Posted by RAGBRAI - June 13, 2025
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This week on the Training Blog, Coach Ertl reminds us that thinking big will help you ride far.
Think you can’t go the distance? Think again.
Although this year’s RAGBRAI is a bit shorter than other years, some of you may still be having reservations about whether you can go the distance, especially if you haven’t yet been doing really long rides (you should by now!) or if you find yourself struggling on longer rides. I’m here to tell you that you can do more than you think you can, or maybe a better way of saying this is that you can do what you think you can but you probably aren’t thinking big enough. If you think you are capable of more, you most likely will be able to achieve it.
Set bigger goals – then go get them.
Another way to think about this is to consider that you can often achieve a goal you set but you rarely exceed that goal. For example, you set out to do 50 miles. It’s like you have this mental image of what you are striving to do and put the effort in and achieve it and feel like that was all you could do. But what if you set your goal 20% higher? Would you still be able to achieve a 60 mile ride and feel like that was all you could do?Probably.
Train like it’s Day Three.
So as you go into RAGBRAI