Wednesday, February 18, 2009
stretching program for tight cycling muscles
Hi all,
I am posting a stretching routine that I learned while running track at Stanford University. It is especially helpful for the back, hamstrings, hip flexors, hip rotators and quads. I will post the first set of photos in this post, and another set in the next post.
Please note that where a stretch is shown on one side, do the other side as well. Try and hold stretch for 30 seconds. Try and do the routine 2-3 times a week!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Team UNR RAAM photos - tons of 'em!
I apologize for not getting these photos in more promptly - they were taken by crew members and posted on the following website:
fttp://sonomasport.com
User name is: raamutah@sonomasport.com
Password is: raam2008.
Enjoy!
Mike
fttp://sonomasport.com
User name is: raamutah@sonomasport.com
Password is: raam2008.
Enjoy!
Mike
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
End of an Adventure
Once again, a day of chaos. On 1-2 hours of sleep, took over for Bill and Brian earlier than expected, due to their fatigue in crossing the Appalachians. Started in West Virginia, then into Maryland, and into Pennsylvania, then finally Maryland again. The Appalachians and their foothills were excruciating, steep and repetitive, and definitely tougher at the end of the trip. In fact, the legs were out of gas by mid-morning. We caught one team that started 35 minutes ahead of us; it was still dark when we had caught up to them - due to our climbing strength. They were not cordial either, began accusing us of not stopping at stop signs completely, not pulling off the road completely, doing improper exchanges in general. When my legs started weakening, they caught and passed us in the flatter/rolling sections of Maryland. By this time, reinforcements (Bill and Brian) arrived, and Christian and I hit them with renewed energy - we buried them, putting all 4 of our riders on the road at one point, and that felt especially good due to their poor sportsmanship.
So we finished in 6 days and 21 hours. It has been a nerve-wracking, pressure-packed, draining experience that relied on our ability to get through tough times. Relationships between crew became very strained at times, and that could have greatly harmed our team - but it didn't. We had 12 - 14 hours off the bike, but who knows what would have happened had we pushed on with double-shifts and even less sleep?
I am happy it is over, and can't imagine doing another one. But I am proud of what we have done.
So we finished in 6 days and 21 hours. It has been a nerve-wracking, pressure-packed, draining experience that relied on our ability to get through tough times. Relationships between crew became very strained at times, and that could have greatly harmed our team - but it didn't. We had 12 - 14 hours off the bike, but who knows what would have happened had we pushed on with double-shifts and even less sleep?
I am happy it is over, and can't imagine doing another one. But I am proud of what we have done.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Catching up in a hurry
Cumberland Gap, MD9:30pm, tuesday, 6/17Not much time left in this race!We had a sensational day today. Christian and I started up in Indiana and rode some exciting, up-and-down, twisty, small, forested and dark roads (St Mary's Road) in Indiana, just barely staying within the headlights of the follow vehicle. The flashing, rotating lights on the Prius were shot after the other team's shift; apparently some heavy objects in the car had damaged the wires leading to the relay; they had fixed it but did so without a fuse, so the fuse blew and so no electronics! We thus used Bruce's van to follow the riders (Christian and me) in the dark this morning through Indiana and part of Ohio. By the way, the riding in Ohio was beautiful, perfect weather, green, rolling all the time. The Prius served to shuttle the rider ahead and pick up the finishing rider, since it had no flashing/rotating lights working. Once daybreak occurred in Ohio (officially 6:30am), Dave took the Prius to an autoparts store and replaced the lights and fuse. So we did not have the Prius for a few hours. Meanwhile, we were first to reach time station (#42) in Ohio that morning, and learned that there would be a detour due to some construction, and new directions would be printed out for the ensuing leg on that day. Only they weren't! The official had to be awoken out of her RV and make some decisions - we were held up for about 10 minutes, and tried to get RAAM HQ to give us a 10-minute time credit - we will see. The directions were very complicated, with frequent turns. One such turn was a small county road that was not labeled as the directions showed. We had caught a British team, Team Inspiration UK earlier, but due to the 10-minute delay at TS 42 they got back in it. What followed after that was complete chaos! Out of TS 42, they started duelling with