TD Training Entry #15: The Final Countdown

As the sole Texan signed up for this year’s Tour Divide, I would like to start out by saying:

YYYEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAWWW PARDNER!!  Git along little doggies cuz evrathang’s bigger in Texas!!  Remember tha Alamo!  Longhorns!  Cowboys!  George Bush Sr. AND  Jr!   Oil wells!  Luv Ya Blue!  Bang bang bang!! 

And so forth and so on.  Let it never be said that I bravely fight the grave injustice of stereotyping.

Less than three short weeks from now, I am set to begin the greatest adventure of my life, and I hope to bring the very first Tour Divide finish back to the Lone Star State!  If I may be so bold as to reveal my true goal for the first time on this blog, it would be to finish in sub 22 days.   Wow…I suffered a little even as I TYPED that!

My recent training efforts have been nothing to write about in great detail…a 100 miler here, an 80 miler there, throw in a decent multi-day or two.  It has really become very boring riding the same old routes over and over again, hence the lack of substantial training updates on this blog.  My biggest challenge, though, has been trying to force my body to get up and moving at 4 A.M.  This is my desired wake-up time on the Tour and I’ve been trying like hell to adjust with mixed results.  After doing it for an ungodly 4 days in a row and immediately riding 30 miles before work, I was thinking I was on my way.  Then I got sick.  AGAIN!!!

Every year, I get bronchitis, usually in the beginning of the fall.  In recent years, though, its raspy tendrils have not taken hold of me to the same degree as in years past.  Its like it has been letting me off the hook.  This past fall, it was nowhere to be seen.  I thought I had kicked it, thanks to a better diet and my intense Tour Divide training.  Pffft.  “Foolish mortal,” some voice somewhere probably said, “You dare mock The Way of Things!?  For that, take two, yes, TWO heapings of bronchitis this year!  One before each of your most major events!  MWUHAHAH!!  Damn you to Hell for some reason!! MWUHAHAHA!!!”

And so I was stricken before the Texas Chainring Massacre, which luckily was postponed and I was still able to race, and now, I am stricken once again.  This time before the Event of all Events.  The one I’ve been waiting for for two looong years.  That’s right.  The series finale of Lost. 

Kidding, of course.  I’ve not seen episode one of that show, but every mouth within a fifty mile radius has been forcibly shoving Lost-realted dialogue into my hear holes.  I was talking of course, about the Tour Divide, and I am ill once again, sitting at home, worrying like hell that I’m going to start this race with the remains of my ever stubborn infection.  Oh yes, I will start this race as planned, however sick I may still be.  I have been training and obssessing for too hard and too long to let these viral little shits have any say-so over my dream race.  Fellow TD’ers, consider this an advance warning!  Give me a wide berth, lest I ruin your race like the white man ruined Native Americans! 

<– My next TD rig?    As gung ho as I may sound, I do admit that I’m pretty damn nervous as well.  Although I’ve come a long way, I still sometimes feel like the ultra-noob I was when I first began this quest.  I find myself panicking about my gear choices and questioning my set up, things like that, even though there’s not a heck of a lot I can do about it now.  I also worried pretty hard about my surgically repaired right knee.  It gave me some problems while bikepacking out at Big Bend, so I ran to my orthopedist to have it checked out.  He said it looked great other than a little arthritis.  Got some good anti-inflammatories from him, which I’ve stowed away for the race, and the layoff caused by my sickness really has it feeling good again.   To test it out, I kicked a guy in the groin when he started talking to me about Lost. 

This week, while laying around, I got my GPS all loaded up with Scott Morris’ new TD 2010 split track and also topo maps for the entire route.  My brain took quite a flogging trying to get that one figured out.  Thanks to the peeps at gpsfiledepot.com for the maps and the help.  I also made my cue sheets and (unfortunately) added more stuff to my load.  Things like a vitamin bag, an extra bag for my ACA maps, my new Steripen, my camera battery charger, etc…none of them heavy by themselves, but all togther they make a big difference.   So much for ultra minimalism. 

I also got my music nailed down for my MP3 player.  Most recently, I dumped a ton of classical music on there.  Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart…I tried it out on a recent training ride and loved how it affected my riding.  I even threw on some Medieval and Renaissance music, old Irish folk songs, things like that, and it has just been excellent.  Eric Bruntjen turned me on to some alternative country which has been a nice surprise, and bluegrass music (especially the O’ Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack) is really mellowing and promotes an even keel.  Of course I still have the Metallica and the Godsmack and the Alice in Chains, but I wonder now how much I will want to listen to them…they often seem to disrupt the nice, long-haul type of mood I want to be in for long distance riding.  And by the way, BEST. SONG. EVER. for the Tour Divide…..laugh if  you must, but I think its the “Wheel of Pain” from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack.  It moans with unspeakable suffering and ends in clashing triumph.  It is a musical microcosm of the TD.  Or so I would assume.

BUT…I plan to only use the MP3 player when I need a pick me up.  I honestly wonder how much I will need it.  I was born and raised in southeast Texas, where the land is flat and smoggy, and where the horizon is ruined by chemical smoke stacks billowing putresence into the atmosphere.  The two times I have visited  the Rockies, I have been awestruck.  Its like culture shock.  I am just absolutely in heaven when I gaze upon the majestic snow capped peaks and glittering mountain lakes.  Whereas these scenes might be same ol’ same ol’ to my fellow riders, I for one will be well occupied, jaw agape, as I ride through stunning scenery that I have only rarely experienced. 

So, assuming I get well by this weekend, I’ll get in one more long ride on Saturday, then I’ll show off  the rig and gear at a send off party my family is having for me on Sunday.  After that, I’ll prep the bike for boxing and continue riding my Jamis next week.  I’ll ride every day next week, but only 25-30 miles a day, just to keep the legs ready and my body waking up at 4 A.M. (fates willing).   We leave for Banff on June 7th.  I’M STOKED!

Look for at least one more post before I leave!  Thanks for reading!  (sorry for the lack of pics!!)

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