Dublin Weekend

The weather is coming around nicely, so getting time on the bike doesn't seem as hard as it did last month. Today's training included 39 minutes of sub-lactate threshold intervals during a 2 hour ride. It's still hard, but at least I'm not wheezing while trying to get enough air in the freezing temperatures.

Tomorrow Gator and I will ride down to Dublin (about 150 miles). The goal will be to take it easy so we'll be fresh enough to ride hard on Sunday's Dublin century. I don't ride many organized centuries anymore, so it will be fun to see a lot of the locals. No doubt that they'll want to show off their spring form, and they'll take pride in wearing me out.

I've finally completed all of the flight reservations for my crew on RAAM, and I've also reserved the third and final vehicle that we'll use during the race. The last step will be to tweak my Oceanside hotel reservations because the crew will be arriving on Saturday this year (instead of Sunday and Monday).

In an interesting development, we've come up with an exciting plan to help raise money for the Golden Harvest Food Bank. It's still an idea in progress, but I'm working with Stephen Auerbach to have a public screening of his award winning film "Bicycle Dreams." I'm very excited about the possibility of linking RAAM and bicycling to something that might have a positive impact on our local community. Gator Cochran is working very hard to make this a reality, and at this point we appear to have the support of our Columbia County Commissioners. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I will hope that most of my friends can keep their calendar clear for April 20th.

Training for RAAM

I've been very busy trying to prepare for RAAM. Somehow I still need to find time to ride my bike after hosting a couple brevets, planning for a fleche, planning two cross state record attempts, trying to set up a fundraiser for the Golden Harvest Food Bank, and then trying to make arrangements for this little race in June. At times it seems overwhelming (even though I've been through this a couple times already).

Things seem to be going according to plan. I feel like I've got a solid crew for the race, and Gator Cochran has been helping me with some of the logistical issues. I still have some assorted tasks to take care of like designing some crew t-shirts, making flight arrangements, and getting my van ready to race. I don't want to forget to update the van's sound system so I can have some good music to keep me company on those long climbs.

My goal is obviously to be in by best physcial shape ever by June. It's been a long miserable winter, but I've battled the elements to get in some respectable saddle time. It's very hard to know if I can reach new heights, but I believe that I'm at least close to where I was last year at this time. My weekend long rides leading up to RAAM will look something like this:

2/21 pre-ride Augusta 300 km start sub-LT intervals
2/28 100 mi
3/7 ride Augusta 300 km
3/14 125 mi
3/21 Dublin weekend 150 + 100 mi start over-LT intervals
3/28 200 mi
4/4 100 mi, fleche
4/11 break
4/18 150 mi, preride Augusta 400 km start progressively longer tempo rides
4/25 125 mi
5/2 100, Augusta 400 km
5/8-16 Vacation South Carolina E-W-E record attempt 400 miles
5/23 100 mi
5/30 Georgia record attempt - 300 mi
6/6 100 mi