us like it was some sort of short race. They had all 4 riders available, and even used 2 riders at a time to try and stay ahead of me (it didn't work!). They then brought out these 2 time-trial type riders (big guys) and started trading them out every 10 minutes (we have only 2 available and trade every 30 minutes or so), much to my amazement. But, me being the type of guy to never turn down a challenge, I passed them again and again. They hung right behind me and then, at a traffic diversion, where we both stopped, I let their team (rider and team vehicle) go ahead. About 1 mile later, my follow vehicle, Bruce, turned around inexplicably, leaving me with no support! So I stayed behind these blazin' Brits for about 4-5 miles alone, wondering what was going to happen. At that point, Bruce catches up to me again and says:"Get in the van I will explain later!"It turns out that the Brits and I (and Bruce) missed the small insufficiently labeled county road, heading about 5 miles at a high, but fruitless, effort, in the worng direction!!! Bruce, knowing the rules very well, acted quickly though. When he turned around, he had realized the error in his ways, went back to the small county road and dumped Christian off to continue where I had failed to make the turn (very legal). So Christian went up the correct road for several miles, and as far as I know, the blazing Brits were still blazing in the wrong direction! (And no, we did not plan this as a "rope-a dope"!) Bruce returned me to relieve Christian and then Dave with the repaired Prius, joined me soon after. Another few miles, and Bill and Brian passed me and I knew that the reinforcements had arrived! All in all, we passed 4 teams today. We are now in 4th in our division, but look out - we are now, at the last time station only about 1/2 hour out of 3rd and 4th! Bill and Brian have been doing very well, hammering the extremely tough climbs up into the Appalachians, and both the 3rd and 4th place teams have penalty time that will have to be served at the Mt Airy time station. If we get the 10-minute time credit, and factor that those teams start something like 10 minutes before us in Oceanside, we are in the running for the podium!! It will be a sensational run into the finish. We will use all of our firepower, maybe even all 4 riders. We should finish tomorrow afternoon or late morning.There is a nice little story on the www.raceacrossamerica.org website, on Christian; check out:
http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/subwebraam/blogx.php?N_webcat_id=86&PHPSESSID=18402a096e53e4eafef054bc09e45978
Wish us luck!
Cumberland Gap, MD9:30pm, tuesday, 6/17Not much time left in this race!We had a sensational day today. Christian and I started up in Indiana and rode some exciting, up-and-down, twisty, small, forested and dark roads (St Mary's Road) in Indiana, just barely staying within the headlights of the follow vehicle. The flashing, rotating lights on the Prius were shot after the other team's shift; apparently some heavy objects in the car had damaged the wires leading to the relay; they had fixed it but did so without a fuse, so the fuse blew and so no electronics! We thus used Bruce's van to follow the riders (Christian and me) in the dark this morning through Indiana and part of Ohio. By the way, the riding in Ohio was beautiful, perfect weather, green, rolling all the time. The Prius served to shuttle the rider ahead and pick up the finishing rider, since it had no flashing/rotating lights working. Once daybreak occurred in Ohio (officially 6:30am), Dave took the Prius to an autoparts store and replaced the lights and fuse. So we did not have the Prius for a few hours. Meanwhile, we were first to reach time station (#42) in Ohio that morning, and learned that there would be a detour due to some construction, and new directions would be printed out for the ensuing leg on that day. Only they weren't! The official had to be awoken out of her RV and make some decisions - we were held up for about 10 minutes, and tried to get RAAM HQ to give us a 10-minute time credit - we will see. The directions were very complicated, with frequent turns. One such turn was a small county road that was not labeled as the directions showed. We had caught a British team, Team Inspiration UK earlier, but due to the 10-minute delay at TS 42 they got back in it. What followed after that was complete chaos! Out of TS 42, they started duelling with us like it was some sort of short race. They had all 4 riders available, and even used 2 riders at a time to try and stay ahead of me (it didn't work!). They then brought out these 2 time-trial type riders (big guys) and started trading them out every 10 minutes (we have only 2 available and trade every 30 minutes or so), much to my amazement. But, me being the type of guy to never turn down a challenge, I passed them again and again. They hung right behind me and then, at a traffic diversion, where we both stopped, I let