Thank You!

The last week has just flown by and I can't believe it's been a week since we finished the 2008 RAAM. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who sent well wishes, left comments and voice mail messages on my cell phone. I really appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement.

RAAM was definitely an experience of a lifetime and I am very proud of the Team Strong Heart crew and my teammates. Thank you to each and every one of you!

RAAM Bikes

Here are the two bikes I am riding for RAAM. One is a Giant TCR C2 with HED Jet 50 wheels. The second is my Surly Cross-Check set up with DT shifters and 35x700c tires. The Giant will be my daytime go-fast bike and the Surly will be my night-time ride and poor roads bike. As cool as the Giant is with the HED wheels, I look forward to putting miles in on the Surly. The Surly is just a blast to ride.

Maple Grove Magazine features Team Strong Heart

The latest Maple Grove Magazine is out with a very nice feature on Team Strong Heart. Better yet it's the best-of Maple Grove issue and there is bound to be lots of readers, cool!

The funny part... my fifteen seconds of fame comes along and I end up taking probably one of the most unflattering pictures I have ever seen of myself. All I could do was laugh! Lycra on big guys probably won't be a fashion hit any time soon. Thank goodness I can ride better than I look...

Todd Buchanan the photographer was fun to work with. It turns out that he actually covered RAAM as a photographer over a couple years back in the late '80's. He had some great tales to tell us while he took our pictures. The photos seen here are courtesy of Todd Buchanan. Todd does very impressive work. After looking over his web site we feel rather privileged that he came out to take our pictures. Especially after watching him flop down on the wet pavement to shoot from all kinds of angles on a cold windy day. Thank you Maple Grove Magazine and Todd Buchanan. Team Strong Heart appreciates the exposure.

1000x1

Yup, new milestone for me. The first 1000 miles of the season without a single shift.

Stupid? nutty?... maybe, but the single geared bike never stops revealing stuff that never occurred to me while on a geared bike. Go figure.

Leg Up!

I have other plans for my arms and legs this week. It looks like we are going to finally emerge from winter and see some decent temps. So, my commuter bag is packed and the alarm is set. I'm going to ride into work this week in order to gain a little extra training time and save a little fuel cost to boot. Double bonus!

My commute is really a no-brainer. It is about 11 miles and takes me only 10 to 15 minutes longer to ride that it does to drive. I even have locker and shower facilities when I get there. I don't know why I don't do it more often. Starting this week I plan to make happen more often.

Can you think of a single action that is more beneficial than riding a bike?

Born to Ride

On the road, early April 2008

Maybe that statement is a little bold, but man, do I feel at home on a bike. Things just grove like they should. It is a feeling of being alive like no other.

I was just crunching the numbers of my time spent doing the activities I call training. The 07/08 ski season is now in the bag and my results were a little funny considering it was a good snow year. I did put in nearly 2x the kilometers as the year before, but it could have been better. Looking at January alone, I rode my trainer as many times as I skied, mostly because of cold weather. I would have preferd to be out on the trail.

In spite of the cold it was a good ski season and it paid off. I suffered a bit of a training hiccup in March but I credit my time on skies for giving me the base to absorb the down time. Dry roads and daylight are now here and I'm making up for the March slack-time as fast as I can. I'm confident in my base and between now and the RAAM start line I'm going to focus on putting in the scheduled training time and trimming weight.

In other TSH news, all I can say is we are busy! The planning and logistics of our preparations is crazy. We all knew it would be like this, but man! it is nuts. As always we are looking for any help and support we can get. Punch in www.teamstrongheart.com and check out all the support options. We appreciate all the support we can get.


Thanks for checking in! JayT

Sorry, too long with no update

Jay, Jay, Neil, & John. March 2008

Here's a quick update on my recent training. As previously reported, I skied at less than 100% at Berkie. The race was awesome and to ski with conditions "best in history" was worth the suffering. Post race activities are always the best and this year was no different. The post-race toast with a cold beer and a hot slice of pizza was never better!

Post Berkie... In the weeks following the Berkie I have done very little training (actually none). I fell into an apathetic funk as my sickness crud settled out and the weather decided what to do. That period yielded about 3 1/2 weeks of backward progress... or at least that's how it seemed in my head.

That brings us up to this week. Things have turned around well. I put in a very good week on the bike and my body responded better than I thought it would, I really expected to struggle. I knew my weight was up and my training time was down. Typically that is not a good combination.

I was pleased to find that my lack of recent training did not set me back like I thought it would. When it came time to ride with partners who I knew well and could measure up against, I did not completely falter. I credit this to my time on Skies. Skiing really helps build an unbelievable engine.

If you need more proof consider this... this past Tuesday six of us rode from Trailhead Cycling. One guy was blazing the way the entire ride. It was no surprise that it was somebody who skied consistently all winter. Look out for Tom C., I think he is going to surprise himself this spring. Good work Tom!