Georgia Chain Gang

We had a lot of fun training this past weekend. On Saturday, we hit the Silver Comet Trail, starting at mile zero in Smyrna, then riding to the Alabama border at mile 62 and back to mile zero. The hardy Sam Maguire stuck with the team the whole way. That’s Dave, Frank, Mark and Jerome in the photo to the left. On Sunday, we rode the Atkins Park to Atkins Park brunch ride with many supporters – all proceeds going into our fundraising efforts. For good measure, and to make sure we got in at least 180 miles in this weekend, we added another 30 miles wherever any of us could fit it in.

For the next 3 weeks we will be squeezing in as much riding as possible before we taper off the week before the race. All our bikes go on the RV for transport out to Oceanside on June 3rd, so we will be on spin bikes that last week before the race.

All the riders seem to be on track with our fitness and conditioning. We are just trying to top it off, stay healthy and avoid getting burned out by overtraining. At this point, we are about as ready as we will be by race time. Everyone has about had it with the training and all are eager for the race to start. Our patient and indulgent families feel the same way.

The list of racers and teams entering RAAM this year is now about complete. There are 30 solo riders, 12 8-person teams and 25 4-person teams. They come from 17 different countries on 6 continents! It is truly an international event and one of the things that makes the race so interesting – especially the parties at the beginning and end of the race!

The team and crew are also especially busy with our fundraising. Have you heard from one of us? Let us know if you haven’t (gachaingang@mindspring.com) and we will be sure to have one of our intrepid crew give you a call! Consider sponsoring a mile for $10 each and let us know to whom you would like to dedicate it. We’ll list their names in future enewsletters.

If you are in the Atlanta area, join us for the Atlanta Classics Bar Tour on Saturday, May 29th.

Some of the team rode the Tour de Cashiers in North Carolina last weekend. It was a beautiful and epic ride: 100 miles, 10,700 feet – what more can you ask for? While the entire RAAM route has about 100,000′ of total climbing, much of it is concentrated in the Rockies and the Alleghenies, so there will be days of intensive climbing, as well as days when the total ascent will be near zero or even negative (hello Kansas!).

How do we figure out how much training we need to do? We take tips from the two greatest bike racers of all time. The first of these is of course Lance Armstrong. Inspiration to millions worldwide – everyone knows his incredible story. Many of you may also know something about his obsessively detailed and scientific approach to training, employing a small army of coaches, trainers, nutritionists and advisors who measure and monitor all the key fitness indicators like Threshold Power, VO2 Max, Lactate Threshold, etc.

 At the other end of the spectrum is Eddy Merckx, the legendary Belgian who raced a generation before Lance. He not only won the Tour de France five times, but entered, and won an amazingly high percentage of, all the big races, including holding the one hour world record. His nickname was the Cannibal. Eddy’s response when asked about his training methods was simple: “RIDE ALOT.” Our approach is closer to Eddy’s than it is to Lance’s. Basically we ride whenever we can carve out time from families and jobs, leaving just enough time for sleeping and eating.

There is almost as much logistical planning as training going on as well. One of the most important support systems is our music system.

On the road sound system

As you can see from the attached photo we will have a pretty powerful speaker system. Note that this was version 2 from last year as version 1 blew off on its first test drive. Being long-time denizens of the ATS Spin Facility (aka The Pain Cave), we are trained liked Pavlov’s dogs to respond to music while pedaling. It is incumbent on each rider to put together his own Playlist. Anyone who doesn’t will be subjected to the default music – it’s a genre that can only be described as shouting-dirty-lyrics-set-to-noise-with-a-beat. Helmets off to Tony for knowing how to shock us awake at 5am in the gym, but 7 days of it would be too much.

Fundraising continues rapidly. The current total is about $60,000. This is well above last year at this time, but we are also committed to doubling last year’s amount. Help us get to $100,000 by race start and we think we will be on track to reach our eventual goal of $160,000! If you haven’t stepped up, please do it now!

