TOUR DIVIDE 2014

[Briansong]

Tanman and I have both gone the same bike fit professional. They have developed THE fit program that Trek uses for their pro's. They also train the Trek fit shop guys. Point is, both Tanner and I are on 170mm cranks. I think to ride with aero bars, specially for extended periods of time, your hip closure needs to be taken into consideration. The shorter cranks also allow for better diaphragm movement while on the aero bars.

My initial fit was about a year ago, had some minor pedal issues that were giving me IT band pain. Egg Beaters allowed for too much heel deflection. The result was high hip and gluteus medius pain after only a few hours. Went back to Shimano XT's, instant relief.

I truly hope those of you with issues are able to either resolve or ride through it. I cannot imagine having to pull out at this point knowing everything I have done to get to this point.

Looking forward to meeting each and every racer in Banff.

Regards,

Steve

[kato]

Anyone else getting CRaZY excited for this thing?!

Maybe it's just my excitement or my general lack of care for my joints but my nagging pains and grapefruit sized right knee just don't seem to be bothering me anymore.  I want to ride my bicycle!  Actually, some intense stretching is helping a lot at this point.
Wake up, ride bike and repeat.  What could be better?  Hope everyone's ills get resolved by June 13.  Just consider the healing powers that the Divide might provide.  If not, I'm sure we'll have time to develop new pains that supersede and distract from the current ones.

[Mountainrigger]

Reading the recent post re: aches and pains.....I guess many of us are at the point where the months of intense training are starting to show....following a hard effort a few weeks ago.. (124 miles with 17,000 feet of climbing in a little over 10 hours)....I discovered my seat had dropped during the ride...and I ended up with nagging pain in the front of my right knee......so... of course I kept training and whining to my wife about how everthing was turning to ca ca right before the Grand Depart!....she finally convinced me to take 10 days off the bike...I was panicked and depressed....I needed a plan!....so that's what I did...I sat down and outlined on paper exactly all the steps I would  take to get the problem fixed...or at least manageable, prior to getting to Banff...I am following my program to a letter and I feel much more confident and my knee pain is gone....I wont go into boring detail about what I'm doing...its just a bunch of cross training...I WILL be at the Grand Depart....and I Will give it all I have and the let the chips fall where they may......life is an adventure and nothing is guaranteed.....but at the end of the day what matters is that you honestly gave it all you had with nothing left in the tank....that's all we can do...see you all soon in the Great North!  Blue Skies!....Mark

[-dan]

Anyone else getting CRaZY excited for this thing?!

yes.  very much so.

at this point i would imagine most everyone is at the peak of training and any physical issues during this adventure are poking their collective heads out of the darkness...

[bluemarlin]

Dear comrades,

I got duped on Ebay, payed for a Garmin Edge 800 including a bunch of maps - but no SD and no maps arrived. What maps/ files do you guys run on your GPS, any resources you can share? Thank you so much!

Concerning medical conditions: When I had knee problems, it was almost always linked to a saddle set way too low. When you go up with your saddle, you might encounter problems Achilles for a few rides (also common when pitching up your training drastically), but for that, the classic "step training" (stand on some steps with your tiptoes, push up, hold it, go down below step height, 2x15 repetitions) 3-6 times per day worked wonders on me.

All the best from Germany, Klaus.

P.S.: What SD card size (8GB?) do you run on your Edge?

[Payton MacDonald]

Andrew,

As a professional musician (been in music since I was 9, professional for 13 years) and amateur endurance athlete for 7 years I have a fair bit of experience with repetitive strain injuries, both from personal experience and from many of my new students who show up at the university.  In general, my experience has been that it is a result of one or a combination of three things:
1. technique problems (in terms of bikepacking that would mean biomechanical problems, cycling technique problems, and poor bike fit)
2. too much too soon
3. general lifestyle stress and poor health

I'm not a doctor, and not qualified to give medical advice, but as I said, I've had a lot of experience with this and done quite a bit of reading on it.  Keep in mind that (a) you CAN solve this problem but (b) it may take some time.  I'm guessing that the stress of the upcoming "race" is weighing heavily on you and you're feeling a bit desperate.  A bike fit is essential.  Definitely do that.  Giving the injury time to heal is also essential, but as folks have pointed out, you can't reasonably be out of the saddle for a month and then start putting in 12 hour days on the bike.  I'll bet you a pizza and a beer if you do that your knee will complain, and loudly.  Ideally, what you want is about six months to see a really good physical therapist and see if there are any biomechanical problems.  For me, that's a huge issue.  Put simply, my right leg is crooked.  But my physical therapist taught me how to manage it and deal with it.  It's always looming, but so long as I ride smart and don't try to keep up with Mike Hall it isn't a problem.  But that took many months of sessions and experimentation to figure out.

