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Josh and I committed to the Blue Ridge Parkway sometime last Fall.  Not long before that the 2 of us had become more serious/scientific about our bicycle training, and had purchased power meters and created training plans with the guidance of a popular book ( The Cyclist's Training Bible, by Joe Friel).  The book instructs you to designate goals and rank them, and we chose to put this ride as a top priority and build towards it in various workouts each week.  All this is to say that we aren't winging this adventure without giving it our best efforts.  

Despite the fact both of us have full-time jobs, we have managed to put in double and triple our usual weekly training to be at our best.  Josh has done well in several tune up events, and both of us were happy with our performances at the popular local century ride known as the Raven Rock Ramble.  However, I have to admit in the back of my mind I still have some nagging doubts as to whether or not I can complete every mile.  587 miles/62k ft of climbing in a week is by far the hardest thing I've ever willingly signed up for.  

To add to my concern is that I rarely ride in the mountains, as they're several hours away by car.  So to combat that problem both Josh and I have heavily used the more difficult climbing routes in Zwift.  Zwift is a computer "game" that uses your own bicycle as the joystick.  You mount your bike onto a high-tech trainer that communicates with the game via bluetooth, as in the picture at the top of this journal.  And yes, a virtual Zwift mile feels amazingly similar to a real mile, including the changing resistances brought on by the pitch of the road.  We've spent hours and hours on real pavement and also virtually climbing mountains like the Alpe du Zwift.  Now it's time to see for ourselves how well prepared we really are... guess we'll start finding out in 8 days!