Long Awaited Bike Sebring Wrap Up
I was worried during Bike Sebring that RAAM might not be possible. I tend to have those thoughts frequently. Mike Trevino set a cross state record going 25 mph for around 200 miles. That seems insane to me...There's no way I can generate that much speed or power. I was alone at Sebring in the wee hours and I can only maintain my positive self talk for so long before I start thinking about throwing in the towel and grabbing a shower and a meal. I know I'm a long shot to finish RAAM, right now. I think my training is progressing and should get me there before the race.
I was in the middle of one of Crista's 105 mile rides yesterday when I pulled into the lunch rest stop and Crista said. "Lou, you're loking fit." That made me feel good. I was suffering yesterday, I bought a new camelback (the HAWG - 1000 cu in storage). My Camelback Rocket (195 cu in storage) never seemed to be able to carry everything I needed and my softride doesn't really lend itself to panniers, handlebar bags, or even seat bags. So the HAWG has tons of space and a 100 ounce bladder, baseline it weighs about 2 pounds more than the rocket, but then I loaded it up with powerbars,perpetuem, tools, and a bunch of other stuff and it felt twice as heavy. I was still able to maintain a pretty good pace yesterday, so I am a bit more optimistic about RAAM.
Back to Bike Sebring: They put red blinkie tail lights at all the corners of the race track which made navigation extremely easy and I'm sure lead to faster lap times. I definitely felt faster. I took a 90 minute sleep break in the middle of the night and then I quit about an hour early. Liz asked me why at breakfast that morning and I didn't really know. Every year I go down there and tell myself I'm going to ride the whole thing and I'm not giving up. I know if I had had a crew there I could have ridden longer. There was an interesting article in the New York Times about Jure Robic. The premise was that his crew acts as a second brain for him, and they do all the important thinking for him. The article also described how crazy Robic gets when he's sleep deprived.
The drive home was long, I got stuck in Daytona 500 traffic and slept three times along the way(south of Jacksonville, North Carolina "I think", and north of Richmond). The important thing I think is that my legs felt better than ever. I rested the next day, but I could've done another century if I wanted to...Again that's a good sign for RAAM.
