Ken’s Transcontinental Cycling Tour

Tropical storm Ernesto arrived just in time to dampen the Labor Day weekend in New England.  It’s probably the best thing for this type A rider as it has forced me to scale back the training for the final 1 week approach to the big ride!  Instead I used Saturday and today (Sunday) to run inside at the gym.  I’ve done my wet riding training earlier in the summer and don’t want to chance getting cold and run-down at this point, especially with a very hectic week just completed getting Iris ready for her radiation treatment.  My friend, Jon Lowenstein, bike mechanic whiz, helped me build up the Colnago about a month ago and yesterday we did some final checking of the bike- chain wear, check wheel true, adjust gears now that new cables have stretched, etc.  Seems as all systems are go and the bike and gear bag will be shipped to San Diego on Tuesday. 

  Here’s the ‘machine’ ready to go and description of the components!

Click on Image to see larger picture with detail….

Now reality is sinking  in as I pack my duffle bag and get the bike ready to be shipped. Everything around the house and at work is now centered around the trip, making sure my clients know that I’ll be away and what to do in case of emergency.  Also, on the new medical front, our 9 year old Golden Retriever, Iris, had a nerve sheath tumor removed by my wife (a general veterinary practitioner) but Iris needs followup radiation therapy.  We are planning to have the 21 treatments performed about 3-4 hours away in New Jersey by a friend of ours who is a veterinary oncologist.  Kathy changed her work schedule to provide the time to bring Iris to NJ three times weekly while I’m away to get started soon on her treatment and then when I return from PAC Tour I’ll start driving Iris to NJ too.  I’ll be thinking of Iris and Kathy constantly during the trip and please join me in wishing them safe and successful trips to NJ.  The prognosis is fairly good on the other side of the radiation treatments.

  Not too ready?- Here I am on a surgery day with my scrubs, helmet, and cycling shoes showing the Southern route for PAC Tour.  Can’t wait to finish my cataract surgery for the day and get on the bike to ride home with a typical training ride.  My straight ride home from work is 15 miles but with PAC Tour training, I’ll often get 70-100 miles in before and after work.

Here is one of my exam rooms with my new exam stool- a constant reminder in room 3 that the cycling is top priority now.  Note that the stool is a Parks Bicycle Tool Stool!

  Iris says, “Dad, please don’t go out on that bike AGAIN!”

This past weekend marked the Victory Day Holiday, which is celebrated at this point only by the state of Rhode Island.  The holiday commemorates the end of WWII.  It provided a third consecutive day of training as my practice was closed on Monday.  All three days were perfect weather for training- high temps in the 70-80 degree range and cool mornings.

The 3 days brought an even 100 miles on Saturday, 90 miles on Sunday, and 75 miles on Monday.  Saturday’s team ride for about 70 miles was speed work with team-mate Todd Buckley wanting to get ready for the upcoming Green Mountain stage race in Vermont.  We did a lot of flat, fast-paced work with most of us barely hanging onto Todd’s wheel.  At the end of the ride Pete R showed an average, non-normalized (no zeroes removed) power of 235 watts!!

On Sunday I got out a little early to do 20 miles before hooking up with the team for some INTENSE hill training out into Connecticut. Many riders had to leave early so for about 60 miles it was 4 outstanding riders getting ready to win Green Mountain and then there was me, hanging on for dear life with my tongue on the ground!  When the loop ended I limped home for a total of 90 miles with 4,800 feet of climbing and an overall average speed of 18.6MPH!

Monday brought an easy, recovery mileage day of 75 miles.  I was cooked after Sunday’s intense ride and actually finished the FIRST time at 50 miles but after a shower and some food went right back out to join Paul D and Rex for our last ride together before Rex moves to St. Louis today.  I couldn’t pass up some last minute bantering on the bike with the 3 of us!

Today (Tuesday) is a rest day- OFF THE BIKE!!

Sunset on Cadillac Mountain (Bar Harbor, Maine)- taken during training ride last month. 

In exactly one month from today (September 8th) I’ll be flying to San Diego to start the trip.  Now it’s really starting to sink in that it’s really going to happen!  The training is going well, I’m feeling stronger, the bike is almost complete, and I’m starting to organize gear and travel supplies.

