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april 4 - april 17 | march 20 - april 3
Well, after two weeks of getting cooked, today we tasted the other extreme of springtime in the desert. When we woke up in Tucson it was 10C and raining. Baron told me that it had been raining all night. I had been completely out all night and hadn’t noticed – despite the broke skylight dripping on me (since repaired – the Desert SW is geared towards RV owners, the repair dude made a house call to sort this morning). As an afterthought, I grabbed my jacket on the way out of the door. That probably saved my ride. I’d come up with a great route out of town, bypassing all highways and busy roads – trouble was it went to dirt! Baron was a very good sport despite each bump causing him significant pain on his damaged finger... “not so bad, it hurt for ten minutes then just went numb”. Nice to have a tough Viking for a wingman. The dirt ended eventually but it has taken a toll on our average speed – 45K in just under two hours. Not exactly blazing for us. Two hours into the ride, Baron suggested a coffee break. With the memory of rolling past the Circle K last time still fresh in my mind, I took him up on it. We enjoyed an extended break to warm-up and have a large coffee. Turned out this was a good move because five minutes after the break we rolled into rain and the temperature started dropping. The lowest that I saw was 6C. Thank God I had my jacket. We were both riding pretty strong on the climbs in an attempt to warm ourselves up. After an hour of climbing...
B – How you doing? So we crested the Santa Rita Mountains and started a 50km/h descent into Sonoita. We had cranium winds and intermittent rain – I wonder what the wind chill is when soaked and traveling with an air speed over 70 km/h? After five minutes I had club-fingers. I couldn’t feel my STI shifters so had to look every time to guide my fingers to the right spot. Our fault for not bringing the right clothes. By the time we rolled into Sonoita, we’d found a break in the clouds. It was cold but not raining any more. A couple of hot chocolates and we were briefly warm before heading out again. We turned east and were dealing with a wicked crosswind. I was freezing and resorted to emergency tactics – the Ultraman swim cap came out! That helped me keep from totally freezing. Riding Steady to Mod-Hard with tights, jacket and swim cap and I was ‘just’ OK. Pretty chilly day. It was a regular Baron day, he got stronger each hour. By the end, I was sitting on his wheel (having relinquished my pulling obligations) putting out 300-350w while he rode straight into the wind. It was tough but it would have been worse if I’d let myself drop off the back. While still a bit heavy on the scales, today was the first day that I felt normal on my bike and running. Two weeks of training, that’s about the normal time for my aerobic systems to come back on line. Overall, a very solid session. Baron and I worked together all day – my average watts for the ride were 230 – to give context my five hour bike splits at IMC03 and IMNZ04 averaged 225w and 250w respectively. So it looks like our fitness is coming back. 5:21 Ride Time, Ride Distance 146K, AVG 27.4 km/h – not exactly blazing speed in the headwinds. Ben told us that riding West to East was the easy way. We’ve had headwinds the whole time in Arizona – oh well. We arrived at the pool too late to swim (they shut at 1pm here in Sierra Vista). However, with 15 minutes left to go, they allowed us to shower for a buck. As soon as my feet warmed up, they became crazy itchy! I’d never had itchiness like this before – to relieve the pain, I had to rub vigorously with my towel for about five minutes. Must have been a reaction to the cold. After our shower, we hopped in the trailer for a few coffees. I perked up and started my George W routine – “Well, ah say, bring it on – bring it!” – I probably sound more like an episode of Beavis & Butthead but it makes me smile. “Bring It” has become a bit of a saying for our trip...
Heat? Bring It... You get the picture! To finish off our training for the day, we ran an hour to the RV Park – pretty steady for me. Very solid day of training – we are responding well but need to do better with our swimming. Oh yeah, we are 15 miles from the Mexican Border right now. Thinking of taking the Baron into Mexico on Sunday. We’ll see – my motivation is simply to eat, clear email and sleep when not training.
Bring It,
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Thirteen Today was a pretty mellow day. I guess we needed to shake the fatigue from the previous stages of the tour. Baron wants me to let you know that he’s a-OK as we managed a 92-minute run – the two minutes over 90 appeared to be quite important to him. Our run was through the Cactus Forest at Saguaro National Park – great run through classic desert terrain – lots of birds and bunnies around. Quite a bit going on when you are quiet enough to see it. We had a two hour nap – not really intended, it just happened. It was raining today and the cooler temperatures enabled us to sleep during the day. The heat has been making it a bit tough for us to get quality rest. At Noon, I awoke from my nap to see Bill, our massage guy, standing at the door of the trailer. He was an hour early so I took that as a sign that my training was over for the day. The massage was exactly what I’d hoped for and needed. Mellow day and I was sleeping again by 9PM. ++++ There was a thread over on my board about why qualify for Kona. I haven’t had the time to read much of what’s happening over there – tending to simply follow the headers (I got a kick out of you guys and the bachelorette thread – same arguments, different target). Kind of nice to have a somewhat forced break from instant replying. So somebody asked why qualify for Kona. Why anything? I find that goals give structure to my life – perhaps it’s more that they enable me to build a structure of achievement, personal ethics, etc... perhaps they simply keep me from being slack or taking the easy route. There is a lot of satisfaction that can be derived for an ethical life based on self-challenge and self-awareness. The easy way is rarely satisfying for long. Why Kona? Well, I think that it’s a very tough goal – difficult tasks are often worthy adversaries. It requires planning, dedication, sacrifice, hard work... like most difficult goals, it involves the acquisition and application of useful life skills. The journey itself is rewarding for many, but not all. For most, the race itself is should be a celebration. For some, it’s the chance to race the best in the world when they are at their best. I think the greatest challenge lies in the journey. It’s never easy to qualify but it’s achievable for most people, providing they are willing to make the substantial sacrifices/adjustments – like all difficult things, those who are unable to commit will seek a multitude of reasons for why they couldn’t achieve – with enough desire and persistence, I’ve been pretty surprised by what folks can achieve – passionate intent while keeping the outcome in context (we are talking about SBRing in circles after all). Some of us simply wouldn’t enjoy doing what it takes to get to Kona – and it takes an awful lot these days. I guess it’s a lot like that with many things – there are folks that desire/wish and folks that achieve. The achievers tend to be action oriented, taking lots of little steps towards their goals – the dreamers watch the achievers and wish that they could be like that. Well, we all can – why can’t you be like that? I think the key is finding the path that generates passion within us – it’s unique for most of us. With my own goals, they aren’t discarded but they are gently left once they are achieved. I move on to the next subject to keep myself rolling along the path that I desire. Still, I think that there can be a trap of which the achievers should be wary. Achievement (or pushing) simply for the sake of itself – we can get caught on a hamster wheel of unconsciously pushing ourselves – so I think that there is a role for reflection (both within ourselves and with the assistance of trusted advisors & mentors). I know that people close to me have taught me much over the years – mostly without realizing it. Our greatest limiters are not our genetics, intelligence, wealth, educational background, creed... our greatest limiter is simply having the patience to persist and endure towards our goals. Regardless of the true limiter, ultimately, most of us get what we give.
