Originally Posted by
SFGary
Homeyba, you are my new Guru !! Just looking at some of the RAAM race reporting/writing make me tired and you were over 50 when you did it, wow! Your post has given me new hope after that 19 year old's blog that Neil_B sent scared the heck out of me. I will ask you for pointers when I get more set and focused if you can indulge me. The main thing I am doing now is try to follow as much of Joe Friel's "Cycling past 50" and Edmund Burke/ Ed Pavelka's Long Distance Cycling training books. I am fairly strong for my age since I do some strength training but I am trying to get my "cycling legs" as quickly as possible. My feeling is that if I can get to about 25-30 miles in 2 hours w/o any load by the end of February I would be able to do it.
Glad to know that the wind is more likely to favor the West to East riding, the minimal wind on the Great Highway here in SF slows me down a lot. If you have done any riding in the Central Valley, CA/AZ it would be good to know if I can get from SF to Socal (via the Central valley) to Phoenix - rejoin the ACA Trans AM route at Pueblo? I am sure there's a route I just need to get details and make sure there are towns every 50 - 60 miles or so. Thanks again.
Gary
One reason I recommend the David Lamb book is that the author was completely untrained. For goodness sakes, he smoked during the ride! He didn't do a short overnight as practice, he didn't train, he didn't carry rain gear.... and it didn't matter.
I think it would be great to be 'in shape' for a long tour. But its an endurance contest, not a race. Don't get caught up in being able to ride 15 MPH by February. If you can ride your first day's mileage two days in a row and still want to get on the bike for the third, you are as ready as you need to be.
BTW, another book worth reading is the novel
The Memory of Running. There's more than a whiff of Winston Groome's
Forrest Gump in the protagonist, a middle aged fat guy who starts riding his bike across the US while drunk and keeps at it when sober. Life isn't a bicycle, or a box of chocolates, but you can't help but like a world in which a man can say of his old Raleigh "It was the best bike ever" and mean it.