The night before the race!

Greetings from the Rodd Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. It’s hard to believe that we left California just three days ago. For some reason, we all thought we’d have plenty of time once we got to Canada to practice our relay hand-offs, take team photos for our sponsor, play with our helmet cam, talk to some people on the shortwave radio, and also relax and finish up work and school stuff along the way. Most of that hasn’t happened yet, but with six hours until breakfast, the rest will have to happen along the way.

It’s been exciting to be around so many unicyclists. I know most of the Bay Area folk, and a few others whom I met at the California MUni weekend (when I was proud of myself for riding 4 or 5 miles of fire road). It reminds me a little of a neuroscience conference: the people who’ve been riding a long time know just about everyone, I keep meeting more people through my friends, there are big names that everyone knows (only instead of publications or experiments, mostly people talk about gear, speed, and sometimes tricks), and, of course, the vegetarian food options suck. Somehow, the mock lobster meat got lost en route to the lobster feed this afternoon, and the fruit, carrot sticks and crackers weren’t the big spaghetti dinner I was hoping for. I’m thankful for all the trail mix I brought in and for the awesome Jay Robb Yammit bars our sponsor sent us.

I’m nervous about the race, though I shouldn’t be. We’re just going to do what we trained to do, but there’ll be more company on the road. Mostly I’m nervous about the baton hand-offs, which we finally could do reasonably with the walkie talkies during our practice. But this baton will be more like a small camera case, and won’t have a nice fat antenna that I can stick in my teeth while I’m trying to get situated. I need to remember that we’re here to have a good time and ride with other unicyclists from all over the world, and that if we don’t get everything to flow perfectly, it’s not the end of the world. And though some of that prize money would be nice, unless bunches of teams with more experience and speed mess up (a lot), a few minutes or even hours won’t make much of a difference. It’s too easy to get wrapped up in the hubub and let myself get carried away. Like my bumpersticker (and Jerry Greefield) says, “If it’s not fun, why do it?”

Time to catch a few z’s before breakfast; 12 hours on the road will be a very long day. Hopefully it’ll be filled with some fun and certainly some Yam Power!

Desert training and trip preparation

It’s hard to believe that in less than a week we’ll be racing through Nova Scotia. The flurry of emails organizing van rentals, hotel rooms, and race rules has started to clog my inbox, and my mother has been reminding me daily that the weather forecast calls for rain. There’s still a ton of stuff to do, some of it important, like practicing pulling the baton out of my jersey pocket while wearing my wrist-guard gloves. (the last few times I tried this I ended up getting my whole arm stuck behind my back) We only have two full days left before we leave!

Last weekend I went to Albuquerque for my friend Sarita’s wedding. It turned out that last weekend was the Albuquerque Century bike ride, too, and that my friend Solange with whom I was staying was going as a volunteer. I decided that the 50-mile ride would be perfect as a last long training ride before the race. Solange and I woke up around 5 to ride down to the course, when it was still nice and cool. I started the route around 6:15, to take advantage of the few hours before the day got blazing hot. On Jim’s advice, I left my 36er at home, and brought my 29-inch uni with 114 mm cranks. It seemed so small and slow compared to my big wheel, but it was easier to mount and stick in my friends’ rental car trunks. The route went by Old Town, where we’d all gone out to dinner the night before, then headed towards the Rio Grande. By the time I got to the river, some of the bicyclists had started to pass me, many shouting encouragements (awesome! you’re my hero! wow, what a workout!). If you ever need an ego boost, I highly recommend riding a unicycle in a big bike ride.

After a couple hours, I got to the big hill of the ride, Rio Bravo. It looked huge, but I tried Jason’s method of not looking at the top of the hill but just looking down and cranking. It was the first time I’ve passed bikers, some riding and some walking. My seat was on fire by the time I got to the top, but I made it. Up another small hill was the first rest stop, a welcome sight. I put more air in my tire (which I’d somehow forgotten to do after the flight), and ate some cold and delicious watermelon and orange wedges.

I continued on the ride, which was straight and beautiful, but a little boring. One biker, Mario, joined me for awhile while his friend was fixing a flat, and was great company. The last part of the ride was on a long bike path by the river, with no shade and in the hot sun. The temperature was supposed to be in the 90s. Not fun. Eventually, I made it back to Mountain Road, which led to the start of the race and also to Sarita’s house. Given that Solange and I had gone an extra few miles by starting at her house, I calculated that I could stop at Sarita’s and still have done 51 miles. Sarita’s backyard was in the process of being transformed into a scene that reminded me of an Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel — desert, with a touch of magical realism. I collapsed into a wicker chair in the shade, happy to be out of the sun. Sarita’s aunt dropped Solange and me back at her house, where I took a shower and passed out on the sofa for two hours. Miraculously, I enjoyed the wedding as if the morning ride hadn’t even happened.

Now it’s a bit more speedwork, practice mounting my 36, and pulling the baton out of my pocket, and then… the race! I’m getting nervous, but excited.

[Image of me on the unicycle is from here]

Successful simulation relay day

This weekend, Jim, Ashley and I squeezed into my truck and rode relay-style all around the East Bay.  Check out some of our photos from the day.

Killing my lobster?