“A goal changes everything about your life. If it doesn’t then it’s just a wish.”
“Water wears down stone”
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Twelve Desert Post-script So how did we front up after our eight-hour day yesterday? I’d have to say mixed, very mixed. I was pretty amped after that ride. OK, I was totally jacked up – all systems were go. The other day, Barry asked me how I achieve the relaxed focus that he witnessed when he watched me run in Canada last year. Well, it comes from days like yesterday. Realizing that I am in a powerful place, flowing within a strong groove, building energy inwards – bringing a light, conscious focus to what’s happening with my unconscious. Absorbing the sun, the warmth, the sugar, the music, the buzz, the effort, the heartbeats – basically every source of energy and rhythm. Pulling all these inwards while directing a single focus to what I am seeking to achieve – in this case, riding a bike as well as I can. It’s the concept of flow that you might have read about. When I read about experienced folks talk about meditation or prayer – that’s the closest to what I am able to achieve on these moments. While I can’t “cause” or “force” a flow-state in training, I believe that having a relaxed focus is essential for endurance performance. Relaxation is an essential skill for an elite to master, simply to avoid wasting energy on items other than performance. How hard did we push? Well, once I settled down from that ride, I noticed that my internal organs were gently vibrating. I get that kind of deep fatigue after breakthrough efforts. The nice thing about taking one’s self to the edge on the bike is that there isn’t the same level of muscular breakdown that comes from an extended tempo session when running. Desert Sleeping Since leaving San Diego, it’s been toasty in the trailer every night. The desert cools off but sometimes it takes until 1 or 2 in the morning to need a blanket. I just lay on the sheets and focus on breathing (figure I might as well get some rest even if I am not sleeping). It was a beautiful night so I moved my gear outside and lay on a picnic table until about midnight. I stretched and watched the stars as well as the city-glow that was lighting the backside of the mountains. A great way to ease down after a big day. Around midnight I shifted back to the trailer. The Rattlesnake Run Baron and I felt OK in the morning – I was sort of surprised at that. We found a trail loop and headed out. Even early in the morning it was balmy and it looked like it would be another toasty day. The Southern Arizona desert is quite different than the Southeastern Californian Desert. There’s quite a bit going on if one isn’t too fried to notice. We’ve been really enjoying the monster versions of various cacti. Just like in the Tropics, when you go to the home environment of various household flora, you get to see huge versions of the miniatures that we’ve brought into our homes. Some of these cacti must be over five meters tall. About half way through, there was a fork in the trail and I went right (Baron was in horsepower control mode and letting me lead). At the junction, a rattlesnake was warming itself up. I dodged it and heard a high pitched Viking Wail behind me. It seems that my Swedish buddy doesn’t have a lot of experience with snakes. He set a new PB for his vertical jump and the screams were quite noteworthy. After that incident, each root, twig and branch took on new meaning. I have a hunch that I’ll be leading a lot more in the desert. The rest of the day finished up with a decent swim (for the Baron) and a short swim (for me). I was quite shelled. Swam 1500 yds, did some fly technique work in there and got out for 45 minutes. With five minutes left in the lap swimming session, I hopped back in for a final 200 flourish (to cool off). We rode into Tucson (42 K or so) and were caught in our first desert thundershower (hail, rain, wind – just like Christchurch only warmer). There were small rivers flowing across the roads and ten meters from the entrance to our RV site, the Baron went down! He was right on my wheel so it must have been a miracle that I missed this monster pothole (verified through later inspection). Poor guy banged himself up a bit – his middle finger took the worst of it. Fortunately, he’s just a little scraped up – but might need a few days off swimming.
That’s all for now,
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Eleven OK, first a few tidbits from last time. I think I might have got my arrival splits wrong on my swim from Day Ten – they should have been clustered around 2:30 – if they were clustered around 2 mins then I messed up because I was leaving on the 30 as opposed to the top. Baron is a stickler for accuracy! +++ Meat Loading I forgot to mention a technique that I used quite effectively last Thursday. Similar to carboloading prior to an A-priority race, I meat loaded before my Vegan Day last week. Probably threw down two steaks and three chicken thighs between nine and eleven o’clock the night before. Barry still gave me credit for my Vegan Day. On reflection, the Vegan day appeared to excel around dinner time – so, like the Paleo Plan – it’s easiest if you simply eat dinner for every meal. It’s certainly a challenging way to eat and requires a lot of advance planning – a lot easier at home when you have your Vegan infrastructure in place. I think that Vegan’s will have to watch their sugar and starch intake – it’s pretty easy to hit the breads, cereals and higher GI CHO sources. I think that might not be all that great from an endurance point of view – I’d probably lean towards a high PRO vegan strategy that strips out a lot of the high GI CHO except when training or after the long sessions (sound familiar). +++ The Warm-Up How can I tell you about Day Eleven without sounding too dramatic? I think that I’ll simply lay it out and use the Baron’s words through the day for added effect. We both slept in a little and kicked off our run around 7:45 – it was already toasty but the wind was light and from the North. We were heading south to Tucson so that was a good sign. However, Scott (our fighter jet pilot host) had made use of the military weathermen to get us a forecast (10 knot, cranium winds from 120) – basically in-your-face-most-of-the-day-headwinds. Our run took us to a new highway that was under construction. Baron and I were running on hard packed dirt, soon to be asphalt, joking about our “trail” run. We were in good spirits after our easy day. We came up with the plan for our next big tour – The Downwind Big Ring Adventure (Down-BRA). You get yourself at the highest point in the middle of a large landmass. You equip your bike with a 58-tooth big ring (or a 61 if you are Mister A). Each day you wake up and have a large mug of coffee while checking out the weather situation. You roll out and ride downwind all day. Every time the wind changes direction, so do you. No more relentless winds – cyclo-surfing. We thought that this was a great idea – Down BRA – let me know if you try it. At the end of the run, Baron warned me “no sprinting this time”. Two days ago, I’d laid down my three minute surge to try to catch Sam at the end of our run. Sam held us off and I got my quickness training for the week. It was pretty toasty at the end of our run and we both agreed that it was a good idea that we had run first. “It’s not so easy to run at the end of the day.” Truer words have rarely been spoken. The Easy Bit Before we left, Baron was on-line reading my previous entry. I was a little worried about that because I thought that he might be obligated to punish me again! Time would tell. We rolled out of Scott’s at 10AM after a solid breakfast and the leaving of a few souvenirs for our hosts (thanks heaps!). On my Topo software, the ride was pretty straightforward – 135K of flat-ish riding, 65K of a 1% uphill grade and a fast 25K to finish. One thing about waiting a bit to ride, well it’s better for running but the wind gets up with the sun so the situation was a bit different from our run conditions. We had a solid Easterly running into our faces. I’d promised myself that “this time would be different”. I had my HRM on and was keeping it under 110bpm to avoid later difficulties and locked backs. We turned directly into the wind when it was my turn to be at the front. After a minute, a tractor came by “heaven” and we got a few K of farm-motor-pacing. The tractor pulled off just as my ten minutes ended (I learned later that I was holding 23kph pre-tractor). Baron came to the front and did a 30-minute pull to the point where our route headed south again. I congratulated him on a fine effort and he said that he “wanted to make sure that I was happier at the end of the day this time”. We passed a Circle K that was way out in the desert and I thought about stopping. However, Baron was doing a good job and I know that he doesn’t like to stop early in the ride. So we rode past... Shortly thereafter, we turned directly back into the wind and started climbing very slowly. It was hair-drier hot and we were on a dead straight road with no relief of any type. The wind was from one-o-clock so we didn’t even get a rest when traffic passed (not that there was much of that – Justin D had set us up with a sweet route out of town). I had my radio dialed into K.B.R.N. – All Baron, All Day. I don’t have a speedo