Nutrition and Hydration

The TD route is all over the place when it comes to food and water resources. The northern part of the route has a many mountain streams and lakes to refill from water, and the stretches in between potential food resupply points aren't too large. The southern part of the route becomes a lot more arid and the towns along the way are more spread out, as well as smaller. It's important to know where you will need to carry large amounts of food and water, as well as have a means to carry those supplies.

To cover my hydration needs, I'm leaving Banff with the ability to carry up to 7L of water. I will have a 4L MSR Dromlite bladder in the main compartment of my frame bag, with a hose running out the framebag to drink from. The hose has a couple of quick disconnects inserted inline so I can quickly refill the bladder without removing the hose. I initially used a standard camelback bladder but it wasn't as thick and abrasion proof as the MSR bladder. Since the MSR bladder is a little tougher on the outside, I won't be afraid to mount it somewhere outside of the framebag during the more remote sections of the route if I need more space for food. The remaining capacity will come from three 1L SmartWater bottles. Each fork blade holds one bottle in a Topeak Java cage. The third one is in a King Ti cage on the downtube, and is secured with a toe strap to keep it from contacting the wheel or bouncing out. The SmartWater bottles are a lot lighter than a regular water bottle, and hold a lot more water. These will likely stay empty until the southern sections of the route where surface water becomes more scarce. The ability of these bottles to withstand a healthy impact and remain attached to the bike has been tested in a couple of real world situations since installation.

For treating water, I'm using a Sawyer Mini water filter with a 1L bag. I filtered water from streams and lakes with this for a week in Montana with no health issues. My only complaint was the small bag 16 oz that came with the filter meant refilling took longer than I would have liked. This was easily fixed by ordering a larger bag. If a water source needs pre-filtering, I will use my cloth bandana for that task.

From a nutritional standpoint, most of my rides in Iowa are fueled by convenience store foods and I'm fortunate to have an "iron stomach", so I will be able to eat just about anything along the route. I've been testing out some TD staples such as Sour Patch Kids during training and races the last 18 months just to make sure I know how my body will react to them. I know can ride a long ways on nothing more than nuts, fig newtons, water, simple sugars, and some caffeine. The time honored strategy of stuffing myself at a diner and taking food to go will definitely be employed. If I run into a grocery store or a fruit stand along the way, I won't hesitate to grab some fruit and store it somewhere as an extra source of fiber and potassium. Ice cream and pie will be consumed wherever I can find them. :)

My primary nutrition storage will be the Porcelain Rocket pocket on the front of my sleep roll, along with my jersey pockets. Secondary storage will be wherever I can stuff things - primarily, spare space in the frame bag and spare space in my Mr Fusion bag. I also have a 20L Sea To Summit Ultrasil Daypack in my Mr Fusion seatbag for extra food/drink capacity for the long stretches between resupply points, like the Great Basin. 

Tour Divide Preview - Bike and rider repair

The saying goes "You pack for your fears". This is is never more true than when trying to pack spare parts and tools for the Tour Divide. Your sources for bike parts and repair may range from a hardware store that carries the basics, to a full blown bike shop with top level mechanics, to something in between. Access to healthcare is sporadic. There are large stretches where you'll be on your own to repair your bike, or yourself, in a variety of conditions. While you can't afford to pack for absolutely every problem, you can plan for the things that are most likely to happen. Everything else can hopefully be adapted to or fixed when you get to a town.

Spare parts list

• In Jerrycan
• Spare Cleat w bolts
• Brake cable
• Shifter cable
• Fiberfix Spoke
• Spare length of chain
• Chainring bolt 
• Misc bolts (4)
• Vulcanizing patch kit
• Tire boots (2)
• Tubeless valve
• Quicklinks (2)
• Zip Ties (multiple)
• Brake pads (2 sets)
• In Framebag
• Stan's sealant
• Gorilla tape
• Spare tubes (2)

These parts don't take a huge amount of room and should get me out of the most common situations, and maybe even some less likely ones. I will be running my Race Kings tubeless to start the race. I plan on checking/refreshing the sealant at whatever shops I may stop at along the way. Even if my bike seems to be performing well, I may take advantage of a shop just to have a second set of eyes look the bike over. Since I'm not running suspension, brakes, tires and driveline will be at the top of the list of things that will need constant care and attention.

