Mike Across America

Two days done – seven more to go in Sanford’s National Institute for Athletic Health and Performance environmental chamber. Jason Dorman, EP has me starting with three days for 60 minutes, then three days for 90 minutes and finishing with three days for 120 minutes – all at 105 degrees/25% humidity. The two hours I’ve spent in the chamber have gone well. I’m averaging 170 watts/19.2mph with my heart rate staying around 120. My core body temperature has been running 101.6-102.2. I’ve been losing around 2 liters of fluid, but taking in around 1.7 liters. The goal is to train my body to be as efficient as possible in hot conditions. We are really watching my sodium loss rate – which was approximately 1900mg on the first day. This is way down from the 3000mg I lost back in Feb. when we did our first 105 degree ride. Doing these rides in this environment should really give me an advantage when we get into the real world of southern California and Arizona. RAAM starts in two weeks. Stay tuned.

Chad Pickard, owner of Spoke-N-Sport, one of my crew members and major sponsor, put together one of the spare bikes we will be taking with us on RAAM. It is a Cannondale Synapse – with a compact crank (50/34) and a 11×28 cassette. I headed out to Spearfish, SD to test the bike on some climbs this weekend. Friday night I rode from Rapid City to Nemo – 20 miles up and 20 miles back and I got absolutely drenched by a thunderstorm. The bike worked flawlessly. On Saturday AM, I left Spearfish and rode up Spearfish Canyon and then up to O’Neil pass (6785 feet elevation) – pretty much 32 miles uphill! ; back to Cheyenne Crossing and then up Aztec Hill (2.5 miles at 6-7%) to Lead/Deadwood. and back to Spearfish. It was 75 miles with over 4500 feet of climbing. I did the same ride on Sunday and then drove home to Sioux Falls.A big thanks to our friends Mike and Jacque Jastorff for hosting me once again. This was great training (not too hard and not too easy) but I ended each day with “gas in the tank”. Average speed was 17.3mph and average HR was 116. The bike was awesome and now I start in the environmental chamber at Sanford tomorrow. One hour of riding in 105 degree temperature. I’ll let you know how it goes.

With a little over 3 weeks until the start of the 2010 Race Across America I feel it is time to start to rest. Since Jan. 1, 2010 I’ve ridden 4916 miles. I’ve had 16 rides of 100 miles or more. 3 of those rides were 200 miles or more. On top of the 10,661 miles I rode in 2009 I can honestly say that I feel like I’ve done the training to make a successful RAAM a possibility. Of course, there are the variables I can’t train for: sleep deprivation, nutritional complications, weather factors, but we are trying to anticipate/plan for those as well. Starting on Monday, May 24th I will be going into Sanford’s National Institute of Athletic Health and Performances environmental chamber every day until we leave for RAAM on June 6. The plan is to start at 1 hour of riding in 105 degree conditions and build up to 2 hours of riding to acclimatize my body to riding in the heat. So even though I will be “tapering” my training in the next 3 weeks – its does not mean that it stops! I’m just not planning on any more “hard” efforts that will take days/weeks to recover from. The goal now is to climb off the bike after each ride knowing I could ride more (a lot more!) if I wanted to. Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

I wanted two long rides this weekend. Potentially, two 200 milers. The weather has been cool/windy – this is April in South Dakota – and I was not sure what the plan would be. Finally, on Thursday might with the forecast for NE winds we (crew members Karen/wife and Nancy/sister) and training partner Jason Cox decided to head to Lanesboro, MN where one of the nicest bike trail systems exists! Jason and I took off Saturday morning at 7:00am in cold – 34 degree – and breezy – North wind 10-20mph conditions. Long story short I felt great and completed the 200 miles in 11:14 on the bike time with 1:06 off the bike time. Jason’s knee flared up and he put in 140 miles before calling it a day. The next morning with winds forecast out of the NW we decided to stay in Laneboro (we talked about riding back 200 miles toward Sioux Falls) and ride there. Logistics were such that 200 miles would have put us coming home very late and I ended up with 120 miles for the day, with “gas still in the tank”. Jason was able to ride the last 50 miles with me. Saturdays ride was 17.8mph avg. with an avg. HR of 113. Sunday’s ride was 18.0mph avg. with a avg HR of 113. Great weekend of training. Karen and Nancy provided support throughout the rides which makes these long efforts much more fun. In 2-3 weeks we will do another big weekend. Something like 200/200.
RAAM is 51 days away.

I had 367 miles of riding this week. Two 100 mile rides back to back this weekend. The riding has been steady – not forced or strained. The Saturday 100 was 5:15 on the bike – 19mph avg. speed, 114 avg. HR. Sunday was 5:15 on the bike – same avg. speed as Saturday, 113 avg. HR. Both rides were on totally different routes and weather conditions – but the effort was the same. I’ll back off a bit this week and get ready for two 200 mile days back to back next weekend – weather permitting. We plan to do a RAAM simulation weekend. I’ll have some of my crew with me and Jason Cox, my training buddy, will come along to ride with me. We plan to start early and ride till dark – 12 hours – two days in a row. We will experiment with different nutritional ideas to see what might work during RAAM. It will be nice to have a crew vehicle along to provide support throughout the ride. If you see two riders being followed closely by a white car – honk and wave – we’ll appreciate the support.