on my Trek (we’re working on that) but I didn’t need one to see that my HR was rising and my power was falling. I wasn’t in a great spot. My back felt OK but my feet were killing me – I started riding with my feet out of my shoes when Baron was pulling. I didn’t get as good rest but it brought some relief. Eventually, I just kept my feet out to avoid the in-and-out hassles. I didn’t know it but Baron was pretty hot as well. For some reason, he’d forgotten to drink before and after our run. I’d been pounding fluids and was still pretty parched! At the 70K mark, we passed a farmer selling watermelons at the side of the road. I sensed that the Baron wanted to stop but I needed something a bit more than a warm mellon. So we plugged onwards – Baron feeling very thirsty... me slowly melting down with my socks on top of my bike shoes. We weren’t in good shape at all. I spotted a sign in the distance – there was hope! Baron sped up and actually looked over his shoulder to see if I was OK to stop. He’s too polite and I bet he would have continued onwards if I’d wanted to. We pulled into the store and I immediately reached for the 44oz cup – filled it to the brim with Gatorade, pounded half, topped it up with ice, pounded half again and iced it up again. At ninety-nine cents this has to be one of the best deals in the world. Baron went for the 32oz version for some reason – not sure his beverage of choice. We were 75k into the ride, Baron remarked, “a third of the way, no problem!” I was having serious doubts about the feasibility or wisdom of my plan for the day. The wind showed no sign of easing. I think the break was about ten minutes long and we were back on it. I was good for about an hour and then hit a nail that was so large Baron checked my _rim_ for damage – my second flat of the trip. Truth be told, I needed the break. I still wasn’t feeling too sharp. We were 25K outside of our lunch stop (Florence, AZ) when I really hit the wall. Baron had me sitting on 135bpm, while drafting in a big headwind, I was hot and I was thirsty. I was also in a strange mood. The wind was making noises in my head and, for a while, it sounded like people were yelling at me. Oh great, losing my mind in the desert! I calmed the voices and got back to suffering. Eventually, I rolled to the front and stretched out with my HR at 125...
B – What’s up? Baron was very patient with me. He’s seen me in trouble before and this wasn’t a situation where you ride off alone (I tell him when it’s OK to leave me and I wasn’t giving that green light today!). He left me with my dignity and allowed me to ride slow for my ten-minute pull (likely figuring that my tough-patch would end eventually). Maybe, my problem was the sports drink they were serving on the course? +++ The Main Event Pssssssst, my third flat of the trip arrived.
B – Did you plan it? I fixed it and rang Wy to let her know that we’d need a resupply to get more tubes. What we didn’t know was that she’d dropped the hitch on her leg and was having her own challenges for the day – like Baron, she was too polite to let me know. She just said that she’d track us down. A buddy of mine, Belinda, sells for Serfas and she set me up with a few sweet tires. Quite durable (except when faced with two inch nails or pinch flats because I under-inflated). So my changeover time was quite quick. We were back on the road and I was suffering. I didn’t feel much worse than before but I kept rolling out the back. Baron took pity on me and passed me the last of his water. It was hotter than tea but I took it, more to accept his kindness than to get much relief. We rolled into Florence and straight to the Circle K (no Subway today). Was in serious trouble and pulled out all the stops. I used every trick in the book:
We both opted for fountain refills, my second one was Gatorade. Like a couple of teenagers pounding beers before a high school dance, we ate our stuff in the shade around the side of the building. We were a bit punch drunk, joking and laughing. I was trying to eat my turkey like KP does on Epic Camp. Baron was enjoying my imitation (think wolverine). Don’t ask me why but part way through lunch, I figured that I’d come up with the ultimate sports drink by mixing my coffee and Dr. Pepper together. My thinking was that it would be iced coffee Pepper – why hadn’t anyone tried it before! The taste was highly rough – no need to try at home. I was just about to dump it and Baron requested a sip. He came very, very close to hurling – unleashing several dry heaves in the parking lot while shocked adults pumped gas into their pick-ups – just like High School! Good thing he didn’t chunder, he was going to need his fluids. Not only was the next stage challenging but it was 45 miles to the next store. I’d done some calculations and knew that Wy wouldn’t be along for a while. We were on our own. We rolled out of Florence, alone and wondering what would happen. What we didn’t know was that we were simultaneously bloated and dehydrated. Honestly, I was scared of what was going to come. I’d already creaked (not quite a crack) a few times today but we didn’t have the luxury of simply riding easy to the end. It was 3:30pm and we might run out of daylight – getting into the support vehicle was not an option. I’d have to dig a little deeper. My tunes had me perking up and soon I was chugging along in my steady zone. Baron was pulling through strongly and we were working well together. Our pace was the fastest of the day despite heading uphill. I didn’t know that Baron’s own personal hell was beginning as his ride slowly unraveled. He really doesn’t like to acknowledge weakness or limitations. So he just hung to my wheel – never missing his turn but soon I could tell that the pace was easing a bit when he’d come to the front. I kept my HR under 150 and was riding the top end of my IM race pace (eleven days into my early base period, oh well). I was feeling fantastic with my music. After a day in the desert (high of 97F in PHX), every capillary on my body was wide open and I was radiating heat as fast as I could. I felt comfortable. Between songs, I could tell that I was riding tempo from my breathing but it felt good. The sun was to our right so I could keep track of Baron in the shadow. He was right there, the whole time. He was there, but it wasn’t the normal Baron. Somewhere along the line, he’d gotten seriously dehydrated. What I didn’t know was that while sitting behind King Elvis (he got a kick out of my singing along to the MP3) his heart rate was 160. bMind – so I think to myself, should I tell Gordo that I am at 160 and now I must rest at 135? No, I continue! Later he would confide, “I tried to slow to 140 but it still hurt. So I held your speed and rode 160-165. One pull after lunch, then I was finished.” What does desert training do to you after a while? Well, I was sitting behind Baron watching his full zip jersey flapping in the wind. Then it hit me... we didn’t make any full zip JFT jerseys. I started laughing and laughing. He looked over his shoulder and asked me what was up. I told him that I liked his new jersey – he simply said, “this is the !@#$%^ desert”. Ride ‘til you die, baby! So we rode hard for 70K, uphill, into the wind, dehydrated, cooked from a day in the sun – that’s it but that’s not it. There is a real bond that exists between a couple of guys drilling themselves for no reason other than the fact that they love it. Here’s our total conversation for two hours – we’d only say a few words when swapping out – when we were really drilling it we wouldn’t even look at each other – at each ten minute mark, I’d simply point forward or touch the Baron’s hip. G – How do you explain this to someone? B – I’ve never suffered like this, I’d rather do an Ironman. G – Nobody out-trains us today. B – Ninety minutes over 160 bpm, this is hell. B – I was ready to die 20K ago. The Baron was just beginning to crack and I crept in front 90 seconds early to help us up what turned out to be the final roller of the day. We were totally stuffed and Baron was about as close to “highly emotional” as I’ve ever seen him. We crested the hill, having been grinding up for two hours or so. I pulled us down towards the bottom. I didn’t wave the Baron through but he came forward at his allotted time – despite being totally finished, he still had his self-respect. Later he would tell me... “I tried everything and nothing worked. So I said to myself OK, this is your time. It’s OK to cry. But I tried for five minutes and no tears came. So I kept going.” Baron blew threw a few pain barriers out there. These are the sorts of workouts that mold a champion (or end your season). Either way, it’s ours forever. Not what I recommend but exactly what happened. +++ At the end of the day, there are only two men that will fully understand this ride and I suppose that’s why I am an explorer (more on that at a future date). I don’t look forward to those situations but I enjoy having the opportunity to step-up and play the game. Everything we do is simply a game. Sometimes we crack, sometimes we don’t – with training this hard, Ironman simply becomes another test. A manageable event for the mind to wrap itself around. How many Danos for the day? I think it’s time to stop counting, we’ve moved into a new phase of the gRAAM. Our plan to take it easy for two weeks didn’t really play out. Not a surprise really. I gotta be me.
