Sunday, September 28, 2008

Flaws in Preperation

I actually think we did about everything that we could to prepare. Recall, the distance we had to travel from where we were 7 months ago was pretty big. Deb had not ridden other than sporadically for fun for a number of years, never longer than 70 miles, and never raced. In hindsight, perhaps Everest Challenge is not the ideal first race.

Starting in February we had to get Deb a base,and then quickly start uilding both of ours power and endurance.

The one obvious thing we could have done better was to lose more weight. When I was sick for basically a month in March and added 10 lbs when I should have been losing weight, the math of my challenge became much harder.

Deb would be considered svelte by any non bike racer standard, yet she could have been 10 lbs lighter, without losing power. Surprisingly, despite of a dramatic increase in calories burned,she lost very little weight. I attribute this in large measure to the problem of having to eat enough to fuel intense workouts, and trying to lose weight at the same time.

So we started EC at a team weight of 340, when the goal was to be sub 320. According to power calculations, http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm , that 20lb difference would have beeen worth approximately 15 minutes a climb. Multiplied by 3 climbs a day, it would have been the difference between winning and DNF.

Obviously it would have been helpful to do more climbing. However 4 trips to the Mountains (WV in May, Greenville SC in July, Brasstown/ SixGap in August, and Asheville in Septemeber was all we could reasonably do.)

I also think we should have done some longer days Our longest day in the Mountains was 7 hours. Our last long ride here in Florida was also ljust under 7 hours, and 140 miles. In hindsight, I think it would have been helpful to have done a flat double century.

Given constraints of Jobs, and Family, I think we prepared about as well as we could have hoped. Next year, with a better base, and starting lighter, I think we'll be much better prepared.

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