Why I do biking

I've never been able to put to words why I do biking.

I've never considered biking much different than other things I've done in my life.

It's all coming to some sort of a weave as I get older.  And seems to be sorting itself out, getting clearer to me.

I've always looked for patterns in experiences.

When I view my life from the inside out it is pretty hard to see patterns with any semblance of confidence in what I see.

I like to feel secure, safe, in reasonable control, able to think on my feet to keep from harm. That leads to distorted thinking, rationalizing disorganization, hiding from the fact that it is all leading to loss, disorientation, a lessening of sensation.

So, while I was listening to a particularly poignant cd on the drive home tonight some words came out of a good, warm and tearful place.

I do biking (lovemaking, moving into the lives of those around me, taking a stand for my values, fathering, grandfathering, teaching, learning, taking the helm just when the storm is most violent and threatening) because it brings me to a sensation of living at the edge of my capacity to perceive.

It's thrilling. It's not a reckless abandon into pointless risk-taking.

And when you've earned it ... you own it. You are fully alive and knowing how it can vanish in an instant.

Y'a gotta do something with your life.

RAW - Hydration and fuel ...

I use a very simple mix of powdered stuff for my fuel bottle. I mix a 2 hour (600-700 calories) batch for each fuel bottle. I will have about 30 - 40 premixed cannisters (plastic containers from a medical supply facility) that the crew can just pour one at a time into the fuel bottle, add water, shake a bit (very, very viscous and without lumps) and hand off to the rider. I will also bring one gallon cannisters of the powdered stuff (Maltodextrin, Whey protein, Perpetuem) in the event we run through the premixed cannisters.

The water bottles the same. I use a predetermined amount of Hammer Endurolyte powder for each 24 oz bottle. Same thing: smaller plastic container that the crew pours into every bottle of water. Mixing may help but it doesn't really matter because the powder is very fine, though sometimes gritty. I will have several bottles of Endurolyte in pill form, too. These can be useful to take on an `as needed' basis in hot and sweaty times.

I'll be drinking one bottle of Ensure Plus at least every two hours. That comes in it's own bottle and the only thing the crew will need to do will be to twist off the cap and hand it off to me. I'll gulp it down quickly so this can be done in one rolling bottle handoff. On ped handoffs I'll just drink it and flip the empty Ensure container behind me for the crew to pick up (unless I'm going so slow all you'd have to do is a little slow trot to keep up with me).

I'll also be drinking/consuming one can of Campbells chicken soup every one or two hours. It's semi-liquid and has meat, noodles and a lot of sodium. Again, this is easy to deal with. What I'll ask the crew to do, however, is to put the chicken soup in a small container (that I'll bring) that will make it easier to pour out of while riding. (The can tends to `hold onto' the noodles and chicken making it clumsy to shake and empty while riding).

Periodically I'll ask for an aspirin or ibuprofin. Frequently I'll ask for a calcium pill (Tums) to deal with potential calcium depletion in the heat and sweating. Once each day I have a few medically prescribed pills to take. I'll put those in separate individual containers well marked. (Despite recent reports about the beneficial effect of Viagra while doing long endurance work I'll not be ingesting THAT ***!).

There will be times when I will just need to `overhydrate.' That is, I'll want more water than one thinks I should have. This is important to do, as long as I make certain I'm attending to sufficient electrolytes (Endurolytes, Tums and chicken soup).

A sampling of our Crew's emails to one another ...

FROM JEFF CLARK - RACE MECHANIC:

Dan,

I want to check on some things while we we are still 44 days out from the start of RAW. You had mentioned that you where going to have a 56t chain ring installed and I wonder if that was working out for you . How old is your gear housing? It can become brittle over time and split a part, a failure of this nature would be catastrophic. If you have bar tape on your bar peel it back a little to see if there is a little white powered that is aluminum oxide. Allan is a sweater an he has this type of problem. He even had a brake lever brake break due to this. I went to replace a gear cable and the lead end of the cable entered acted with the alloy shift lever and would not come out I tried drilling it but finally had to replace the entire shifter! Please have local bike shop go over the bike/recumbent with a fine tooth comb looking for this type of stuff.

