Sunday Aug 1st T-5 Days!

The grandiose adventure of attacking the coast is underway. This trip is a lot less ... grandiose than it once was, but that was to be expected. Original plans called for around 15 people, corporate sponsorships and over 1700 miles. I was supposed to be in such good shape that I would be grating cheese off of my rock hard abs. The trip was originally planned as a Utopia trip, but I don't have any regrets.

Currently the trip will have a total of 5 cyclists (barring last minute camaraderie) and will have 2 cyclists go over 1000 miles (Nate Jensen and myself). The other cyclists (Jesse Sprague, Jon Stevens and Ryan Taylor) will accompany us from San Jose, CA to the Mexican border. With the limited resources that everyone in this trip has to deal with, this is quite a feat. If we didn't start talking about such a huge trip, it might not of even happened. My father has been a HUGE help by driving support the first half of the trip and allowing us to use the suburban. The fact that this trip is actually happening plays with my emotions. This has been a dream of mine and realizing that it is going to happen is extremely satisfying to me.

This week has been busy getting ready for the trip. I have been extra concerned about dehydration because of how I have been handling my training. I think I have been low on electrolytes and fear not being recovered enough the next day to where I will get behind schedule. To remedy my fear I have been stocking up on supplements. I bought 130 servings of Hammer gel, 112 servings of PowerBar hydration drink, 60 servings of Accelerade, and 100 dehydration tablets. Hopefully this will stay of cramps. Protein drinks are to be purchased next week. If I struggle with it, it won't be because a lack of nutrition. It might be because of poor use of nutrition, but not because of limited supplies.

I leave Albuquerque with my dad for Provo on Wednesday the 4th, will pick up Nate Jensen there and then drive all day on the 5th to Brookings Oregon. The madness will start early on the 6th. Until then I have to eat healthy, and have good, light bicycle rides. To make this all convenient, I have about 17 hours worth of work to do before I leave Wednesday. This all is compounded by the fact that I can't start until a shipment of picture-frame molding comes in tomorrow afternoon, and I start to build around 300 picture frames. I will have a busy few days, but the trip should be rewarding.