RAAM Preperation

Most of the plans are finalized, the vehicle is ready. Only 15 days until the race and 9 days until we leave. The trip officially begins at 3:00 pm on Thursday June 3rd. There will be seven of us driving out in three vehicles. The plan is to be in LA by the end of the day on Saturday. Paul has relatives we will be staying with. Monday morning we drive to Oceanside for a series of inspections, meetings and photos. There are many stickers and signs to put on the vehicles before we can pass inspection. It is petty neat to see all the vehicles in the parking lot at the start. Total there are 10 of us on the crew. Three drivers, three feeders/navigators, and three medical personnel. The medical personnel are responsible to log everything Paul eats, drinks as well as many other vital measurements. In my next post I will list all the stats they will be gathering during the race.

I have added some links to different RAAM pages that can be used to follow Paul and the team as me move across the country. Chris will be updating his face book, Paul has a facebook and web page that will also be updated. To make the time cut-offs you have to avereage 250 miles per day for the entire 12 days. We should cross the Mississippi near Alton Il. around the 16th of June eight days into the race. That is the roughly the 2/3 mark of the race.

Riding has been a little on the light side in the last four weeks. After the Trans Iowa and the 300K I took a little break but have started ramping it up a little again. It is tough to get motivated not having a scheduled event in the near future.

RAAM is Close

This week has been one of the lowest milage totals for me in a long time. After TRANS IOWA and the 300K Brevet I thought I needed a break. I have been training pretty hard since December and with no races in sight I am having a tough time getting motivated. Oh well you will have that. Next week I will pick it up.

Three weeks from today I will be halfway to California on the drive out to the start of RAAM. I have been working on getting the van ready with the PA system and speakers for Paul’s music. I have a good idea on how we are going to put some shelves in the back of the van with a sleeping “bunk” on top for Paul to take naps of even get his 3 hours of nightly sleep if there are no close Hotels.

There are 9 of us on the crew in three vehicles doing 8 hour rotations. Paul has some co-workers that are going to use him as a guinea pig and conduct all kinds of tests on him as the race progresses. Power output, heart-rate, core temperature, hydration level, swelling and many other things will be captured as we spend 12 days crossing 3000 miles of the center of the USA.

There will be updates to his facebook and web page and I will post the links on my blog as the race gets closer. I will also update on my blog from time to time.

Paul's RAAM Profile

All for now.

Trans Iowa is not for you if:

Found this on a riders blog.

http://buffduluth.blogspot.com/2010/04/trans-iowa-v6-v1.html

The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.

The TRANS IOWA is not for you if:

You don't like riding your bike.
You don't like the dark.
You don't like rain.
You don't like thunder and lightning storms.
You don't like loose gravel.
You don't like speed.
You don't like steep hills.
You don't like gravel in your eye.
You don't like riding your bike in the dark, down steep hills covered by loose gravel, in a thunder and lightning storm, in the pissing rain, with gravel shooting up into your eye.

You don't like Iowa.
You don't like the farm country.
You don't like spending all day outside.
You don't like the smell of pig manure.
You don't like walking in mud.
You don't like carrying your bike.
You don't like spending all day outside in the Iowa farm country, riding and carrying your bike thru mud, with the sweet smell of pig manure constantly in your nostrils.

You don't like spending all day with the same people.

You don't like strange people.
You don't eccentric people.
You don't like gas stations.
You don't like gas station food.
You don't like eating food who's first ingredient is sugar, corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup.
You don't like spending all day with strange and eccentric people, living off gas station fodder made of high fructose corn syrup, including Pop-tarts, cherry pies, Suzy Q's, Coke, and cookies.

You don't like like pain.
You don't like physical exertion.
You don't like mental exertion.
You don't like exploring your dark side.
You don't like the hurt tank.
You don't like stepping outside your comfort zone.
You don't like stepping outside your comfort zone, into the depths of physical and mental exertion, exploring the hurt tank, the dark side.

Time for a break

After the 300K Brevet last weekend I am ready for a break. 16 1/2 hour ride one weekend followed by a 11 3/4 hour ride the next weekend and my legs are shot.
The 300K was put on by the Big Dogs in the Quad Cities. The ride started and ended at Comfort Inn in LeClaire with the turn around at Key West Iowa. Hard to believe there really is a Key West Iowa and if you google it I am not sure you will find it. It is a suburb of Dubuque right on highway 61 and 52. Of course it is at the top of a big hill. Not surprising since this route had 8000 feet of climbing. It basically is the TOMRV Sunday century route up and back. McCausland, Follets, Low Moor, Elvira, Miles, Sabula, Bellevue, St. Donatus, Key West and back. There were 11 of us starting the ride but it soon broke into 6 of us and then down to small groups of two or three.

The ride up was great as the wind was blowing from the south pretty strong but promised to be a tough ride home. The trip up took 5 hours and 10 minutes and after a 20 minute break in Key West the trip home took 6 hours and 15 minutes. Total time was 11:45 with 55 minutes off the bike. The 27 miles from Sabula to Low Moor took 2 hours of non-stop riding. The wind finally died a little for the last 25 miles as Keith Wells and I rolled back into town.

I am still working on the write up for Trans Iowa but for your reading pleasure here are some other riders blogs and some pictures from the ride.

http://cornbreadblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/pics-nowwords-later.html

http://g-tedproductions.blogspot.com/2010/04/trans-iowa-v6-race-report-pre-race-meat.html

http://g-tedproductions.blogspot.com/2010/04/trans-iowa-v6-race-report-start-and.html

http://g-tedproductions.blogspot.com/2010/04/trans-iowa-v6-race-report-unravelling.html

http://g-tedproductions.blogspot.com/2010/04/trans-iowa-v6-race-report-seven-bikes.html

Tune in for my final report.