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UltraRob's Adventures
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Monday, July 28, 2008NYC Police Assault on Critical Mass
I don't agree with the methods Critical Mass uses but I also don't agree with a police officer knocking a cyclist down. The cyclist was charged was assaulting a police officer. Read more at GigaMike and Bike Hacks.
Technorati Tags: cycling | Critical Mass Labels: Critical Mass, cycling  
Friday, July 25, 2008Tagged by Dave MoultonDave Moulton tagged me (his blog has moved to new location)to write six little known random things about myself. He was tagged by Ron at Cozy Beehive which is another blog I read. I've been tagged a couple times before. The other times I was tagged it was for 5 things. It seems the meme has been growing in the last year. I started writing this nearly 2 weeks ago but just couldn't find the inspiration to come up with little known things about me. I revealed enough last time. In the meantime the Fat Cyclist was tagged. He thought it was unimaginative and came up with a list of questions to answer. I like his new meme better so I'm switching to it. If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be? I prefer not to have needless constraints. There are enough real ones without making more. Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you're not working toward getting it, why not? For me it's not about the dream bike. It's about the dream rides. If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why? See my answer to the first question. What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life? Some poor, unhappy person that can't stand to see other people happy. I don't think Fatty is unhappy but he is the one that came up with question ... Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded? I ride both. They're different tools. If I'm going to ride 200 miles on the road, I prefer my road bike. If I'm wanting to go to the middle of nowhere on single track, I prefer my mountain bike. Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent. No. I'd ride a recumbent if the closest food was 20 miles away and I didn't have any other way to get there. I suppose I could run but I only do that if something large and scary is chasing me. Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss? No, I swim just like a Rock. Straight to the bottom and that's where I stay. If I raced a triathlon, there'd be no need for me to strangle myself. Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why? That's easy, ice cream. Ice cream is good but it's not near the top of my favorite foods. What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it. Have you done a solo 24 hour race? If not, what are you waiting for? If yes, when are you doing your next one? I've done 6 solo 24 hour mountain bike races and 4 races on the road that were longer. Hopefully I'll do a long race next year. You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do? This has actually happened to me twice. Fortunately I'm scary enough looking that both times the bear ran away from me. I slammed the brakes and gave them time to get away. As fast as they ran, they didn't need much time. Since I already had my list of 6 bloggers chosen, I'm sticking with it instead of Fatty's three. Even he couldn't stop at three.
Technorati Tags: cycling | miscellaneous Labels: cycling, miscellaneous
Wednesday, July 23, 2008116 Miles Instead of Silver Rush 50
 Over the last couple weeks, I debated whether I should go do the Silver Rush 50. It would have been just for training because I'm still in no shape to be competitive. The best way to push hard is to do a race. I can go harder in a group than by myself and I can go even harder in a race. I ended up deciding not to do it. One of the reasons was that I wasn't sure I'd feel like riding on Sunday and wanted to get 2 days of training in. Other reasons were the cost and time driving. Instead I decided to ride up to Denver on Saturday to see my brother-in-law that is in the hospital with lung cancer (More about him here). It was a hot day but the ride was pleasant on 105 to Sedalia. From there I took 85/Santa Fe to less than a mile from the hospital. Once I got past C-470 to where there was lots of asphalt and concrete, the heat became almost unbearable. The sun was beating down and the temperature on my computer was reading 102 degrees. My wife and kids had driven to the hospital. We stayed for a couple hours before heading home. Since it was about 10 miles farther to the hospital than I had guessed, I was going to run out of daylight on the way home. I had my wife take me back 18 miles to Sedalia. That way I also avoided the least pleasant part of the ride. Some clouds had built up by the time I started riding again and I got a couple drops of rain. The good part was that it was cooler. The bad part was that I had a strong headwind. Just a couple miles south of Sedalia I was surprised to see a herd of over 30 elk. They were running through a field as thought they had been spooked by something. The herd was made up of females and young. The Saturday before, I had gone up to the hospital with my wife and then just rode home from Sedalia. Even after already riding nearly 70 miles, I felt better this time. I was also slightly faster even with a stronger headwind. The ride was 116 miles with 4403 feet of climbing in 8:02. Average speed was 14.5 mph. I'm guessing the extra headwind on the way back balanced out descending slightly more than climbing.
