bikenh

ou Remember Steve has restarted yet another attempt at the record earlier this month. Are you looking at his current attempt?

You're forgetting several details. Training is the secret to anything. You don't start off on day one and become Strausser like. It takes training...more importantly it takes the right kind of training. It's not about power output, that doesn't win any race including RAAM. It takes consistent training. I was on an 8400 mile bike trip two years ago where I was only getting 3-4 hours sleep per night throughout the duration of the trip. I wasn't riding high mileage, both because I wasn't planning to ride high mileage(still averaging 125 miles per day with a 227 mile day during the fully loaded trip), and because I wasn't riding with a pre-arranged trip plan. I was spending/wasting each evening, 3-4 hours, planning out where I was going to go the next day and looking at routing options and looking for possible campsites for the next night. In the morning I was spending/wasting another hour or more finishing off the planning and writing, yes writing, out the cue sheet. With better organization I could have been spent all that wasted time riding. Did I notice any effects due to lack of sleep or more importantly, lack of muscle recovery...YES. In the beginning I was dealing with the lack of sleep. Fought like hell trying to stay awake during the daylight hours for a week before I lost the sleepiness effect. It took a couple more weeks before I would get hit with the lack of muscle recovery, or at least what I'm guessing was the lack of muscle recovery given what was going on. By the time I had been out there about one month I lost all the effects of the lack of ... and just had smooth riding the rest of the time even though I was still getting the lack of sleep and muscle recovery. If you spend the time to train the effects out of existence they will disappear and not be a factor anymore. The problem is there's a saying I have heard many times now on different cycling related podcasts over the past year..."It take 6 weeks to form a new habit." I will expand that saying to what is really meant..."It's take 6 weeks to form a new habit...anything less and all you have is a hobby...hobbies don't win RAAM or go 100,000 miles in one year...habits do."

If you want to break 7 days, yes finished RAAM in under 7days, you need to become an ultra cyclist before the start of RAAM so the effects most people experience during RAAM will already be behind you and you will be in the HABIT of ultra cycling not in the hobby of ultra cycling. If you want the results you have to spend the time doing the training so you can get the results. This doesn't come from going out for 3 three day weekends leading into RAAM and riding 200 miles x 3 days, 250 x 3 day, 300 x 3 days, instead it comes from riding 20+ hours a day everyday for 6 weeks leading into RAAM. Training the body to get used to the lack of sleep and lack of muscle recovery. Let the body transform itself into an ultra machine through the training your putting it through. Yeah, 7 days has never been broken, simply because most people don't have the training time available and the mind set is such in 'ultra' cycling that you aren't supposed to train like that. I've seen otherwise through personal experience.

The only real mechanical problem that you would have to deal with on something like this is something like a broken frame if you are riding supported. The crew can carry the spare parts to fix the bike for you. If you are riding unsupported than yes, plenty can be a problem but even at that for the bulk majority of problems it isn't that much extra to carry what you need to fix the bike with you and with a little imagination you can general BS your way through most problems until you can get to bike shop. I always carry a couple of spare tubes and spare chains when I leave for a bike trip. I live in tax free New Hampshire so why not save money and carry a little extra weight on me by carrying the spare chains on me. Most problems can be fixed on the road. Granted in 85-100K miles you can expect anything to go wrong, including broken frames.

The weather changes all day, everyday, anywhere you go. You learn to deal with it and more importantly plan to avoid the problem areas when their problem area to beginning with. Even on a massive around the country bike trip(85-100K miles long) you can still plan your trip to avoid the problem areas when they are typically problem areas if you learn to stop and pay attention to what goes on around the country and when it typically occurs each year/every couple of years(ie. don't put yourself in California during the spring/summer months unless you want to deal with forest fires, don't put yourself around the Gulf Coast/east coast of the US during July-October unless you want to run the risk of getting forced off the bike by hurricanes, don't put yourself in the midwest now-early June unless you want to get swept away by a tornado...etc). Just learn when potential problems typically occur and you can plan your strategy to avoid the potential problem areas when they are typically problem areas. They are many on my list and fortunately with my roughed out route idea it avoids all but MAYBE one of them. Granted I've only played with the NE 1/4 of the US for routing thus far and everything was being setup the way I wanted it go for trying to route the rest of the country so once I get my full services list setup I don't think the route will change much other than to make sure I'm going by needed services each day...at the time of day when I want to be going by them.

No, I wouldn't do HAMR...I wouldn't do a supported ride which HAMR rules pretty much require. I would be my own support and tough it out. One/however many less person/people to deal with and less expenses as a result of it.

If you want different results, you have to think differently...err, if you follow the crowd...you will get the crowds results.