FAsT Monkeys Cycling

The Monkeys are planning to ride this year's 20th Anniversary Race Across Oregon.  This year the route is actually across Oregon, beginning in Ontario, OR (on the border with Idaho) and finishing in Newport, OR (on the coast).  More miles @621'ish, but quite a bit less climbing at just under 33k.  Sounds like a good trade! The team roster is coming together, preparatory suffering is occurring both indoors and out, and the Monkeys are getting ready to ride again! The Cave all set up for some indoor training

No Race Across Oregon for the Monkeys this year  😥   Andrew and Rich were in Belgium, Jim was in Germany and Chris was out with a couple of minor(ish) injuries. Hopefully the Monkeys can return in 2018! Andrew and Jason are planning to ride this year's Hoodoo 300 as a 2x with Jim as Crew Chief.  More (sporadic) updates to follow...

100 miles on the trainer.  Summed up in one word - "ugh". My goal  for this year's 100 Miles of Nowhere was to create a division I could "win", as well as doing the actual ride.  I ended up creating/riding the "Corvallis 2 Stage Night Ride" version of the 100 Miles of Nowhere.  The weather was forecast to suck (and did end up being cold and rainy), so my plans to alternate looping the neighborhood on different bikes with riding the trainer during the day didn't pan out.  That would have been far  more interesting than two long nights on the trainer! I started my ride on Saturday at 7pm with the intent to ride as much as I could stand on Saturday, recover on Sunday, then finish the ride on Tuesday or Thursday (my standard riding days). All kitted out on Saturday Saturday was pretty uneventful.  Even watching movies on the iPad, riding for 3+ hours on the trainer is BORING.  By the end of the ride my knees and feet were both fairly sore,

Doing one big ride a year makes is VERY hard to stay in shape during the off season.  I demonstrated this by gaining about 30 extra pounds last winter after RAO, then suffering most of it off from February thru May.  It basically sucked. I am looking forward to not starting 2016 crude and slow - no better than a clumsy child (to paraphrase a classic).  To that end both Andrew and I are trying to keep some long rides on the off season calendar, and keep up a regular training regime that isn't weather dependent. That was a long-winded way of saying that I signed up to ride the Fat Cyclist's 100 Miles of Nowhere in November.  100MoN is an awesome fundraiser for Camp Kesem, and a "light on rules" approximately 100 mile ride that should happen sometime November'ish.  You can set up a division that includes only you (a tactic used to great effect by the FAsT Monkeys in the 2014 RAO), which means that if you finish you win... yay! I'm trying to figure out my

The FAsT Monkeys finished in 32 hours and 18 minutes - which is about 2.5 hours faster than last year!  It was awesome having Jim and Jen as dedicated drivers/crew, as it really allowed Jason, Andrew, Chris and Rich to focus on riding. Saturday got a bit warm, then Sunday got HOT.  Jason's max recorded temp on the bike on Saturday was 112.7, while the max on Sunday was 126.6 - yes, it was REALLY hot.  The wind felt like a blow dryer.  The ability to switch riders every 20 minutes allowed us to deal with the heat and keep our speed up. All in all it was a great race with a great team!  Who is ready for 2016? :)

Jason rode the first 28 unsupported, then we swapped in Rich and began 20min rider rotations. We're thru Time Station 1 and making good time.  It's weird being in the thick of things with some of the 2x Teams and one of the 4x riding in the same general area.  Last year we were (barely) the last ones into the spot where vehicle support begins and never saw another team after that.