Christmas in May & Playing Historian

It is beginning to feel like it is Christmas around here. Thanks to Pete's ingenuity back before the 1986 RAAM race, our team has been supplied all new aerobars courtesy of Profile Design.

While on his daily commute through the San Onofre campground (Part of the California 70.3 bike course for you triathletes), Pete realized that he could go ~½ mph faster when he rested his arms on top of his road bars without an increase in perceived effort or HR. If you look closely in the photo above (with the help of the red arrow), you can see one of the first aerobars ever used in competition during the 1986 RAAM race. The arm rests actually cradled the entire forearm instead of today's smaller pad. The picture below is Jim, Pete's brother and another member of the team who rides with a prosthetic leg (a future blog post), in his garage. This was the workshop where some of these early prototypes were built. It is pretty cool today to walk in his garage and still see some of the original aerobars sitting on the shelf. A couple of weeks ago when we mounted my new set up on my bike, I teased Pete that those originals should be in a museum somewhere and not just resting on that upper shelf collecting dust. Aerobars have been instrumental in allowing cyclists achieve faster times since. At the speeds we will be traveling on flat roads in RAAM, the aerodynamic drag is by far the greatest barrier to our speed, accounting for 70 to 90 percent of the resistance felt when pedaling. These aerobar set ups shall help us increase our speed.

With that, here is a shot of my new front end. I am working on some tweaks here and there to get the correct fit but overall I am very impressed.

Relying on Pete's industry connections again, Kenny Souza from Clif Bar was kind enough to supply the team with countless variations of their different bars, gels and blocks for training and the race.

During the race, we could be seeing 3-5 hours per day on the road riding at our threshold paces (i.e. sub-barf pace). Given this, we need to make sure our caloric intake is in line with the calories we expend. Racing at such intensities, we will be burning around1000 cal/hr depending on the person. For a sample calculator, check out this link - Active.com. Therefore, we will again be relying on a connection of the Penseyres brothers and will be using Spiz during the race as one of our main food sources. Straight from the Spiz website - "In essence SPIZ is a complete liquid food source designed to provide your body with everything it needs to perform at peak levels, making it very popular with all types of endurance athletes. SPIZ has over 500 calories per serving. Includes 94 grams of carbohydrate, 20 grams of whey protein concentrate and 5 grams of fatty acids. Protein/carbohydrate drinks have been proven to be superior to sports drinks that contain only carbohydrates." Randy Ice of Longevity Plus, the makers of Spiz, have been kind enough to supply the team with all the product we need for our training and the race. As this is a new product to me, I will post in the future how it works for me. In the meantime, read the testimonials on their web page and develop your own opinion. I am eager to try the product out.

Finally, we did our intervals last night. I guess I am frustrated by my performance. I am struggling to push myself and am afraid to hurt. Yes - I decreased the time it took me to do the climb by about 5 sec. per repetition from the last workout but on the 2nd of 7, I had 2 rabbits ahead of me. They were fancy road riders all dressed out in their matching kits. I however look like I am outfitted from the Salvation Army as nothing matches because I refuse to pay full price for any clothing and instead pick up pieces at the local factory sales of 2XU, Zoot and Pearl Izumi. So I was determined to not only catch these guys but fly by them and cut nearly 10 seconds off my current best time. I managed to accomplish my mission however I relapsed back on reps 3-7 to the status quo. I left the hill frustrated and wondering where my ability to truly push my body is. I seem to be content with just going through the motions right now and not really focused on pushing the upper limits and feeling some pain. Why do I need rabbits to excel? No doubt about it, there is an immense benefit in training with others.

Anyhow, enough of a pity session. Off to try and find it -

NJB