Shaka, +++ Up Next – The Rattlesnake Run – Life’s never boring on the road.
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Nine & Ten Think I’ll go with a few themes today... Desert TV Last night I got back from the Gents to find Sam, Baron and Barry – gathered around my screen saver drinking Bud and watching random samples of my “My Pictures” subdirectory scroll through. I joined the fun and gave commentary to each of the shots as they came up. Just in came you were wondering... that’s what we do for kicks in the evening on gRAAM. The guys probably killed 40 minutes that way before I repo’ed my machine to keep cranking. Even when I am short on connectivity, there’s no shortage of messages for me to clear through. The Wisdom of Baron
“He’s just a simple guy from Mockfjård.” I suppose it’s the remnants of the big city guy in me but I’m always surprised by the clear wisdom that you find in people that were brought up in small towns. When I look through my friends, there are a lot of people that grew up in a simple environment. Often I seem to be the most complex of the crew. The Baron spends a lot of time with me – more than many people can tolerate, I am pretty intense and moan to no end when I don’t get my own way. I feel very lucky to have a pal like him. The desert was playing head games with me a little over the last few days. Shan was probably the first one to notice that, at times, I get a furrowed brow at what’s rolling in on my machine. For the last two days, the trailer would slowly clear out when I was on-line. Hopefully, I managed to get past that. So this morning we are running along a dirt trail in the middle of the desert (near Wenden, AZ if you are tracking us). Baron’s been giving me a lot of non-advice advice over the last few days. Trying to pull me back to my more consistantly happy self. Anyhow, Baron leans over and tells me a story about himself (a technique that I use with my crew):
B – You know, I was having trouble the first few days of the trip. He just smiled and I thought about the wisdom of a simple man from Mockfjård. Eight miles, one hour, 32 Danos. Desert Conversations Clas talking on the telephone to Kristy
K – So where are you? The Ride to Goodyear We had a fine tailwind to start our ride to Goodyear. It was day two of my new Uber-Andersson position – my secret weapon to cripple myself for life after 40 – Molina and I tooling around on our beam bikes, satisfied that we got every precious watt out of our 30s... we’ll have to shoot some photos of me on the bike so my homeboys on Slowtwitch.Com can let me know how to tweak it. The tailwind lasted a whole 4K and then we made a sharp left and that was it for the rest of the day. Baron likes to let me ride at the front until I burn off my morning coffee and settle down. Then he rolls up and we start to take 10-minute pulls. With Barry along, it was luxury with only two pulls per hour. We made great time, despite the wind. Today, I lasted 80K before my back started to tighten up. Baron knows instantly when I am not happy – there are telltale signs if you know me well. I highly value the trait of my best friends to see me as a package deal. We rolled up and past an Interstate and then the road went to gravel – so we backtracked and got on the main highway to Phoenix. Interstates make me nervous, my blood sugar was low, my back was tight and Baron was picking it up ever so slightly...
G – You have to take it easy on me on this road. He then ratchets it up piece by piece.
G – Hey, how about slowing down? [gMind – you mean you don’t want to go slower, you little...] Anyhow, I should have clued in that I was a bit low on energy when my mood tanked but I didn’t have my HRM to tell me what was up. I’ve taken to Andersson-style riding – no watch, no computer, no HRM. He’s my idol – Bjorn are you reading? If yes, then send me that swim tip that you promised post IMNZ – something about catch-up. So I got more and more bitter. Then I got dropped. Then I got pissed. Then I hammered up to Baron, stuck out my tongue and rode beside him. Seeing that he had worked me over a bit, he smiled and said...
B – I think you might be more comfortable if you raised your handlebars a bit. Funny the feelings you get on a long ride – everything from anger, to despair, to perfect calm. Baron just rolling along, not letting me feed off his suffering but finding great amusement in his crazy training pal called gordo. I managed to convince him to stop for lunch – a good move – turns out he likes Subway – this could be a good way for me to get bonus back stretching opportunities. For the record, I cracked at 90K today – a full 60K further than Uber Position Day One. Over lunch, B suggested that I drop my bars further.
B – If you don’t want to raise them, then perhaps you should drop it another 3cm and move through the painful part. After lunch, we all felt better. The miracle of Dr. Pepper! Tough to say who picked the pace back up to Steady but it was probably my fault as usual. We ended up with a steady dual to the death. Barry did great – Baron completely hung him out towards the end, I was watching Barry ratchet up his cassette as he fatigued in the headwind. Finally, I’d had enough and jumped in front to pitch in. Baron surged past me, claiming it was his turn and proceeded to ride highly solid steady. How Barry hung on, I’ll never know. Pretty darn impressive. My favourite Barry quote: “These guys aren’t supermen, these guys are supermen.” I’ll let him explain that line in his own time. He’s given me an insight into some of what he’s gathered from the trip. There is a tonne of good material and we didn’t have one interview! He was taking notes every night, I sense that there is a fine article in those pages. Pedaling with the pros... So Baron and I swapped pulls – I felt pretty good at this stage but was ready for the ride to be over. The end of the dual went like this...
