Day 2, Missoula to Butte. 135 mi

What a very nice day! I felt good this morning--the various supplements and massage really did the trick, and I began the ride this morning feeling quite at ease. Mapping -- we left Missoula on 200, turned on 210, got on I90 for 17 miles, then took MT1 the rest of the way. We rode through lovely and dramatic river valley, then a long shallow climb into a headwind took us to lunch. After lunch we had our first real climb of the trip, about 1500 ft up to Georgetown Lake, then a Loooong 35 mph+ descent through Anaconda. That was a blast, particularly after slogging through the morning. But Anaconda was quite a sight! The town is surrounded by slag heaps 200+ ft high, some of which are greened but many of which are not. It makes all of those hydraulic mining remains in the lower Sierra look inoffensive. (It really made me want to see the hole, but that was not visible from the road.) The last SAG was at the bottom of the descent. I got in shortly after the first group, and it was a gas watching all these smiling faces come in. We then cruised in the last 20 miles on mostly side roads, punctuated by 5 more miles on I90. Riding on the interstate--- Not so bad! Wide shoulders, good separation, good visibility. Easy to see the junk to avoid on the road, mostly tire pieces. Better than massive logging trucks a foot from your head, like yesterday. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Oops.

My pattern of riding is coming into view. I'll end up spending about half my time alone and half in groups. Iusually roll out alone, the serially hook up with the fsst groups as they go by. I drop out for 3 reasons: 1. I don't want to maintain the concentration needed to ride in a group. 2. I can't match the pace--they are too fast, or I can't find the right gear to stay with them, or they go uphill faster than me. 3. A nature break.

So, as a day unfolds, I slip backwards. Now, I'm faster at the controls than a group is, so I sometimes have the option of rejoining. And on a day like today, which has terrain I do well in, I stay toward the front of the bunch. Riding in groups is a varied experience. Some are serious, some at ease--some quiet, some gabby, some friendly, some competitive. Over the next 2 weeks I'll have a chance to ride with most of them.

Newsflash

My PDA is not getting on the internet in this hotel, for some reason. I've written my post but you're going to have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

Sorry!

Todays route: Missoula to Butte. 135 Mi, 5000 ft of climbing. Beautiful weather and terrain. Roads: MT 200 to MT 210 to I90 to MT 1, then side roads to Butte.

Day 1

The day started as most of my days do; awake at 5:15, but instead of making coffee I laid in bed and did 15 min of stretching. Then dressing , filling bottles, packing and in the parking lot at 6 for breakfast. PAC Tour sets up planks on 5 gal pails, making benches for us to sit at. After scarfing a bagel & a bowl of oatmeal, it was to the bathroom, then applying bag balm, and off to work! For those of you following along on Google Earth, today's route did some wiggling around on the way out of Kalispell, then took MT 83 to MT 200. Very pretty, in the forest most of the day, lots of lakes, snow capped mountains, pretty much what you'd expect of Montana. I rode with several different groups and alone. The hardest parts of the day--getting fresh road oil on my tires, leading to picking up so much crap on my tires that they wouldn't turn--I had to spend significant time repeatedly scraping them off ovet a five mile distance. A big pain in the ass (which itself was fine, BTW). The other adventure of the day were the fierce headwinds for 40-ish miles on Rt. 200, as strong as any at home. All you could do was 'live your level' and get through in a way that worked.

My goal for the day was not to exceed 70% effort, which I mostly did--just overdid it twice in 8:40 in the saddle. This is a long, demanding trip, and if you get cooked today, you're toast tomorrow. . . And likely the next day, too. Especially when you're older, recovery is critical; your body will completely rebel if you don't take care. This is where experience really helps. So I stay in my limits on the bike and concentrate on recovery from the moment I hit the hotel. A bottle of Recoverite, shower, a hot tub if there is one, 3 or 4 bottles of water over the evening, a massage, as little movement as possible, and, hopefully, a good dinner. Tonight's qualifies, at the Finn & Porter--a nice salmon, salad, a glass of red, and a cinnamon apple crisp....a la mode.

