Training? Ha!

A few words on a highly subjective issue.

I decided early on not to obsess about training. My plan was simple, and based on a guideline I heard somewhere along the way. If you can ride 3 consecutive 100 mile days and still walk, you can do Tour Divide. (I would modify that to say "You can show up at the start line and keep your breakfast down".) So that was my goal. I achieved that goal twice in the 3 weeks leading up to the start, and mostly didn't ride for a week before Banff. Of course I started with a good base in the winter and built my mileage up, but really my intensity didn't hit crazy-he's-away-on-his-bike-again levels until two months before the start.

I found that not just miles were important, but consecutive miles. In my last training month I would aim for 50+ without stopping, and my breaks would be shorter and shorter, to where I would allow a 5-10 minute stop on a 100mi day. On TD, when you can throw down 70 before noon, it's mentally no trick to throw down another 30. 40? 50? Now we're getting somewhere!

There are no mountains that I know of near Dallas. This is a problem. Fortunately, I took notes (okay, I remembered a few things) regarding my trips to CO in years past, and I developed a sort-of method for acclimating to altitude. When I'm at my flatlander best, I can jump into 5,000 feet without too much trouble, just back it off a notch would-ya? Lucky for me, that's about where Banff is, and it's a few days before the real altitude challenges begin. I kept an attitude for the start of the race that I was still training for the hard stuff.

Weight: Terribly important! For my last month of training, I carried at least 90% of the weight in gear I planned to carry. I strapped ankle weights to my top tube, carried rolls of quarters in my pack, and carried way too much water. If you don't train with weight, you will be in for a shocker on day 1!

Train to eat on the bike if you can't already.

Train for night riding. It's a different place mentally, and really fun, so long as one outpaces Beelzebub, his pitchfork taking aim behind.

Practice some rest methods while moving. Stretches, standing, riding no hands and stretching, no hands and searching for stuff in your pack, no hands while fully standing, all terribly useful on the trail.

Equipment Cheers

A few things that worked for me.

Brooks B-17 saddle. It's on all my bikes.
Drop bars with interrupter levers. I used a super comfy Ritchey drop bar, and an Ultegra 9 speed brake/shifter setup. I can't imagine using a standard mountain bar rig for this event.
Profile Aero bar. Very useful to take weight off your hands, and for use as a laundry rack.
Revelate Designs bags. Great stuff from Eric in Alaska.
Mavic shoes. Pulse model I think? Very light, comfy off the bike too, great hikeability. Never had a blister!
Wool socks.
Princeton EOS light, helmet mounted.
Garmin eTrek HCx, at least I'm very close on the model name. Typically lasted 5 days on one set o' batts. Modified a RAM mount.
Cannondale glove...model escapes me, but it is full-finger, marketed as a wind/rain glove.
Sugoi shorts. Not at all cheap for the pro model, but worth it. Just dollars per day!
MUSA Wool jersey, long sleeve, from Rivendell Bicycle Works. Worn 20 of 24 days probably, and still presentable.
Maxxis tires, Aspen front, Crosscheck rear. Still many miles left on them.
Lynskey Timberline. I might've liked to pair this with some sort of suspension post. It's a stiff rear and there's a ton of washboard out there!
Rock Shox Reba Revelation. I lubed the uppers with Phil's Tenacious Oil every 2 days or so. Did not lose air, just one aircheck in CO.
Spoon. I always had a spoon. I wasn't raised in a barn. Sporks are for roadies.
Honorable Mention: Even though I should've used a bivy bag, my Montbell Ultra Light Super Spiral Down Hugger #3 Sleeping Bag was
perfect! So fluffy I got by with an auto sunshade as my sleeping pad and had no troubles, even on concrete.

For the TD Racer...

A few, or more, tips, distilled from my mid-pack experience, for the future racer. Imagine you are my son, and I might not live long, and these are my last gasps of words to you on surviving TD, and it won't be entertaining, but you will take every word to heart, and you will smile skyward at me as you crest Indiana Pass, or wherever you suspect the route claimed a piece of my soul...