The weather in Georgia has been fantastic the last month, allowing us to get a lot of long riding in every weekend. A telling test of our preparation and training will be this coming weekend. On Saturday the team, along with some hardy supporters, will ride the full length of the Silver Comet/Chief Ladiga trail system – 110 miles from Smyrna, GA to Anniston, AL. Then on Sunday, we will ride the 100 mile Cheaha Challenge, one of the great mountain centuries here in the Southeast. This double century weekend will give us a good feel for our readiness.

The training plan is pretty serious for the next 2 months. Most of us will be scrambling to squeeze in all the hours and miles we can, inside and out. We should be at 400+ miles a week in May. The beautiful spring weather sure helps, but we could do without the tidal wave of pollen everywhere in Atlanta at the moment.

Some of you have inquired about another key part of the rider’s race preparation:  leg shaving!  Will we or won’t we? Of course we all know the pros do it, but why would a bunch of 50 year old amateurs? There are three reasons: 1) the pros do it, so it makes us look more like them (sorta like buying the same clubs Tiger does), 2) it makes it easier to clean out road rash, or worse in the event of a spill (which we plan to avoid),  and 3) it makes massages easier and more effective. The last one is the most convincing argument and will push at least a couple of us to spend an hour or two with a razor.  The other two consider it a matter of pride to leave their hairy pelts intact.

Those of you who followed us last year will remember that on-the-road logistics in this race are as challenging as the riding, and needs almost as much preparation. Since our plan last year seemed to be so successful (either genius or luck, it worked), we will be sticking to the same basic plan with a few minor, but key improvements. We’ll give you some more updates on this as we get closer.

Our Silent Auction at Ormby’s was a great success, raising almost $20,000. It was also a great party and chance to talk with many of you and thank you for your support. Our total to date is now over $50,000!  Many, many thanks to all of you who have contributed your time and treasure. If you haven’t, you will be hearing from us! If we hit you up more than once, our apologies. We appreciate how generous you have been and how we are indeed in tough economic times. But our goal is very ambitious and we believe strongly in it, so we are going ask!

The clock is ticking down. We are now just three months away from the start of the Race Across AMerica on June 12th! 
 
The weather in Georgia, while still unusually cold and wet, has improved some, allowing us to get out more on the weekends. We are riding at least twice, sometimes three times each weekend. Many of you have joined us on these rides. We appreciate your encouragement and help. It is always fun to share. If you haven’t ridden with us yet, come on out!
 
With the addition of Dave Laws, we now have a crew of 10, but are still actively searching for a massage therapist to join.

Warren Bruno – chief
Jane Eastham – co-chief
Tammy Addison
Mark Engemann (and alternate rider)
Caroline von Fluegge
David Gluck
Dave Laws
Dave Payne
David Rossetti
Marshall Siler
 
Welcome Dave! We couldn’t do this without our crew.
 
In addition to training and logistics planning, everyone has been working on putting together our Silent Auction Benefit on March 23rd. We’ve collected a great number of items, from a Lance Armstrong autographed bike to vacation home weekends, restaurant gift cards, sports memorabilia and plenty more, for the Auction. Plan to attend, whether you bid or not, as it’s at the best new bar/restaurant in town – Ormsbys. Details are below.
 
March is the time of year for the first organized century rides and we’ll be riding in at least two of them:
Saturday, March 20th: Tour de Pike, Concord GA
Saturday, Marth 27th: Wheels of Fire, Hamilton GA
 
We’ve reached the $20,000 mark in our fundraising, $5,000 ahead of where we were last year at this time. We plan for that to accelerate further as we move closer to June. We also have several generous in-kind donors and sponsors covering items like the RV, hotel rooms in San Diego and buddy passes for our flights. We can’t wait to line up our wheels at the start line on June 12th!
 
Regards,

Dave, Frank, Jerome and Tony

We are only four months away from the start of the Race Across AMerica on June 12th! In spite of the crummy weather in January, the team is on track with our training plan. In February we have been ramping up to about 12-16 hours a week in the saddle. A good chunk of that time is still indoors – we are all regulars at the ATS “pain cave”, as it is affectionately known. But if the sun comes out, even with temps in the 30′s or 40′s, we’ll hit the road.