Tomorrow we get our first substantial climbs of the trip, going to Butte; another pretty long day (135 mi) before a couple of shorter ones.

Arrived In Kalispell last night about 9. My bike was here, so I got it to my room and put it together, then connected to the internet on my little machine. This morning at breakfast in the hotel lobby I began to meet my fellow riders, as usual a mixed lot. Mostly married men, mostly in their forties and fifties, but some in the sixties. There are 44 people, maybe 6 or 8 women. Several of the ´¨crew¨ are the wives of riders, but there are also two guys who crewed on the central transcon ride I did in 2005. I´ll do a statistical analysis of the riders another day. After finishing putting my bike together and taking care of various other things, I took a two hour ride with Dan Aaron, an anesthesiologist from NY, just to make sure the bike was working...... and the legs! WE rode uo to Whitefish and visited the world headquarters of Hammer Nutrition, purveyor of nutritional items and supplement sot the endurance athlete community. This is an evangelical, data`heavy organization, which issues fifty page magazines four times a year touting the sceintific basis and proven efficacy their products (which I like and use). You´ll probably hear more about that when I describe a typical day of eating later on in the trip.

WE have a few long distance luminaries on this trip, in addition to Lon and Susan, our hosts, both winners of RAAM. Steve Born, the only man to double the Furnace Creek 508, Cassie Low Born and Anna Cat Berge, both RAAM winners, and Marc Leeuw, finisher No. 1 On PBP. Stong wheels to suck, that is, if I ever see them after the first hour.

My roomate, Joel, is a fifty something from LA who composes music for film and TV. WE´ve been gabbing away, and have made a pact to eat at good restaurants every night! Especially after the uninspired ´banquet´we had tonight, marking the opening of this tour. Pizza at the Moose Saloon, followed by dessert at Dairy Queen. However, I can recommend Mirror Pond Pale Ale, ìt just beat out Moose Drool. Yep. Hopefully we´ll see a moose, but not from close enough to get drooled on.

DAy 1 tomorrow, 150 miles to Missoula. Night, all.

On the way!

Well, I guess Mark's comment should lead me to describe my last week prior to my departure. Its actually been fairly hectic; I had Board meetings of the Eva Foundation, the shul, and Equal Access; at work, it looks like we'll be doing a bit of reorganization, so we spent a bunch of time talking that over. A the temple, dealing with a few of the deficiencies of the new building are coming to a head and we had a lot of talk, some hot and heavy email traffic, and I had to write a letter; at Equal Access we're taking a line of credit and I was involved a lot of that. So it seems that I'm leaving at a complex time, but what I've discovered is that all of these issues will still be here when I get back!

I rode about 100 miles this week, in one and two hour snatches; I also took a last Rhythm and Motion class, which was super fun, as always. We went to the ball game last night and watched Tim Lincecum strike out 13 Diamondbacks in 7 innings (and the bullpen lose it in the 8th...sigh), saw the show Sophie is working on Friday night, and had dinner with an old friend on Thursday. I did my last bit of shopping, packed and repacked my bag, decided what music to bring (Susan gave me permission to bring my guitar, which will fun to have on those days my hands aren't too tired to work it!), and we'll be heading off to the airport in an hour or so.

Its all over but the riding . .

