Training Tip #2: Supply the body with necessary dietry supplements)

The riders noticed that taking dietary supplements reduced their achy muscles troubles. They also are enjoying improved overall health, stamina, and strength.

Not all dietary supplements are useful. What are found to be useful to the riders include, but is not limited to the following:

Calcium (500 mg per day)
Zinc (10 mg per day)
Magnesium (80 mg, sometimes more, per day)
Fish oil (2000 mg per day)
Glucosamine HCl (3000 mg)/Chondroitin Sulfate (2400 mg) per day
Vitamin D (2000 I.U. per day)
Selenium (200 mg per day)

NOTE: This is an individual, non-expert's experience. Please do your own research before starting to take dietary supplements.


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Training Tip #3: Cross-training

The beauty of cross-training is varying the groups of muscles being used.

Cycling works certain groups of muscles, but some muscles will be lightly used than others. Thus, a good cyclist is not always a good runner. (People can ride unstopping and hard for endless miles, but may not be able to run more than a few miles.)

With cross-training, more muscles are being used and it surely will help people become stronger in their primary activities.

Of course, and wintertime isn't easy for doing "warmer weather" sports such as bicycling. Most cyclists have their "off-season" during wintertime and use that time to do serious cross-trainings. (A few cyclists however seemed to like to ride through deep snow for some reason.)
Whatever creative activities we do during the cold months, we all will want to thaw at end of the adventure, enjoying preferably the cheap, effective warmth from the WoodCoal stoves!
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EDIT: Cat Berge crosstraining by cutting grass the real way!

Training Tip #4: Rest hard as training hard

A famous quote goes: "No pain, no gain"

It doesn't mean the pain have to be experienced all the time! As much as training hard is essential in doing well in any kind of projects such as RAAM, we need to rest hard too!

Training wears down on the muscles of the body and if one continues to push hard, the body eventually will get injured, sickened, and sometimes even burned out.

Resting gives the body a chance to release hormones for muscle recovery along other things. (Men tend to recover faster than women because of their higher testosterone levels. Older people need longer peroids of rest due to their reduced hormone levels with age.)

Resting between workouts is also a pain for especially the over enthusiastic athletes wanting to become fit faster, but it's surely a good type of pain that should be encouraged. (But not overencouraged by more than three days at a time.)

Listen to the body. Sometimes, resting harder is the right call.

(Below is a picture of Cat's cat, called Leo.)

Training tip #5: Stretching

This one isn't easy to write about because there are various study results on whether to stretch or not. The recommendations still changes from year to year.

For decades before more serious research was done on stretching, this action was thought to decrease risk of injury, prevent soreness, and improve performance. However, there are limited evidence supporting (even conflicting with) these opinions.

So, while we are continuing to see headlines for or against stretching, there are a few benefits that is hard for science to quantify:

1) Stretching made our tight muscles feel looser (in other words, relaxing the muscles) and more balanced to other muscles. Thus, making us feel more comfortable whether we are continuing the activities or resting.

2) Stretching feels so good.

Either way, what may the best thing to say is that the best stretching methods are those you customize as your own to meet your personal needs.
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Training tip #6: Weight lifting

We still have limited science evidence supporting or against weight lifting for cyclists.

The benefits included:
1) Working weaker groups of muscles in isolation
2) Improving lactose acid theahold (and thus power output)
3) Put more weight bearings on bones, which experience reduced gravity stress on bicycles.
4) Possibly making muscles more efficient when they recruit muscle fibres for a contraction.

The disadvantages included:
1) Increased body mass (cyclists want to be as light as possible) (This is not a significant problem for elite women as it is for men.)
2) Using training time effectivity--doing high resistance workouts on a bicycle is seen as an "effective" use of time.

Some cyclists look at weight lifting as a mini cross-training activity during cycling season because while it is taking time, it does make a difference. Even for highly-trained cyclists. See more of Sara Bean's photography!

Training tip #7: Train with a buddy

What better way to motivate yourself than having a buddy with you? See more of Sara Bean's photography!

Training tip #8: Visit friends

One of the great things about riding thousands of miles in prepare for RAAM is being able to visit friends without using gasoline.

Example: Ride 150 miles out to a friend's house on Saturday, have dinner and watch a movie with friend, sleep over, then ride 150 miles back home again the next day. (Of course, when the body is able to handle this workout and still be "fresh" at work Monday morning.)See more of Sara Bean's photography!

P.S. Since some will be asking, here is the story of the blind cat in picture: http://graveyardcat.deviantart.com/gallery/8032353?offset=408#/d2drgda

Training tip #9: Make sure the equipments are in working order

Training can be frustrating if the equipment is not functioning smoothly.

For bicycles, if the chains are not lubed regularly, they can get noisy and cost you more energy comparing to the well tuned up chains and gears.

Give your bicycles regular tune ups, either by yourself or have a shop do it for you. That way, you won't be sorry later on. See more of Sara Bean's photography!

Training tip #10: Have fun!

Training for RAAM can be grueling and a bit depressing at times. It is surely okay to not always be sticking to the planned ridings if the mind needed to have some fun. Ultracycling is not just a physical feat. It is in fact mostly mental and an overstressed mind trying to push the training can be much worse than a tired body.

Go explore and find interesting things!

What useful, interesting, or wild things did you find or experience on a training ride?

The Story of Bisti (a PAC Tour dog)
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Training tip #11: Refine the balancing

The ability to ride a straight line is a balancing and steering skill to major, especially when tired on a road bicycle.

In addition to reducing the risk of getting hit by cars by riding straight, riding in a straight line decreases the actual distance being covered. A few "extra" feet of unstable riding per mile may not be much, but it can be costly if the race goes down to the wire. (Yes, there are RAAM results that are seconds to minutes apart after over 3,000 miles of racing.)

(However, don't hope to always see straight lines from especially the overtired RAAM riders! Holding a straight line takes some energy, especially if the skill is not well developed.)

Furthermore, the ability to eat and drink, look sideways, and reach out for handoffs without rolling off the road (or into traffic) made the job much easier and safer for everybody.

If it is hard to ride in parallel with the white strip paint on side of road or so, the balancing may need some work in order to be well developed. One possible recommend is learning to ride low speeds on rollers without a lot of major corrections.
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Training Tip #12: Stay hydrated!

Staying hydrated is absolutely important for normal physiological function, especially in the brain.

Brain is 85% water (body is 70%) and when one is dehydrated, the brain may have trouble remembering things--at any age.

Furthermore, staying hydrated does the following things, which are crucial in especially the workouts lasting more than two hours:

• Maintains your body temperature (especially when RAAM goes through the southwest deserts)
• Aids in digestion (the riders and crew will be racing hard 24/7 for 7-8 days, so everybody on the team need to be able to digest food round the clock)
• Metabolizes fat (better than muscle cannibalization!)
• Transports nutrients throughout your body
• Flushes toxic waste from your body
• Keeps you looking and feeling young (the ladies who will be hammering on their bicycles averaged over 50 years old, but they surely are young!)

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