Is the whole of your body ready for the event on those training miles and hours?

How's your gut and neck going to do on day 4?

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Suffer Well.

Have you looked at past participants and checked out their Strava accounts to compare?

On major climbs, :60sec pulls.....

Excellent info!!! Yes, I quickly forget that this will effect my ENTIRE body!

Thus far:

(1) Learn how to incorporate TSS into training and race day data
(2) Strengthen whole body
(3) Do more volume
(4) Forget about pre-selected wattage targets

Keep'em coming! This is helpful!

OK, I am going to sound like a jerk, but I think you need some tough love.

1. You aren't training even close to enough. Like not even the correct ballpark. You are signed up for freaking RAAM. I actually am wondering (*HOPING*) that your post is a joke, cause you are in trouble if it isn't.

2. Your race strategy is really bad. Switch every 20minutes? Switch every hour at night? You realize after about 3hrs of this strategy that the 20min off is barely going to matter, right? Are you planning on not sleeping for a week?

Here, I spent 30seconds googling 2 man RAAM strategies and found this nice PDF for you: https://www.raceacrossamerica.org/.../2PersonComeau01.pdf

Here is a couple highlights:
- Most two man riders were doing 10-11hrs . . . as their weekly long ride.
- Teams started with the plan to shift at 3hr intervals, and soon learned that wasn't nearly enough to actually rest in between shifts.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I think I read in that PDF that you should be doing two back to back 200 mile rides every other week.

I know many folks that have done RAAM as a: solo, 2, 4, and 8 person teams. The solo was a pure cyclist and the others were cyclists and/or triathletes. All were cyclists the 6 months prior. They all had multiple years of consistent 300 mile weeks. The 6 months prior, the solo and 2 person teams typically did 400 mile weeks to 700 plus mile weeks, with near weekly 200 mile rides and some rides as long as 400 miles.

Fatigue, injury, neck, back, saddle pain, nutrition (real food), hydration, team unity (or mutiny), equipment, clothing choices, logistics, route planning, night lights, day lights, bathroom stops, clean cycling clothes, clean body, etc. are all things to consider.

Saying you will do 20 minute pulls and an 18 mph avg speed goal 24/7 is really, really fast, when the fastest 2 person ever is 19 and change, really shows me you have a lot to think about and should really plan and carefully assess your goals. You should also do a couple 24 hour dry runs with your partner to really understand your logistical swaps, crew directing, and how much fatigue sets in when lack of sleep hits you. Reading RAAM ride reports, talking to crew folks, reviewing strava times, etc. will all be beneficial.

Good Luck and finishing within the maximum allowed time is still a personal win.

I should add, talking with my friends, that RAAM is not about speed in the solo and 2 person event, but stamina and dealing with fatigue. Averaging 432 miles a day, whether it's hot, wet, windy, dark, hilly, etc. is really, really, really hard.

Good luck and I look forward to your ride report!

I don't understand why you would switch every 20 minutes during the day. Is the transition at full speed or do you have to stop, and then the next guy starts? If that's the case, the slowing down and starting up would negate the speed gained. Also, doing 1 - 20 minute interval is a lot different when you are on your 36th interval for the day.

Doing longer intervals at a little slower pace will help you get into a rhythm and more importantly, give your partner time to rest.

At night, a 1 hour interval is even worse. Imagine being tired, flopping down to sleep and being woken up 55 minutes later to start again. You will be cooled down and have to start from scratch. And, you won't get any sleep.

You have to make all of the intervals longer and train accordingly.

I feel that you should switch the relay rider based on calories (kilojoules on your Garmin) vs. TSS. Let's say you switch after every 1000 kilojoules?

Replacing the total energy expenditure and the fluid lost (from perspiration etc) should be on your mind & you'd want to be precise about this.

The solo RAAM champion (Christoph what's his name) said he survived 7 days on ensure and water. Just FYI.

Christoph Strasser .. nice idea to change on TSS & Cal!

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*
___/\___/\___/\___ the s u r f b o a r d of the K u r p f a l z is the r o a d b i k e .. oSo >>

+1

My experience with ultra-endurance events is fairly limited, but this seems blindingly obvious.

You're kidding, right? Do you have a transporter beam to magically get the just-finished rider 300m up the road for the exchange?


I see...well, probably good to keep remembering that.

This is starting to sound like the thread from the kid who was going to run 100 miles from school to home off the couch in 24 hours.

Very true. You could simply set a screen on your Garmin to show TSS (I think?) and stop when you reach your goal. Not knowing anything about RAAM, other than the Netflix documentary, I was thinking a crew could watch your TSS remotely and see the changing conditions etc. with something like the Qollector. Then they would know when to transition vs. waiting on the rider to signal or however that is done.

I hope to do the ride someday (not race). Have fun. Sounds like you're in for a world of hurt (to the OP).

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Team Zoot - Great Lakes

 

P3 or whomever you are...

Just a couple thoughts since I have done the event and several similar events. RAAM is truly a life changing event. Also knowing your name would be cool to see how you eventually do. Tracking on the event is top notch.

#1- Where are you from? Terrain and weather are very serious things to prepare for and in this order: heat, altitude, and extended climbs and technical descents- fatigued.

#2- Don't quit running and swimming unless you really despise those activities. I personally felt much stronger coming off triathlon training vs just cycling. A strong athlete will suffer better. Also trust successful ironman training and nutrition if that is in your arsenal. You will need real food, but falling back on successful ironmans will help during the more intense moments of the race.

#3- Rehearsal- I highly recommend either a weekend camp with crew and teammate and/or an integrated race like RAAM Challenge California (that one goes over the first part of the course).

#4- Crew- there has been little discussion of crew. When your crew finally begins to gel or fracture as you scoot past Kim, Colorado, that will be when you know if you can succeed at your racing goals.
-Be smart about the size and ages of your crew. A crew that is too old and/or too small will fatigue very quickly and not be able to support your goals. Your crew needs to have time where it is completely resting in a bed.

Feel free to reach out. Perhaps you only went to ST to talk about the nerdy numbers. Those are important for individual actions and training, but the difference between success and failure (and a lot of two man teams fail) is thinking about the bigger picture things and having a solid plan outside of the number of pulls and numbers to hit.

-

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later,
billy
Endurance Athlete and Coach
Naval Academy Triathlon Coach (USNA '00 and USMC)
billythekidtriathlete.com

This. 20mins on/ 20 mins off for days is the cycling equivalent of water boarding. 60secs is beyond ridiculous and makes me think you are trolling

No. Minimum 20hrs per week on the bike and I'd aim for 25-30+.

Totally agree with your comments on crew. I was on one with a group of folks I had never met. We had a 2 year old with us the entire way. We had NO idea what we were getting into. The safety check folks basically laughed at us at check in implying we would never make it. They were close.

Yep, we had a crew breaking point a few days into the race. Throwing together a bunch of folks who have never met, and then driving them to exhaustion each day,
well, half way into the race I asked them to put me on a plane to go back home.

Crewing was by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Rest, sleep, no way. We were moving like 21 hours a day. I think one day we shut is down for like 6 hours of sleep since we were all dead. I remember one time I was told to pull over and let someone else drive since was just about ready to fall asleep driving
the motor home.

But, this event was one of the best memories I have in my life, and have some new lifetime friends because of it.

Again, there are reasons only few may try, and even fewer make it to the end.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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