


When I was living in the East Bay, and started doing doubles back in the mid-90's, there was a group of riders who would go out EVERY Saturday and Sunday morning to train. It didn't matter what the weather was and that's key. You can't "control" what the weather on event day will be like. Ergo, training in all the crappy NorCal "winter" weather is a good thing. By getting out regularly on the weekends between now and the end of February you should still have a good base. I also did a couple of hours on the trainer during the week; Tuesday and Thursday usually. I used that routine the entire time I lived there and it served me well. I've ridden all variations of DVD since 1998, and it was key to my moving down here. But now, living out on the desert [30 miles from DV], I don't have the weather constraints! );-)

If you can work in a few [LSD] 75-80 milers along with your regular w/e training rides you should be fine. You can use the late-January/early February time period to ramp up your miles if you feel it's necessary. BTW, the southern route is the easier of the two; all climbing is between mile 44 and mile 103; the rest is rollers/flat. Tedious at times, but non-taxing. The west side of Jubilee and Salsberry is the harder - 5½ miles to Jubilee and then 9 miles to Salsberry. Coming west the climbing is in three pieces - 3½ miles, followed by 3 miles of flat and then 4 miles to the top of Salsberry. Then 9 miles of descent to Jubilee which has only a ½ mile climb [steepest piece though] followed by 5½ back to the CP at Ashford. I ride this section minimum once a week as part of my training; "60 miles of hell!" Actually, not that bad as it's all alluvial fan and stays pretty much in the 6% range. It's all tempo riding, so if you can schedule in some LSD rides over the next couple of months you'll be fine.
YMMV
-dg


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## ucancallmejoe (May 17, 2006)

You are right, of course. I was going to sell my Litespeed but I think I will make it into my rain bike. I don't mind getting wet but I cant imagine putting my Indy Fab in the rain! 

The southern route sounds promising. The Fall DVD was the easiest double I have done to date (all doubles rough me up though) so as long as I don't get weather wimpy during training I think this will be another enjoyable outing.

Sounds like you are Quack Cyclist. Crazy tough bunch of dudes!


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## 200miler (May 7, 2008)

ucancallmejoe said:


> Sounds like you are Quack Cyclist. Crazy tough bunch of dudes!


You can bet your duck on it!
YMMV
-dg


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## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

*I was surprised..."closed"*

They are already maxed-out on signups for this spring. I went online to see what weekend to avoid there. That looks like an interesting route anyhow. If the wind is not howling it should be fun.


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## ucancallmejoe (May 17, 2006)

It sells out almost as fast as the Death Ride. I have done a buttload of DCs over the past ten years and the Death Valley Double last October was by far my favorite. At worst the spring DVD one will be my second favorite. I am starting to prefer sand over vineyards I guess.


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## shibaman (May 2, 2008)

Death Valley will be my first double. I did the 140 mi 17000' Auburn century, Death Ride, and training rides that were suffer fests. Did 3 centuries on my SS. This loop on my SS also with a 42x16 gear set. 
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/99872 Very hard day on the bike.
At 54 yrs old I think that doubles may be a good match for me. Climbing, and endurance have been my strong points on the bike. What I am worried about is how to keep my fitness up for a ride in Feb. Usually I relax in the Winter and ride the Mt. bike and the road bike when the weather is good. I used to use my 94 Zaskar as my rain bike. Maybe now I need to buckle down and start riding a road bike it the rain to get my base miles in.


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## 200miler (May 7, 2008)

Heading out in the AM for one of my thrice-weekly jaunts from Shoshone over to Ashford Mill and back. Supposed to be a fairly nice day in advance of some rainy crapola drifting inland from Kalleefornia... Everything turns to ka-ka Saturday night..

FWIW, the weather could range from baking hot, to snow on Salsberry Pass. I've experienced both; 4 years ago for the heat, and 3 years ago for the snow/sleet [IIRC] - the route was closed before most riders made it over to Shoshone! Just be prepared for the worst and be happy when it doesn't happen!

Also, if you're really interested in getting a reg for any of the DV rides AdventureCorps runs you need to get on their e-mail list. He sends out a reg pre-alert about an hour before it opens on active.fu, to all those on the list. They do fill rahter quickly, and this year he's got 400 slots i/o the regular 300!
YMMV
-dg


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