Race Across Oregon Starts Saturday

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,

Tomorrow is a big day. It is the beginning as well as the end of a very long journey. For many months I have been training for the Race Across Oregon (RAO), and tomorrow this race starts in Hood River, Oregon.

Not only have I been training, but also, I have been raising money to give to the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA). In my last email I wrote,

Lupus is a potentially fatal autoimmune disease where the body's own defenses attack the organs, such as the skin, heart, lungs, kidneys, or brain. I have seen first-hand that it is a horrible disease, and it affects more than 1.5 million Americans and 5 million people worldwide.

My goal is to raise $5000 to give to the LFA - Northwest Chapter and to raise awareness. Every bit donated goes a long way and makes a positive impact for many people. You can make a tax-deductible donation online or contact me if you wish to donate in other ways. For those of you that have donated, thank you so much, but remember, the fight is not over. Please also check out the fund raising progress, or get my training updates and blog online. If you cannot donate, please help out by passing along this email or a few of my links.

With your all of your help, we have been able to raise $3530.80 so far. I want to express me deep appreciation for all of this outstanding support. I also would like to send special thanks to Jeanie, Glenn, and Chris for spending the better part of two days in the car providing me crew support for the race.

Glenn will be doing live updates on my race progress here. This is the best way to keep up to date on how my race is going. Also, be sure to check out race updates, photos, the course, and the competition at the official RAO webpage.

Sincerest thanks,
Mike

Attachments (1) - RAO Flyer

New Fundraising Milestone Reached

With several recent donations, our fundraising total has reached a new milestone. So far we have donated $2500 to the Lupus Foundation of America, Pacific Northwest Chapter. This money stays in the Northwest to provide outreach, education, and research! Go to my fundraising page to see the progress.
My sincerest thanks to those who have donated and provided support for this very important cause!

Photos from Lewis and Clark Ultra

Hi All,
Just wanted to share another link with you. The photos from the Lewis and Clark Ultra are now available. Go there to check them out. Thanks to Leonarda for the great photos.
-Mike

Lewis and Clark Ultra

The results are now up for the 2009 Lewis and Clark Ultra. Go here to view them.

Lewis and Clark Ultra

This weekend saw the completion of my first ever ultra-distance bike race. It was definitely the most physically challenging thing that I've ever done. Here is a brief recap.

We woke at 4:00 am from a restless sleep in the upstairs office of a friend's house in Portland. The car was packed and we were on the road by 5:00 am. We arrived at the race start/finish location about 5:45 and began to prepare. The pre-race meeting was at 6:00 am and the 6:30 start time snuck up on us quite quickly. Before I knew it, Glenn the race director was counting down from 10 to start me off.

The course was marked by stylized pine trees about 2 feet tall spray painted on the road. They were a bit difficult to see at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. My crew (in the car) and I (on my bike) proceeded to follow the "day loop," which was about 144 miles long. I finished the day loop, pictured above, with only a handful of stops (nature calls), at about 3:45 pm. I took a brief break to eat some food and set out for the first of 15 times around the night loop. Approximately 10 miles long, the night loop, pictured below, was filled with short steep climbs and even shorter downhills (with stop signs at the bottom! argh!) These climbs were challenging and emotionally draining as the night and the miles poured on. I stopped for a rest around 2:00 am. The time I can't confirm on my own, and napped a bit in the folding chairs. If you've never napped in two folding chairs at 2:00 am, I recommend you keep it that way. I wasn't feeling very well at that point, but ate some soup which upped my energy, and body temperature, and set off again. At about 3:00 am after weaving about on the roads, I decided a little more sleep was a good idea, and laid down in a sleeping bag for about an hour. I did not want to get up, but once I did, I felt better and laid down three more loops before the race completed at 6:30 am. All said, it was 284.7 miles in 24 hours! A long day, but worth it.

Lewis and Clark Ultra

We're leaving for the Lewis and Clark Ultra in a few moments. It's a 24 hour race and I'm doing it in preparation for the RAO. The car is all packed, the crew is ready, and the only thing I can think of that I'm missing is some body glide. I'm going to stop by the Performance Bike in Portland before visiting Glenn. We'll all camp tonight, get up early, then start the race at 6:30 am tomorrow!
Special thanks to Beth, Jeanie, and Paul for crewing this event, and for packing light so that we could get everything in (0n) the car.

Trip to Troy

I'm resting up for this weekend, so yesterday was more of a social ride. Bob and I decided to ride the new trail all the way to Troy. Neither of us had ridden the whole way before. We were both pretty impressed by the quality of the trail and the beauty of the scenery. I really liked this ride and will incorporate it heavily into my training routes. I suggest you ride this new trail as soon as possible. It's just that beautiful.

Map

MTS and STM

So this weekend was a big one for me. I did the "Moscow to Spokane" on Saturday stayed the night, then did the "Spokane to Moscow" on Sunday.