Last training weekend! Friday was a fantastic ride, South 135 miles, 8.5 hours in the saddle, fierce headwinds at times, with 8250' of up, including the climb of Alpine Road in San Mateo County, which I'd heard of but never done before. I felt real strong, easy, and not at all tired or stressed out. A real confidence builder. I Came home and made my last few adjustments to the bike; wrapped a second layer of handlebar tape, put on my new tires, recalibrated the computer, washed and waxed the frame. Then up at 5 the next morning for a 50 mile, 3500 foot ride before going to shul for Ruthie Hollander's Bat Mitzvah. Sunday my plan was to ride 100 again, but my spirit was low (we were up late the night before enjoying Peter Rowan and David Bromberg), even though my legs felt good., so I went for a high cadence/low stress cruise to Fairfax, watched all the Sunday riders (hundreds) out for their weekend rides, then headed home. As soon as I got there, I got right to the TIVO and watched CSC hammer Cadel over and over again on Prato Nevoso. (Actually, though, if I had to pick someone now, other than Cadel, it would be Menchov over both Schleck and Sastre. He looked scary good yesterday. VandeVelde I think is a nice dream, but he didn't go with Lang at Hautacam or with Kohl yesterday; I don't see him being able to just depend on the time trial if he wants to win. My sense is that he is aiming for top 5, not for the win).

Then I went downstairs and packed up the bike to ship off. A very careful, loving process, and really the beginning of the ride; I begin to abandon my daily considerations and draw my focus inward. At this point, I do have to give myself over to the ride; worrying about what I did or didn't do in training doesn't matter, I can't train any more--I'll just have to be as good as I am. I'm strong enough, and fit enough--I may not be fast enough, but in the worst case I'll have to get sagged. Anne just laughs at me when I say this; she's heard it lot over the years, and I end up doing just fine. And I have never gotten into the van. Even my one DNF on Terrible Two, I rode the bike back to the start.

So this week is about chilling out, closing up the loose ends on my various work projects for the next 3 weeks, spending time with Anne & Sophie and dropping off all considerations except riding. They, by the way, are going to South America. And I'm choosing to ride my bike instead. Hmmm . . . . .

Hello, everyone

When I rode across the country with PAC Tour in 2005, I enjoyed keeping a weblog. It helped me recap each day's activity and kept my friends informed about how I was doing. It also was great to put in the trip scrapbook! I am riding again with PAC Tour on Ridge of the Rockies, a 19 day 1943 mile extravaganza, and will record my experiences here.

Today I'm feeling sort of anxious about starting the tour; It is a huge undertaking, and I don't feel quite as well prepared this time as I was last time. I've ridden about 1800 miles in the last two months, and about 4000 or so on the year, which is qute a bit less than I had going into the cross country trip. (This is the first year since 2000 that I have not kept track of every training mile and hour.) I also have been less disciplined with my intervals than I was before--I was good February through April, but not really since then. That said, though, I am stronger from a round of weightlifting in the fall and from riding my fixed gear bike all over the place, I have another PBP under my belt and I have a lot of experience in riding long distances in brevets and double centuries. And you use the first week of PAC Tour to prepare for the second week, so I'm hoping that holds true for me as well. Last time I was extremely well prepared; I think I could have done less and therefore spent less time away from the family; I've done less this time, so we'll see how it all unfolds.

I also have a new bike for this trip (I'm thinking its the last bike I'll ever buy), a custom frame with a steel main triangle and carbon stays and fork, built for me by Steve Rex. I picked up the bike in Sacramento on June 20, spent the night in Dixon and rode it home the next day (about 150 miles with a lot of up, including the Oakville grade) -- the bike felt like it was built for me! I'm riding a Campangnolo Chorus compact gear system, with chainrings of 34-50 and a rear cluster of 12 - 29. This give me a small gear of 30.8 inches, as opposed to 28.2 inches with the triple I used last time; a less easy gear. Don't think the 2.5 inches make that much difference; its feeling OK on my training rides. There's only one day I'm kind of worried about from that standpoint; the 147 mile, 87oo foot day characterized as "dozens of short, steep climbs." Hmmm . . . but cycling has a way of throwing you curve balls at the least expected times, so you have to be easy and take what comes.

This weekend is another 350 mile weekend; the last one! I'll check in on Monday and report on how it went.

You can find the itinerary (scroll down a bit to find it) and a ride description at this link: Ridge of the Rockies.