G – You pull through. 4:45 ride time, 102 miles, 102 Danos. For the record, I cracked uphill, into the wind, at 38 kph. Gotta find my HRM strap... We arrived in Goodyear at Scott & Kristin’s place – they had a BBQ standing by for their somewhat shelled guests. Scott’s a fighter pilot – the real deal! Have to say that the US Military have taken great care of us. Air Force this time. I’m starting to get a bit of a taste of what Mark Allen’s training partners must have gone through back in the day. I suppose a guy could get pretty decent being punished by the Baron on a daily basis. The Sam Man So what about Sam? Well, after a start that probably had both of us shaking our heads a bit – those were two very legit strikes the Tour Committee gave him - he learned his lessons, got tough and got stuck in. Pretty impressive what he was able to achieve and he even finished with a totally reckless end of day monster pull – followed by what must have been a ‘vigorous’ run with the Baron. What can we learn from Sam? I think it clearly shows what we can achieve when we step up, take a risk and back ourselves. Sam signed on for a week of training with a couple of sub-9 dudes. That must have been a little scary (even if his coach turned up a little portly). We didn’t attack him but we didn’t take it easy on him either. We worked him just under his cracking point for long hours, day after day. Daily, we rode right on his limit – frankly, I appreciated having him as a form of protection from the Baron. In the back of my mind, I felt comfortable having him around to shield me from endless Baron steady! Just like Barry, Sam is a mid-30s guy like me. I’d forgotten how nice it can be to have some shared cultural stuff – even if it is just frat stories, a can of Coors and cartoons. That must be tough on the Baron, at times. Far from home, in a foreign country, with the constant challenge to simply get his point across. Sam also taught me about the value of keeping quiet at times. Sometimes the best course of action is no action at all. That was a good tip as well as his parting advice to remember not to take it personally. “It” being just about everything. Day Ten Training
Swim 6000 SCY Solid session – score about 55 Danos Ran for 14 Danos – 35 mins easy – didn’t like the look of the neighbourhood near the massage place – felt a bit out of place. Cleared through much of my mail. I’ll be offline for a couple of days. Tomorrow is 225K in the desert with Baron – who’s idea was this anyhow? g-dozer
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Eight We all slept through out alarms this morning – must have been the transition from California to Arizona time. Sam and I commented that it was a _massive_ sleep. Baron laughed at us and said that it was “only eight” hours – that boy can sleep. So our open water swim started a bit late but that was a good thing because it turned out that the Colorado River is pretty darn chilly at this time of year. Baron and I were quite pleased that we opted for sleeves. The current was running pretty strongly and what took 40 minutes upstream only took 15 minutes to come down. We tacked on a bit more distance for an hour of easy to steady swimming – call it 35 Danos. It’s a bit strange, the topics that can amuse on a long trip like this. Each of the guys had noticed that my favourite hot weather bike shorts are a bit sheer, especially when the sun is behind me. Apparently, my butt appears to be talking in tune with my cadence. Sam was the first guy to actually say something about it. Baron came up with a way for those of you at home to share the experience... with each hand, take your thumb and index finger and pinch the corners of your mouth together, now lift your right hand while pulling your left hand down. That’s it, now repeat at a frequency of about 60 cycles per minute. Look in a mirror and you’ve got Sam’s view of gordo big gear training. Also strange how fast the body and the mind adjusts to the training. All of us simply “rolled” the 110K on the bike today. Easy to steady with occasional periods where one of us would get excited – no one was too nervous because the winds were kind and the ride was short. Half way through the ride, I got far too excited and was hammering down the road. Baron was riding behind, out of the draft, as usual – he gets a kick out of me because he says that he can start a stopwatch when I am hammering. Sure enough, after about three or four K, my head popped up and I started looking around. My back tightening as soon as my effort went over steady pace – I think it might take more than one day to adjust to my position. What about my position? I’ll have to get a picture of me on my new bike position – some of you might get a kick out of it. Baron observed that my original plan was to drop 4cm by the Atlantic and I’ve dropped 5cm in the first week. Oh well, we’ll see how I hold up. It seems quite aero and I only need to stop and stretch every 30K... Mister A influences us even when he’s not here – Baron’s been having a little ITB issue but even he decided to join the fun and dropped his front end another centimeter. We have a strange sort of limbo-dance going on. Each of us waiting for the other to crack. We are waaaay out in the desert tonight. I walked over to the telephone booth when we arrived – budget situation! There was only a wire hanging where a telephone used to be. Tomorrow we’ll be back in civilization and my little green modem will start flashing again. Barry and I had a great run before dinner – he’s thinking of coming back around the middle of April and joining BnG when we go for our 110 Odyssey. It would be great to have him. Let the record show that I had a couple of Boca burgers as part of my dinner tonight. I haven’t converted but he did introduce me to some new tastes. Call it 32 Danos for the run and 66 for the bike. The lads are throwing down a few beers. They offered me a cold beverage but it’s Bud and unless I can have five or six... well, it’s just not worth it. Safe to say that the first week went a lot better than we expected. It’s not easy to be away from our loved ones and there were a lot of teething issues – however – we just might make it.
Take care, ++++++
Week One:
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Seven This will be a short one. We did our first “long” run this morning. 46 minutes out and about 54 minutes back (or more) for me. Baron came back in 43 so you can see that I kinda blew to pieces! We had planned on driving north to a swimming pool, but Wy organized a local massage lady to come and take care of the lads. So we stayed close to home and prepared our gear. I dropped my handlebars 2cm – should be interesting tomorrow. Oh yeah, this is Vegan day.
12 Noon...
1:30 PM...
2PM...
2:30 PM...
3PM...
5:30PM... Call it 48 Danos for the run.
Cheers,
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Six
“It’s not a straight line, it’s a @#$% circle!.” ++++ It’s pretty amazing how many things can happen in a single day -- ups, downs and various events. By the time I arrived (in darkness) at our campsite for the evening, a lot had happened (most of it simply in my mind). In order for you to read this message, my little green modem needs to send bits of code in and out of this machine. Little bits of code flowing back and forth. So these little messages have an impact on me as well as the folks that read them. None of us can really effect how others will read these messages and the various scenarios that each of our minds will dream up. So yesterday morning, my little green modem brought a message in that got my mind a little worked up. My first response is always interesting – why does this person want to mess with me? Took me a while to think through that one – our motivation is rarely to hurt another, more often, simply to protect certain feelings within ourselves. I get through that round of emotions and then I’ve got the urge to try to make the sender feel guilty – draft up the “that hurt” reply – and then don’t bother sending it. Why? Because I figured that it was best to break the cycle of guilt/pain and, besides, my response is up to me. It’s nobody’s issue but my own. I was feeling a little stressed and then a huge bunch of messages rolled in. Then I got more stressed. My stress (self-created) flowed outwards. I saw what was happening and tried to get control of the situation (maybe I should have just accepted it). So we started our ride a bit late while I cranked away on my email – frantically dealing with self-imposed pressure. Without a doubt, I wasn’t at my best. I am sure that I caused as many problems as I solved – taking things personally. We rolled out of Twentynine Palms and I worked to turn it around – greeting everyone that I saw on the way out of town. I was thinking good thoughts about everyone that is close to my heart as well as the strangers that we bumped into on the road. A change in perspective was required to get myself feeling better. One of the things about spending long periods of time single file, in the desert, into the wind, on a dead straight road... you get plenty of time to think. So I put my mind to mulling over everything that had transpired on the morning. I worked through everything – nothing like a lot of nothing to clear the mind. By the time I was feeling better – I was wondering how much disharmony was left elsewhere. Disharmony courtesy of the rippling waves from the messages flowing in and out of my little machine. Hopefully, things have settled down for those of you that I may have messed up. I was talking about Shan to the lads – talking about our uncommon relationship and why I love her (loyalty & ethics). This was part of my strategy to turn it around for myself. Fill my heart with peace and love. Worked quite well and I was feeling even better – only took 50 miles. So we changed our plan a little bit out in the desert. Actually, I changed my plan and ran it by the Baron. He agreed that it made sense. We’ve decided the following rough outline...