I woke up pretty early on Saturday. Much earlier than I had wanted, but since I was awake and itchin' to get on the bike. I got dressed, ate a double serving of oatmeal, pumped up my tires, attached my lights, and set off. The temperature at my place was 42 degrees when I left. I was warm enough for about the first hour, then I swear it got much colder as I went further North. I got very cold as I road past miles and miles of frozen water and weeds in the ditch. I had to stop several times to try and warm up. I was just so amazed at how the temperature could continue to drop even after the sun came up. Neadless to say it's unpleasant to ride in extreme cold without the proper clothes.

I had kind of an emotional ride in the middle. I got quite lonely. You get tired, sick of cars trying to run you off the road, and desparate for the long stretches of road to end. At one point, some readneck in a pickup made it very clear that he didn't like me for some reason. It's pretty disheartening.

Then the temperature came up. I got closer to town, and end was in sight. It was good to climb the steep hill to my parents' house. I imagine the finish of the RAO will be something like that.

The return trip was better. Temperatures were more manageable and the ride was about 10 miles shorter (thanks Dad, for driving me through all that construction). The stretch between Tekoa and Oaksdale always seems very long though.

Overall, a good experience. It's encouraging that I can ride long distances on back-to-back days. Only 2 weeks left to prepare for the Lewis and Clark Ultra. Thanks for reading.

Salad Bar

Well, today's ride had it all, tail wind, head wind, side wind, North wind, South wind, cold wind, hard wind, windy wind, trade wind, solar wind, and whirl wind. In addition to wind the ride also had, rain, hail, clouds, sun, a car chase, old dudes, yellow labs, road construction, near death experiences, and hippies. I had to drink a beer when I got back just to chill out! ;)

It's a ride I won't soon forget. Here's the map of the typical lunchtime Lenville Loop.

How many calories does one burn during the RAO?

Photo courtesyHonza Groh

Sometimes when I talk about doing long rides people ask me, "How many calories do you burn on a ride like that?" Since it's incredibly hard to measure something like that, let's do a little math to estimate.

First some assumptions
1) Assume an average of 14 mph. (This is optimistic)
2) It is known that vigorous cycling burns ~700-900 calories/hour. Since vigorous cycling is what you want to avoid during really long races, let's assume I'll burn 500 calories/hour.

Knowns
The race is 540 miles long.

Now for a little math.
We divide the rate into the distance to get the total time. 540mi./14mph=38.6hours
Then we multiply the time by the calorie rate to give total calories. 38.6h*500cal/h=19285cal

Wow, about 19000 calories! That's equivalent to roughly nine days worth of food. Now you know!

Rain Ride

Alright, this is the first truly rainy ride I've done since I left Vancouver. I can say that I don't miss riding in the rain one bit. I took my around-town/mountain bike for the ride today since it has full fenders on it. I'm glad I made that choice.
Anyway, here's the map.

Cycling 101 - Saturday 4/25/09

My apologies for not posting this sooner. I admit I am a bit embarrassed by the fact that while doing the following 100 mile loop, I crashed, bruising up most of my left side. It was bound to happen, and given the number of miles I've ridden, is surprising that I've made it this long.

map

This happened about 46 miles in. The wind was horrible that day. It took about 7 hours to ride the whole loop.

Ride 4/22/09

Just a quick one before work. Typical Lenville Loop. Here's the map.

Another Day Another Ride

Great weather today. Why can't it always be like this!
Map

Cool Alternative Race Flyer

Tina recently made this other flyer. It's pretty cool, but less descriptive.

Ride 4/19/09

Ok, so I decided to do the Tour of the Palouse this morning. Its good training because I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. Go sleep deprivation!
Anyway, it was a beautiful day, the wind was light to moderate and the ride was a respectable 72 miles. Check it out!

Ride 4/16/09

Yesterday's ride was sunny. Still wish it could have been warmer. Did Lenville counter-clockwise. A very interesting thing happened while I was riding. I got fertilizer dumped on me by a plane. I had to close my eyes as the tiny little pellets rained down from the sky. It was like hail, but not cold.
Map

Ride 4/15/09

While it looked sunny and warm, it was windy and cool after getting out there. Today's ride was just a little bit under 20 miles. I enjoyed riding through the neighborhoods of Moscow and watching the people out enjoying the first semi-nice day in a while. Map.

Registration for Lewis and Clark Ultra Confirmed

I'm now fully registered for the Lewis and Clark Ultra bicycle race. This is a "training" ride to prepare for the Race Across Oregon. The ultra-distance veterans I've talked to say that it's extremely important to prepare for the sleep deprivation that occurs during this type of event. I had considered just signing up for the 12-hour but I decided to go for the 24 for this reason.

I still need crew for this event. Anybody want to drive with me to Vancouver and follow me in a car for 24 hours?

What is the RAO?

The RAO is a 538-mile ultra-distance bicycle ride around the state. The race is limited to 49 hours, and contains over 40,000 ft of climbing. In 2008, only 10 people were able to finish the traditional solo event.