Tools

• In Jerrycan
• Tireiron
• Presta/Schrader adapter
• Multitool w chainbreaker
• Mini lineman's pliers
• Small pocket knife
• Old toothbrush
• In Framebag
• Small Rag
• Chain Lube
• Lezyne high volume bike pump
• Plastic putty knife

A small number of tools to allow for field repairs of the most common things as well as daily maintenance. I picked the linemans pliers up in a small pack at a local hardware store. A little more bite than a pair of needle nose, plus I wanted a decent pair of cutters to be able to trim cable and zip ties. 

Health / First Aid

• First Aid Kit (seat bag)
• Advil
• Benadryl
• Imodium
• Z-pack
• Curved needle w dental floss
• Safety pins
• Super glue
• Neosporin
• Butterfly bandages (5)
• Alcohol pads
• Tweezers
• Gauze pads (3 x 3")
• Gauze pads (3 x 2")
• Medical tape
• Rubber gloves
• Bandaids
• Moleskin
• Framebag
• Wet wipes
• Mountain Feedbag
• Deet
• Sunscreen
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste

This should cover most of the basics. The curved needle and dental floss is actually packed for sewing up sidewall cuts in tires, but in a highly unlikely pinch, it could be used for crudely stitching me together. The wet wipes will be used for a quick wipedown before bed, especially the seat area, and for other cleanup purposes. They pack flat and can be replenished along the route. I'll keep the used ones in a freezer bag until I get to a place to properly dispose of them. Advil for pain management until I get to a c-store and can buy more. Benadryl for allergies or bad bee/wasp stings. Imodium to try and quell diarrhea if it sets in for some reason. The toothbrush and toothpaste are unnecessary, but a quick brush every two or three days will help me feel a bit more human. 

Tour Divide Gear Preview - Electronics

Discussing electronics use during the Tour Divide can border on a religious argument. Early riders and many modern purists keep their electronics use to an absolute minimum - A Spot tracker to verify their route and a phone for use just in case of emergency. Others take a number of devices - Spot tracker, GPS, camera, iPod to name a few. No matter how many devices a rider takes, keeping them running takes some planning. You will either need to buy batteries along the route or figure out some other way way to keep your devices charged.

I will be using a GPS as my primary navigation device during the event, While I plan on keeping my social media use to a minimum during the race,  I will take plenty of photos along the route to share with friends and family after the race. I also want some music to help occupy my mind during some of the less scenic sections of the route, as well as to pick me up when I'm feeling a bit down or despondent. Since all of my devices have their own internal batteries, I will be using a combination of a dyno hub and a standard wall charger to keep my devices running.

For the remainder of this post, I'll be referring to this illustration (save this to your computer and open to follow along).

The heart of my solution is a Shuttle Precision PD-8X dyno hub. As long I'm moving above 6 MPH, I can generate electricity to power a light or charge a device. It's one of two thru-axle dyno hubs on the market. The other is made in Germany by Schmidt. The SP is about 2/3 of the cost of the Schmidt hub, and is nearly as efficient. It's a Ford vs Mercedes scenario. Both get you where you need to go, but one is a premium product. You can't really go wrong with either solution IMO. 

The power from the hub goes to a switch mounted on my stem. The switch allows me to direct the hub power to my light, or to a circuit that converts the hub's AC power DC power which can be used to charge any device that can charge from a computer's USB port.

My light is a kLite Bikepacker Pro w standlight. Klite is a one man operation located in Australia. All of the lights are hand built. Kerry, the owner, 3D prints as many of the accessory pieces as possible out of recycled plastic. The light system is made up of a small light head along with a small box that holds the electronics and a high/low switch. Kerry continually works to improve his products and his is especially good at incorporating feedback from his end users. The light I have now is a lot easier to wire up and a lot less fussy than the early unit I used. The light itself has performed brilliantly (pardon the pun), generates a lot of light at slow speeds, and really lights up the road when you are moving at even a medium pace.

The next piece of the system is the charging circuit. There are a number of these on the market, but since I have a carbon steer tube and fork, some of them are unusable since they will not work with a compression plug. After using a couple of other circuits, I decided to purchase a Sinewave Revolution unit from a local bike shop in Des Moines. The box is the size of a box of matches and the electronics are fully water sealed, allowing it to charge devices even when completely submerged. For now, the circuit, along with a small battery, lives in one of my Revelate feedbags. I am also carrying a small two port wall charger both as a back up and to allow me to recharge devices when stopped at a business for an extended period of time.