So what to do?  As I see it you've got two options if you want to do the TD GD this year: rest, let it heal as much as it can in the next month, then throw down the hammer on June 13 and see what happens.  Maybe it won't be a problem once you're climbing 10K feet a day.  But more likely it will hurt like hell.  Maybe you'll gut through it because you're determined to "race" this thing and prove to the bikepacking community that you're tough.  There's potential for long-term damage, though.  Something to keep in mind.  No doubt, all of us are going to be sore at the end of the day.  But there are different kinds of sore, which I'm sure you understand at this point.

The other option is to take a slower, more touring pace, and never push into the realm of injury.  Why not?  Is it less manly to tour the TOUR Divide?  Or could it possibly be a deeper, more personal experience where you discover some things you might not discover if you're guzzling ibupofen and wincing from the pain?  Why does it have to be a race for you?  Maybe it does . . . I'm not judging, I'm just suggesting alternatives.

As for me, I'm doing the GD because I think the general circus of it will be fun and I'm looking forward to meeting some really, really cool people. I'm mostly interested in the bikepacking culture and the camaraderie.  I'll be "racing", but tentatively.  I'm going to push my limits because that is exciting to me, but I'm not going to seriously injure myself so I can see my name high on a spreadsheet.  What's the point?  If the "race" is going well for me and my body is holding up I'll race.  If not, I'll take off the SPOT, mail it back to Matthew, and proceed at my own pace in a way that makes sense for me.  That doesn't make me less of a cyclist.  The beauty of endurance sports out in nature is that we can each make them what we want.  Now that the TD has grown in popularity the level of athleticism has gone way up, which is great.  But there's also a lot more of folks trying to keep up with Jones, and much more number crunching.  That may or may not be good for each of us as individuals. 

Anyway, sorry for the long response, but I've been down this road many, many times.  I totally understand the emotional roller coaster you're on right now.  Good luck, I hope you're able to turn this into the right experience for you.

Best,
Payton

Well here's a bummer of a question for everyone... I've been having some knee pain on my past few rides, which really threw a wrench in my spokes last weekend as Marshall and I rode portions of the Kokopelli (Marshall did a nice write up of this ride on his blog.) Think'n I went off the rails on the "Over"train... I've RICE'd it for a week, and rode a paltry flat 14 miles today. No significant pain, but it was there... Tonight the knee is definitely sore. More RICE...

Fit wise I've adjusted cleats, moved the saddle up/down forward back ward and reverse looking for a sweet spot, but I think I've just overdone it. (Rode a 200 mile tour of Boulder County's singletrack with 30k feet of elevation gain two weekends ago. While awesome at the time, thinking it may have been a bit stupid now...)

I'm starting to get pretty concerned as race day quickly approaches. How long should it typically take for tendonitis to resolve itself? Is there anything else I can be doing in the meantime? I don't want all of my fitness to go out the window just before the race, but at this point I'm weary to get back on the bike... Swimming? (GAG!) Advice?

-Andrew

[Christopher R. Bennett]

Dear comrades,

I got duped on Ebay, payed for a Garmin Edge 800 including a bunch of maps - but no SD and no maps arrived. What maps/ files do you guys run on your GPS, any resources you can share? Thank you so much!

Concerning medical conditions: When I had knee problems, it was almost always linked to a saddle set way too low. When you go up with your saddle, you might encounter problems Achilles for a few rides (also common when pitching up your training drastically), but for that, the classic "step training" (stand on some steps with your tiptoes, push up, hold it, go down below step height, 2x15 repetitions) 3-6 times per day worked wonders on me.

All the best from Germany, Klaus.

P.S.: What SD card size (8GB?) do you run on your Edge?

Klaus,

An 8 GB should be sufficient - but if you can manage get more as one can never have too much memory!

Suggest you check out an Open Street Map for the Garmin if you don't want to buy the official Garmin (which you can get cheap on ebay but are usually pirated copies). The OSM maps are free and quite good - I've tested the NZ one against my Garmin and couldn't find any major differences. You can find out how to get them and install to your 800 at: http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/a-quick-guide-to-free-osm-maps-for-garmin-gps-devices/

With the 800 I'd advise against a topo map. I found it slowed mine down quite a bit so I ended up disabling it.

Finally, work out how to run the 800 at night. Some people had trouble seeing the track with theirs.

