Mike Across America

Wow! Nine more days! Sometimes it seemed like RAAM would never get here and now its here! If I had a dollar for every time someone asks me “are you ready?” I would be fully funded!!! Actually the fund-raising has gone really well. Tonight we were at Pizza Ranch in Tea for a fund raiser for my cause. 10% of the proceeds and all tips went to Mike Across America and it bought in over $300. With raffle ticket sales and donations we are up over $24,000! I can’t express how grateful I am to all who have donated to this event/charities.

Training is going great. I had 5 days in the environmental chamber last week. My sweat rate is steady at a little over 2L per hour, but I’m able to drink 2L per hour so I’m training my body to process fluids well. My sodium loss rate is decreasing so I’m also becoming more efficient in maintaining my electrolytes. This week I’m doing 2 hour rides every day from 3:00-5:00pm. KDLT is having me on their morning show at 6:30am on Thursday, June 3. KELO is doing a piece that evening at 6:00pm. Time sure flies when you are having fun.

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’ve ridden to my mother-in-laws (Darlene Milton) farm north of Spencer, Iowa before, but never down and back on the same weekend. Now I can say I’ve done it. Saturday’s ride was by myself – 108 miles in 5:06 – 21.2mph avg. – HR 119 avg.. I had 30 minutes of off the bike time with Karen providing support in the “follow” vehicle – our car. It’s really nice to have food and drink right there when you want it. Not to mention the moral support of having my wife/crew member watching over me. I had called Joe Stiller before I left that morning to ask him about highway 9 road conditions as Joe and his wife Tina had ridden to Okoboji a few weeks ago. Joe called me back Saturday night and when I told him where I was and that I planned to ride back on Sunday, he volunteered to drive down and ride back with me. We met at 9:30am at the Cenex station in Fostoria, Iowa (7 miles from my mother-in-laws and off we went. Tina drove Joe down and then did her own ride around the lakes before driving back to Sioux Falls. Joe and I worked well together and 5:20 later I had 112 miles at an average speed of 21.1 mph and avg. HR of 110 with only 23 minutes of “off the bike” time. A great training weekend. RAAM is one month away.

OK, whats the most fun on a bike? Tailwind!!! With the weather forecast for cool/west winds, Karen and I headed west Friday night to stay with Mike and Jackie Jastorff – friends in Spearfish. Saturday morning we woke up to 37 degrees with 20-30mph winds out of the west. Karen and I drove up to Belle Fourche and at 7:30am I got on the Gutcheck 212 course and off we went. Long story short – I climbed off the bike 9 hours and 15 minutes later in Gettysburg. I rode 212 miles in 8 hours 14 minute (I had 59 minutes of off the bike time). So average speed was 25.7mph, average HR – 112. It was a blast! Despite getting buffeted around whenever the road did not go straight East and getting constantly rained on in 44 degree temperature – I had fun. After a restful night at the Gettysburg Motel I was off at 7:00am on Sunday for 200 miles of more fun. Again, the wind was a steady 20mph out of the west and 8 hours and 23 minutes later(51 minutes off the bike time) I climbed off the bike. Ride time of 7:37 – I averaged 26.2mph with an average HR of 108. This may sound “easy” but trust me riding that fast for that long does take a toll. But all in all – it was a blast. After all the headwind I’ve ridden into this spring – I figured I had a weekend like this coming. 38 days until the start of RAAM.