Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The ebb and flow of RAAM

Rob's average speed has come way down over the last 110 miles or so. The cell phone service is very spotty and I had a brief chat with Kate and Mike Perron at around 5:30 PM.

Nothing specific to report, other than a couple of extended nature breaks and that seem to account for the slower speeds.

The numbers don't lie. For example: The distance between TS 10 and TS 11 was 45 miles. If Rob did that in three hours, that would have meant 15 mph average speed, which would have been on the slow side, but not out of line with some of the other racers.

Rob's average speed was 12.3. Mike told me he took two 20-minute bathroom breaks between TS 10 and TS 11. Tack 40 minutes onto three hours and your get an average speed of... 12.3. There you have it.

This is RAAM. Sometimes you're up and sometimes you just have to dial it back and let the body do what it needs to do.

Rob knows this as well as anyone out there. He's riding well. Now that whatever was in his system is out, we'll keep an eye out for a return to a more typical pace.

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