About a year and half before the race, I started reading about how to train for the Tour Divide. The good news was that I had been preparing for the race even before I knew what it was. I had been an avid recreational cyclist for about three years (50-100 miles a week), which was not an ideal foundation, but it gave me a fitness base to work with.
The bad news was that I was only giving myself a year and a half to train. Here is what I've been up to for the last 18 months (in no particular order):
(1) I got married!
(2) I lost a bike. Rather, I lost a bike's worth of weight, about 20 lbs. The last time I was at this weight I was junior in high school.
(3) Base building, base building, base building... 10 months before the race I took a good 2 1/2 week break, had my heart rate zones established with a VO2 max test, and spent almost 5 cold months cycling alone in zones one and two.
(4) I brushed my teeth. For the 2-3 months leading up to the race, I tried to do preventative maintenance on my Achilles tendons by brushing my teeth.
I guess I should explain how the two are related. My electric toothbrush has a 2 minute timer built into it. So, twice a day, for 2 minutes straight, I stood on the stairs and did calve raises.
(5) I did some work on my core. Not as much as I'd like, but lots of planks. I got a lot out of Tom Danielson's book.
(6) Ride lots. I rode when it was uncomfortable. I rode when it was dark. I rode alone a lot.
With wind chill, -3 degrees F.
I put in a lot of base miles, not too fast, not too easy. I work a regular 40-hour work week, so I tried to make the most out of every ride.
(7) I met Strangers on the internet. Chris Bennett (3x vet.) and Ollie Walley (2012 winner) were in the D.C. area for work and extended an open invitation to join them and a local friend, Mike Kerley (2012 racer) for dinner. I tagged along, got some good advice, and had my copy of volume 5 of the Cordillera signed (Chris edits this and Ollie did the forward).
I was not worried about being able to complete the race until I met up with Mike a few weeks later for a morning ride. Mike is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the race. He thinks a lot about time/weight saving strategies; he probably has a lot of time to do so because he commutes 60 miles round trip each day. Mike is super strong on the bike, but Mike also pulled the plug on the 2012 race when the carbon belt (same belt I'm using) driving his bike ripped in half. He could have taken a day to have a new belt mailed to him, but he was too far behind in his timetable to finish the race and make it back to his job. If someone as strong and prepared for the Divide as Mike could run into trouble, I certainly should not underestimate the race.
All three of those guys have been a great direct source of knowledge. Each one has different strategies and strengths, so it has been great having them as resources. I've made some big changes based on thoughts from those three. I picked up some BRD ankle braces for my Achilles, and the calve raises I mentioned above were suggested by Ollie. Mike didn't really talk me out of bringing anything, but after he explained what he needed to bring, I dumped some significant things: long sleeve wool base layer, spare bib shorts (in favor of a wool under liner), smaller light set up, I ditched my maps and switched my back-up GPS, I also switched from an ultra light Thermarest to a torso length closed cell foam pad with a radiant barrier (industrial bubble wrap sandwiched in mylar).
(8) I joined a race team, V-Day. This is a pretty cool group based around Washington, D.C. The founder, Daniel, started the team about 13 years ago. He wanted to put together a team that did not make crazy demands on the riders (well, actually no demands period). There are no fees or dues, there are no racing requirements (if you race, that is great, if you don't, no one cares). While there are only a few dozen people on the team, the age range is from the 20s to mid-60s.
Daniel did not want riders to worry about buying a new kit every season, and he liked the idea of promoting non-profits, so he got the permission (that is, I think he did) of a few non-profit groups to feature them on the team kit. Typically, a cycling team, even an amateur team, sells ad space on their jerseys by having a company or companies sponsor them. As sponsorship changes, the jerseys change and that usually means riders fork over some decent $ each year for new kits. Here, however, the title "sponsor" is V-Day and that is not changing anytime soon.
In case you were wondering, V-Day is "a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls." You might be familiar with the group if you've ever seen the "Vagina Monologues," because they are responsible for that.
The team is about as underground as you can get. There is no website, and I only started riding with them because the founder is neighbors with one of my friends.
I believe that to get stronger and faster, you need to ride bikes with people who kick your butt. The team has a good supply of people that can do that to me.
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