3 weeks to go

Three weeks to go until I hit the road!

I've been trying to get some updates into this site over the last week - and yet, it's also a pretty hard undertaking to find a moment where there is time & energy to do so. I don't spend much time behind a desk these days. My weeks are usually splt between working at one of my two jobs, or working long days to finish my house on days when i'm not in the bike shop. But even if I haven't been updating, a lot has happened behind the scenes.

A brief recap

I logged my first week of training - 40 miles in a week - on the first week of February and I've been steadily increasing my training volume since then - the highest volume of miles was the week of May 19th when I logged 180 miles. My training has been split between indoor rides on my Kickr Snap trainer and outdoor miles commuting, but also some longer trips like out to Larch Mountain (a 100 mile day). I registered for the STP as early as I could - but hadn't really mentally and physically committed to the ride until maybe April or May. Investing the time, energy and money in this hasn't been easy, as my budget for anything that isn't my mortgage, bills and food is non-existent, and I felt pretty daunted by making time for training and finding ways to buy and upgrade gear that really needed to be improved upon.

Committing to the ride

I'm not sure exactly when and where I heard the phrase "chose your choices" - but it instinctively resonated with me. So often we get involved with things and while it's not against our will, exactly, there are also ways to be doing the thing without chosing the thing - without intenal and external commitment. I made this choice at a time that coincided with receiving my dignosis for ADHD. In the wake of that and pursuing treatment for the first time in my life, I realized how thin I had spread myself between the different parts my life, and that I wanted to take myself and my ambitions seriously. I decided I *was* going to ride the STP this July and I was going to find time for training, find funds to improve gear (or live without) and do this thing. And now its just a few weeks away.

Struggles and solutions

Over the course of this prep I have faced two main challenges: Finding time for training, especially training in longer blocks like endurance riding really requires, and finding the funds to support gear upgrades, nutrition, and solutions for the many small challenges any organized and cohesive effort demands. Training for a 207 distance ride does require training both high volume and with intensity at times, and while I knew I could handle these kinds of distances, I hadn't ridden anything longer than 50 or so miles in the last year.

My time is in extremely short supply between things I need to do to earn money, things I need to do to save money, projects I need to move forward, and the things that create a life worth living: rest, relationships, creative pursuits. My time availability is often extremely limited, and the only thing I have less of is money. So finding ways to train sufficiently has been really tricky, and I honestly could not even be close to race conditioning without spending a lot of time on my indoor bike trainer. Some weeks I would rack up high volume indoors, and then offset that with units of high intensity and hill training outdoors. I honestly haven't been able to train as much as I would have wanted, but I am going into this ride with the killer advantage of knowing I can handle distances like these.

The other challenge was financial. I'll be transparent that I received a scholarship to ride the STP this year as even the early bird registration fee of $180 was out of reach for me. I'm very grateful to have received that incentive.

After a long of back and forth and soul-searching, I decided to do a public fundraiser - and was so bowled over by the response. I've received close to $1500 in donations which was completely unexpected and is making a HUGE difference in how I am feeling about and able to approach this ride. If you donated to my campaign: THANK YOU. There is a lot of need out there, and I feel so touched that my non-crisis fundraiser resonated the way it did. THANK YOU. It means a lot.

What's next

I'm actually feeling pretty ready to ride. I pulled an all-nighter of sorts yesterday to get my bike mostly ready mechanically: new tires, fixing some shifting issues. I have the route on my head unit (bike computer) and am ahead of the game in other aspects of prep. I have an overnight stay in seattle befoe the ride leaves figured out, as well as a mid point stay in centralia. There is some nutrition to figure out and maybe one more long training ride to do, and I'll be ready.

I am to focus my efforts on documenting here more frequently to track my experiences. Thanks for reading and following along.