123 Days to the Race Across America, June 16th 2015
Today, I reached a milestone in my Race Across America training journey––my first all-nighter, and my first round of sleep deprivation training for 2015.
It's too early to celebrate too much, though.
I've only been awake for 24 hours so far and I've only accumulated a mere 200 miles since I began riding last night at 6pm upon arriving home from a day at the Lab.
Within the next 2.5 hours, I'll have completed just about 250 miles over three workouts in a 27 hour period. But come June 16th, I'll have to cover this minimum distance of 250 miles on my bicycle every 24 hours for 12 days straight in order to cross the Annapolis, Maryland finish line within the imposed 12-day cutoff time.
My personal goal is to finish within 10 days and something-hours. Meaning, more bicycling and less sleeping (I'm hoping for 2 hours of rest per day).
I've focused on improving my overall speed since last summer in order to make this goal a reality. How far I've come. Yet how far there still is to go. RAAM might be an amazing 3,000 mile feat, but the 25,000 miles of training preceding it is not too shabby either.
I'm really grateful for the ability to train, to improve, and to persevere. And to do it all with a team of loving, supporting, and selfless parents, family, friends, and fellow bicyclists.
There's only 123 days remaining before the Race Across America kicks off in June. It's both nerve-wrenching and exhilarating at the same time. There's a long road still ahead, but today, tonight, yesterday, whatever you want to call it, has been a truly momentous occasion––I just had to pause to capture this memory in words.
I'm going to start writing for the remaining 123 days. Not to count the days, but to make the days count.
What extent will you go?
Justin =)
