Latest update from Monique
Hi everyone
Just a short note to thank you all for your messages of support. This has been my first chance to check email since departing Oceanside on Tuesday arvo.
In short, the trip is a constant tough challenge: our ride shifts that I share with three other riders consist of between 125 and 200 miles a stretch. We have been running with a 5 mile individual rotation for the most part, but sometimes this has varied depending on winds and other conditions. How fast can you ride 5 miles? You ride it as fast as you possibly can, pulling off after a rotation gasping for breathe and with legs burning. This is exacerbated in the dark as the rider exchange must completely take place in front of the car headlights, so you race up to the rider and then slam on the breaks. You then recover in the van until it is your turn again. And again you go flat out..again and again and again.
Recovery is in a RV, with our longest break of about 7 hours. However when you factor in getting showered, post-ride recovery food (we have an awesome diabetic recovery system that I will certainly adopt in future) and then driving to the next changeover, means we have had very little sleep. Last night we got into town at 2am, started our morning shift from 9.30am until about 2pm, and then started again this evening from 7pm until about midnight - although it is 2am now and I am still not in bed!
The hardest slog so far was back in Colorado which feels like ages ago. I had terrible trouble crossing the Rockies where we reached 10,000 ft climbing Cuchera Pass during our 200 miles stage. Our efforts consisted of sprinting up the hill for about 5 minutes - the time it takes for the leap frog van to load a bike and race up to the next exchange.; Lungs at absolute max capacity, burning madly, you struggle off the bike and give it to the mechanics who race off to reload so the van can move forward again. Climbing into the van still heaving as you struggle for oxygen, it isn't until your turn arrives again that the breathing becomes more normal...but then you start sprinting all over again! I was crawling into the van into a ball, whimpering as I recovered. But the team and our crew were so committed to getting up the pass as quickly as possible that we all threw it on the line. The more someone was in pain, the harder the next person would go.
The equipment has been fantastic, although I switched to a zipp 303 this evening as my disk had gone a little flat. The Omnipod is working well, and the projected glucose messages from the Navigator have been awesome, saving us many times already from excessive lows or highs.
More to follow when we finish, hopefully early Monday morning.
Check out our progress at
www.raceacrossamerica.org
Rread our team reports and check out photos of us (under 'random photos) at
www.teamtype1.org
cheers
Monique
Team Type 1 Rider, HypoActive President