Mike Across America

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”.

Join Mike for free movie night
“Bicycle Dreams”, A movie about the Race
Across America (RAAM).
April 1 | 6:45 – 8:30 p.m.
USF Campus
Salisbury Science Center,
Zbornik Lecture Hall (AKA Z-Hall) Room 120
The Salsbury Science Center is located at the corner of 23rd Street and Summit Avenue.
Parking is to the East and South of the building.
There will be a freewill offering.

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.

On Saturday, Feb. 27, Jason and Amy Miller of Endurance Fitness hosted an 8 hour indoor ride for me at their club. They promoted the ride to their members and invited anyone who wanted to participate to come to their facility for as much riding as they wanted from 8:00am-4:00pm. Riders could bring in their own bikes/trainers or use one of the clubs LeMond spin bikes. Endurance Fitness did ask for a $10 donation that went toward my Race Across America this summer. One of my biking buddies, Joe Stiller,did the whole 8 hours with me. Some of my training partners and club members came in and rode any where from 1-4 hours. All together $334 was raised. We played cycling DVD’s and music to help pass the time. At one point there were 13 riders in the studio. Overall the ride went great. I’m always experimenting with food and drinking routines during these rides, trying to find what works best and what to avoid. In case your wondering, I keep these rides totally aerobic – HR 105-120 bpm. It sounds “easy” but let me tell you – the fact that you never stop pedaling and free wheel, like you can when riding outside, really takes a toll on you. I’ve been doing these long indoor sessions every two weeks, with the next one planned for March 13 at Spoke-N-Sport. Go to their website – spoke-n-sport.com – and register to come in and join the fun.