Labels: Colorado, cycling, mountain biking
Thursday, July 17, 2008Lance Armstrong Foundation DonationLast month I announced I was going to donate 20% of my June site earnings to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The Fat Cyclist's Triathalon and raffle is what prompted me to donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation through MikeRoadie’s donation page. Fatty's Triathalon was a huge success and the raffle raised $37,500 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. June was also a good month on UltraRob.com. Over $30,000 of cycling and outdoor gear was bought after visiting UltraRob.com. That made for a nice donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Thanks to everyone who helped out by buying some gear. Unfortunately nearly everyone has been affected by cancer. We were fortunate when my Dad got testicular cancer several years ago. It was caught early. He had surgery and some radiation treatments. He has been doing well since. Things have not gone so well for my brother-in-law. A little over a year and a half ago, he started coughing up blood. It took the doctors a few months to figure out what was going on. It turned out he had a very aggressive form of lung cancer that is different from what is caused by smoking. He has had a few rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Through it all he has stayed positive. When the chemo isn't making him too sick, he has been mountain biking and hiking. A couple months ago the doctors said there wasn't much more they could do. A couple weeks ago he started having a lot of pain. He was admitted to the hospital with a lot of fluid on his lungs. They've drained the fluid a few times. They did a procedure they hoped would reduce the fluid but it didn't help much. A scan they did yesterday didn't show much since he has so much inflammation. With the little they could see, they could tell the cancer has continued to spread. Even though they are giving him morphine, he's in a lot of pain. Hopefully he'll improve but things aren't looking right now.
Technorati Tags: cycling | outdoor gear Labels: cycling, outdoor gear
Friday, July 04, 2008Two on Coast to Coast Charity Ride Looking for Places to Stay and Route Advice
 Two guys are riding their bikes from Boston, MA to San Francisco, CA to raise money for Children's Hunger Fund. As of June 14th they had raised $14,494.06. You can still donate to their great cause. They left Boston on June 14th. It looks like they're in Nebraska now. You can keep track of their progress on their blog/tracker page. I received an e-mail from Angela, who is the girlfriend of one of the guys. She says that they don't have many contacts on the western part of the route. They need places to crash at night even if it's just a backyard. They also would like advice on their route. Angela asked me about Colorado but I think they could use help farther west too. Unfortunately they're going through the northwest part of Colorado where I don't have any contacts. If you live along their route and would like to help, send me an e-mail and I'll get you in contact with Angela.
Technorati Tags: bike touring | cycling Labels: bike touring, cycling
Tuesday, June 17, 2008Jure Robic Wins Record 4th RAAM
 Today Jure Robic became the first person to win RAAM 4 times. He finished just under 9 days with a time of 8 days 23 hours and 33 minutes. When I raced in 2006 he was trying to become the first person to win 3 consecutive times but dropped out in Pagosa, CO with pneumonia. In the team division another record was broken. The 8-person Byggkjøp/BMC Cycling Team set a new relay team record. Their time was 5 days 9 hours and 56 minutes. This gives them an average speed of 23.2 mph. The rest of the solo field is stretched all the way from Maryland to Ohio which is about 550 miles of the course. David Haase is the only American in the top 5. He's currently in 2nd on the road by less than an although it seems he's really in 3rd place. I have always thought there were no time credits in RAAM, just time penalties. I'm sure I've also read that in the rules. In any case, Mark Pattinson has been given a 4 hour and 35 minute time credit. It's for an incident near Taos, NM involving drunk cowboys not allowing him and his crew to pass through. I haven't really been able to find information on what happened but it seems that race officials may have told Pattinson to stop riding. The 50+ age group is very close for 1st and 2nd. Currently in Chillicothe, OH, Arvid Loewen is less than 20 minutes ahead of Doug Levy. They have just over 500 miles left to the finish line. Technorati Tags: cycling | RAAM | Race Across America | ultra cycling Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Race Across America FAQ
 The Race Across America website has a RAAM FAQ. Although it has some great answers to questions, there are questions that I get asked that aren't on the web site. Of course with as few people that know about the Race Across America, maybe the first question should be What is the Race Across America? It's a bike race that is 50% longer than the Tour de France and is done in about half the time. I've written answers to some of the questions that I often get. I didn't answer all the ones that are on the RAAM site or gave different answers so you may want to read that FAQ too. If you have any other questions, ask it in the comments below. Where is the start and finish? How many years has the race existed? Who can do the race? How far is it? How long do racers have to finish? What is the typical winning time for the solo racers? How much do RAAM racers eat? What do RAAM racers eat? How much sleep do the racers get? How much sleep does the support crew get? What happens if the weather is bad? Why are the solo average speeds so slow? Why do the riders always ride alone? How do the solo racers keep from getting sore butts? What are time penalties? Why would someone volunteer to crew? Why are all times reported in Eastern Daylight Time? Where is the start and finish? In 2008 the start is in Oceanside, CA and the finish is in Annapolis, MD. Normally there are small changes to the route from one year to the next. Sometimes the route is totally changed. How many years has the race existed? 