It was another great weekend for YamPower! On Friday, DJ Spincycle (aka Jimbo) set up a fundraiser party for YamPower!, where we celebrated carnaval, my birthday, and danced with Heelys, unicycles, and ruedas de casino. We’re still not even close to covering our costs for the race, but every little bit helps. And, importantly, we all had a great time. I can’t tell whether the dancers were more impressed with the unicycling or the unicyclists with the dancing.

On Saturday, Jim, Ashley and I all tried out our new 114 mm cranks, and went for a quick ride by the Berkeley Marina. The length is getting mixed reviews, but Jim and I are loving the smaller Q-factor on the new cranks (they’re not bowed out like the 125 mm ones that came with our Nimbi).

Sunday was the San Francisco Carnaval. I danced in the parade with my samba group (Samba Mundial) and Jim and Tom Holub played uni bb in the parade, with not one, but two other groups. After my group finished, I grabbed my uni from my car to ride around in the festival. Navigating through the crowds was tricky, and in some parts, not even rideable. One of the radio station DJs saw me walk by with my uni and insisted on seeing me ride, so he used his mic to clear the whole area for me to go through. Wearing my samba costume and riding in front of the crowd seemed a lot more deserving of the circus comments bicyclists often make, than, say, riding up Mt. Diablo. It was fun dressing up and getting so much attention from the crowd, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the dirt and banana slugs of MUni (mountain unicycle) rides. As I rode back along one of the side streets near the festival, I noticed a doorbell with the name, “killing my lobster.” Intriguing, though a bit disturbing. I hope they have nothing to do with our race….

Today was the Bay Area’s first-ever unicycle time trials and criterion race. We had 10 unicyclists from 6 teams, and 3 motivating and enthusiastic bicyclists. The time trials were a 20 km out and back ride along La Canada Road, and we launched off the starting line every 30 seconds beginning with the slowest rider (me). I was happy to be able to do the whole route without getting off my uni, except to turn around at the midpoint (there was a big firetruck preventing me from just cutting across the street). But next time I should go faster — I was more worried about being able to make it without walking than about really pushing myself to go fast. I still managed to get up to 10+ mph, but I need to try to push myself a little harder next time.

After the time trials, we headed down to a 1 km neighborhood block in Foster City for our criterion race. We all started this one at the same time, and the goal was to finish 4 laps as fast as possible. It wasn’t as bad as I had imagined, though I did take a nasty spill towards the end of the last lap. Tom is making a spreadsheet for us to look at of our times.

And now it’s past 3 in the morning, and it’s time to go pay off some of my sleep debt. Gotta get ready for another week of solid training — only 2 more weeks left after this one!

Yam Power! represents in Strawberry Fields Forever 100k ride

Right now, I have some spectacularly bizarre-looking sunburns.  I guess that’s what comes of sunscreening at 5-something in the morning, which is what Jim and I did before our 100k ride yesterday.  Next time, I’ll try not to miss so many random patches…

The good news is that both of us, along with about 10 other unicyclists, finished the whole course.  It was definitely the longest either of us had ridden, on any human-powered vehicle.  And it was hot!  One bicyclist’s thermometer reported 89 degrees.  The well-stocked rest stops were definitely appreciated.

One of the things I dislike about road riding is the cars.  They often come zipping by, which can be scary or just annoying if I’m riding along, but it’s even more terrifying if I’m trying to mount.  I’m still ironing out the kinks in my mounting technique for my 36er, and more often than not I end up flailing around a bit before I get going.  So yesterday, when I was trying to mount on the side of highway 129, I was frustrated with all the traffic.  It was around mile 45 (so I was pretty tired), there was a headwind and a slight uphill, and I had been trying for maybe 10 minutes to get back on my wheel.  A pickup truck pulled up behind me, and I waved them on (sometimes cars just hover behind us, wanting to watch).  They didn’t pass me, and I was annoyed.  But then the window opened and the woman in the passenger seat said that they saw that I was having trouble getting on, and would I like to hold on to their truck?  My frustration turned into pure gratitude, and I thanked them warmly as I hopped on my unicycle and headed on.  I noticed that they turned around as soon as I got going, and was touched that they’d gone out of their way just to see if they could help.  Some mounting practice is definitely in order for the next few weeks, though.

It was a long, hot day but I’m glad we did the ride, and I’m looking forward to more improvement while training this next month.  And hopefully it won’t come with more strangely-shaped sunburns.

YamPower! blog goes live…

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, and Jim and I opted to catch up on some work at Cafe Dejena instead of going on today’s MUni ride. Our RTL unicycles arrived a couple days ago, and we’re excited to start training on our new 36ers.

We decided to post a blog to allow people interested in following our team’s adventure of preparing for and taking part in the world’s first multi-day unicycle race. Each team member will be contributing – the three riders: Ashley, Rachel, and Jim – as well as our support person, Heather. So, hopefully, the variety of viewpoints should give you a real sense of our collective experiences.

We hope you will join us on this adventure. We’ll do our best to spice it up with photos and video. Along the way, you may be drawn to the sport, meet some great folks (we think you’ll like our community of unicyclists too , and enjoy following us as we ride across the beautiful province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

- Jim & Rachel