On Wednesday, March 31, I was back in Sanford’s National Institute for Athletic Health and Performance lab with exercise physiologist, Jason Dorman, for a one hour ride under “nice” conditions. In previous sessions I had ridden in 105 and 90 degree temperatures. This time it was a cool 72 degrees. The numbers were all good in that I averaged 204 watts for one hour with an average heart rate of 124 beats per minute. My sweat loss was such that I was able to drink enough water during the ride that my weight stayed the same. What I’m learning with these tests is the importance of fluid intake. We all know to drink plenty of fluids when exercising, but the volume that is required in warm/hot conditions is huge. Now I’m working with Lisa Esposito – sports nutritionist – to devise a nutritional plan on the bike to help maintain not only fluid requirements but also caloric needs–up to 8000 cals per day during RAAM.
I’ll be back in the environmental chamber in May prior to leaving for Oceanside, CA to do heat acclimatization training. Now its time to get outside and ride!!

Bike with Mike #5 was a 7 hour indoor ride at the Sanford/Keloland Health Fair at the Empire Mall today. Joe Stiller rode the whole 7 hours with me. Bill Murphy and Dean Kusler each rode 1.5 hours. So over the last 10 weeks I had 3 six hour, 1 seven hour and 1 eight hour rides. Now its time to move outdoors – weather permitting. I’ve already had rides of 66, 72, 84 miles outside and it feels so good to be out in the fresh air. I really hope that the indoor trainer can be put away.
The fund raising for the ride and charities is starting to pick up speed. So far over $11,000 has been raised. With a goal of $30,000 we still have a ways to go. Thanks so much to all of you who have so generously donated. If you have family or friends who might want to support the work at Sanford Research Center or the Dick Beardsley Foundation and my ride – direct them to this site.

For the people who know that I’m riding RAAM this year, this has got to be the number one question they ask. I ended 2009 with 10,667 miles of indoor/outdoor miles ridden. Since January 1, 2010 I’ve ridden 95 hours indoors and 300 miles outdoor – 1200 mile in 11 weeks or 200 miles per week. Like I’ve said before the indoor miles are tough because you are ALWAYS pedaling. The few times I’ve gotten outside to ride I’ve felt great. I feel like I’m picking up right were I left off last fall, which was in really good shape. But now its time to start taking it up to an all new level. The start of RAAM is 78 days from today. For the next 10 weeks I’ll be riding 300-500 miles per week, with some really long rides on the weekends. Hopefully I can keep keep the answer the same. “The training is going well”.

On Saturday, March 13, Spoke-N-Sport hosted my most recent “long” indoor training session. This most recent ride was 6 hours. Two weeks ago I did an 8 hour ride at Endurance Fitness. On March 27 I planning my last long indoor ride as part of the Sanford/Kelo Health Fair at the empire mall. That ride will be 7 hours and you can sign up to ride part of it with me on the Spoke-N-Sport.com website. I really enjoy having the company on these rides. “Misery loves company”. Don’t get me wrong, I love working out and training, but compared to riding outside these indoor sessions are a bit of a grind.

During this last ride I drank 6-24oz. bottles of Gatorade, 2-24oz. bottles of Coke, 1 liter of water. I ate 1 Promax food bar, 1 Hostess apple pie and 1 “long john”. It is really hard to drink and eat enough on these rides to replace what I’m using. My heart rate averaged between 110-120 throughout the ride – totally aerobic. The thing that makes these indoor rides challenging is the fact I never “coast” or free-wheel like you can when riding outside. It is just constant pedaling hour after hour. These sessions really make me look forward to getting outside.

I was back at Sanford’s National Institute for Athletic Health and Performance on Friday, March 5. This time the 300 sq. ft. room was set at 90 degree’s and 60% humidity. After my experience at 105 degree’s I really made an effort to come into this session fully hydrated. Last week I weighed 169 lb prior to the test. This week I came in at 174 lb. So I was 5 lb “heavier” – but I assume most of this weight was water. My hour flew by with my average watts being 200 and HR 126. Last week was 170 watts and HR average of 130. I also only lost .6 lb this week compared to 2.6 lb last week during the hour. I drank 3 large bottles of water during the test this week – last week I only drank 1.5 bottles. Internal core temperature leveled off at 101.4 degrees this week. What have I learned? You need to work to keep fully hydrated! My crew will really have to track my fluid/calories during RAAM. I’ll be going back to the chamber again to ride in a cooler environment – 65 degrees, mild humidity so we can have a plan for the different temperature extremes we will face. Stay tuned.