Power from the charging circuit then gets fed into a small "cache" battery. This helps protect sensitive devices from current fluctuations that could damage them. Depending on the charging circuit that you are using, you may want to the cache battery as a means to protect your device from fluctuations in current and voltage that may cause harm. (Note 5/5/15: Dave from Sinewave confirmed that their charging circuit provides this protection. Circuits from other vendors may or may not do the same thing. -SF)  The cache battery also allows a reasonable amount of power to be stored for use when I am not moving and not near a wall outlet. My battery has around 6000 mAh of capacity, which will recharge my GPS multiple times. Cables then go from the battery to the device that is being charged. The Sinewave, battery, and spare charging cables will be stored in a Revelate Feedbag hanging from my handlebars.

At this point, I am opting to use a Garmin 800 for navigation.  It's smaller and lighter than some of the etrex or Dakota units, but it is a bit less rugged. I have a Dakota that I might switch to, but I'm currently more comfortable with the 800, what data it records, and how it saves and retrieves data. No matter what GPS I use, they both have detailed street maps loaded on memory cards. The 800 is using Garmin's map card, while the Dakota 20 uses maps from the Open Street Map Project. I will also have a calibrated Cateye wireless computer mounted as an additional navigation safety net.

I will also carry a Gen 3 Spot tracker so that I can be tracked on the Trackleaders web site, let my wife know I'm OK, and call for help if needed.  I will run the Spot primarily from lithium AAA batteries. In my testing a set of batteries has lasted many days worth of use in the Gen 3 Spot units. If I have battery issues and I don't have a spare set, the Gen 3 can run from USB power as well. I'm using the standard 10 minute update cycle as I feel that's more than enough to offer accurate tracking and location for my needs. I did opt to spend the extra $15 or $20 per year to cover helicopter rescue. Call me paranoid, but it does provide some financial peace of mind.

I have a late model iPod Nano and a iPhone 6 that I'm bringing. The iPod will be for music and podcast listening. The iPhone will serve as a backup for my camera, iPod or GPS if one those devices develops an issue.

My main camera with be a Panasonic Lumix LX7 with a couple of large memory cards. It's a high quality, 10 MP point and shoot, with good low light performance. It can also save photos in camera RAW format, which will allow me to make adjustments to photos after the race is over. I can also shoot video with it if necessary. The Lumix uses a proprietary battery, so I have a separate USB battery charger and battery that I am bringing along so I always have the ability to take a photo.

Tour Divide Gear Preview - Sleep System

My sleep system consists of four items, all of which are stored in a 13L Outdoor Research compression drybag on my handlebars.

• Miles Gear Pico Bivy
• Enlightened Equipment Revelation 25F down quilt
• Thermarest NeoAir X-Lite air mattress (women's)
• Klymit Pillow X

I chose the Miles Gear Bivy as a starting point in my bivy testing and never really moved on to anything else. I knew that I might not be comfortable sleeping in a true bivy, like a Titanium Goat Ptarmigan and my experience with a Nemo GoGo Bivy I own has been positive, other than some condensation issues. I considered the Nemo Elite Bivy but it had some downsides - the price was high, and it still needed guy lines and stakes to work well. I wanted something that I could set up quickly, in just about any conditions, with a minimal amount of fuss. The Miles Gear Pico Bivy is a hooped bivy, with the bottom made out of Tyvek and the top made out of DWR material. It has a bit of extra room inside, so I can store some gear, as well as me. It also has bug netting and a full rain cover. One change that I did make was to swap out the stock plastic bivy hoop out for an appropriate length of 12 gauge wire. It's only a few grams lighter, but it packs down much better than the plastic hoop does. The bivy weighs about 18 oz and packs down reasonably well. Definitely not as small as the more traditional "bag" style bivvies, but small enough for me.

As a side and stomach sleeper, I need a solid pad to sleep on. The newer frame based pads just won't work for me, and they won't insulate as well when using a quilt. The X-Lite packs down extremely small, and weighs 12 oz w/o the stuff sack. The women's pad is a little bit shorter, and lighter than the men's pad. As a bonus, it has a slightly higher R value. Even though the pad only goes to just below my knees, I haven't had any issues with cold legs/feet when using the quilt. 