2008 is the 27th year for the solo race. The first year it was called the Great American Bike Race and 4 guys competed. Who can do the race? Anybody can race on a relay team. Racers have to qualify to race solo. Most of the qualifiers are over 500 miles or are 24 hour events. How far is it? RAAM is always right around 3,000 miles. Compare that to the Tour de France which is 2,000 miles and takes 3 weeks. How long do racers have to finish? Generally the racers have the time below to finish. Racers riding a fixed gear bike, hand cycle, etc. are often given extra time to finish. There are also time cut-offs along the route to keep the race from getting too spread out.
What is the typical winning time for the solo racers? The last several years the winning time for the solo racers has been a little under or just over 9 days. How much do RAAM racers eat? Most racers try to get about a little less than 300 calories an hour. Some are able to eat even more. That adds up to about 6,000 calories a day. That's 3 times the typical calories for a man. What do RAAM racers eat? Many racers eat mainly liquids since they're easier to digest. Others claim to be able to stomach pizza and cheeseburgers. I wrote fairly detailed about my RAAM nutrition when I raced in 2006. How much sleep do the racers get? The top solo racers typically take short naps or sleep for 90 minutes at a time. More than 3 hours of sleep a day is considered a lot. It's said that one year Jure Robic slept 8 hours in the 9 days it took him to finish. The racers on the relay teams can get more sleep since they can sleep while another racers is riding. For them the amount of sleep will depend on whether they are on a 2, 4 or 8 person team. How much sleep does the support crew get? The people on the support crew should be able to get more sleep than the racer since they take turns in the follow vehicle. Even so the crew also has to get the other vehicles down the road, find food and water, fix bikes, etc. The crew also end up being at least a bit sleep deprived. What happens if the weather is bad? The clock is always ticking in RAAM in spite of what happens. One rider getting caught in a storm and another one not is just part of RAAM. Riders will sometimes decide to sleep during a storm. In 2006 an official stopped me just after dark one night, he said there was a tornado in a town not far down the road. He wanted us to stay safe but I wouldn't get any time adjustment if I stopped. Why are the solo average speeds so slow? The average speed is calculated on total elapsed time. It includes all the time that the racer is off the bike. Unlike races like the Tour de France, riders aren't allowed to ride in packs so the speeds are slower. Also as most racers become fatigued and sleep deprived they struggle to go very fast. When the average speed for a time station is shown under 10 mph, it's usually because the rider took a sleep break. Why do the riders always ride alone? It's one of the rules of RAAM. It is an individual competition and no drafting is allowed. Racers are actually allowed to ride side by side for up to 15 minutes. After 15 minutes they have to separate until 24 hours has gone by. Riders get spread out and don't pass very often. Even when they do they generally aren't in the mood for more than a couple minutes of chatting. How do the solo racers keep from getting sore butts? There are lots of things like using chamois creams, good padded shorts, and keeping the shorts dry to help prevent saddles sores. Unfortunately nearly every rider ends up with a hurting behind. What are time penalties? Time penalties are generally given for the support crew breaking a rule. There are a lot of rules to keep the racer and crew safe. Penalties can be given for things like not calling race HQ within 30 minutes of going through a time station, not pulling the support vehicle far enough off the road when stopped, following a racer without flashers turned on, etc. Time for penalties is as follows
Who pays for the crews? Each racer finds their own crew. The racer normally pay all the crew's expenses. Most crew members are volunteers but in some cases they get paid a small amount. Why would someone volunteer to crew? It's a way for people that don't think they can do the race to be involved. There are some that have crewed many years. It's also a good way for someone thinking about racing to learn more about the race. Some that crew are friends and family that are talked into it. Why are all times reported in Eastern Daylight Time? The race crosses 3 time zones. Rather than keep track of time zones, all times are reported in race time which is EDT. Watches and clocks in support vehicles are set to EDT before the start. Crew still have to remember which time zone they are in to know when they must be directly following a rider. Riders must always have a follow vehicle between 7:30 PM and 6 AM. Crews also have to know local time to know when stores open and close.
Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Friday, June 13, 2008Raw Butt Stops David Holt's Pedals
 As I know all too well from my 2006 RAAM attempt, a RAAM racer can quickly go from riding well to struggling to move down the road. David Holt was riding well most of the way to Durango. David took a sleep break in Durango. When he got up he mentioned that his butt was getting sore. My butt was hurting by that point when I raced so I wasn't that concerned. We just knew we needed to do something to try keeping it from getting worse. Before we got to the next time station in Pagosa Springs he was having trouble putting power into his pedal stroke because of the pain. We got a hold of multi-time RAAM finisher George Thomas to try figuring out more to do. We got more supplies in Pagosa Springs but David continued to suffer. During what was to be crew chief Lisa and my sleep break, we spent time trying to figure out how to get some Assos Chamois Cream, different saddle, different shorts, and a saddle cover. A big thanks to Gearing Up Bicycle Shop in Taos, NM for agreeing to take a couple pairs of shorts to a hotel so we could pick them up after hours. I called my sister and had her overnight the other things from Colorado Springs, CO to a hotel in Clayton, NM so we could pick them the next afternoon. I jumped back into the follow vehicle in Antonito, CO. It was cold and David is from southern California. Before the night was over the temperature would drop into the 30s. David was not doing well. It was tough to see him struggling so much. As we were talking in the follow vehicle, I found out that we did have another saddle for him. We had David stop for a quick saddle change. It seemed to help him but not enough. I noticed that David wasn't eating as much as he should have been. Vinnie and Ken who had already been in the vehicle for a while said they'd been having trouble with it for a while. I talked to David and he said he no longer could take the taste of the Ensure and Perpetuem that had been the majority of his calories. We got him to eat some but I think it was too late. His energy levels were dropping which caused him to get really cold. We kept putting more layers on him but it wasn't helping. It seemed that he was getting hypothermia. We were already planning on having his saddle sores checked at the ER in Taos. We weren't optimistic they'd be able to do anything but figured it was worth a try. In Allen Larsen's rookie RAAM, he had stopped because his butt was in pretty bad shape. The ER doctor told him, "Son, you just have to stop riding the bike." Allen got back on the bike and finished 3rd. We were still about 35 miles from Taos when it was obvious David wasn't riding there without getting warmed up and some relief from his saddle sores. We got him in the follow van and started driving him into Taos. There was a bridge part way to Taos where we'd been warned we might have to stop for 30 minutes because of a movie being filmed. There was a sheriff sitting there and we told her we had an emergency and needed to be able to get through. It turned out that traffic wasn't stopped but she said she'd give us an escort into Taos. At the edge of Taos, an ambulance meet us and took David on into the ER. By the time we went to a hotel and ate some food, David was there from the ER. Not surprisingly the ER doctor told him he should stop. David said the race was over. Some of us on the crew wanted him to try continuing on. We decided we'd let him sleep as long as possible and still be able to get him back on the bike and make the time cut-off in Taos. We doubted he'd change his mind. Still we wanted to leave the possibility open. David actually was back up by the time we got up. We read him an e-mail that a winner of the Race Across Oregon had sent encouraging him to go on. We also got George Thomas to talk to him. The answer was still that the race was over for him.  Lisa made the official call to race headquarters. We then made plans to get everyone back home and get the vehicles back to where they needed to go. It was disappointing to not see him able to go all the way but RAAM is a brutal race. Only a few racers start and only about half make it all the way to the finish line.
Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Thursday, June 12, 2008This Really SucksAt the racer meeting before the start of RAAM, the race director, Terry Zmrhal, said there were 2 key phrases that we could use during the race. The first one was Sweet! The 2nd one was this sucks. The first part of the race when David Holt was riding well we had lots of Sweet! moments. Now we're really having a this sucks moment. Tonight we were trying to get David to Taos before having him stop to rest. He was really struggling as he had been all day. Taos is the first time cut-off of the race. Getting him to Taos would allow him to take a long break and not have to worry about the time cut-off. We were having trouble getting him to eat since he was hurting so bad. The temperature was in the low 40's. Since he wasn't eating enough, he wasn't staying warm. Unfortunately about 35 miles before Taos, we had to drive him into Taos for medical attention. He's still talking and knows what's going on. We don't believe it's anything serious but we need to get him recovered. In theory we have plenty of time to let him get enough rest and then make the time cut-off. After that we could let him rest some more. We'll just have to see how the next few hours go.
Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Monday, June 09, 2008Buy Gear, Support Cancer PatientsLast month I supported the Fat Cyclist and his wife, who has cancer, by donating earnings from this site for 2 days. Just after the fund was set up to help them, Fatty announced he would be holding a "triathalon" on June 21st to help the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Since not everybody can go to Utah for the "triathalon", there will be a raffle. For every $5 donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation using MikeRoadie’s donation page, you will get one ticket. Donate before June 21st and be sure to read the detailed instructions on how to make sure you're included in the raffle. There will be some great prizes given out. I won't be going to Utah and I'm not going to enter the raffle. I'm going to wait to the end of June and donate 20% of the earnings from this site. Most of the earnings come from people buying some great gear. Head over and search for some new gear. Buy some gear and you'll be helping out cancer patients.
Saturday, June 07, 2008Day Before 2008 Race Across America
It was another busy day getting ready for the RAAM. Unless you've been involved with the race it's tough to imagine the planning it takes to do this race. Even after all the planning over the last few months, we've kept very busy the last 2 days making final preparations. The race starts tomorrow at noon PDT. Race standings should be kept updated here but can be delayed. You can also visit the Race Across America home page to see more updates and pictures If you want to send something to help encourage David across the country, send email to raam08@ultrarob.com. As we all become sleep deprived, we may need some good jokes to keep us all awake.
Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Friday, June 06, 2008Race Across America Preparation
It's been a busy day getting everything prepared for RAAM. We got signs on the 2 follow vehicles. Tomorrow we'll get the RV. Look at the Twitter updates in the right sidebar for the most frequent RAAM updates.
Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Thursday, May 29, 2008Blogging from Coast to Coast
 In about a week I'll be in California to crew for David Holt in the Race Across America. Outside magazine once rated this as the world's toughest sporting event. I raced in 2006. Crewing will be much different than racing but I'm not sure it'll be easier.  In addition to crewing, I plan to blog the experience as much as possible as we go. With David being on the bike for 20+ hours a day, I expect it will be challenging. My father-in-law loaned me his T-Mobile card for internet access while we're on the road. I'm not confident that it'll work well especially in the southwest where we won't be near cities for long periods. I've heard that Verizon is better for mobile internet access but I don't want a 2 year plan. I plan on using Twitter to post some updates. Twitter allows messages of up to 140 characters to be posted. One of the ways this can be done is by sending a text message. Before I leave I plan to put a widget in the right sidebar that will show my Twitter updates. In addition to text blogging, I'm also going to be doing audio blogging. Jott allows posts of up to 30 seconds. Not only do they provide the audio, but they also convert it to text. I wonder what they'll think I'm saying at 3 AM. I've also signed up with GabCast for longer audio updates. I haven't had a chance to do any testing with it. Anybody have any suggestions on other services I should check out? I have a basic cell phone so there's not much I can do on it.
Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, |
