Ride stats today

• 129 miles
• Fins to South Paris; completing 10 Degrees Latitude
• Our most gorgeous bike day yet, a suitable end to an amazing journey
• 0 sheep, 5 buguettes, 2 barets
• 2 huge smiles and cigars at the end

Our journey took us 14 days of biking and 1 day of swimming across the English Channel. This works out to be 1000 miles on bike and 25 miles in the water. It was gorgeous, stunning territory, and the good thing about traveling as we did was that we really got to enjoy the countryside, see the people and smell the smells (most were good).

We have so many people to thank. Our support crew made our adventure possible. Our bike crew (Flora and Bob), our swim crew (Tricia, Amy, Flora, Laura, Dave, Teresa, and the entire Ocean Breeze crew) and our home crew (Michelle, Andrew, Ava and Joshua) were awesome. Our Cadence Cycling coach Mike Kuehn was super supportive. Our sponsors are all amazing people. Everyone treated us so well through the entire journey.

Here are some parting pictures from our final days in Paris. We took our final pictures at the Arc de Triomphe. A fitting end to a stunning journey.

• Cambridge to Canterbury
• 80 miles
• Not much elevation gain
• Even fewer animals
• 20 mile an hour headwind
• 2 sore bums, 4 strong legs, 2 dirty bikes

Today was our last day on the saddle for a while. This last circuit brought us within distance of the gorgeous white cliffs of Dover. From here our swim across the English Channel will begin.

Another mechanical failure… My Speedplay pedal broke in the same exact spot that Adam’s broke. These Speedplay pedals are sure lightweight, but I think the company needs to work on reliability. It is unreasonable to assume riders will replace these $300 pedals every 800 miles. We are now both riding non-Speedplay pedals because there are ZERO local bike dealers that stock Speedplay. Boo.

A shout-out to Cadence Cycling & Multisport, especially Matt (founder), Woody (tech), Brady (coach), Luke (sales) and Mike (coach). These guys run shops in Philadelphia and NYC — and there are rumors of California expansion soon. They replace guesswork with science, and are definitely the Lexus of bike shops. Thank you guys!

1. Never Let Your Tread Wear Out: Replace your tires frequently. With fresher rubber, you’ll have fewer flats and also a better-handling bike.

2. Regularly Inspect Your Tires: Sometimes you’ll come back from a ride with small bits of glass or debris embedded in the outer casing. If you habitually clean this stuff off, it won’t have a chance to work through the tire.

3. Same Goes for Your Chain: Keep it clean and lubed and your bike will shift, and look, better. And if you replace your chain before it gets too worn out, you’ll save the expense of having to fix or replace pricier items like cassettes and chainrings, which suffer increased wear and tear from old chains.

4. Buy a Torque Wrench: Modern bike components are made of expensive materials like carbon and titanium and highly engineered to save weight. But that also means they can be damaged by overtightening. Manufacturers test their products and provide torque recommendations. Make sure you follow them.

5. Find a Good Local Bike Shop and Mechanic, and Be Loyal: The more familiar they become with your bike and your riding style, the more able they’ll be to keep everything working to your liking.

1. Bad bike fit
2. Poor nutrition regimen (racing and training)
3. Bought products based on price/brand.  Paid little attention to catering to my race needs.

Last but not least — pictures from our rest day in Nottingham. We visited the Nottingham Castle, and the local bike shop Freewheel where the head mechanic rebuilt Neal’s bottom bracket and tightened Adam’s rear cassette. Thanks guys!

• Leeds to Nottingham
• 75 miles
• 1800 feet climbed
• 1000 sheep. Some cows. 63 pigs.
• 2 nuclear reactors

Our route took us through Sherwood Forest, which was fun for me. It’s hard not to feel like a kid again riding through Sherwood Forest into Nottingham!

Today was a pretty nice day.  It’s a shame that as we come further south our surroundings are less desolate and the roadways are much more populated.  As a result, we spend more time concentrating and less time enjoying our environment.  Weather today was beautiful.  Winds were calm most of the day, and there was only a 15 minute patch of rain that we unintentionally but fortunately avoided on our lunch break.

To say these last 3 days have been tough would be an understatement.  Mentally, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome.  Physically the back-to-back-to-back days of punishing terrain and distance were difficult.  I can’t tell you how many times over the past several months, I’ve cursed the name of Mike Kuhn, our coach (another link) as I opened the dreaded email that laid out the workout for the day.  “Tell me again why I’m riding 6 hrs today  I just did 4 yesterday.”  Today it’s clear.  This guy isn’t just a sadist. He had a method to his madness.  It was good to finish this segment of the ride and still feel pretty strong (and injury free!)

Tomorrow we’ll rest up and take care of some minor aches and pains and then it’s on to Cambridge.