Seeing as we are flying to World’s Toughest, we don’t need the support vehicle (and to avoid frying our support), Wy will take ten days off to visit friends. I am sure that we’ll need a break from each other by that stage. Clas and I will probably have some time off from each other after WT, as well. No point in spoiling a good friendship between us. We are feeling surprisingly good at the end of the first week. While these reports offer an insight into what’s happening – it’s only that – a small piece of what’s happening, weighed with my biases and filters. Similar to what Sam said, gRAAM is gordo but gordo isn’t gRAAM – or something like that. +++ This isn’t quite in chronological order, today. What about the Marines? Well, Baron, Barry and I arrived at the pool with our special swim gear. We brought our sleeveless wetsuits to the pool. At 6AM the air temperature wasn’t exactly toasty so we suited up. Something about the attitude and aura of the base – it’s all class. Everyone seems to have a purpose. No wonder the Corp is a leading organization. Seeing as we had at least 180K ahead of us the boys were expecting a cruisy 2-3K. They were a bit surprised (but game) when I suggested a Roly Special...
200 fr, 4x50 fr descend 1-4 The wetsuit crew was enjoying life, holding about 1:25 pace on the mod-hard stuff (maybe not the Baron but he was swimming well just the same). The non-wetsuit lads (Sam and the Marines), well, they were torn between appropriate pacing and freezing to death. They made a concession and put on swim caps. As we left the pool, some guys arrived with full combat gear (boots, clothes, guns, packs) and started swimming lengths! There weren’t moving fast but they managed to avoid drowning. Kinda put our little swim workout into perspective. These guys are laying it on the line, daily. After the swim, the lads presented me with one of the USMC bike jerseys that I’d mentioned the other day on my board. I’d actually been admiring the jerseys but figured that it wouldn’t be cool for a non-Marine to request one. Seeing as it was presented from a LT-Col, I’ll wear it with pride and ensure that I bring honour to the jersey. Baron got a USMC athletic golf shirt – red – his favourite colour. I had to reciprocate our hosts’ goodwill and generosity so I laid a set of JFT gear on the boys. Looking at the terrain around 29, considering their pedigree and taking into account their dedication to the Corp (19 years a piece, I believe) – Mitch and Wingnut embody our JFT & No Easy Way philosophy. Thanks Guys – hope you read this and we’ll meet again during the Desert Hell Camp in September. +++ Fast forward to Day 7. As I type this I’m on my rest day today. Stranded from the ‘net – no little green light flashing to keep me connected to folks thousands of miles away. Last night Baron and I were sitting outside under the stars having a cold beer.
G – Hey Buddy. Baron just smiled and observed... “People will be happy, people will be angry, people will be sad – some will like us and others will hate us. None of them will have any idea what we are doing, how we are really feeling or what is going on. For me, today and this night, it’s enough.” Later, Sam asked me...
S – Gordo, you ever read The Four Agreements? The best way to give me advice is to simply present the idea gently and leave it. No wonder Sam is a happily married man and I am good pals with the Baron. I’ll see if I can do a better job implementing their non-advice advice. +++ The Four Agreements:
Don’t take anything personally +++ OK, back to our ride. The pictures of the day will tell a better story than my words could. Heading out on the road, I was probably a little worked up from my delusions of the AM as well as the fear that I was stressing out Shan. Typically, when I have the fear it proves unfounded, but I then do something that results in real stress to occur for her. Some entertaining stories (for some) arise when my mind gets out of control. A powerful ability to focus is a double-edged sword. So I’d been rolling along for about 40 minutes when I waved for Baron to come through. He rolled up and smiled – I asked him what was so funny. He just said that he was happy that he’d left his brain in the trailer. We’d arranged for a support stop en route when the truck/trailer caught us. I had four bottles of water and went through them in the first 1:40 of the ride. I then started my first of many “can I make it another 15 minutes, yes I can” cycles. Along the way, we got onto a conversation about Las Vegas. Previously, I’d offered to bring the Baron but I’m hoping that Shan’s path will cross my own after WT. So I said that it probably wouldn’t work out and he was better off going with his girlfriend if he wanted to go. Shan and I were in Vegas once for a coaching conference – strange place. She couldn’t leave the hotel alone without being harassed. Even when I was along folks would leer and follow us around. Real eerie vibe. Baron kept riding off the front – not on purpose, simply because he needs to hold back a bit when we want to keep the group together. Eventually, he rolled back and told me that he was simply “unable to control the horsepower” and I’d have to lead. After the initial enthusiasm of the first hour, holding back wasn’t an issue for me. I’d probably been out of water for more than an hour when I realized that I was riding through the middle of the desert – a long, long way away from anything – without food or water. A half hour after that, off in the distance, I spotted a few palm trees and a water tower. Hope! I picked it up a notch and we rolled closer and closer. Again, I’ll simply let my facial expression in the photo tell the story. Suffice to say, that I was _highly_ disappointed but these things are bound to happen in the desert. Wy arrived after a long break but there were only three of us left. Baron had to push along because his knee acts up (sometimes) when he lets it cool down. We all understood but I wasn’t going to head out into the desert low on energy and water. We had to convince him to take the one last full water bottle that we had. In the end, it was 45 minutes riding to the first re-supply point of the day. Staying put for icy V8s and Colas was the right move for me. It was late in the day when we rolled into Parker and I was starting to feel the effects of a day spent riding steady in the desert – September Camp will prove interesting. The ride that we did was tough and we could see why the Marines use it for their Kona training. Wy got a little disoriented in Parker and ended up at the wrong camp. Along the way, we’d lost the Baron as well! So we swung into action to hunt him down. About 5K into my search, I got a flat. I got out my repair kit and pulled a tube out. For some reason, I decided to check if it was OK – pssssss – it hissed as I pumped it up. No worries, I had a second tube – psssss – that one had a hole as well. Hmm, looks like I took my spares from the to-be-repaired pile rather than the patched pile. Glad that I found that out at the end of the day and not in the middle of the desert! Not to be discouraged – I pulled out my patch kit. It was a beautiful evening and I was watching the sun set over the Colorado River – not a bad place to be stranded at all. Seems that I pulled my patch kit out of the to-be-patched bag as well. It had everything that I needed but only one patch was left. I’d better choose wisely! I made my selection – sanded, glued, waited, patched – placed the tube in the tire – pumped and... psssss. Not my day -- there were two holes in this tube. I was just tying a knot in my tube (the final repair option for an emergency) when the Baron appeared in the distance. He looked like he was going to ride past me so I yelled out. He started laughing and laughing. Finding me on the side of the road really capped his day off for him. 10:30am to 6PM on three Clif Bars and a litre of cola – he’s one tough dude – his blood sugar was so low that he was sounding like he was drunk. A little dehydrated as well with a raspy cough from the dry desert air. He gave me a spare tube, I changed it and we rolled back toward the site. As we crossed the highway, he warned me not to flat again because that was his only tube. Sure enough… my ride ended about 5K from home with my final flat of the day. You can score the ride 120 Danos and one lost Baron. ++++ I like another thing about the desert, the contrast. During the day it’s loud – noise from the heat, the wind and the thoughts that go through my mind when I am on the bike. Then there is a transition period through the late afternoon and early evening. The air cools, the wind eases and the stars come out. By about seven or eight in the evening, it is quiet and very peaceful with Orion shining down.
