Tuesday Topics | My 2nd PeloFondo

Last weekend was PeloFondo weekend again! If you recall, I participated in my first PeloFondo in January and was instantly hooked.

I have to admit that I didn’t know that it was coming up last weekend. I mean, I knew that I had signed up for PeloFondo and I knew it was the first weekend in May, but I had just returned from international travel and my jetlagged brain just didn’t have the PeloFondo on my mind until I checked my calendar. If you know what I mean. But, I love a good community event and with a dedicated workout buddy (Tanja) and a great team by my side, I was looking forward to sweating and logging miles together again.

What’s a PeloFondo again?

PeloFondo is a Gran Fondo-style endurance challenge for Peloton riders and the main goal is to ride a designated amount of miles over the event weekend. You can join individually or as a team and pledge an amount of miles that you vow to accomplish within 48 hours.

The recommendation for Peloton riders, who use classes, is to not follow the instructors’ cues, but instead maintain a steady, sustainable endurance pace (zone 2, if you know your power zones) throughout the rides. I believe you can also participate as an app rider, as long as you’re able to track (and then manually report) your mileage on your non-Peloton bike.

Tanja and I signed up as part of our Streakers Team again #pelofondostreakers (the same awesome team we join for the Power Zone Challenges). We were a total of 66 riders and together we collectively rode 3238.94 miles in 193 hours. I am so freakin’ proud of our team.

In total, 5522 riders participated in this event time. Our team placed 15th out of 127!

How the weekend went

I went into this PeloFondo a little bit more prepared and strategic this time. It’s not like I wasn’t prepared at all last time. This is endurance event after all and even if you pick the shortest distance, which is 35 miles, you’ll be in the saddle for a minimum of 2-3 hours, but I knew that this would be possible what with my regular workout schedule and all. But this time, I didn’t make the “mistake” to try and crank out the miles all in one sitting. I realized that I can break things up, refuel and recover, and then get on the bike again.

Last time, I hit 100 miles, so I used this as my pledged goal this time. I had planned to split the mileage over both days and ride in two time blocks each day with a break in between. The PeloFondo Team provides a ride schedule for the weekend to include live classes and an assortment of on-demand classes, so people can ride together on the leaderboard and support each other with high fives. My team also came up with a ride schedule for the weekend and I did a couple of those classes. I also chose the “just ride” option for one time block and watched Netflix for part of my miles.

On Saturday, I was on the bike for a total of 4 hours, 2 minutes and I finished five 24-oz bottles of water/electrolytes, a banana, a protein bar, and a handful of gummy bears during my rides. I made sure to do some stretching at the end of each time block and some foam rolling to keep the muscles happy.

On Sunday, I hopped on for two classes in the morning, then had a nice, big pancake breakfast, and finished with another block of three classes in the evening, for a total of 3 hours, 15 minutes for the day.

It was a wise decision to break things up, and I totally see the appeal of riding shorter classes and thereby breaking up the mileage into even smaller chunks. This is a very good mental strategy that I actually employ on long runs, too. It definitely seems to make the miles fly by faster.

Overachieving seems to be the name of the game. So many of my teammates surpassed the mileage goal that they set for themselves, and so did I! I ended up with 127.2 miles for this event. I wish I could have done more rides with Tanja. While we do find time to ride together during the week, the time difference made an event like PeloFondo weekend really hard to do together.

Still, this was a lot of fun with so many friends participating, and once again, I realized that I thrive on challenges and community events like this one. I can’t wait to do it again. Congrats to everyone who pledged miles and got the work done this weekend. You all inspire me every day with your grit and dedication.

Did you participate (and overachieve) in the PeloFondo?
Or, do you want to join me next time? I’d love that.

I am linking up with with  Kookyrunner and Zenaida  for Tuesday Topics.

  1. As you know, I PeloFondo’d as well. I knew about it, way in advance, but forgot about it until Saturday morning. I was already on my bike, doing a ride anyways, so I counted those 15 miles towards my pledged goal (50), then rode two more times Sunday. I only utilized two Peloton classes (Sunday), but did a lot of “just pedaling” and read a bunch of blogs as I did so. After Saturday’s 15, I did 25 Sunday morning, then another 20 in the early afternoon…ending at 60 (so I over-achieved, too). I’m hoping for the next one (July?) I will be able to do most of that outdoors!

    1. Nice work! 60 miles is nothing to cough at! So glad you enjoyed it!

  2. Wow! That’s incredible. Three cheers for you, San (and your team).

  3. Nice work, San! That is really fantastic. Great job! That’s a lot of miles!

    1. You should join me next time :)

  4. I cannot believe I have had the bike for 4 years and never done this! The timing does not seem to work out for me w run races but I need to change that asap. Congrats on all of your hard work. That is a lot of miles!!

    1. You should definitely put this on your calendar sometime. So much fun!

  5. What a way to surpass the goal you’d set for yourself!! That’s incredible mileage for one weekend!

  6. Wow, this sounds really fun! I love challenges like this. I’ll have to figure out how to do it on a non-Peloton bike. Anyway, you crushed it- congratulations!!!

    1. Yes, join me next time! So much fun!

  7. That is A LOT of time on the bike! Go you!

  8. I just can’t imagine that much time in a bike saddle, but kudos to you for not only doing it, but actually exceeding your goal! So glad you had a great time. Maybe I need to do it so I can eat more (just kidding!).

    1. Haha, I run/cycle for food for sure :)

  9. That was so much fun. Too bad we couldn’t ride more rides together. But knowing you are in this with me motivated me, even though in the end we did only one ride together.
    Very proud of us to get more miles in than we pledged for. Can’t wait for the next Pelofondo – but please make sure to remind me of the event a bit earlier next time :)

    1. Next time we have to figure something… although it was motivating to know that you were doing this with me!

  10. Way to go! You logged a lot of miles! I bet your behind appreciated that you broke up your rides over the 2 days! Too much time in the saddle can REALLY hurt. I’m thinking of times when I rode for 30-40 miles and didn’t have padded bike shorts. Oof! But I did not bike often so doing a long ride like that out of the blue did not feel great. I intended to buy padded bike shorts and then never did and sadly I have not been on my bike since getting pregnant with Paul in 2017! But hopefully in the next year or so, I’ll get back into doing some biking.

  11. Amazing job San! I was bummed that I had to miss PeloFondo this weekend due to still recovering from my procedure, but loved seeing all the photos of people on Instagram completing their rides. I heard a rumor that there may be a similar event, but for running, which would be great!

  12. I missed it again! I remember the first time I heard about it, I told myself that I would do it. I knew it was this past weekend but then kind of forgot it. You did a great job! That is a lot of miles but you did it. I agree that breaking up the miles help – that is what I would do when running on the treadmill.

  13. I never know that these challenges are happening until you post about them, haha. I guess I’m not into much of the Pelo-world, though. It sounds intriguing, though, especially since the lowest number you can pledge is 35 miles. Maybe I could do that?! We’ll see!

    Congrats on crushing your goal again!

  14. Like everyone else, I am impressed and amazed! Doubly so, considering you were just back from Germany. You rocked it! I may have to start paying attention and maybe participating… sounds like it could be (a painful kind of) fun. ;)

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