Weight. I know you know. Keep it down. You will be miserable in a bivy, likewise in a tent. So be light and go with the bivy.
Water. Often, 3 big bottles will do between stops. I used a dropper of bleach for groundwater, 3 drops per 70 oz. You'll need temporary extra capacity...
Backpack. I was sad not to have one most days. My medium hip-pack was not enough to carry all the food I would need, so I ran out at least 3 times before I picked one up.
Clothes. I liked having 2 pairs of riding shorts, 2 pairs of socks, various top layers. Misery factor was lessened by 1/2 by having a light T-shirt and camp shorts to be only worn off the bike. Have a nice wool layer in there, and keep your head warm.
Rain. You'll be wet/miserable in full rain gear, you'll be wet/miserable in half rain gear.
Lights. You won't be sorry that you have great lights. Some of my best days, were nights! Critical for surviving/dodging NM heat at least!
Pace. Know/learn how hard you can push for hours on end, and don't worry about the fast crowd. Be patient out there! The biggest time gains are made by riding super long hours, not super fast ones!
Bears. Always make noise in bear country. I only saw one very startled Grizz and sang a lot of Van Halen (Roth). Did he not like VH?
Navigation. GPS yes, with cues used simultaneously.
Cash. Seems like I needed cash in Canada, and used mostly plastic in US, but in NM cash was the only way out sometimes.
Tip generously, it will help to leave a positive TD impression. And have some change for the Vending Machines of Salvation.
Sunscreen. This goes double for the Euro crowd. Use it every day, everywhere you are exposed!

More later with a focus on gear, because I'm getting better my child.

After Words

Ahh, resting at home with an actual keyboard before me. We're just 4 days done and TD could have been six months ago it seems. Still, my first waking thought each day, or each nap, is "I'm not on the bike, cripes I have to get moving!". It's quite a relief to come around to reality!

A few gen'rl thoughts:
Apologies for not being able to blog-a-bunch, especially through the last week. AT&T's lack of rural coverage aside, time is a very measurable commodity out there. Writing just didn't fit into my survival equation, and towards the end of the race, the pressure to keep moving or die a slow death begins to ramp up. To push my fatigued booty to Silver City, which in turn would set me up for a 120 mile final day to Antelope Wells, I needed an 18 hour effort. Follow this up with 5 hours rest to get a nighttime head start on the desert heat, and you gotta wonder when I could eat, nevermind write!

On a job yesterday, two men were telling me how they run 30 minutes every day. I chuckled and never mentioned what I'd just done. I think they are smarter than me.

It is amazing how resilient the body can be. Not just mine, but all my fellow racers. Over and over, I would put in huge daily efforts that would knock me comatose for days if I were riding at home. But there's no lollygaggin' allowed out there. Some of my best days on the bike immediately followed my worst days. In fact, after one of my worst TD mornings, I reset the ol' brain and delivered one of my best afternoons! Well, Dr. Pepper gets a little credit too.

I would also see fellow racers out on the course dying a slow death. "Oh geez," I would say to myself, "How sad to see this guy's tour end like this." Every one of these racers held it together and finished. Never count yourself out!

Did I want to quit? Yes, at least twice. If the Magic Sag Wagon o' Mercy appeared, I think I would have jumped in and had a beer. Quitting times though, they are so remote that you have no choice but to move on and get out! Once out, the past is gone, a meal is ordered, and the plan for the next day is hatched. A ten-minute minor miracle! Move on! The Tour can slam you senseless, but it also gives you endless opportunities to get back on track.

The only thing I never did was quit. Move forward, pedal, walk, take another drink, but move forward. How can you not finish if you keep moving?

I don't know how I am this lucky, but the only ailment I fought with was a generally sore tush, and that was pretty much gone after the first week. Now at home I am aware of a loss of sensitivity in my big toes. All that pedal pressure has to hit somewhere. That's it though. The scale shows I gained two pounds. That's all the wrappered pies I suppose.

The race is advertised as "Self-Supported", but this is highly contextual. The reality is that unless you are a hermit, you can't do this event without a strong system in place at home. Some cyclists are near hermits, but still... Of course, without the network of commercial services available along the route, the race would never happen. In a self-supported race, it's all too obvious that you can't complete it without available support, you just have to pay for it, and it can't come out and find you!

The closer to the finish I got, the more likely I would hear the following instant reaction from strangers: "You're crazy!" Wait, NOW I'm crazy? I'm almost there dag-nabbit! Every one of us is a little crazy somewhere, this is just one of the places I let it loose.

More notes, for the racer, later.
JP

El Fin

The big Fourth of July finish! Still digesting, more to come...

Pie..

I forgot to mention the two (2) auxilliary pie holders.

Cheap 'n Easy

Some of my best gear on the trip...
The 1st grader's backpack, I got it for $1 at a thrift store in Cuba NM. It will hold about 5lbs of food and water for the last 2 days of the trek.
The taillight that is duct taped to the backpack, I found it on a roadside in MT. Survival!