See ya,
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Five Slept in a bit this morning – 4:40am wake up! Also skipped my morning coffee - not sure why but I was feeling a little backed up in the email department. Something that Scott and Brad (Kearns) have mentioned to me is that the guys that make it big in triathlon tend to simply eat, sleep and train. With my life, I have a lot of different things going on. While I am pretty committed, I often wonder if I might be better off having certain periods where I do nothing but focus on training. I suppose that’s what Epic Camp is about. At 6AM, we headed off for another trip round the XTerra Loop. Lori came with us this time (Ben’s wife) and she led the whole climb – the only person to hang with her was the Baron. We were all soundly dropped! I think I scored that a 26 Dano workout last time so we’ll count it the same for this morning. After so many days of luxury accommodation with Ben and Lori, we were a bit sad to be rolling back out to the real world. Palm Springs, in the Spring, is a fine place to be. Especially when you have two fantastic hosts. A few of Lori’s female pals came to provide our “honour guard” out of town. They rode us out of town (just like Wingnut and Ben rode us in). On the way out, we turned in the ‘wrong’ direction into the wind. I pulled a Baron and asked for confirmation that this was, indeed, the right way to be going. Everyone had a chuckle about that. The climbs weren’t too intense – moderate grades and we had, what felt like, light to moderate tail winds. The Elevator Shaft proved to be more like an escalator, not bad at all. Sam was feeling pretty good...
S – I think I can bridge up to Baron again and take the KOM. Sam rolled on past me, didn’t bridge all the way to Baron but I had my HR at 140 and he was moving away from me. Once we got over the summit, we rolled on down into Yucca Valley. A tailwind popped up and I decided to put it in my 53/11 and not shift the rest of the way to Twentynine Palms. At the first light where we stopped...
S – These flats sure feel different that the climb. If Laurie and his kids are reading this then he’s looking like he just might avoid his third strike. Funny what happens behind the scenes... this morning Sam was getting text messages from his sons – “hang in there Dad, we hope you don’t get your third strike”. Sam and I were joking that if he did blow it then I’d simply ring ahead to Wy to throw his stuff out of the trailer. As we rolled up on a heap of Sammy Clothing – I’d drop the hammer, until he rolled out the back, left on his own in the desert to find his own way back to Petaluma. As we spun into the distance, Baron would shake his head and say... “Sam, if it was up to me... but I’ve gotta stick with gordo” Hopefully it won’t come to that but our early morning joking might have been on his mind as I was grinding the 53/11 uphill, into the wind about five miles out of Twentynine Palms. He rolled up beside me...
S – OK, I think that I’ve suffered enough. Shortly thereafter we crested a hill and I was looking at more rollers off into the distance – “not the view I was looking for”, I said. About one minute later, we rolled past the 29 Palms City Limits sign... “exactly the view I was looking for.” said Sam. Funny how fast the body adapts – 97K with over 1100m of climbing and it felt like an easy day for us. 58 Danos. Later, we hooked up with the Marines for some long course swimming – a real treat in the USA! It was also my first time ever on a US military base. The guys have really gone out of their way to welcome us – even shuttling us to/from the pool and grocery store. Here’s the swim...
400 fr, 6x100 fr, 8x50 kick Barry led most of the main set and it looks like his swimming has really come along. In fact, his whole fitness looks pretty impressive. Barry is the fastest Vegan that I know. To give things a whirl, we are all going Vegan for Friday’s training. Chef Barry will be in the house all day.
B – So why did you select Friday? When I explained the Vegan thing to Baron...
B – No cottage cheese? Got the Marines picking me up at 5:30AM tomorrow – that’s followed by 180K of desert riding and a run off the bike.
See ya,
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Four Phew, this is the first _really_ solid day that we’ve had. Baron wants me to let you know that he made the run last night and is BACK! His knee is under control (without resorting to handfuls of NSAIDs and anti-inflammatories) – old school treatment of massage and stretching. Haven’t seen him ice yet and, I guess, rest is the treatment of last resort. He’s been having a Bud Light each night so perhaps that’s his secret. So how did it go... We kicked off by having Ben take us along to another masters session. Just an hour – probably only 2800 SCY – 25 pts – mini main set was 2x through 3x100IM, 100 easy, 100 fast. Always swim great when I am heavy. By the way, not much movement on that weight front but this is, hopefully, a momentary pause on the way down. Baron missed the swim but he got up early to cook up 32 eggs for us – a new record! Ben and Lori can believe we can eat that much. The Marines arrived around 6:15am and they headed off for some bonus riding before we started the loop. These fellas are hard core! Mitch and Wingnut – Wing is a Lt-Col and Mitch is a Captain – suppose that makes them pretty senior. There’s a nice feeling of security when riding with a couple of Marines. They have the full gear (jersey and shorts) – even the hardest red neck would have to respect these guys. They are the real deal. The ride started out with a relaxed roll out of town, nice tail wind. Baron had a solid shake of his head when we rode past the sign that showed we were heading back to San Diego. These detours are quite fun. Mitch took control of the ride on the first climb and never really let go! We rode up over six thousand feet, through pine forests. The sun burned off the clouds. It was a very solid amount of climbing and we topped out over 6,300 feet. Baron simply got stronger throughout the day and dropped me on the final climb. I was a bit bonky and starting to feel cold (not a good sign). A quart of ice tea, a quart of OJ and a bar had me perking back up. I also filled four water bottles up – with all that weight, I was ready for the descending. We flew on the way back – but I saw my highest HRs of the day sprinting the short rollers on the way down. The boys were lapping it out and I was working my butt off to hang in. The descent was one of the toughest parts of the ride but my size was working for me! Once we got back to the valley, we were pleased to find a massive tailwind – Baron had the biggest gearing with a 56-12 and he took full advantage – things started to hurt at about 74 kph and once he hit 75 kph I was spinning at 127 rpm and rolled up...
