What this is all about -

You may ask why are we signed up and trained for such a race. For our team, RAAM is not just a Race Across AMerica, it is a race to better our community. Our charity is North Coast Community Service (NCCS), which teams with 11 nonprofit organizations in San Diego County to make a difference in people’s lives. In the past 12 months, 5,500 NCCS volunteers have completed over 450 unique service projects. There is a broad spectrum of support which include the following: feeding and providing shelter for the homeless, assistance to a drug and alcohol recovery program, a home for people disabled by HIV/AIDS, support of military families by providing: financial support, home improvements, baby supplies, childcare, and counseling, outreach to nursing home residences, help to pregnant teenagers and adult women, help for homeless kids, and non-profit resale for foster children. This is just a short summary of the help provided by the organization we are raising money to support. If you feel compelled to join us on our journey and support making a difference in this world, you can make a tax-deductible contribution to our team. Please follow this link Support NCCS RAAM 2008.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Wednesday Night Repeats

So as I had posted previously, we had 8 x 5 minute hill climbs on the schedule this week. I told myself they would be fun even though I had zero ambition. Thankfully there was a great tailwind that blew me up from downtown. We decided this week to ride the inside hill of the Torrey Pines to try and avoid traffic (a rather hard thing to do at 5:00 pm in coastal SD). The hill is .8 mile long and ascends 315 ft. A pretty nice climb at 8% or so. This was the start -

The weather was great. The plan was to ride these at or slightly above our LT pace. I struggled to get my HR up on the first couple but then had no problems - here is a graph of the first few (FYI my LT on the bike is approximately 175 bpm and I wish I could tell you in terms of power but that toy has yet to be delivered) -Once we were through the first two, the rest went by pretty fast. The scenery is tough to beat too --


Afterwards we made a killer homemade pizza and recovered nicely. So tomorrow will be 4 x 25 minutes on the RAAM course. We will be working on riding in pairs on two of the repeats and simulating the race. When we are doing these repeats, we are riding all out and usually don't have more 3 minutes on the bike to cool down before regrouping off the bike. This will be just like the race - you will finish your pull, load your bike, and hop in the van. You will cool down and stiffen up if you are not smart, and then be expected to go again shortly thereafter. Six days of this - only 40 days until the start.

For the week (since Monday) - 230 miles of riding. It should be no problem to hit 350 miles by Sunday. Next week we will drop back down and start another 4 week progression. It will be our last one before the race.

The journey so far has been great. Hopefully it will continue. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend. Tonight is dinner with an old roomate who spurred my interest in riding. It should be a good time. Maybe afterwards we will be able to finish up the film Emmanuel's Gift. I highly recommend the movie. It helps you put your troubles in perspective.

We'll talk later.

NJB

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1 comment:

C-Shizzle said...

Hey I made the blog! I'm the old roommate! Dinner has come and gone and it was a good time. Hopefully the Hef got you some added power on the intervals.

May 6, 2008 at 12:00 AM

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