Who wants to arrive at an event under-trained? For your best performance, of course you’ll want to be adequately prepared. Even for a recreational event such as RAGBRAI, training is essential.

Not that you’ll need a power meter, unless your aim is to race. But RAGBRAI isn’t a race; and as for being under-trained, I read somewhere that being slightly under-trained is better than being over-trained and exhausted.

I’m not about to wait until RAGBRAI is two months away to start pushing it, though. I don’t seem to be one of those lucky people who can build up strength very rapidly. I’ve begun to do short intervals of riding hard against a hard gear. In between these efforts, I ride easily for several minutes.