G – Real sportsman riding, eh? Baron rolled off the front with Barry (55 big ring, lucky bugger). Ben waited for me and the two of us got out front for a bit when Baron made a wrong turn. Our break was short lived and the Baron got back to the front and was riding just fast enough for us to hang on – 100-110 rpm, not too bad – good high cadence training. Total for the ride – 173K, 2420m, 5:40 ride time. Baron got his RDACs. 108 Danos. A short nap – thankfully I woke up feeling good. Then an easy run of 40 minutes. 18 Danos for a total of 151 Danos for the day. Well, we have to leave tomorrow. It’s a shame to leave the pool, central aircon, automatic coffee machine, full bike repair area, etc... But we must move along to Twenty-nine Palms -- the Marines have invited us along to sample their 50-meter pool. Turns out the heater is broken so I’ll have to wear my wetsuit (c’est domage!). Oh yeah, what about Sam? He drank, he paced, he rode strong all day. If he keeps this up then we might have to knock a strike off him. OK, off to bed. gordo
Sample Wattage Sections
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Three An easy day on the schedule – good as that enabled me to catch up with email, clean the trailer, do laundry and plan out the route/strategy for the next few days. Barry Holman rolled up this morning from Bend, OR – that’s a pretty solid road trip just to start the road trip! Barry has a huge amount of potential and I’m looking forward to swapping training philosophy for general philosophy with him. Sam’s been sucking down chicken broth all day – the colour has returned to his cheeks and he’s making jokes again. Good sign! So I whipped out the Topo software and the conversation of the day went like this...
G – Hey buddy, want to see the ride tomorrow? That gearing reference was to my 39-25 that I have on my road bike – if it’s good enough for Chuckie V then it’s good enough for me! Baron has a bit of ITB/Knee inflammation going on – he was a bit quiet yesterday on the bike. He might sit out the bonus loop tomorrow. He doesn’t want to miss a session but he _really_ doesn’t what to miss a stage where we actually make forward progress! Trail run later and just finished a massage.
That’s all for now,
gRAAM - Trans USA Day Two I forgot to mention Baron’s quote from last night... “155K, over 2,000 meters of climbing and you only got us 50K from the coast. Great work, Gordo!” We kicked off with an easy run this morning – even at 6:45am it was pretty balmy! Six Miles completed for 24 Dano Points. The ride was under advisement from Ben Travis – turned out to be an excellent route, away from the busy roads. Fantastic. I was on the Trek today – loving the new set-up with the front end. Had two people comment on how low my position was!!! Ben and Wingnut rode out to the top of the Lamb Canyon climb to escort us back into Palm Springs – quite a bit of local knowledge on that route so we were grateful for the pick-up. Sammy thought that he was Heras for a moment on the climb, dropped me and bridged up to the Baron. Shortly after that, we was introduced to Baron easy pace. About an hour later, he was running into difficulty (we are teaching him to suck wheel). I looked over and he still had four full water bottles – at least he was carrying enough drinks today. The poor fella blew to pieces shortly thereafter. In his darkest moment, shortly after he requested an emergency cola stop, I leaned over for the quote of the day... “You know Sam, we operate a three stikes policy on this trip. That’s two so far, you’ll need to do better tomorrow...” Everything but mercy – Sam’s getting the look that we often see with the Epic Virgins. I think he’ll find his groove shortly. Baron estimated 4.5 hours of riding and about 135K – I’ll get the total climbing at a later date but it was reasonable. Dano points... 84. In Palm Springs, an easy swim of 2K SCM with Ben – just cruising but good enough for an extra 20 points – enjoying this scoring system – especially as the Baron missed the swim (but we aren't competing...). We were planning on leaving tomorrow but Ben & Lori have a pretty sweet place and they invited me for the Idyllwild Loop on Tuesday – 180K with 8-9K of climbing. That was too good to resist. Conversation of the day...
B – So we ride 180K in the mountains on Tuesday. Hottest day of the year in Palm Springs today – 105F – Sam, coming out of a Northern Cali winter was really able to savour it. I think we better get him some salt tabs for what’s coming up. Wingnut told us that Wednesday morning’s ride to 29 Palms starts with a climb up “the elevator shaft” – I think I’ll use the Trek for that – have to ensure that I do my part to share in the crew’s suffering. Easy day tomorrow – hope to clear through my work backlog. g-man
gRAAM - Trans USA Day One 81.3KGs guess that I was holding water! Looking good for the official Trans USA maximum weight loss competition (established shortly after my weigh-in). Baron was 77.5 KGs, Typically, I would be allowed 3 over that so I appear to have gotten a little carried away with my post IMNZ mardi gras celebrations! Kick off with 5.2K scy at UCSD masters. Good workout. Floating quite well with my built in wetsuit. Then a monster breakfast with the crew at the casa del loco. Roll out was 11am – took the old Julian Hwy to Dudley’s – short stop at Dudleys. Got a kick out of the gang – they were drilling it at times (based on my SRM stealth wattage checks on them). It was pretty steady for Baron and me at times. Then we headed at Palomar. Conversation of the day...
G - [At the four mile marker] I wonder why I wanted to come up here so bad. About six miles up... I look over to Baron and see that he’s riding with his feet out of his shoes. My foot had been on fire since the base of Palomar – turns out that we are both experiencing flaming middle toe! Four hours flat to the top from KPs. Not bad time. When we arrived at Warner Springs after five hours ride time...
B – Yeah baby – we made it! So we chugged a liter of rice milk, ate a banana and headed out.
B – I love surprises. And we made great time over the last 14 miles. 155K, 2490 meters of climbing – not bad for the welcome back ride.
Dano Points (all talk, no action?) +++ Quotes of the day... Sam D #1 – to Baron when he is writing his log – “If you need me to help you spell out 'tremendous potential' when you write about me then just let me know.” Sam D #2 – “G, just let me know when that Ironman fatigue is going to kick in, OK” Baron #1 – “Gordo, my mother doesn’t like it when you hurt me this bad.” Baron #2 – I’m not fat, I’m heavy and gordo, when you are under 80KGs then I’ll stop calling you fat. Sam M #1 (half way up Palomar) – Hey gordo, I reconsidered it. I’d like the easy way please.
gRAAM - Trans USA Prologue Conversation of the day...
B -- So we swim masters tomorrow? Quote of the Day (noticing a trend here?)
"Gordo looks like he has a gut!" ++++ Easy spin to Del Mar. Surf swim, short! Baron doesn't like waves -- too bad they weren't bigger! Easy spin home.
50K riding -- 30 Dano pts We held a conference... Tomorrow -- swim masters, ride to Warner Springs via Palomar (up/down), run off the bike -- aiming for about 130 pts, we'll see. |
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