Back in the Saddle - Race Across the West

After a successful win in Borrego (244 miles in sub 12 hours). Mark convinced me to join him to attempt the over 50 course record for Race Across the West. I guess I was still loopy from the heat and said yes. So once again our goal is to raise awareness and scholarship funds for EY's CollegeMap program where we help get at risk teens into college.

RAW is interesting. It's the first third of RAAM but involves most of the major climbs. Since we will racing as a 2 man team, the race strategy is complex, especially when going for a course record, every little delay or mistake adds up quickly. Each of us will be riding approximately 500 miles in a little over 2 days.

Here are a few of the key elements:

1. rider transitions have to happen at full speed - Slowing or stopping to switch riders costs minutes. At least 40 transitions will happen in daylight hours so they need to be fast.

2. Right bike - Time trial vs road bike needs to be thought through carefully. The TT can delivery 3-4 more mph on the flat but will cost 15-20% extra time on a climb.

3. Right Rider - Mark climbs faster than me but I descend much more quickly. We can take advantage of this if we time transitions carefully

4. Rest/recovery - Power drops off very quickly if we don't eat well or if we push too hard too soon. A lot of the training will be focused on learning personal limits.

This is the first of a few articles that will focus on training for different kind of race from anything I've attempted before. RAAM required a unique level of endurance, requiring me to ride at a pace that could be sustained for 7 days. RAW requires pushing the body to it's absolute limit over 2 days (52 hours divided between 2 riders). So training needs to be a little bit different, it requires conditioning the body to push hard for 30 minutes, recover quickly and repeat. For me it also requires functioning on very little sleep (and I like sleep).

So phase 1 training begins this week. The first block will be focused on training my body to shed lactate acid quickly. It doesn't help that the weather is bad, so it may be all week on the trainer. Here is the training plan for the next 2 weeks

Monday - Recovery

Tuesday 2.5 hours - 3x20 min at 90% FTP + 3x5 @90% FTP

Wednesday 2 hours - moderate Sweet spot

Thursday 2.5 hours 4x15@90% FTP + 3x5@ 90% FTP

Friday - 2 hours Sweet Spot

Sat/Sun - 80 miles each day endurance