The EE quilt is fairly light at right around 19 ounces and has proven to be more than warm enough in my testing. It may end up being too warm, but we will see. I've slept in a merino shorts and a t shirt at just under 40F and been more than warm enough. Using my down coat, merino hat, shorts and leg warmers, I should be good to well under 20F, if necessary. I have an older model of the EE quilt that has square baffles that allow the down to be moved to where you want it. That has proven to be a problem, as the down tends to migrate to the edges over time, and not stay in the middle where it can keep me warm. I'm going to redistribute the down where I want it and sew the baffles shut to fix this issue. The newer models of this quilt use a tube baffle design that makes this issue less likely to occur. I went with a quilt vs a bag to save weight, and also to make the best use of the weight being carried. I'm not laying on half of the down and crushing it, like I would be in a bag, and wasting most of its insulating properties. The quilt actually weighs less than the 40F down bag I was going to use. I have been packing the sleeping bag inside of the bivy to help keep it dry and speed setup. This has worked OK as I haven't had any real issues with condensation on the inside of the bivy. If the bivy gets wet inside, I will move the quilt to the seat bag, and shove the dry bag with my sleeping clothes in the front roll.

I bought the Klymit pillow after some talk with Mike Johnson (a TD 2013 finisher) and others about quality sleep. My original plan was to use clothes inside of a stuff sack as a pillow. However if all of my clothes are hanging up to either air or dry out, I'll have nothing to use as a pillow. The pillow only weighs 2 ounces and blows up with two mouthfulls of air. It has a nice hollow X in the middle to cradle your head and not put a lot of pressure on your ear. Waking up without a sore neck is nice, and it's worth the extra cost and weight in my book.

I have been packing a silk sleeping bag liner with me, in case I needed extra insulation or don't need the warmth of the quilt. It packs down small and might come in handy on the south part of the course, but I may leave it at home. New Mexico would be where it would be the most useful, but I can just sleep in clothes if the quilt is too warm.

That was easy

Coach has me on a rest week this week. Hours and effort are backed down a notch or two. I did a 90 minute indoor ride yesterday with what I thought would be hard intervals, but it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. I had a call from my coach within a couple of hours of uploading my workout stats. We were both on the same page during the call - time to schedule another threshold power test. After a two hour spin this afternoon with three tempo intervals thrown in, I get a rest day tomorrow and the FTP test sometime this week. It will be interesting to see if my numbers go up. Based on how I'm feeling right now, I'm sure they will, but I have no idea how much, but, to some extent, I really don't care. I just want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to finish in Antelope Wells in 2015. Have to keep moving the bar up and leaping over it to make that happen. Remainder of my training is going well. I'm starting to really enjoy the strength training. I'm sure that it's responsible for some of how I feel on the bike right now. Need to constantly expand the boundaries there too, and add in some different exercises to keep things fresh.

I spent some time over the last few days making decisions re: gear and filling in some holes here and there. I ordered a new light from Kerry at klite. I bought his new 1000/600 model with the hour standlight. Probably way more light than I need, but I'd rather be a little over prepared in this department. I want people to be able to see me dusty or rainy weather, along with being able to see at night. I also picked up a Kemo Electronic dyno to usb charger. It should keep my GPS and any other devices charged if I can't get power from a regular outlet. 

To finish out my sleep system, I am going to start with a women's Thermarest Neoair XLite pad. The women's pad has a slightly higher R rating than the standard pad, but it's also 6" shorter than the regular sized pad. I borrowed one from a friend and tried it out on my living room floor and I think it will work fairly well. It took me about 16 breaths to blow it up. With that amount of air, I wasn't hitting the floor sleeping on either my back, side, or stomach. 