What spare parts/tools are you bring with you for the race?

- Jeff (Mechanic)

FROM DAN:

Jeff ...

Just got up from 6 hours on Igor (indoor CompuTrainer) and I'm hurtin'. Worser when on the trainer.

I'm shooting your questions to Joe Reichert (owner of Amlings Cycle and Fitness and home-base mechanic) so that he can respond. He knows what you're talking about and can handle anything we need.

I'm requesting that we include all the Team members in these emails so that we all know what is happening and don't have to catch one another up.

- `done' dan!

FROM JOE REICHERT (LBS owner and Home Based Mechanic):

Hi all,

Jeff, the 56t chainring seems to be playing nice with the old scholl LX derailleur. All of the housings were replace on a recent overhaul. My guess is that we may do another cable and housing replacement about 2 weeks before the event. That will give everything a very good chance to shake out before the ride.

We had discussed earlier that if Dan needs to go to the back up, the quickest option would be to swap the whole seat assembly as opposed to removing everything from the seat and transfering all that over. 4 bolts and you're done. If the seat happens to be the problem then ths won't work, but for any other issue I think it's a good solution.

Take care,

Joe Reichert
Amling's Cycle & Fitness
http://www.amlingscycle.com/
8140 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Niles, IL 60714
Ph. 847/692-4240
Fx. 773-894-0376

FROM DAN:

Jeff ...
 
I'm more `conscious' now than I was yesterday after the training so I'd like to add to a few things Joe notes below.

Joe has a Bacchetta Ti Aero of his own that he's lending me as a backup bike. We'll be outfitting it to replicate the equipment on my Ti Aero. My cranks are 172.5s and Joe will be putting a 56/39/30 triple in front. Not sure how he's going to handle the FD but he and I will get that straightened out a few weeks before I leave. Likely I'll take his bike out for a long set of hills in SW Wisconsin (15% grades, spikey moraines) to confirm things. Larry Graham, a solid rider from Ohio, said he'd give me one or two of his FDs that he knows handle the 56/39/30 spread this weekend at Calvin's Challenge.

Your question about what tools I'll be bringing is what I've been noodling on the past week. I'm going to collect all the tools I think I'd be needing and list them on a spreadsheet. I'll share this spreadsheet with you and Joe. Hopefully, this will mean that you won't have to think of bringing any of your own tools (unless you want to).



- d

FROM JEFF CLARK:

Dan,

The crew will make a difference to your success. Reading the crew spread sheet about estimated speed and time to the Time Stations on RAW have you ever taken a bottle from a moving car or someone standing on the side of the road? The first couple of times with Allan (Duhm) on his state record ride were -- let us say --- interesting: the van weaving, the bike weaving trying to get close enough to make the hand off. Many times while driving ( I drove all but 3hrs.) my mantra was DON'T RUN OVER AL.  After awhile we could pass off a partially peeled banana. Will you be using the water bladder in the "trunk" of the recumbent like Al does?

With Al and I being from Florida and able to ride virtually year round we have a hard time understanding and total respect for the indoor training you do in your basement in Chicago. Do you use music or videos to occupy your mind. I think after awhile I would have to get a white jacket with wrap around sleeves and a soft room to lay down in  --  if you know what I mean.

FROM DAN:

The rolling bottle handoff will be done with a reaching tool. It extends the reach of the crew member by 3.5 ft and is firm and solid. I've attached a .jpg of the reaching tool.

Rolling bottle handoffs will take place only when we're on relatively flat terrain. On the mountain climbs we'll be doing pedestrian handoffs because I won't be going faster than 8mph and the mountain roads have only two narrow lanes with no shoulder.

I've always known that when done properly indoor training is far more effective for the time spent than outdoor training. Six hours on the CompuTrainer (like I did last Sunday) is far more of a physical challenge and workout than 9 or 10 hours on the bike outdoors.

