Year 2020

So what's up in 2020 ? I should go back to RAAM after my failure in 2018 just a few hours short.

One could think this picture is from 2015 but no, this, in fact, is really from 2019.

RAAM, for a bit of context, is about biking 3100 miles across the USA, from the West Coast to the East Coast, in a maximum allowed time of exactly (exactly) 12 days.

To prepare this, I'm going to run, as usual, but most of my training will obviously happen on a bike.

• Sat, March 14th : long solo ride, about 160 miles, from my place to the sea (Dieppe, English Channel), following a well-know touristic road.
• Sat, March 21st - Sun, March 22nd: Paris - Le Havre - Paris about 320 miles cycling, solo, 2 days.
• Sat, March 22nd - Sun, March 29th: Paris - Lille - Paris about 240 miles cycling, solo, 2 days.
• Sat, April 11th - Mon, April 13th: Paris - Cherbourg - Paris about 510 miles cycling, solo, 3 days.
• Sat, April 18th - Sun, April 19th: Paris - Calais - Paris about 370 miles cycling, solo, 2 days.
• Thu, April 30th - Sun, May 3rd: Paris - Bordeaux - Paris about 800 miles cycling, solo, 4 days.
• Thu, May 7th - Mon, May 11th: Paris - Luchon - Paris about 1100 miles cycling, solo, 5 days.
• Thu, May 21th - Mon, May 25th: Paris - Briançon - Paris environ 970 miles cycling, solo, 5 days.
• Say, May 30thg - Mon, Jun 1st: Paris - Strasbourg - Paris environ 620 miles cycling, solo, 3 days.
• Tue, Jun 16th - Sun, Jun 28th : RAAM, solo, 3100 miles cycling, 12 days.
• Sun, Sep 6th: Paris half Marathon, 13 miles runing.
• Sat, Sep 26th: 100km de Millau, 100k (63 miles) running.
• Sat, Oct 3rd: Paris Ecotrail, 50 miles trail run.
• Sun, Oct 18th: Paris Marathon, 26 miles running
• Thu, Oct 22rd - Sat, Oct 24th or Sun, Oct 25th: Infinity trail ÃŽle d'Aix, a "big backyard ultra", it's about running 4 miles and change per hour, and keep this pace as long as possible, last man (or women) standing wins.
• end of November: a final "surprise" race (details to come)

Finally, after 8 months of waiting, a 2020 race. Wow.

An insightful reader would notice that my rythm on all these flèches cyclotouristes (solo bike rides) my pace is just below 220 miles per day, when for RAAM I meed to do just over 260 miles per day. So where have these 40 miles and change gone ? One has to consider those miles miles are "solo, without any crew" miles, and this does have a cost. I will have to handle food, sleep logistics, all by myself. Also this year I will use, for those, an old mountain bike I converted to a gravel-like "randonneur" bike, with paniers and all the rest. This is heavy gear and will slow me down. But the training, as far as legs and mind are concerned, is still great. All in all it will represent about 5000 miles of solid "long distance" training.

AHHHHH BUT I'M JUST INFORMED THERE IS A WORLDWIDE RAGING PANDEMIC AND THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD.

Well, no, not exactly. But the latest COVID-19 events have, let's face it, a significant impact on race plans. RAAM has been cancelled, postponed to 2021.

So I had to build a B plan .