[aschuhmann]

Andrew,

As a professional musician (been in music since I was 9, professional for 13 years) and amateur endurance athlete for 7 years I have a fair bit of experience with repetitive strain injuries, both from personal experience and from many of my new students who show up at the university.  In general, my experience has been that it is a result of one or a combination of three things:
1. technique problems (in terms of bikepacking that would mean biomechanical problems, cycling technique problems, and poor bike fit)
2. too much too soon
3. general lifestyle stress and poor health

I'm not a doctor, and not qualified to give medical advice, but as I said, I've had a lot of experience with this and done quite a bit of reading on it.  Keep in mind that (a) you CAN solve this problem but (b) it may take some time.  I'm guessing that the stress of the upcoming "race" is weighing heavily on you and you're feeling a bit desperate.  A bike fit is essential.  Definitely do that.  Giving the injury time to heal is also essential, but as folks have pointed out, you can't reasonably be out of the saddle for a month and then start putting in 12 hour days on the bike.  I'll bet you a pizza and a beer if you do that your knee will complain, and loudly.  Ideally, what you want is about six months to see a really good physical therapist and see if there are any biomechanical problems.  For me, that's a huge issue.  Put simply, my right leg is crooked.  But my physical therapist taught me how to manage it and deal with it.  It's always looming, but so long as I ride smart and don't try to keep up with Mike Hall it isn't a problem.  But that took many months of sessions and experimentation to figure out.

So what to do?  As I see it you've got two options if you want to do the TD GD this year: rest, let it heal as much as it can in the next month, then throw down the hammer on June 13 and see what happens.  Maybe it won't be a problem once you're climbing 10K feet a day.  But more likely it will hurt like hell.  Maybe you'll gut through it because you're determined to "race" this thing and prove to the bikepacking community that you're tough.  There's potential for long-term damage, though.  Something to keep in mind.  No doubt, all of us are going to be sore at the end of the day.  But there are different kinds of sore, which I'm sure you understand at this point.

The other option is to take a slower, more touring pace, and never push into the realm of injury.  Why not?  Is it less manly to tour the TOUR Divide?  Or could it possibly be a deeper, more personal experience where you discover some things you might not discover if you're guzzling ibupofen and wincing from the pain?  Why does it have to be a race for you?  Maybe it does . . . I'm not judging, I'm just suggesting alternatives.

As for me, I'm doing the GD because I think the general circus of it will be fun and I'm looking forward to meeting some really, really cool people. I'm mostly interested in the bikepacking culture and the camaraderie.  I'll be "racing", but tentatively.  I'm going to push my limits because that is exciting to me, but I'm not going to seriously injure myself so I can see my name high on a spreadsheet.  What's the point?  If the "race" is going well for me and my body is holding up I'll race.  If not, I'll take off the SPOT, mail it back to Matthew, and proceed at my own pace in a way that makes sense for me.  That doesn't make me less of a cyclist.  The beauty of endurance sports out in nature is that we can each make them what we want.  Now that the TD has grown in popularity the level of athleticism has gone way up, which is great.  But there's also a lot more of folks trying to keep up with Jones, and much more number crunching.  That may or may not be good for each of us as individuals. 

Anyway, sorry for the long response, but I've been down this road many, many times.  I totally understand the emotional roller coaster you're on right now.  Good luck, I hope you're able to turn this into the right experience for you.

Best,
Payton

Thanks Payton and Mark, and everyone else for the support and advice.

I WILL be departing on this thing, although, as Payton summed up so well, my expectations for racing have been adjusted a little. I intended to come out guns blazing, but given my current status, do not believe that will be a viable option at this point. There was an interesting podcast by Carrie Cheadel regarding "Ego and the cyclist" on Mountain Bike Radio;

http://www.mountainbikeradio.com/carrie-cheadle-mental-skills-training/ego-sabotage/

I will certainly have to answer to my ego and keep it in check to avoid pushing too early too fast... 
So while I intend to ride as best I can, the ultimate goal is finishing, and if that means more rest and a more moderate pace, that's what I intend to do, at least for the first week. Is all is well after that, I'll amp up as able. At the least, it will be a learning opportunity for another go.

As for my plan, I am getting a proper (and costly) bike fit, working much more on core in the meantime, and soft pedaling on the trainer for 20 minutes each day. After another week or so, I'll venture back on the bike for flat rides. If all feels well, I will slowly amp up my rides. I've already heightened my stem, but going to add a couple more spacers to raise it up a bit more too.

All I can do at this point. I just want to RIDE!!
-Andrew

[jehsohn]

So this is a dumb question but how do I get my Spot to show up on the Trackleaders page?

[Martin.M.Clark]

I am really glad that this has come up in conversation here. I have done 2 long distance hikes (AT and PCT) and find that amongst that community speediness is the outlier, whereas with bikepacking there is a more type a personality driven by mileage. I think for myself I find I want to hike more than other people, but ride less than others. I think my approach to both is simple. Hike/ride as many miles as I can safely during the daylight hours. I'm going to enjoy myself as much as possible and will rest my body as needed! I hope that we can all look out for each other and make sure that we enjoy and embrace whatever bye divide brings us. I bought my ticket today and will be flying into Calgary on June 10th from BWI. Really excited to meet all of you!!

