Specter
Well-known member
Thanks everyone for the kind words. To answer some questions:
What did I do to prepare mentally and physically?
Physically, I lost about 50 lbs a couple years ago by following the Four-hour Body / Paleo / no wheat or processed carbs diet. Weight makes a tremendous difference in endurance and comfort. Also picked up about 2 MPG
I ate mostly what I brought with me. Home made jerky, dried apricots, Almonds and peanuts with banana chips. Lots of water.Lots of green veggies at checkpoints.
Mentally, I just did other multi-day rallies. Two Ten'n'Tens, and a Utah 1088 three day. Practice routing and long days in the saddle.
Valuable tips:
What did I do to prepare mentally and physically?
Physically, I lost about 50 lbs a couple years ago by following the Four-hour Body / Paleo / no wheat or processed carbs diet. Weight makes a tremendous difference in endurance and comfort. Also picked up about 2 MPG
I ate mostly what I brought with me. Home made jerky, dried apricots, Almonds and peanuts with banana chips. Lots of water.Lots of green veggies at checkpoints.Mentally, I just did other multi-day rallies. Two Ten'n'Tens, and a Utah 1088 three day. Practice routing and long days in the saddle.
Valuable tips:
- Take less stuff. I wore one pair of LD comfort tights & shirt for each leg, and washed them at the checkpoint. They stay pretty clean and don't smell that bad
- Keep all your rally gear (bonus list, flag, pens, receipt folder) in the tank bag. Makes stops much faster.
- Have backups for critical items. Spare camera saved my rally.
- Flip up helmet. You have to eat and drink while riding.
- Know your GPS. I had routing issues and found that my GPSMAP 478 had turned on both the internal and memory card map sets, so it crashed trying to route me to Galveston from Grand Canyon. Took me a while to figure out why.
- Take the security seals off the 5-hour energy bottles when you pack them in the tank bag! Its no fun trying to chew off the seal. (Note: energy drinks and caffeine are not a safe substitute for rest. if you're tired, stop and take a nap. I am a caffeine addict. During rallies I actually take in less caffeine than I need for my addiction. 5-hour energy is a good way for me to manage my problem)