I spent an hour on the CompuTrainer yesterday morning before I went to work. A steady grind of 3% climb with no let up, no rolling hills, no stops, no tailwind, no fan blowing me cool. Pushing 175 - 180 watts with an rpm about 75 - 80. Heart rate got up to the high 130's with a few low 140's for a while.

These kinds of indoor workouts can't be simulated in the Illinois flatlands. And I'm convinced that it was these kinds of indoor workouts that allowed me last March to go from my Chicago basement to the most demanding mountain climbing on all of RAAM / RAW with no cramping, no stopping, no resting.

Consider that on Sunday I did 11.2 miles of 7% incline in 2 hours and 3 minutes on the indoor CompuTrainer. That equates to 4,140 feet of climbing.

Last March I rode from Prescott, AZ, to Flagstaff,AZ, over two mountains, for 91 miles in 9 hours and 9 minutes. That worked out to 8,100 feet of climbing.

Two hours and 4,140 feet of climbing (with no breaks, no downhills, no flat sections) in my basement v. 9 hours and 8,100 feet of climbing (with lots of flat sections, significant downhills, half a dozen 2 - 5 minute breaks to get water and change into dry clothing).

I listen to `house' music when I train indoors www.podrunner.com on my iPod. I don't use the iPod when I train outdoors.

This weekend I'll be doing several hundred miles over 3 days. Last year I rode a 200 mile course that had over 10,000 of climbing in May in 12 hours (Balltown Classic). No recumbent ever did that before.

This Saturday I'll be at Calvin's Challenge, right outside Dayton, Ohio, doing the 12 hour race. I'm asking myself now: if I did 200 miles and 10,000 of climbing in 12 hours last May when I was in half as good shape as I am now what can I expect on a flat course in the same time with no climbing? We'll see.

- Dan

Honestly, I don't know how I am able to bear the basement training. I certainly don't do it as entertainment; neither do I consider it like I would if I were going to "ride my bike." Living in the middle of a metropolitan area with 6+ million people, the nearest open roads for training are a 50 mile one way trip, and the weather is cold and wet 7 - 8 months a year .... So, I do the indoor training to meet my goal of being fit, strong and ready for the `real' biking season. This year I've been even more dedicated to indoor work so that I, frankly, don't disappoint the crew when doing RAW. Jeff ... you point out important issues. 
I'm attaching a list of items that somebody on the UC list sent out a while back. Looking it over it seems nice and thorough. I used it for my trip to Arizona a few weeks back and had what I needed.

Indoor training when it is a beautiful 60+ degrees outside!!!

I sort of surprised myself in AZ last month on the long miles of climbing: I didn't cramp and I didn't stop. (I am not certain of this conclusion but I think it is more difficult to climb significant elevations on a recumbent bike than on an upright bike. You can only recruit muscle power and don't have access to gravity-assist by hopping from one leg to the other when out of the saddle).

On a Sunday I climbed up and down one mountain (Mingus) and climbed from a relative valley to the top of a geological plateau (from Sedona to Flagstaff, i.e., Oak Creek Canyon to the top of the Mogollan Rim). Though the trip constituted 8100 feet of climbing in 91 miles there were still about 50 miles of flats or downhills. When you remove the flats and downhills the actual climbing looked like this:

From Sedona to highest elevation (a few rolling miles with minimal climbs) before Flagstaff:
- 22.29 miles
- 2,709 feet of climbing
- 121.53 feet of climbing per mile
- avg grade + 2.3%

From the bottom of Mingus Mountain (going toward Flagstaff) to the top of Mingus Mountain (Mingus Recreation Area):
- 11.15 miles
- 2,044 feet of climbing
- 183.32 feet of climbing per mile
- avg grade + 3.5%

From Cottonwood to the top of Mingus Mountain (Mingus Recreation Area) on return trip from Flag to Prescott:
- 17.66 miles
- 3,731 feet of climbing
- 211.26 feet of climbing per mile.
- avg grade + 4%

Clearly, both the numbers and my experience confirm that the most difficult section of climb was on the way back from Flagstaff to Prescott (the next day) from Cottonwood to Mingus Mountain, i.e., 18 miles of avg 4% grade.

