Hatching Plans: ALA's Big Ride Across America

[divingbiker]

If you and your mom need a place to stay when you get to DC, let me know!

[Reesha]

Thank you

I'll be passing through a lot of Team E hotbeds. Here's this year's route list:
Day 0 Seattle
Day 1 Easton, WA
Day 2 Vantage, WA
Day 3 Odessa, WA
Day 4, Spokane, WA
Day 5, Spokane, WA
Day 6, Sandpoint, ID
Day 7, Thompson Falls, MT
Day 8, Missoula, MT
Day 9, Missoula, MT
Day 10, Avon, MT
Day 11, Townsend, MT
Day 12, Harlowton, MT
Day 13, Billings, MT
Day 14, Billings, MT
Day 15, Hardin, MT
Day 16, Sheridan, WY
Day 17, Gilette, WY
Day 18, Newcastle, WY
Day 19, Rapid City, SD
Day 20, Rapid City, SD
Day 21, Kadoka, SD
Day 22, Pierre, SD
Day 23, Miller, SD
Day 24, De Smet, SD
Day 25, Tyler, MN
Day 26, New Ulm, MN
Day 27, New Ulm, MN
Day 28, Owatonna, MN
Day 29, Winona, MN
Day 30, Viroqua, WI
Day 31, Madison, WI
Day 32, Madison WI
Day 33, Belvidere, IL
Day 34, Morris, IL
Dau 35, Valparaiso, IN
Day 36, Kendallville, IN
Day 37, Napoleon, OH
Day 38, Sandusky, OH
Day 39, Burton, OH
Day 39, Burton, OH
Day 41, New Waterford, OH
Day 42, Washington, PA
Day 43, Confluence, PA
Day 44, Bedford, PA
Day 45, Gettysburg, PA
Day 46, Gettysburg, PA
Day 47, Clarksburg, MD
Day 48, Washington, DC

[aquamoose32]

Do you have the miles on these days? This looks like a great route. Where are you staying each night?

[Dog]

I too have looked at the ALA Big Ride Across America. I will probably have to wait until I retire though. It is fun to dream/think about it. And, you are already to the planning stage....even more fun!

[Reesha]

Do you have the miles on these days? This looks like a great route. Where are you staying each night?

I don't personally have the miles for each day but one of the riders from the 2008 ride (same route) has a fantastic blog that details each leg:

http://dianasbigride.blogspot.com/

The average leg is 83 miles and there are 6 days with over 100 miles. I think the worst day of climbing is 6500 feet. Nothing insane or anything.

During the trip, the group camps out in tents that they've brought with them, often on high school football fields-- always some place with showers. Sometimes they stay in dorms after hard days.

[redrhodie]

How's your bike search going? Any decisions, yet?

[Tokie]

they make handy fenders that attach and detach easily - DH and I were very glad we brought them on our ride from S Dakota to Niagara Falls last summer - we rode in plenty of rain. Not as fabulous as full on fenders, but kept most of the water deflected. (the brand was, errr, can't recall, but they hooked on with little rubber straps, quite easy to get on and off) Oh, DH reports fenders were from Planet Bike. They did rattle a bit, but it was sweet music to our soggy bodies. tokie

[Reesha]

You know, I test rode a Cannondale CAAD10 Dura-Ace the other day which I loved better than any of the bikes I've been on so far... but I'm not sure I loved it for the ride. It was an incredible bike and I really really really want it to replace my current road bike. Many over at BikeForums have said they'd gladly ride across the country on their CAAD 9's or 10's...

I've still got lots of time and still need to raise the funds to buy the bike anyway, so more searching is in my future!

[Reesha]

So as of yesterday, I am all registered to ride across the country! I also need to raise $6,000, $2,500 of which I am covering so people know that they are not also helping me go on a fun trip. That's the amount of the fundraising minimum that goes toward the costs of the 48 day adventure. Still my overall goal is $8,000 including my contribution, so I have my work cut out for me this year.

I busily set up my training/fundraising/adventure blog this morning as it will be a long year!


You can visit it at http://www.larissaridesforcleanair.org

I think I've decided just to ride my trusty Trek Pilot 5.0 on this one. I don't really need a new bike, and my current bike is great. Another lady did the ride on the very same bike!

It's going to be a challenging year with lots of hard work. Fundraising ideas are ALWAYS welcome, as the goal well exceeds what I could raise just soliciting friends and family.

Woohoo!!!

[Caddy]

Looks pretty amazing - the fundraising goal scares me.

Have you tried the Synapse? It has a more relaxed geometry than a Caad10. I also really like the Jamis Ventura/Aurora bikes.

Edit: Ahh, didn't see the comment about the Trek, have fun with it

[Reesha]

Well, I helped my friends raise $10,000 for their documentary in one month, so $8,000 over 290 days seems easier. We'll see just how much easier it really is!

I think I liked the CAAD 10 as a race bike... it was just so fast! I may see if I can find one used for racing and then save my Pilot for this ride and commuting.

[Reesha]

New blog post!

http://larissaridesforcleanair.org/2...bike-commuter/

[Reesha]

I am going to make an appointment to see a nutritionist this month to see about some pointers for eating while training and then eating while doing the Big Ride! Wrote a blog post about it today:

http://larissaridesforcleanair.org/2...-nutritionist/

[Reesha]

So far I've been doing a lot of baking to fundraise to a small, but palpable effect. I've raised $50 for the faculty. Another faculty member asked if I'd make scones for their Wednesday morning meetings for $25 donations. I'm starting to see how time intensive some fundraising can be.

Nonetheless, I have not yet asked friends and relatives. I bought cardstock at the local art store, cut into three 'business envelope' sized slices of paper, then stamped a beautiful copper road bike on the top and hand wrote a plea for donations onto each one. I have yet to send them out because I need to get to Kinko's to print a sheet out about the ride.

My employer, a private school, donated $175 for my services twisting up balloon animals at the homecoming carnival, that's another 2% of my goal right there.

It's a slow process so far, but I am slowly moving toward my goal! I won't start to worry until about March

For training, our school has a personal trainer on staff-- a real expert-- to work with our middle school kids in P.E. and to build strength programs for the various sports. Luckily, as one of the cycling coaches, we get to use him too. I asked him to develop a body weight strength program for our kiddos for the wintertime (which should help me as well) and then an in-the-fitness-center training program for our season. It should be awesome-- I will be glad to share what I find out!

Also, if anyone has 48 weeks off next summer, I would love to do the ride with someone from Team E! It's going to be so exciting

Here's one of the best big ride blogs from last year: http://www.bigride2011.com/

[Sky King]

Reesha,

Idea for sending out fundraising requests and for thank you cards. I am a huge user of Send Out Cards - (I am also a distributor) Anyway is a great way to create custom cards or any of the 15,000 cards in the system. You create your card online but the cards are mailed for you to the person you created the card for. You can send individual cards or the same card to 100's of people with one push of the send button. www.sendoutcards.com/skp - go send a free card and see what you think. Not expensive and great cards