10% discount All gear except new bikes
15% discount Fitness diagnostics, conditioning programs, and bike fits

Cadence Cycling was founded in 2004 by a Penn graduate, so I think what they’re doing for Penn is pretty cool. I got my road bike at Cadence and it’s sweet. They are the Lexus of bike dealers. They are all about the science of athletics. Go check them out, on Saturday’s (I think) they have free in-house coffee and sweets.

Some marketing copy about these guys: Cadence Cycling & Multisport is not a bike shop. Sure, the world’s most exclusive bike frames line the floor. But world-renowned coaches also train all levels of cyclists and triathletes on state-of-the-art CompuTrainers and Endless Pools®. And athletes with visions of Kona or the Tour undergo VO2 Max and lactate threshold tests. When you walk in, we’re not trying to sell you a bike. We’d rather talk to you about your goals and how we can help you achieve them. Whether that means a new Italian frame, a specialized fitting of your current bike, an individualized coaching program, an on-site strength and conditioning program or one of our other unique services, Cadence will help you evolve as an athlete.

Here’s the discount coupon…

Adam is driving cross-country to Denver on his way to his new home in Denver. He rode today too, in Ohio.

Yapta monitors your flights and emails you if the prices drop.

Most airlines have clauses that entitle you to a credit if the prices fall. Bet you didn’t know that, did ya? I didn’t either. And I didn’t believe it until (in Jan 2008) I was alerted by Yapta of a price drop, which promoted me to call Usair and request my refund. Usair sent the voucher to me a few weeks later. Yapta is just one of those free internet companies that is adding transparency to the travel industry.

Try it out for yourself. I’m a fan.

• Step1: signup for account on Yapta.com
• Step2: forward your preexisting flight confirmation emails to flights@yapta.com
• Step3: wait for email from Yapta telling you to claim your refund
• Step4: call airline and request price drop refund
• Step5: spend flight credit on future travel

Here’s a screenshot of my Yapta screen for this trip.

1. Hands should enter water at 1 and 11 o’clock. Do not waste energy with side-to-side movement.
2. Hand should glide right after it enters water. Pull should start within first few inches.
3. Be long in the water. No hip bend. Little knee bend.
4. Be level and stiff in water to reduce drag and increase torque.
5. Hands should exit water at hip to follow-through to stroke.

Everyone wants a healthy lifestyle. There are new trends that help a healthy lifestyle fit into our day-to-day. I put together a list of what I think are THE leading-edge fitness trends; and just for fun I put them to the ABCs. I am involved in most of these trends, but not all (there are 7 that I’m not involved in). I will let you all postulate in the comments which of the ABCs I do not do.

A for Adventure races – like 10 Degrees!
B for Balance training (taichi, yoga and pilates)
C for Creatine
D for Dry-land training for swimmers, or the reverse
E for Eating breakfast – eating early makes you thin at night
F for Fixed-gear bicycles – brakes are for flakes
G for Google map your next run
H for Halfsizes – restaurant portions are twice the FDA recommendation
I for Intense workouts trumping long workouts
J for Juice bars
K for Ketone breath avoidance
L for Lactive threshold (LT) training
M for Mind/body exercise (yoga, tai chi, and qigong)
N for Navy Seal bootcamp-style training
O for Online videoconferencing allows group training at home
P for Power meters for bikes
Q for Quest-based adventures (7 Summits, et al)
R for Recovery drinks
S for Stability balls
T for Thule roof racks to bring your kit with you
U for Underwater MP3 players for swimming/surfing
V for Video analysis packages for bike fits like Dartfish
W for Wrist computers to track workouts
X for Xtreme sports
Y for Yoga
Z for Zucchini

1. Incorporate competition and goal-setting into your routine. You don’t necessarily have to sign up for races, but aim to reach the far wall a smidgen faster than you did the day before, or try to break a minute in the 100-meter freestyle, a good benchmark for speed.
2. Swim large distances. He swims 3-5 miles per day
3. Streamline your stroke. Ryan swims 15 meters underwater after each flip turn to focus on being hydrodynamic. “I work a lot on staying high in the water, not fighting the water, moving with the water,”
4. Incorporate dry-land exercises. Before every pool session, Lochte (below right) and his Florida teammates pass around the medicine ball, do multiple sets of push-ups and 500 abdominal crunches.