Now, 2.5% to 4% grades aren't leg busters. But when you push that grade for 12 to 22 miles, non-stop, with a few 6-8%ers thrown in at the switchbacks, it can put a big hurt on your legs. A perfect set up for cramps due to heat, poor hydration, poor intake of electrolytes, etc....

So here I am in Chicago and the prairie flatlands of the midwest. The longest and steepest `hill' is less than .5 miles and MAYBE 4% (max).

How does one prepare outside and train for dozens of miles, nonstop, of 4-6% climbing?

I'm sure there are ways to do it, e.g., cranking a 56x11 into a 30 mile wind for 30 miles. I've never been able to do that with any sense of predictability. I mean, I can't `plan' a 30 mile wind for, say, Wednesday morning.

So, since I think the indoor training on the CompuTrainer did a good job of preparing me for the long climbs in the `real' world I'm back doing indoor training in wonderful 60 degree weather today.

I'll be programming a course of 3-6% grades for 3-4 miles, with some turns, and a short `relief' section of 2% grade for, say, .2 miles. Then back to the 3-6% grades. Doing this for a 40 mile course will effectively simulate the pressure on the physical system.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Something I learned when in AZ, going up those grades at speeds as low as 3.5 - 7 mph is that there is a lot of bike handling to master (esp on two lane mountain roads without a shoulder and lots of trucks and cars whizzing past).

With minimal forward velocity I'm much less able to ride a straight line. I found myself struggling, at times, to stay vertical, twisting the handlebar left and right to balance myself. On a few occasions when I thought I was going to fall over I had to increase the pressure on the pedals (increase the watt/power) suddenly to get forward velocity and to straighten myself out. I realized when i was doing that that a) I actually had the power to spare to do that, b) I wouldn't have had the power had I not done the indoor winter training on similar grades.

Something I learned to share: how to go slow on a bike when in a race so that you can finish the race (and maybe win). (One doesn't often get taught how to go `slow' very often).

- Dan
_____________________________

'06 Aero ti
http://raw2010.blogspot.com/

Near miss ....

Midweek during the Arizona trip I made a firm and confident decision to withdraw from RAW 2010. I changed my mind two days ago. I didn't inform anybody about my decision to withdraw because I wanted more time to let it just `percolate,' i.e., to think about it and re-think about it.
I spoke with a Paul Carpenter, current record-holder for RAW and a man for whom I have deep respect and admiration, stating the following:

-----------------
This week in Prescott has been exceedingly satisfying. Exceedingly. I've climbed the route up from Prescott, over Mingus Mt, through Jerome, Sedona and up to Flagstaff. 8100 feet of climbing straight out of the basement of Chicago. And, then, I returned the opposite direction back to Prescott. Frankly, I think the route back from Cottonwood, past Jerome, and over Mingus Mountain was more difficult than the other direction. Might be that I was pretty snackered from the two days of climbing.


Subsequently I've ridden back and forth between Prescott, Skull Valley, Peeples Valley and Yarnell. Several times.


Not once did I have to `rest' on any of these rides; though I did stop to get water and switch out wet clothes for dry ones.

Mechanically, I've got a strong sense of confidence in my set up and the equipment. In fact, I rode to Flagstaff and back with about 30 lbs of gear, equipment and tools - not to mention tummy - I wouldn't have on RAW.


Given all of this I'm confident of my strength, stamina and skills on the recumbent. However, I'm equally certain that I would not be able, over the next 2.5 months, to develop the `lasting' power, or endurance, to keep on day after day to Durango from Ocean View. I have had no experience with heat, yet. On completion of the Flagstaff and back route I was at my limit at this time.


Do I think I could not only finish RAW but place high in the standings if I had more mountain training, more 10 - 20 hour rides? Absolutely. But I also know that I'm quite likely to hit my limit of endurance after Congress.


