12 + 12 + 12 = 36

This was a big weekend for me. I did my first big triple ride, 12 hours each day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They only get bigger from here.

I was scheduled to only do 12, 10 and 10, but I have decided to go to Florida in couple of weeks to do a 24 hour road race. That is the weekend I would have done 12, 12 and 12. So instead of missing that ride, I bumped up my schedule by one cycle.


It was definitely a wintry weekend. It snowed Friday night and was very COLD on Sunday morning. Because of the snow, I had to do one day on my mountain bike; the other two days were on the cycle cross.

Overall it was a successful weekend, I felt pretty good all three days. Actually I felt better on days 2 and 3. The first day, I didn’t keep up on my nutrition and my attitude and motivation were low. Keeping up on my nutrition is a lesson I have to learn and re learn all the time. I guess riding a bike isn’t like riding a bike.


Here are a couple of my favorite moments from the weekend:

- Watching the big orange moon rise on the far side of the valley as I climbed Raccoon Hill (last climb of night #2).

- A big helping of shepherd’s pie, at the end of day 1.

- The order from Hammer that showed up on Saturday morning. I had just used the last of my Sustained Energy, and wasn’t sure what I was going to use for Sunday.

- The look on drivers faces when they saw me.

- Knowing that many of my future RAAM competitors were on a spin bike somewhere.



Here are a few of my least favorite moments from the weekend:

- Two flat tires.

- Eight degrees on Sunday Morning.

- Finding out that the leftover shepherd’s pie I had been fantasizing about was gone.

- Dogs in the dark. They are a lot scarier when you can’t see them.

- Slush