RAAM | UltraRob's Adventures

RAAM Rules Changed for this Year

January 3rd, 2006

Today the preliminary RAAM rules were posted. Because of Bob Breedlove’s death last year, the rules have been changed for solo riders. Solo riders will be required to take a minimum of 40 hours off the bike at control points.

The date and time to finish is still last year’s so I’m not sure if the cut-off is going to remain at 12 days and 2 hours or if they will extend it. Of course I want to be fast but considering only about half of rookies finish, I’m going to be very happy with any finish under the cut-off time.

They also updated the 2006 roster. It is motivating and exciting to see my name there but at the same time a bit terrifying.

The weather has continued to be unusually warm but that also means it is windy and today was no exception. The peak gust at Reed Ranch weather station was 43 mph.

I think it was hitting close to that when I headed out on my mountain bike to the electronics store to get some resistors to work on installing a remote starter in my wife’s car. I had yesterday off work and had trained hard over the weekend so thought it was a good day for the project. I’ll wait to tell about that bad experience when I have more time and hopefully have the project finished.

As planned I did a long ride on Saturday with my friend Larry and his friend Nate. It was a bit cold when we headed out in the morning but it ended up being a pleasant day. It was a little cooler than a few of the other days lately but that was because the wind wasn’t blowing much. I’m not a fan of the wind so that made me happy.

Nate’s wheel was only 1.5 weeks old but 2 spokes broke at different times during the ride. It took a few stops for emergency truing to keep his wheel from hitting on his frame. I rode through the Garden of the Gods after leaving Larry and Nate to get a few more miles in and ended up with 106 miles for the day.

Sunday my legs were feeling pretty hammered but I went ahead with my plan to go up the old Manitou Incline. It took a few minutes to get my legs worked out but then I felt good. I was about 5 minutes faster than the last couple times even after stopping and talking to a guy that said he thought he was still drunk from New Year’s Eve. I must say I agreed with him. Barr Trail only had a couple spots of ice left after all the warm weather.

Hi Tec Penrith Mid Jr. WP Hiking Boots

Price: $38.73

Adidas AX2 Mid GTX Hiking Boots

Price: $135.00

Salomon X Alp Mid LTR GTX Hiking Boots

Price: $219.95

Tags: Bike, Hike, Manitou Incline, RAAM, Race Across America
Posted in Bike, Hike | 3 Comments »

170 Days Until RAAM Start

December 22nd, 2005

It is now 170 days until the start of RAAM 2006. In a way this seems like a long time but considering the training and everything else I need to do, it seems too short. I consider November 1st as the start of my training and I rode my bike 21 times in November and hiked once.

I haven’t been worried about getting lots of training time in but just trying to be consistent. In August I was working way too much and only was on the bike 12 times. I still was able to ride a RAAM qualifying time at the Adirondack 540 in September but certainly wasn’t the way to train so I’m trying not to let that happen leading up to RAAM.

This month I haven’t been as consistent as in November because of some very cold weather and being sick. Once night it was -16 degrees when we went to bed which is the coldest it’s been in nearly 10 years. I also was sick and didn’t feel like doing any training most of last week so I guess the timing of the cold weather wasn’t bad. Yesterday it was in the 50’s and it is again today so I’m back to training outside on the bike.

As always I weigh too much. One of my big challenges is to lose 20 lbs before RAAM. It should be doable but will require more to be very disciplined with my eating. I lost over 20 lbs a view years ago by tracking everything I ate in DietPower but I gained it back last winter when I took 4 months off the bike to gut a third of the house and remodel it.