So, I'm going to give it a few days before I officially withdraw from RAW 2010.


I'm not in the least disappointed. It is, frankly, a very straightforward recognition and calculation that I would have to spend these two months almost full time training in the heat and the mountains. To manage the logistics, disappoint the crew, spend the money, time and effort to probably barely finish --- barely --- that is not how I do things. In for a dime, in for a dollar. Make no heroic and dramatic ego driven goals that have the probability of coming up short.

So ... I've learned a great deal and would have done NOTHING different.


You've been my inspiration and motivation from the start. And keep me in mind as crew if it comes to that. I'd drop it all in a heartbeat to help you make the trek to Annapolis!!
------------------------

Paul replied:

Reading your logs and your email I wasn't expecting the punch line that came. It sounds as though everything went well and you rode some of the most difficult sections of RAW comfortably. While you know yourself best, it sounds as though you are on track and can finish RAW. Won't be easy, but then if it was it wouldn't be as much fun. It will be different racing with a crew than riding solo as you did. That support and the motivation of racing an be powerful. I can understand that if your goals are too finish strong, then if you feel you will be at your limit based on your training to date, then perhaps next year gives you time to build the speed and the endurance.

The lack of climbing and heat training is a concern. Living in the Midwest with a full-time job that's always going to be a challenge. When I did RAW, the lack of such training was a real concern to me. Didn't become an issue for two reasons. First, took a number of precautions in the heat to minimize the issue of the sun/heat. Second, approached the hills riding slow and steady rather than powering up them--rhythm was the key. I also think a lot of people who struggled went too hard that first day up to Lake Henshaw.

Give yourself time to reflect.
-----------

I concluded a few things over this past week, after listening carefully to Paul, reconsidering my training plans between now and June.

First, I think I underestimated how well I performed in Arizona. Think of it: training literally in the basement all winter to riding some of the toughest terrain in very difficult weather ... and doing it well, without mishap, without even stopping to rest or eat. Rode more than 370 miles of difficult, mountainous terrain, climbing between 30,000 and 35,000 feet in the process. In daylight, at altitudes of 8,000 feet.

Second, I am accepting Paul's comment about how different it can be with a crew supporting me. I carried about 20 lbs of extra body fat and 15 - 25 lbs of tools, clothes, and other gear on the bike and STILL did what I did.

Third, I will be modifying my training to make weekends 18 - 30 hour long rides to work on `endurance.'

Fourth, I'll focus on staying as cool as possible during the heat of the event. Allan and I have discussed various methods to accomplish this.

Finally, I'm feeling a little angry and pissed off about this. And I know myself well enough to realize that this is the part of me that has surfaced in the past amidst difficult, challenging and otherwise overwhelming odds. That pissed off angry `Dan' part of me is like that confident and supportive `big brother' urging me on to do what I am certainly able to do.

So ... we're on to RAW 2010 with winning (ugly!!) in mind.

Crew Vehicle Needed

The Race Across the West which begins in Oceanside, CA, and ends in Durango, Colorado. The race starts at noon on Wednesday, June 9th, and racers have 92 hours (3 days 20 hours) to finish.

I've got a solid crew, have done and am doing the necessary training (just returned from a week in Arizona where I rode 370 miles and climbed more than 35,000 in elevation). I've got all the gear, clothing, food, etc. At this point we need a Crew Vehicle that will accomodate 3 crew members, a spare bike, all the gear and food for the Race.

If you have a vehicle you'd like to offer for the trip from Chicago to San Diego and back, or, from Durango, Colorado, and back, or, from Prescott, AZ to San Diego and back from Durango, Colorado, please contact me. I'll try to work something out with you.

If you know a vehicle manufacturer, an auto dealership, a commercial enterprise that is willing to sponsor the Race with a Crew Vehicle please feel free to share your idea with me.

Thanks for your interest. I'm up for any and all scenarios and questions.

- Dan