12 days...

What looks like SweetPlus, Equal, Splenda and sugar packets to the untrained eye, was serious business at a crew lunch meeting today. I asked Jason, James and Phil, three of the crew members to join me to go over some logistics and planning, as well as help me to create a crew rotation schedule. All of those sweeteners represent different groups of crew members filling various roles and the coasters...those are the vehicles. We ended up with a rotation schedule that seems very workable, though we will remain flexible and roll with the punches once the race begins.

14 days!

There's something about the point when you stop counting weeks until the start of the race, and instead, begin counting the days. When it seemed last week like there was plenty of time to tie up loose ends and finalize the details, suddenly you're wondering if you can slow the time down, if not a lot, by just a tiny bit.

The team email list is abuzz with messages about the little things, like how much to pack. "No chick packing, please" was the word from Scrooge who justifiably, is worried about how we're going to fit the luggage of twelve crew members into a small space. Riders and crew are pouring over the 50 pages of rules and studying the penalties that the various teams received last year. We're hoping that going in prepared will help us to avoid making errors that could earn us a penalty.

Food planning has started, which reminds me that I need to ask George again (in an email this time because verbal requests for any of us these days are beyond our capabilities) for a list of things that he wants to chew on. Unlike Rick, who plans to fuel mainly with liquids and some fruit here and there, George likes to chew when he's off the bike. I have a good idea of what he likes to eat most of the time, but in case there's some obscure thing that he'll be craving at 3:00 a.m. in the middle of Kansas, it will be nice to have it on hand instead of sending crew members searching for it.

I would like to thank everyone for checking in with us on the blog. The plan is for daily updates up to and during the race, whenever possible. There may be a lag this weekend when we're up riding the Eastern Sierra Double Century, but I will post upon my return. During the race, updates will be at least daily, if not more often and will include pictures from along the way. The support that we have received for the team so far has made a huge impact and we want to share this journey with you.

15 days!

I wanted to share George's Heartbreak Double Century report. As I said in the last post, despite suffering much of the day, he managed a 5th place finish! This earned him a spot on the "short list". Only ten people completed the Planet Ultra King of the Mountains series by riding the Mulholland Double and Heartbreak Double. These are two of the toughest doubles on the calender in any given year!

Heartbreak Double Century 202 Miles and 17,000 feet. I had a bad day on the bike. It was my worst race day on the bike this year. I went out with the lead group and suffered quite a bit. By mile 25 I was dropped and 6 riders went away. It continued to get hot during the day and I knew I was going to meltdown eventually. It happened sometime before the lunch stop. I was overheating and feeling miserable. Mile 104. 6 --At the lunch stop I soaked my head twice. Once when I got in and once before I left.

I stopped consuming calories after my first century. I then started drinking sodas. I had a Mountain Dew at lunch, at Mile 119--Vanilla Cola at the base of the Heartbreak climb and then 1 bottle of water over from Mile 126.7 until Mile -171.4 where I had 1/2 an Orange Sunkist (knock-off).

The last 30 miles I hooked up with another rider who helped me get through the next 14 miles and then I helped him get to the finish. I was not feeling good all day and lost valuable time climbing Old Ridge Route --two years in a row I have faded there.

My goal was sub 14 hours I finished 13:28 for 5th place. I'm quite happy with the end result but the process to get there was one of the most challenging days on the bike in recent memory.

16 days and counting...

On Saturday, George rode the Planet Ultra Heartbreak Double Century. He went out with the lead pack and pushed a very hard pace, arriving at the 50 mile checkpoint just minutes behind the four riders who held the lead position. It was a very tough day out there, George struggled with going out so fast in the beginning, and then with the heat. Two of the doubles riders that were expected to be in the top 10 ended up DNF'ing and nearly everyone out there suffered with the high temperatures. Last year it was the opposite, extreme cold and headwinds and George had a time of 15:23. His goal this year for the 202 mile, 17,000 ft elevation gain ride was 14:00 and despite feeling awful for much of the ride, he managed a time of 13:29, which was a 5th place finish! Official results here.

Next up: Eastern Sierra Double Century on Saturday June 2nd.

Rick's training...

It has been interesting to hear how the two riders, Rick and George, have been training for Race Across America. Here are some words from Rick on his training as of late...

My hill work lately has been to climb the 2.5 mile 7-9% grade out to HWY 67 on Scripps / Poway PKWY twelve times in a row, then head down to outer torrey for seven repeats and finally on the hill I live on, less than 1/2 mile but 400ft of climbing, it's 8-10% for another 4-7 repeats. I have been getting over 11,000 feet of climbing in less than 90 miles. Not tracking numbers as closely as George, I can only say that I am feeling fine on the climbs. The only thing I am keenly aware of; I do not let my HR go into zone 5 for nothing right now and won't on the ride either.

I will have a four day weekend this weekend. I am off on Fridays, Monday is a company holiday. I plan to ride four consecutive 160 mile days as my last big preps for RAAM and then start my taper towards the event.

...and then there were 12!

With less than three weeks to the race start, I am happy to announce that our final crew has been assembled! Today we welcomed Jason, James and Paul to the crew and with that, final preparations including crew rotation and schedules along with meal planning, can commence.

Welcome to the crew, guys!

Crew meeting...

On Thursday night I took the opportunity to gather some of our crew members, along with George, Rick and his wife Terry, at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. Reggie, one of our new crew members, was in town from Arizona and it was our first chance to meet him before we embark on this adventure. Jason also brought along Will, another new addition to our crew.



This would be the last chance to meet before the prep weekend in three weeks...did I say three weeks? Could we really be that close to RAAM? It is hard to believe that we'll be on the road in three and a half weeks. Where has the time gone? Since both George and Rick will be riding tubulars for some of the race, George thought ahead to bring one of his tubular wheels and give the crew a lesson on changing them. I'm not sure what I expected, but the process ended up being much easier than I had envisioned. I was thankful for the instruction, though not difficult, this was definitely something that I didn't want to have to learn on the road.

Our crew is shaping up!

We're up to eight crew members at this point! My goal is to have our full crew assembled in the next week, and I'm hoping to have two more for a total of ten.

Here we are in all of our glory...

Jason aka Chucklehead


Shari


Lauren


James



Herman


Phil


Brandy


not pictured...Reggie!