US « Oh, the Places I'll Go!

Change in plans

I was struggling with figuring out how to pay for RAAM while still having enough time and energy to train for RAAM. Since I don’t buy lottery tickets, I decided to push RAAM off until 2011. I’ve taken a job with a wilderness therapy program for troubled teenagers just north of Saint George. [...]

Home for the holidays

I went to visit my parents in North Dakota for Christmas. It was a nice trip. There was a fair amount of snow but at least it wasn’t that cold (above 0 for most of the time). Tonight it’s in the -20’s there, so it’s good that I’m in St. George. [...]

Mountain biking is hard

Today I decided to take a break from the road bike and try some mountain biking. I have determined that my bike handling skills are only slightly better than 0. I’ve done very little mountain biking and the course I choose today was more technical than I was ready for. Lots of [...]

Long way to go

This past weekend I did my longest ride since Ironman Wisconsin 2006 — 87 miles of the Ironman St George bike course, only 2913 more miles and I’m ready for RAAM. My legs and energy level felt good, but my low back and shoulder were very tight. This is going to be [...]

Zion by bike

Yesterday I biked from LaVerkin to Zion National Park. It ended up being about 56 miles round trip. It was a beautiful ride (other than the headwind in both directions) and I highly recommend it. Seeing the park by bike is better than by car because the roof doesn’t get in the [...]

Zion National Park

This past weekend I went to Zion National Park, which is about an hour drive from Saint George. It was very impressive and I highly recommend going to see it.

The rest of my pictures can be found here.
Saint George is nice and I’m enjoying the warmer weather for training. Today I rode one [...]

Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks

So this week I left Leadville I headed west and spent the night at Bryce Canyon. In the morning I did some hiking. As you can see, portions of the trail needed some work.

It is a very beautiful and I highly recommend seeing it.

After Bryce Canyon I headed west and [...]

Downsizing

Today I moved out of my apartment and into my pickup

After living out of my backpack, it is very spacious. I though about going back to the backpack, but I couldn’t figure out how to get my bike into it

The Facts

I’ve decided to do RAAM
RAAM is a bike race, a 3000 mile bike race (RAAM = Race Across AMerica)
RAAM is 3000 miles in 12 days (or less) (250-350 miles/day)
Riders average about 3 hours of sleep per night (and I like to sleep)
RAAM costs $15-20,000 (see my budget)
Money saved so far: ~$500.00
I have no idea how [...]

My mind is made up.....

don’t confuse me with the facts.

“The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”
— Confucius

Based on the preceding quote, I probably shouldn’t tell you what my mind is made up about since I haven’t done anything yet, but I figure putting it up on the blog will make it [...]