Rumor has it that my Fargo will be shipping to the shop this week. If that's true, it will make for a happy Valentine's Day for me. :)

Gear and stuff

Last weekend was interesting. The Polar Vortex was on it's way down to us, and I needed to get a three hour ride in. I put a post up on Facebook earlier in the week and got a few takers for a three hour 8 AM gravel ride, scheduled to beat the arctic blast. We started with nine people, including one fat bike, but quickly whittled down to seven before we left town. Normally, I don't want to leave people behind at the start of a ride. I told the front riders to go ahead as I turned around to give the last two riders a windbreak and bridge them back up to the group. It was obvious there was something else going on than just cold legs, so we parted ways, and I caught back up to the main group. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. I wanted to keep the route as flat and steady as I could, so we headed west towards Van Meter and, eventually DeSoto. tLots of small rollers, and a cold WNW wind kept us company for the trip out. We took a brief stop at a local convenience store to grab some food and warm up a bit, then headed back. The wind had shifted slightly north, so we didn't have as much of a tailwind as we expected. The few northbound sections were particularly brutal as they were almost all uphill and into the cold wind. We ended up back at the starting coffee shop right at 11 AM. We were cold, but not terribly worked over. A few of us sat around, talked while we had a warm up cup of joe, and then headed for home. When I got home, I was pleased to hear that my wife had bundled up and headed on for an errand ride that morning as well. Her assessment of the wind was identical to mine.

Sunday arrived, as did "The Vortex". Since I had a complete rest day on my schedule, I turned on the fireplace and started digging into more route and gear research. I had slowly whittled potential sleep system candidates down to about 4 in each of the categories for shelter, pad, and insulation. After more reading that afternoon, I finally made the decision to just start with something, and resell anything that didn't workout after some testing. So my starting setup is -

Milesgear Pico Bivy - I had looked at their UberBivy a few years ago. Going back to his site I saw this new, smaller bivy, made with the same materials. It's relatively light at 568g (not including the ground cloth) and was fairly inexpensive at $160 shipped. Most important to me was that, unlike my Nemo bivy, it doesn't require any stakes to use. No stakes or cord to fumble with when setting up, and no stakes to forget somewhere on the route. I'll be able to set it up on a picnic table or a slab of rock if necessary. Packed down, it rolls into a cylinder that's 12" long and 5" in diameter. I'm going to use it with the stock one piece pole that it was supplied with, and see how well the pole packs up. I may end up with a corded metal pole as a replacement. My interactions with Dave Miles were easy and pleasant. The bivy was delivered this week. Initial reaction is that it's a bit noisy, but it's also made of tyvek and hasn't been used yet. A bit of scrunching or maybe a water only trip through the washer should take care of that. The space inside is more than adequate. Will report back on how well it breathes and waterproofness after it warms up a bit.

Enlightened Equipment Revelation quilt - With good down quilts and sleeping bags being fairly expensive, I opted to try and find something that was lightly used as a starting point. A post on the backpackinglight.com Gear Swap forum netted a couple of leads and I ended up with a long, 850-fill goose down model. I tend to sleep a bit on the cold side, so I wanted something in the 20-25F range. The long length might be overkill, but I can always shorten the quilt up myself, or resell and find a shorter model. The quilt should show up this week and I'll report more on it then.

I'm still working out a sleep pad option, but I'm a stomach sleeper so some of the superlight X-frame pads are out. I have a loaner Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite on loan from a friend. It's a short pad, so it will only go to my knees. I'm not sure if it will be enough to keep me warm, but I hope to test that out soon. If not, that same pad in a regular length is an option, assuming I can handle the noise. I have other pads from Nemo and Klymit on my short list too.

I also invested in some rain gear to test. While posting for my bag on the BPL forums, I came across a guy selling some lightly used pac-lite based rain gear for a price I couldn't pass up. The gear itself is from Luke's Ultralight. I ended up with a pair of pants and a seam sealed raincoat for $110 shipped. The coat has a bit more cloth in the sleeves than I expected, but the body has plenty of coverage for when I'm in a riding position on the bike. This particular coat also had the pit zips installed for some extra ventilation. Again, I hope to test this gear out sometime soon.

I also made a dyno hub choice during the last couple of weeks. I opted to save a bit of money and go with the Shuttle Precision PD-8X dyno hub instead of the equivalent SON. I've seen a number of the SP hubs in action and they have all seemed to work as well as the SON. I don't know if it will have the extreme lifetime that the SON claims, but I think it will be adequate to the task at hand. It also shipped with a QR adapter, which is a nice touch.

I've been taking it easy on the riding the last couple of days due to straining a muscle in my left leg. This is the same tightness that I had a couple of weeks ago, but I think that walking lunges appear to be the root cause of the issue. My long Saturday ride turned into a light spin/rest day with a lot of work on the foam roller to get things to loosen up. More ice, foam roller, and Trameel today to get it back in working order.