550km and 15 thousand meters elevation. The Trans Rockies Classic (TRC) is a gruelling, 7 day, cross-country mountain bike stage race from Fernie to Panorama, BC. This race is no joke. It has been proclaimed one of the toughest mountain biking races anywhere, and is in the ranks with the TransAlp and La Ruta as the world’s most iconic stage races.
Sound amazing? I agree.
Oh, and incase you were wondering what a BHAG is: Big Hairy Audacious Goal
That’s why I am gunning to complete the TRC.
There are many disciplines I aim to become proficient in, just to have a chance of completing this race:
- Mountain biking skills, technical climbs, gnarly descends
- Bike legs for endurance riding (these are going to be 8 hour days)
- Endurance fitness for multiple stages (for 7 consecutive days!)
- Nutrition for single day and multi day events
- Bike maintenance (on and off the trail)
- Strength and power output
- Oxygen depravation training (V02 Max – or oxygen carrying capacity- will be affected at altitudes greater than 5000 feet, we will be climbing to 7000+ feet)
- Sports psychology and mental strength
- Training data interpretation (learning what to do with the heart rate and power data I am gathering while training)
I will be training for this race over a couple of years, and since I will obviously be gaining a wealth of knowledge during the process, I have decided to keep a blog, and share this knowledge with the world.
In future posts I will be covering what the race is, my riding partner, my training teams, details of my fitness regimen, and information I gather on the knowledge, skills, and tactics I am covering to complete this race.
Next TRC blog, why I choose my TRC partner, Kevin Fahlman.
Back on the National Geographic Explorer, the staff organized an iceberg pareidolia contest. Rules were simple:, take a photo of an iceberg you think looks like something, then submit it to the staff with a creative title of your choosing. The contest allowed for two categories, one permitting photo manipulation with words or simple drawings, the second must be a stand alone shot. I entered the first category, Will entered the second….
Meet PAN-1772, a well traveled whale that has been sighted off the coast of three continents since 2007 - Colombia, Panama, and now by us in Antarctica. We know this thanks to a very cool citizen science website: happywhale.com. As it turns out, a whale’s tail or fluke acts as a unique identifier just like our finger prints. Get a good photo of the fluke…
The ship finally stopped moving both vertically and horizontally, and all human life was starting to emerge from their cabin bathroom floors. We were briefed on our inaugural landing at Barrientos, which is populated by two species of penguins. The excitement aboard was palpable.
As Michael informed us, we were’t about to get off easy. They were predicting impressive six meter swells (which he explained none to reassuringly is actually about medium range for the Drake). It was going to be a rough crossing.
When Will first pitched the idea of mountain biking Old Ghost Road during our trip to New Zealand, I said absolutely not, though I totally understood why he wanted to do it. Old Ghost Road is New Zealand’s longest stretch of single-track mountain biking, and one of the highest rated mountain bike trails in the world. This is our experience with Old Ghost Road
When Will first pitched the idea of mountain biking Old Ghost Road during our trip to New Zealand, I said absolutely not, though I totally understood why he wanted to do it. Old Ghost Road is New Zealand’s longest stretch of single-track mountain biking, and one of the highest rated mountain bike trails in the world.
Wilmington was a perfect mountain bike race for my novice level of experience, with more than 2700m total elevation gain mostly on gravel or paved roads, and a few short sections of not too technical single track.
Over the last few years Will and I have ventured into shoulder season hiking, where you have more considerations, more preparations, and more gear to take, which means more can go wrong. In this post I reviewed our experience on the Franconia Ridge, one of the most beautiful day hikes in North America.