Third Century in Three Weeks (well, almost)

I am pleased to report that I finished my third (almost) century in as many weeks. I qualify this since three weeks ago I was forced to give in at 90 miles, but hey, 90% gets you on the honor roll where I come from. This weeks ride was "The Challenge of the Centuries" out of Hartwell, GA and it was a blast. Very fast (read "flat") course with about 400 riders, including the 20, 50 and metric rides. The Sags were well done and unlike three weeks ago, I hung with some other riders and managed to stay on course the whole ride. I finished the century in around 6:30 which is a PR for me. I felt great on the ride and we had perfect weather conditions- low humidity, 80 degrees tops and not much wind- almost too easy.

The month of May is turning out to be a very good training month for me. I should top 1,200 miles and will have 3 weeks with well over 300 miles. With less than three weeks to go, I'm feeling more confident, especially with three (almost) centuries in the bag this month. I hope to finish my training with two more centuries and probably another 600-800 more miles. This should put me at nearly 9,000 training miles. Man, it seems impossible that I could have ridden that much. If all goes according to plan, I'll have over 12,000 miles in total at the end of the tour- half way around the planet in about 14 months.

Three weeks and counting!!

Wow! Where did the time go? Seems like yesterday that I still had several months to go before my departure and now I'm only three weeks away from leaving for Oregon. My training has ticked upward- I've done a couple of "centuries" (100 mile rides) now and have increased my weekly mileage to 300-325. I feel good, but still am very anxious about doing the ride. I get a knot in my gut when I consider that first 8 days (600-700 miles) without a day off. Will my body be ready? Will my rear end revolt? Will I be so sick of riding I'll puke? These kind of questions nag at me and I really think that the only way to get over it is to start. I'm really ready to quit "training" and start the ride. In fact I am quite sick of the training rides- same routes, same stores, same everything. I'm ready for a change of scenery and ready to get on with it.

My Giant bike is now in the shop (right Joe??) and will be getting an overhaul as needed. New chain and cassette for sure, some grease here and there and a close inspection of the whole bike. Actually, the bike has been working nearly flawlessly, so I don't expect much to be wrong, but it is far better to have a surprise here, than in the middle of Wyoming.

Will do another century ride on Saturday- this one is out of Hartwell, GA and I'm told the route crosses over into South Carolina at times. Actually the Sunday ride (another Century) comes in front of the house. I plan to be watching from a lawn chair when they pass by. Sunday has become my rest day. Ain't that the way it's supposed to be?

An update as April closes shop

Man, where did April go? Between my ankle injury, a business trip and some really snotty (cold and windy) weather, I had the worst training month since last summer. I'd hoped to do over 1,000 miles in April and barely cracked 700. In one two week period I only rode twice. The good news is- the ankle is healed and I'm riding again. Today I decided to crank my "basic training ride" up to 55 miles and plan to increase it to 60 miles in three weeks.

The time is really starting to melt away for me and I am apprehensive about the ride. I still get the heebie-jeebies when I think about the mileage we'll be doing. I am trying to get a longer mileage ride in at least once a week and did 70 miles (solo- which I think makes a big physical and psychological difference) last Saturday.

The weather is finally warming up and I will be riding in more and more high temps. Good time to begin seeing if cramping is going to be a factor- not an issue so far.

Sherry gives Bob 6 Week "Get Out of Jail Free" Pass...

Attention One and All:

Bob Frame has been issued a 6 week "Get Out of Jail Free" pass by his lovely wife Sherry so that he can pursue his dream of riding a bike cross country. Isn't she special?

Seriously, I know that being gone from home for 6 weeks will present some added challenges to my family and I'm grateful to all of them (yes, Nick and Jon- you too) for allowing me to be gone and not whining about it.

My ride "Across America North-2007"

The ride I'll be doing this summer is called "Across America North" and it's being put on by a company called America By Bicycle (ABB). ABB puts on numerous fully supported bicycle tours (tours include"SAG wagons" for the weary, hosted food stops, 24 x 7 mechanics, hotels, meals, etc.) and they can be visited at http://www.abbike.com/ BTW, their website will have a daily update as our ride progresses, so check that too. The tour I'm on follows the northern route across the U.S. (the map to the left shows the route-sorry if it's hard to read) and will pass thru Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, a ferry across Lake Michigan, Michigan, southern Ontario, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. I will do about 90% of the ride, but will disengage in Henrietta, NY so that I can attend my niece's wedding in Victor, NY in August. (Hey Kelly- I'm looking forward to the big event). For a detailed itinerary of the ride check this : http://www.americabybicycle.com/AAN/AANPop.htm

The group (I expect 50-60 riders) departs from Astoria, OR on June 17, 2007 (where we'll make the ceremonial "rear wheel dip" in the Pacific Ocean) and I'll get into Henrietta on July 31, 2007- my total miles will be about 3,200. The group will continue on through upstate NY, VT and NH, where the tour ends with the "front wheel dip" in the Atlantic Ocean for a total of 3,600 miles. Unfortunately, I only get to dip once.