their team (rider and team vehicle) go ahead. About 1 mile later, my follow vehicle, Bruce, turned around inexplicably, leaving me with no support! So I stayed behind these blazin' Brits for about 4-5 miles alone, wondering what was going to happen. At that point, Bruce catches up to me again and says:"Get in the van I will explain later!"It turns out that the Brits and I (and Bruce) missed the small insufficiently labeled county road, heading about 5 miles at a high, but fruitless, effort, in the worng direction!!! Bruce, knowing the rules very well, acted quickly though. When he turned around, he had realized the error in his ways, went back to the small county road and dumped Christian off to continue where I had failed to make the turn (very legal). So Christian went up the correct road for several miles, and as far as I know, the blazing Brits were still blazing in the wrong direction! (And no, we did not plan this as a "rope-a dope"!) Bruce returned me to relieve Christian and then Dave with the repaired Prius, joined me soon after. Another few miles, and Bill and Brian passed me and I knew that the reinforcements had arrived! All in all, we passed 4 teams today. We are now in 4th in our division, but look out - we are now, at the last time station only about 1/2 hour out of 3rd and 4th! Bill and Brian have been doing very well, hammering the extremely tough climbs up into the Appalachians, and both the 3rd and 4th place teams have penalty time that will have to be served at the Mt Airy time station. If we get the 10-minute time credit, and factor that those teams start something like 10 minutes before us in Oceanside, we are in the running for the podium!! It will be a sensational run into the finish. We will use all of our firepower, maybe even all 4 riders. We should finish tomorrow afternoon or late morning.There is a nice little story on the www.raceacrossamerica.org website, on Christian; check out:
http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/subwebraam/blogx.php?N_webcat_id=86&PHPSESSID=18402a096e53e4eafef054bc09e45978
Wish us luck!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sleepless in...?
(These images came from the RaceAcrossAmerica website, under the title: "Slight Oldies but Goodies")Monday, June 11th, 11pm
Greensburg, Indiana
Well once again, we pulled into our motel late, and will get maybe 2 hours of motel sleep (we sack out in the back of the van while driving several hours to meet up with the other team members). The crew is much more sleep-deprived, working slavishly for the riders. They drive, we sleep and ride. Right now they are out purchasing provisions for the ride ahead. Eating is usually sports bars and drinks, but Fritos and Egg McMuffins have certainly helped at times. Coffee is usually bad, so I requested some Starbucks bottled mocha drinks for the road tonight.
We started past Camdenton, MO, early this morning about 2am. Rode through the capital, Jefferson City, and caught one team there. Rode through a dramatic and scary thunderstorm at about 3am. There was water everywhere and frogs were hopping into the road as I rode through. We made one wrong turn that ended up with us just going back to on on-ramp to the interstate a bit. (The mandatory follow vehicle, a Prius, has been invaluable in helping us find directions, in particular, when we pass through a city. Dave and Karyl drive in it and shine the headlights just right for us to illuminate the dark roads.) Then, in eastern Missouri, there were several steep climbs in and out of creek basins, eventually breaking into the daylight and flatter sections of Missouri, and then Illinois. We caught another team coming out of the Missouri hills, and then made a wrong turn at the time station. I had to re-pass them and they played “cat-and-mouse” with us, trying to stay with us as if it was a 20-mile race! We eventually dropped them for good before crossing the Mississippi River (yea, 1000 miles to go!). However, Bruce’s van sustained a flat tire while driving on the shoulder. We would have to rely on Christian to keep riding, while Bruce and I (he was shuttling me at the time) fixed his flat. Fortunately, there was a mandatory 17-mile car ride to avoid a flooded bike trail, and that gave Christian a break; eventually, about 1 ½ hour later, we caught up and I took over. Now riding in Illinois, we had tailwind, and my average speed went up to about 25mph (using the time trial bike mostly - this is very fast when ridden aggressively, but one has to watch the cross winds with solid wheels!). We caught another team in Illinois, this team from Brazil. They put up a fight as well, even according to Dave, tailing me with one of their support vehicles as I chased, trying to figure out how fast I was riding so that they could try and hold me off! (I passed their rider with “authority”, about 3 mph faster, and they cheered me as I went by their support vehicle!) All in all, we caught 4 teams today on our shift alone!
