Training in full effect..

Just when you think that the realization of what you are about to try has set in…you see the clock click down from 20 weeks out to 19 weeks out, and is kinda slaps you in the face!!

This last week the weather has been pretty fantastic in Las Cruces, if you were able to train in the afternoon. During the week, Ray and I have very little chance to get our rides in during the afternoon warmth, so that leaves early morning training or early evening training, both of which can be fairly cool to just down right COLD!!

This week we were able to do a fairly long (3+hours) ride on MLK Day, which was nice. The rest of the weekdays were kind of us doing our own thing.

Saturday morning we got on the bikes about 0530, in anticipation of a 5-6 hour ride-time effort. Since we are just now starting to really figure out how everything we are going to carry will be attached to, stored on, or integrated with the bike, there are a lot of stops on our rides to reconfigure, re-attach, or just plain discover that something in just not going to work the way we thought it would. This turns our 6 hour ride-time into a total of about 7.5 hours out and away from the ladies. Thanks God they support us in this effort!!!

As one might imagine, Ray and I spend a ton of time riding side-by-side. While this might seem natural, recall that the Tour Divide is a solo effort, so NO DRAFTING is allowed. As a result, we train like we will be riding the Divide, face into the wind, with no help from anybody else. Coming from the road cycling side of things, this makes a huge difference in effort and energy expenditures (It’s about 30-35% more difficult to ride on your own, vice drafting behind someone). More energy expended means more food to replenish. This translates into more stops (or trying to eat on the bike, which we are working on) and so on.

Right now, conservatively speaking, on a 5-6 hour rides at race pace (think 13 mph average moving time) we will burn somewhere on the order of 2500-3000 calories, not counting the calories burnt to stay warm and kicking!

As we continue telling our story, you’ll see many more posts about what it really is like training for….. The Tour Divide!

Shane and Ray