Our crew is just about complete with nine on board. All these folks have very strong commitments to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, as well as key coaching, mechanical, health and navigation skills. We are lucky to have them. Mark Engemann has also signed on to be the team’s alternate rider. He is a local racer and recent winner of his class at the ’09 Grant Park Criterium. Thank you Mark!

We are still finalizing our race logistics and one of the most significant decisions is whether to stay with three vehicles, as we did last year, or go with four. We know three will work, but we lose time at night on transitions as the riders have to stop to wait for the follow vehicle to load up the rider coming off shift. Seems like a little thing but four vehicles would allow us to do “flying” exchanges, saving 3-4 hours over the course of a week. Besides requiring a fourth vehicle, we’d also need a 12 person crew. Stay tuned for more info as we finalize logistics.

For any of you who want to join us on some training rides, know we ride every Saturday and Sunday possible. For up-to-the-minute ride updates follow @gachaingang and @coachtonan on Twitter. We will most likely be participating in all the organized century rides in the area for the next four months. The first one on the calendar is the Wheels of Fire Century Ride on Saturday, March 27th. This ride always kicks off the century calendar for the year and is a favorite.  Besides the 100-mile option, there are shorter routes as well.

Our fundraising is just kicking into high gear. Expect to hear from one of us! We hope you will be as generous as last year. In the meantime, make plans to attend our first local fundraising event at Ormsby’s on March 23rd.

It’s official – the Georgia Chain Gang will be riding in the Race Across America again in 2010. We have a team. We have most of our crew. Most importantly, we will be riding for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society again.

The team will include Dave Armento (planning to finish), Frank Fuerst (planning to start and finish), Jerome Rossetti and Tony Myers. Frank is stepping back in to replace Dave Dowdakin who stepped in to replace Frank last year after Frank’s training accident took him out of the race. The team is already training hard, although the guys have spent a lot of time indoors the past few weeks with the cold and rain.

Warren Bruno, veteran crew member from 2009, will be crew chief this year. Assisting him will be Jane Eastham. Everyone on the crew has a close association with the Leukemia Society – some have lost loved ones, some are cancer survivors; some are battling the disease right now. They all have a common goal of defeating it and helping others engaged in similar battles.

In 2009 the team did well, especially in their rookie race, finishing in 7 days 8 hours 19 minutes. We won our age group and placed 5th overall among all 4-man teams. We are most proud of our accomplishment on the fundraising front. RAAM gives the Lon Haldeman awards each year to the team or individual that raises the most money for their selected charitable organization. We came in a very close second! We raised over $80,000 last year. Our goal for 2010 is to double that and ride away with the Lon Haldeman award!

Party like your dad, or grandpa for that matter, this Memorial Day Weekend at the First Annual Virginia Highland’s Classic Bar Tour. The Virginia Highland Neighborhood boasts some of Atlanta’s most historic bars and restaurants, with a number of venues opening before 1970.

Miller High Life and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society present a “Classic Bar Tour,” featuring the oldest bars in the neighborhood on Saturday, May 23, 2009 from 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM. Atkins Park Tavern, George’s Restaurant and Bar, Limerick Junction Irish Pub, Manuel’s Tavern and Moe’s & Joe’s Tavern team up to offer bar tour attendants food, booze, prizes and a historic look at Atlanta’s oldest neighborhood bar scene. For more information and tickets, see www.atlantaclassicsbartour.com.

We got our first story published in the local press. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave us a nice write-up in their “PROUD MOMENTS” column: PROUD MOMENTS: Atlantans take on coast-to-coast race

We now have committments from 9 crew members, giving us a full support team:

Al Bodine – Manager
Debra Priest – Co-manager
Jason Allison
Martha Brown
Warren Bruno
Marshall Priest
Chuck Murphy
David Rossetti
Melanie Zinger

With fund raising just beginning, we raise almost $8000 by year end.