I'm told we'll average 85 miles per day (approximately 8 days on, one day off, add water, repeat) and the rides will range from as little as 65 miles to as many as 115 miles per day. I'm not troubled by any of the daily miles, but the notion of riding for 8 days straight has my gut in a bit of a knot. And it's not the legs that I'm worried about- it's the old keister. I have a box full of saddles and frankly, I ain't happy with any of them. I may try one or two more before I leave.

More About My Giant

The bike I'm going to tour with is my Giant TCR C2. I am very happy with this bike, although I will admit that the bike is pretty heavily modified (mostly courtesy of Joe Elam at Habersham Bicycles: http://www.habershambicycles.com/--thanks Joe!!) The wheels are Mavic Ksyrium ES, the brakes, derailleurs, cassette (12-27) and chain are Dura-Ace, the crank is Shimano compact (50-34), the pedals are Speedplay X2's, the handlebars are FSA Carbon K Wing, the seatpost is FSA K Force Lite Carbon and the saddle is Fizik Alliante. (for the non-bike-geeks among you- all this means is that I've spent a bunch of money buying shinier and lighter parts for my bike that it came with. I'm still slower than molasses, even with the same components that Lance has.) The bike is an XL frame and both the frame and forks are original.

More than one person has urged me to change to a triple crank (three gears instead of two, smaller gear=easier to pedal up long/steep hills). I have resisted this, mostly because I don't want to spend the money and also because I think I'll be OK with the compact gearing on the bike now. I can climb hills with 17% grades as-is, so I don't need lower gearing for short steep hauls. But as Ron Lau told me the other day- what's gonna get me is the really long, moderate grades like I'll find in the Rockies. Maybe he's right.

I've also heard (thanks Ron Coker) that anyone who's been out west riding and has fought those headwinds, will have aero bars so they can tuck down out of the wind. Unfortunately, my bars, which I LOVE, are carbon fiber and cannot have aero bars clamped on. Maybe he's right, too.

So I've been warned. When I'm groaning about it in July, you guys can say "We told you so"...

So, Ron and Ron, thanks for the input. But for now, I ain't changing anything.

A Bit More About My Training

As I mentioned in my previous post, I started training (for what I did not know- other than to shed some pounds) back in June 2006. I live in North Georgia, in what I would describe as the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The Tour of Georgia usually passes close by us and there are some buh-rutal climbs in almost any direction. In fact, Lance Armstrong was reported to have expressed surprise at how tough the riding was in his first Tour of Georgia. Tell me about it. The "flat rides" I now do have around 2,500 vertical feet gained (VFG) in 50 miles.

My first rides were short- maybe 10-12 miles and oh so slow. Oh yeah, there were as few inclines as possible. In fact, I'd set the length of the ride by how far it was to the first hill that I didn't want to climb. To say that I was "hill-averse" would be exactly right.

Over time I began to stretch the miles and since I am retired, I had the luxury of riding exactly when I wanted (to beat the traffic, rain, heat, wind, etc.), where I wanted and for how long I wanted. No possible excuses that way. And it worked. I steadily grew stronger and as my ride distance increased from 10 miles to 20 to 30 and so on (my training rides are now 50-70 miles), the weight came off and my endurance and speed increased. I began to notice that I no longer thought about every pedal stroke and started to become absorbed with the scenery or thinking about my family or flipping off the redneck that just buzzed me. The miles went by quickly and the success I was having in getting back in shape was really becoming fun. I kept a detailed mileage log and began to set mileage goals for each week and month (March was 850), which for the most part I attained.

At some point during the fall of '06 I began to wonder whether I could keep the training going without having some goal to shoot for. I decided that I needed a target- some sort of milestone that I could work towards. And that's when the notion of doing a cross country tour came up again. Years ago, when I'd first started riding and did some short (2-3 day) tours, I fantasized about doing the "big one"- a cross America tour. However, the realities of a career and family (baby gotta eat) forced me to postpone any thought of spending weeks/months on a bicycle seat pedaling through the heartland. But now, with my time virtually unlimited, there was no reason, other my own inertia, that I couldn't do it.

After studying various options for doing a tour, I decided to go with a group named America By Bicycle. Their references checked out very well and I wrote first the deposit check and then paid it in full last week. Whoeee- I'm actually going.

Oh yeah- riding hills. At 6'3" and 225 pounds, I'm never going to be a "climber". However, I am now much more comfortable climbing and no longer avoid climbs like I did when I started. In fact, I find that my mind wanders as freely when climbing (a sign that I'm comfortable) as when I'm riding a flat road (though there aren't many of these in north Georgia). Most of my rides around here have VFG of 50-70 feet per mile (a 50 mile ride has 2,500-3,500 VFG) with sections that are much steeper than that (like 350 VFG in .75 mile) and this seems to be a reasonable model of what I'll experience with my ride this summer.