Training and Fitness Prep

At first glance, the training seemed… easy.

Thirty-five miles a day? That felt laughable. Our average gravel ride at home is anywhere from fifty to eighty miles—done in a single day. Thirty-five miles felt like nothing.

Pshhhh. We’ve got this.

Then the math started mathing.

Thirty-five miles a day. Seven days a week. That’s 245 miles—every week. WITH weight.

Shit.

I don’t think I’d ever ridden 245 miles in a week. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d even cracked 200. Suddenly, thirty-five miles a day didn’t feel casual anymore.

So we started thinking about what training actually needed to look like. Did we have a detailed plan? Not really. We tend to keep things loose. The general idea was simple: ride a few hours a week, mix in some harder days, prioritize long, slow efforts, and add strength training when it made sense. Build fitness, build durability, and hope the rest would follow.

So that’s what we did.

In the months leading up to the trip, we spent a lot of time on the indoor trainer. Slowly increasing volume. Adding more time in the saddle. Practicing riding on tired legs. Nothing fancy. No color-coded spreadsheets. Just consistency.

And future us can confirm: two weeks out, we were completely over it.

Burnt out on the trainer. Zero motivation. Staring at the clock, counting down minutes until each ride was over. Mentally already in Patagonia, physically still pedaling in place.

But at that point, the work was done. All we could do was trust that the miles would carry over—and that once we were outside, loaded bikes rolling through Patagonia, it would all feel worth it.