[BobM]

So this is a dumb question but how do I get my Spot to show up on the Trackleaders page?

Hi Jason,

I'm assuming you went to http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide-signup and registered it with Trackleaders?  Beyond that so long as you have purchased the tracking option from Spot and set up your tracking page, you should be all set.  It sounds like Scott is out pedaling and Matthew is doing all the tech work, so maybe it will take a few days for you to show up.

[blurltd]

I'm flying in on the 10th also. I have a car rental and partner in crime cannot make now so I have an extra space if anyone wants to share the rental with me. It's a bummer since he and I have trained for the past 2 years together but the adventure must continue. Hit me up with a PM if you're interested.

[ElijahGOFAR]

Is anyone from Austin, TX going?

Any one got room for one big guy and his bike from Calgary to Banff?

Thanks if you read or reply to this.

Elijah

[Christopher R. Bennett]

I will certainly have to answer to my ego and keep it in check to avoid pushing too early too fast...  

Last year we had amazing conditions and most of us went harder than we thought we could. Several very good riders had to bail with injured Achilles tendons/knees. The reality is that we cannot train enough before the race to really know what our bodies can do. I always find that after 5-7 days my body adapts to the new reality. Remember, the Tour Divide is about survival much more than anything. What good is it to be on an 18 day pace and then have to bail because you over did it? Better to aim for 20 days and then ramp it up. With that approach I was hoping for 25 and ended up managing 22.

[MattL]

Dear comrades,

I got duped on Ebay, payed for a Garmin Edge 800 including a bunch of maps - but no SD and no maps arrived. What maps/ files do you guys run on your GPS, any resources you can share? Thank you so much!

Concerning medical conditions: When I had knee problems, it was almost always linked to a saddle set way too low. When you go up with your saddle, you might encounter problems Achilles for a few rides (also common when pitching up your training drastically), but for that, the classic "step training" (stand on some steps with your tiptoes, push up, hold it, go down below step height, 2x15 repetitions) 3-6 times per day worked wonders on me.

All the best from Germany, Klaus.

P.S.: What SD card size (8GB?) do you run on your Edge?

With my Dakota I loaded the Garmin basemap at http://www.topofusion.com/divide/gps.php.

But, I turned all base map info off most of the time.  You are either on the blue line or not, and that's easier to discern against a white background.

[tuhduhvuh]

Hi everyone,   this is a question about cell phone coverage.

I personally use a cell phone for emergencies only, but would like to be able to call MTBCast and make this more of a "participation" event for people at home, if possible.   

The Tour Divide website makes it seem like there is basically no coverage. 

I assume there is coverage in most of the resupply locations?   

Just wondering if it's worth working out some details so I can make some calls .   (this is also assuming that pay phones don't really exist anywhere anymore!)

[Marshal]

Hi everyone,   this is a question about cell phone coverage.

I personally use a cell phone for emergencies only, but would like to be able to call MTBCast and make this more of a "participation" event for people at home, if possible.   

The Tour Divide website makes it seem like there is basically no coverage. 

I assume there is coverage in most of the resupply locations?   

Just wondering if it's worth working out some details so I can make some calls .   (this is also assuming that pay phones don't really exist anywhere anymore!)

Well times have changed and many more areas now have cell coverage.  You should not count on 'must-have-it -now' type coverage but it will be relatively easy to make MTBCast call ins and such

And yes pay phones are pretty much a thing of the past, once they break it is almost never cost effective to repair them so they continue to disappear

[mtbcast]

It's going to be spotty. My recommendation is to keep it off or in airplane mode until you want to use it. It will burn more battery searching for a tower and if none are nearby  it will use even more. You can find some phones along the route too so you should be good.

[tuhduhvuh]

Thanks for the replies  (about cell coverage)!   

I should have been more specific.

I would assume the phone would get used ONLY to make calls for MTBCast and home.  So I would turn it off most of the time.  I have a very old phone so would probably need to upgrade and figure out how to get service in the USA  (coming from Canada),  but just wondered if it was worth it.  The two replies indicate  there is "some"   (much better than none!).   

So my specific question would be,  will there be enough coverage to make it worth getting a cell phone to carry so I can "stay in touch" ?   

and once again, my thanks to everyone here who participates in this forum.   It's been a very helpful source in the whole planning process.

Tom

[blurltd]

If anyone is arriving in Banff on Tuesday, June 10 at around noon and wants to share a car rental to Banff, hit me up with a PM. We can split the cost for the SUV rental, around $65 per person, stop, pick up food, supplies and enjoy the scenery before Banff too.

Thanks!