RAO - Camp Redux..

Over the last couple of years the RAO race camps have become a Team Tartan staple. To win RAO one must go to camp. One can train on similar grades, similar length courses, and even simulate the entire course indoors, but no training approaches being out on the course. Unfortunately this year Team Tartan was missing in action at both the official three and four day camps.

So what to do? Well, simply plan our own unofficial race camp. As a team we have had a little experience on the RAO course in May & June, but neither of us had ever been out on the course in July and thus the weekend of the 4th of July was chosen as "Tartan Time". In planning our camp we knew we would need some help. With my crew was off in Canada and Ben's crew somewhere in the Midwest in search of the "Worlds Largest Six Pac", we would need to bring some new members into the clan or get friendly with bike trailers. Well the call went out for help and when the Caber finally hit the ground, Lisa and Ken Morton aka "The Super Llama's" had become new members of the Team Tartan clan.

The Tour

Instead of writing about the route, how we hammered till our little legs fell off, how under trained we really are, and my 16% body fat roasted in the heat; I’m going to share the big lesson we learned about the 2006 RAO.

Feel the Fire

In May & June, the RAO course can be warm. But in July the course is an inferno. We knew it was going to be hot, but it wasn't until camp we truly had an understanding for how hot it is going to be. In the morning leaving Portland it was warm, government camp was cool, a little outside Tye Valley it was 104F. Day two, it was cool in the morning 80F, by noon in the valley between service Creek & Monument it was 109F, why the sun couldn't muster 1 more degree F so we could have suffered through a more optimal 110F I do not know what I can tell you was it was by far the hottest hell I've ever ridden through.

How to handle the heat on race day? Surviving the heat on race day will take every trick in ultra-cycling race manual and then a few more. Here are a few of our observations..

1 - Hammer Nutrition - Endurolytes - Plan on bringing at least two bottles of endurolytes per rider. Ben and I were consuming roughly 50+ endurolytes PER DAY out on the course. Yes you might not dip into the second bottle but as with everything else it’s better to be prepared.

2 - Water - One can not have to little of this, both externally and internally, but again Endurolytes will be critical to avoid Hyponytrimia.

3 - Nutrition - Remember to eat in the heat even when your body says no..

4 - Hammer Nutrition - Liquid Endurance - This supplement is critical for the pre-RAO taper. Liquid Endurance increases the amount of water stored in the body allowing.

Race Strategy

During the middle of the second day I began to think about an RAO race strategy, especially a solo race strategy to mitigate the effects of the heat. What I came up with was a slightly unorthodox solo race plan; Sleep though the heat of the day. The plan would be to ride non-stop, but during the hottest part of the day 2:30 - 3:30 when it’s 100+F stop and sleep in the back of your crew's air-conditioned van. After the hour, resume the pursuit. I envision this race strategy would work very well for the solo that is just looking to finish and avoid the DNF. Remember last year approximately half the field DNF’ed so avoiding a DNF is a very respectable goal. Sleeping early in the mid day heat is strategically much better then sleeping in the evening or early morning when it’s cool. For the solo looking for a win the strategy also could work assuming a mid day snooze would result in a evening and day two increase in average speed of 1 mph over the competitors who road non-stop through the heat.

Team Tartan’s Goals

Much has been written about Team Tartan’s RAO race goals. Some if it’s right on, and some misses the mark slightly. Yes, Team Tartan would like to do well. Yes, we had a fantastic performance last year at both RAO and the Fireweed 400. Yes, we have had some success in a few early season time trials. But for as for RAO, our big goal here is to just ride a race that’s fun. In my case my graduate school work has left me with less pre-RAO training time then I would have optimally liked and Ben’s training schedule this year has been focused on goals other then RAO. Who will be first to the top, if I were to guess I’d put money on the sharks, the two recumbent teams should be next. For the two man race if I were a wagering man, I’d put Computrained first as I’ve ridden before with them, closely followed by Dik-Dik, not so closely followed by Team Tartan who might be down to a single rider. The Canabiles will most likely be late as they will be waylayed on catching and eating me. With my glutes are now nicely marbled at 16%, I’m expecting Bill Nicholi will be handing me a seasoning packet at the pre-race meeting.