Today marked the end of an easier week of training with a little over 300 miles with 2 days off the bike last Monday (start of the week) and on Friday.  This weekend brought fantastic New England summer weather with low humidity and FINALLY relief from last week’s scorching heatwave.  Yesterday’s ride was 122 miles of mostly flat and fast speed workout with the team and today was 81 miles with some significant climbing.

Soon I’ll post a photo of the completed Colnago CT-1 !!!

   My Saturday really started with preparations on Friday for my 300K (190 miles) ride I’d been planning for some time!  This ride is part of a series in the Boston Brevet Series which I participated in a couple of months ago with a 200K ride.  This series is a qualifying group of rides for the upcoming Boston-Montreal-Boston (750 miles) ride and the Race Across America (RAAM).

   After work on Friday I ate dinner at 5pm and hit the sack at 6pm in order to get some sort of sleep before the 12:45am alarm sounded!  On the road at 1:50am I drove up to Bedford, Massachusetts about 1.5 hrs away for the 4:00am start.  There were 12 other nuts…ah, I mean riders..who also showed up with lights and bikes.  We started as a group in the black of night but as the sun came up around 5:15am I found myself with 2 other guys who had experience with long distance riding, reading cue sheets, and knew most parts of this course.  We rode together for the entire event and were very compatible riders.

   I had never ridden more than 130 miles in one day so I had no idea what I was in for after that mileage and the temperatures were well into the 90’s by late morning so hydration was key!  To my surprise I felt great for the entire ride without any cramps or fatigue but by around the 180 mile mark my crotch wanted OFF of the saddle!

   Checkpoints were at 43,88, and 145 mile marks and were perfectly serviced by the organizers with water, gatorade, fruit, chips, sandwiches, cookies, sodas, sunblock, bandaids, Tums.  About the only thing missing was Bag Balm for my butt!  Just before the 88 mile checkpoint Team Arc-En-Ciel came to the rescue by towing the 3 of us for about 10 minutes so we could rest some behind their draft- it was like the cavalry coming over the hill on route 49.  The 190 mile ride had over 10,000 feet of climbing as we made our way from central Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and back to Massachusetts. 

   Feeling good after the ride I decided to join the team ride this morning for a hard 68 miles with lots of paceline speed work.  Again to my surprise, I was able to hang in  there so this weekend gave me some confidence that maybe my training plan is on target…but then again, there’s a HUGE difference between a 250 mile weekend and 2900 miles cross country! 

   The training seems to be on target as of this post on July 21, 2006. I just completed a good mileage week by riding 438 miles in 6 out of the 7 day week. Some of the miles happened by meeting one of my cycling employees (Cindy) who rides 32 miles each way to work. Cindy and I would leave our respective houses at 5:30am and meet along her route to work and then we would get to work at 7:30am with the 32 miles apiece. After work I would ride towards her house and then split off to ride home, thereby giving me a total day of about 70-80 miles. So, the daily total miles were: 80,105,70,70,off,38,75.

Well, here we go…the planning stages are well underway for my upcoming PACTour cycling trip across the good ol’ USA! I turned 50 years old last November and as a challenge for my first half a life I’ve decided to take a cycling trip which runs from San Diego, California to Savannah, Georgia. Here are the stats:

• Total Mileage: 2,913 miles
• Average daily mileage: 112 miles/day
• Total Climbing: 87,160
• Average daily climbing: 3,500 feet/day

There is lots to do with the preparation for this trip- first of all there is the training…MILES, MILES, MILES! This department is going very well with back to back 100+ mile day weekends and an upcoming 190 mile ride on July 29th.

The second part of prep is equipment and that’s the part I’ve just started. Looks like I’ll ride the Colnago CT-1 which is a combination of titanium and carbon material. This bike’s claim to fame is that it was a Team Navigator bike ridden by professional cyclist Ciaran Power. I’ve painted the bike in our team colors and it looks really cool.

Well, that’s it for now- more to come.

Remember the mantra, “Eat before you’re hungry; drink before you’re thirsty!”

Ken