This morning, we will cross into Ohio and try to make it all the way across to the beginning of the Appalachian climbs. (Out of "Tornado Alley"?) With all the obstacles we have had to overcome, we are looking to finish early Wednesday morning (less than 7 days)!
Greensburg, Indiana
Well once again, we pulled into our motel late, and will get maybe 2 hours of motel sleep (we sack out in the back of the van while driving several hours to meet up with the other team members). The crew is much more sleep-deprived, working slavishly for the riders. They drive, we sleep and ride. Right now they are out purchasing provisions for the ride ahead. Eating is usually sports bars and drinks, but Fritos and Egg McMuffins have certainly helped at times. Coffee is usually bad, so I requested some Starbucks bottled mocha drinks for the road tonight.
We started past Camdenton, MO, early this morning about 2am. Rode through the capital, Jefferson City, and caught one team there. Rode through a dramatic and scary thunderstorm at about 3am. There was water everywhere and frogs were hopping into the road as I rode through. We made one wrong turn that ended up with us just going back to on on-ramp to the interstate a bit. (The mandatory follow vehicle, a Prius, has been invaluable in helping us find directions, in particular, when we pass through a city. Dave and Karyl drive in it and shine the headlights just right for us to illuminate the dark roads.) Then, in eastern Missouri, there were several steep climbs in and out of creek basins, eventually breaking into the daylight and flatter sections of Missouri, and then Illinois. We caught another team coming out of the Missouri hills, and then made a wrong turn at the time station. I had to re-pass them and they played “cat-and-mouse” with us, trying to stay with us as if it was a 20-mile race! We eventually dropped them for good before crossing the Mississippi River (yea, 1000 miles to go!). However, Bruce’s van sustained a flat tire while driving on the shoulder. We would have to rely on Christian to keep riding, while Bruce and I (he was shuttling me at the time) fixed his flat. Fortunately, there was a mandatory 17-mile car ride to avoid a flooded bike trail, and that gave Christian a break; eventually, about 1 ½ hour later, we caught up and I took over. Now riding in Illinois, we had tailwind, and my average speed went up to about 25mph (using the time trial bike mostly - this is very fast when ridden aggressively, but one has to watch the cross winds with solid wheels!). We caught another team in Illinois, this team from Brazil. They put up a fight as well, even according to Dave, tailing me with one of their support vehicles as I chased, trying to figure out how fast I was riding so that they could try and hold me off! (I passed their rider with “authority”, about 3 mph faster, and they cheered me as I went by their support vehicle!) All in all, we caught 4 teams today on our shift alone!
This morning, we will cross into Ohio and try to make it all the way across to the beginning of the Appalachian climbs. (Out of "Tornado Alley"?) With all the obstacles we have had to overcome, we are looking to finish early Wednesday morning (less than 7 days)!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Team UNR Back in Business
Er...it does help to have a brain surgeon on your team! Christian was cleared to ride, he has obviously been doing well, other than some painful road rash, and wanted to ride. But we lost about 14 hours (no riding for the team while we attempted to hash things out). So, he joined the rotation last night at 1am. He had about 30 hours off the bike. I must say, he did very well last night, he and I sharing duties from 1am to noon today. We pushed through the plains of New Mexico and then Kansas. Currently, Bill and Brian are making it through the roller hills in Missouri. We are gaining all the time, with the other teams flagging through the time stations, and we keep getting stronger all the time. We have put it together, despite having several large obstacles, having to use different rotations, completely changing the shifts polar opposite, having to put riders out for 40 miles or so by themselves, injuries, and the usual tough conditions. If we could get back the 14 or so hours we lost to the crash, we would be in the lead right now! We are just doing the best we can, and are motivated to show what we can do. We really believe that we are the strongest team in the race. For tonight, we have thunder-storms forcasted for Missouri - wish us luck, as we are resting here (since about 6pm local time) in a motel near Collins, MO, and will resume duties in about 6 hours! Please be sure and check out the www.raceacrossamerica.org website for updates.
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