A related NYT article is here: Coach’s Corner

10 tips to liven-up your (crusty old) swim workout:

1. Listen to music while swimming. We like the waterproof mp3 player called Swimp3.
2. Eat a mid-swim snack. I swim harder if I have a delicious mid-swim snack. We like bananas and Gu Energy Gel.
3. Bring toys. Is it just me or are swim hand paddles a ton of fun?! I feel like a speed racer when I use them. We like the stuff from Tyr.
4. Count your laps. We like this simple little $24 lap counter from SportCount.
5. Vary that workout. Here are 50 workouts to test out.
6. Bring a friend. I swim harder and longer if Adam, Lauren or Jenn is swimming with me. Or, if you’re me you can even be so lucky as to meet your girlfriend in the pool!
7. Join a team. I joined the Penn Masters Swim Club and is has been a lot of fun.
8. Go outside. There are great outdoor swim places near Philadelphia. Be mindful of the water temperatures.
9. Get a coach. Improving your technique gives you something to think about. We sought advice from the Head Coach of Penn’s Varsity Swim Team.
10. Be held accountable. Tell your significant other and family how you plan to train. They will keep you on track. I can’t tell you how many times this has been the only thing that got me out of bed at 630AM!

Hope this helps. Have a good workout!

We’ve sang the praises of Cadence Cycling many times before, but in my mind the one thing that sets them apart more than any other retailer I’ve ever come in contact with, is their coaching staff. They have the most impressive collection of brain power and coaching prowess you could imagine. Yet their packages can be dumbed down for a couple of amateurs like us. They do it all, from newbies to pros, and they do it all very well. They get attention/press based on the pro cyclists and triathletes they coach, but it’s much more important to me for them to be able to turn a weekend warrior into a stronger competitor. I found it very convenient that we were located in Philly and have access to this place, but as it turns out, you can establish a coaching relationship and participate in training sessions from anywhere in the world. In early 2008 Cadence will be launching Cadence.tv. It is a completely interactive online training system that allows you to be a part of professionally-coached training sessions either live or On-Demand. If it rolls out as described it could be an awesome training tool. We’re signing up right away, and we will pass on our reviews as soon as possible with the good the bad and the ugly.

We’re really excited that Mike was willing to clear room in his schedule for us. He has an impressive professional resume and has competed and won at the top levels of road racing, mountain bike racing and cyclo-cross. Most important to us is his ability to transfer his knowledge and experience to make us better. He’s done it before, and we’re hoping he can do it again. He’s turned rookies into seasoned vets. He’s turned amateurs into pros, and he’s turned pros into champions. Seriously. We’re stoked.

It’s all lined up and we couldn’t be happier. Thank you all for your feedback and anecdotes relating your experience with your pilots. The one thing we learned from all of you is that all of the pilots are great. We did not get a single negative story about a pilot. Even those of you who had unsuccessful attempts, had nothing but the best to say about your pilot.

For our readers not familiar with this segment of the universe, the Channel piloting world is very small. There is only a handful of folks that do this, and they’ve been doing it forever. A couple of them are 2nd generation pilots. It’s an everybody-knows-everybody community, and most of them have close personal friendships with those they have taken across the Channel. The pilot also serves as a motivator and a coach. They know how to keep a swimmer motivated for 14 hours of pain and cold. They now how to manage nutrition, and they know how to spot and prevent hypothermia. They try to help alleviate all of the external factors that can affect the crossing. Now all you have to do is swim!

So here’s what we got…

Adam: Dave Whyte (Ocean Breeze)

Neal: Chris Osmond (Seafarer)

Our swim dates are 7 – 19 July. This block now gives us a target to start the first cycling leg of the expedition in the last part of June.

We figured he would know a thing or two about swimming in general. It also happens he had some specific advice for distance swimming training techniques. We came away from the conversation with so much good advice that we thought we would share it with all of you.

Tips from Mike:

1. Keep heart rate below 130 bpm for as long as possible. Endurance training is all about conserving energy. See how long you can keep heart rates below 130, start at 1000 meters, then 2500 meters, then 3000 meters. Keep working up until recovery time is instantaneous.
2. Distance swimmers avoid kicking hard. The distance swimming kick cadence is half the racers kick cadence.
3. Train at least 5 days per week.
4. If you try to just swim for 2 hours straight you’ll die of boredom. It’ll be like banging your head against the wall. Swimming is all about mixing it up. Mix it up with the pull buoy, kickboard. Do sets of 200, 400, or whatever. Mix up strokes and set length. Keep it fresh.
5. Keep rest between sets below 30 seconds, if you need more rest then you are already working too hard and your heart rate is too fast for ideal endurance training
6. Find outdoor swims to train. He recommended Sunkist in Atlantic City to us or swims during the winter in Florida (although this requires travel for us).
7. Pools should be kept between 78 and 83. He has his pool hot because “his boys are fat”. The hotter the water the more you sweat. This struck me, since I don’t feel myself sweating when I swim, but I guess we all do. Makes me think the water is probably pretty close, but I guess there is no sense dwelling on this since I’m going to swim anyway.
8. Distance swimmers typically do 7000 meters daily and 12000 on a double day. 6-7 days per week.

Mike starts and ends every discussion with us by saying “you guys are nuts”. He’s a totally good guy.