"Tour de Chris" (Chris)

Hi everyone!
Interested in improving your endurance, stamina and bike legs (and butt!).
I?m organizing some ?training rides? to work on building up to those long distances (60 miles and more).
Those who are going to Cow-a-lunga may be interested as that ride is a 1, 2, or 3 day ride; with each day biking 60+ miles. I remember the firsst year I did it I almost died at the end because I didn?t know enough to get myself in shape. Now I know better!
While I?m not the fastest or strongest rider, I learned plenty while training for my first Century ride in 2006 with Team in Training. We were trained by coaches and they taught us everything from proper bike technique to what to eat/drink before a big ride. I can share that info, because some is invaluable and I wouldn?t know where else to pick up that stuff.
The ride: I live in Westchester (east of Oak Brook, north of Hinsdale) and can leave from my front door to a 20 mile route of light traffic areas and some challenging hills. We go through Hinsdale and Darien and loop around Waterfall Glen and back. 95% of the ride is on the road.
We can add an extra 5-7 miles/ride by looping around Waterfall Glen as many times as we want.
Road bikes are best, but you can do with a hybrid. Mountain bikes will be difficult as they are just not built for speed or long distances.

Please join me, I?ll be happy to help in any way. This will be a great way to stay in shape, build those quad and glute muscles and enjoy the Summer!

I?ll call my training rides, ?Tour de Chris?. The rides will follow the following format, subject to change (if I stayed out too late the night before or the weather is crappy!!)

Meet at 8 a.m.
We will leave at 8:30 sharp. It?s not fair to wait. (please have your bike tires pumped up, water bottles full, best to have 2 water bottles one with a sports drink, and some type of energy snack to bring along?my favorites are Sports Beans and Snickers Marathon Energy Bars)
If you show up late, it?ll be hard to catch up as we?ll be averaging 12-18 mph. So, just show up on time!
And of course no helmet no ride!!
Will start with 20 mile rides and add mileage as we go along.

I can do every Saturday until the end of June.
Let's see how it goes and we'll go from there.