Team RB4/BIAK, from Louisville, KY, finished Team RAAM 2001 in 6 days, 20 hours and 20 minutes. In addition to being accomplished athletes they are all busy professional women, average age 45, and have families. They finished only 19 hours behind Team Vail, four men 20 years their junior! They finished only eight hours off the women's Team RAAM record, set in 1996 on a flatter, southerly course by four women in their 30s.

How did Team RB4/BIAK manage to juggle everything and prepare for this tough race? What can we learn and apply to our busy lives? I interviewed the riders and their coach. This is what I learned.

In September 2000 Christina Norris and Nancy McElwain were talking over dinner about their goals for the next year. In addition to doing Ironman Hawaii, Norris said some day she'd like to ride her bike across America. McElwain asked if she'd ever heard of RAAM. "I told her that I had heard of it but did not consider myself a good enough biker to get involved in something like that. Nancy 'poo-poohed' my lack of confidence and told me I ought to consider it; she thought she could pull the rest of the team together if I were interested. I went home and asked my husband if he thought that I would be crazy if I told him that I wanted to race my bike across the U.S. He said it just sounded like me and said he would be on board. The rest is history!"

The four women who came together to form the team were all accomplished athletes before deciding to do Team RAAM:

• Anne Huntington, age 53, has won national medals in the time trial, road race and criterium. She is an ophthalmologist currently practicing in Louisville, KY and is past president of the Louisville Bicycle Club Racing Team.
• Della Irby, 38, has completed 13 marathons and 13 mini marathons. She is a Vice President at Bank of Louisville, Manager of Merchant Services. She is also a certified spin/cycle instructor and teaches four classes per week at the YMCA.
• Nancy McElwain, 45, is a triathlete and runner. She owns Train Smart, Inc., a triathlon and cycling coaching business. She is also an attorney specializing in medical malpractice defense at Stites & Harbison.
• Christina Norris, 45, specializes in Olympic and half-Ironman triathlons. Norris practices law full-time as solo practitioner concentrating in civil rights and general litigation.

An important component of their success is that they were already athletes and aerobically fit. They understood training and competition. Irby said before the race that she entered it "for the challenging competition. I look forward to pushing myself to my physical limits and as a team achieving the goals we have set for ourselves."

They began training in November by riding base miles. Since the riders all lived in Louisville, they could do their long, weekend rides together. However, since they are busy professional women, they trained on their own Monday through Friday.

For example, Irby taught spin classes and incorporated her class time into her training. She cross-trained with swimming and running and said that "running gave me the endurance I needed in RAAM." Norris "put in a lot of hours on the rollers between 5:30 and 9:00 a.m. before going to work." Rather than following a formulaic plan to build their base, each woman fit her training around her schedule and athletic interests.

I asked how many miles each rode to prepare for RAAM. One woman said "we worked on riding as many miles as we could indoors and out up through March when we hired a coach. I cannot tell you how many miles I actually rode from January through the start of the race. I know that I saw many miles of the Kentucky countryside during this training."

In early March the riders hired Martha Grinnell to coach them. Grinnell was a pro triathlete from 1992 to 2000, member of five US World Championship Triathlon Teams, cross-country and track coach at Smith College and coach of the National Junior Triathlon Team at the Olympic Training Center.

Grinnell started by sending a questionnaire to each of them. It asked questions about current and past training and racing history, work schedule, family commitments and any other hobbies or activities they were involved with outside of training. Their answers gave her a pretty good idea of what a typical day was like. She also asked them the maximum amount of time that they could dedicate to training for a week. This set the limits she had to play with in terms of training hours.

She also learned a lot about each rider as a person through telephone conversations. "I understood how tiring it could be to get up early and be a Mom, go to work all day and then come home and be Mom again. The training part was a delicate balance of trying to make them stronger without breaking them down. Often times they would ride either early in the morning or after work. Weekends were the time where they were able to get the longer rides in. To be honest, I'm not even sure how they did it! Somehow, they made the training a priority knowing it would all be over after RAAM. They hung in there." Although they were all busy women, they had made a commitment to doing the race and RAAM was a priority in each of their lives and for their families.

"I understood how tiring it could be to get up early and be a Mom, go to work all day and then come home and be Mom again."

Hiring a coach also allowed them to make the best use of their limited time to train. Joe Friel says "An athlete should do the least amount of the most specific training that brings continual improvement." Cyclist's Training Bible, p. 8.

When Grinnell became their coach, she only had 15 weeks until RAAM. "I broke down the training into two 6-week cycles. The last couple of weeks were taper weeks. We followed a pattern of two weeks 'on' or 'build' followed by one week 'off', or recovery the whole way through. The longest ride they took was a six hour ride. My way of thinking was that each of them were going to be taking about ten 30 minute pulls each day which adds up to five hours of riding each day. I did not see the logic in having them ride mega long sessions."

"I wanted them to get 'The most bang out of there buck' so to speak. So, I focused on quality, technique and lots of steady state (RAAM simulation) riding. These women were already aerobically fit. It was more important to me that they were able to physiologically handle the demands of the terrain and elements that might cause their heart rate to jump and settle throughout the ride."

"I focused on quality, technique and lots of steady state (RAAM simulation) riding."

The training included plenty of intensity. The first six weeks they rode hill repeats to build strength. They would alternate one week of shorter, more intense hill repeats with another week of more sustained climbing. They had to be prepared for both types of climbing on the RAAM course. These repeats took their heart rates well past lactate threshold.

The rest of the week included one quality three hour ride with steady, subthreshold or "tempo" intervals ranging between 8-10 minutes, two shorter recovery rides and one 4-6 hour distance ride or Team RAAM simulation ride. On the long ride or Team RAAM simulation ride (when they all were able to get together) each of them took turns pulling at the front for 10 to 30 minutes throughout the whole ride. During that time in the front, the effort was "strong, slightly uncomfortable, but in control".

The second six weeks were similar. Grinnell replaced the hill repeats with more rolling or flat land intervals that also brought them up to threshold. These developed their speed. The team also did two 24 hour simulation rides, one in April and one in May. These simulation rides allowed them to practice exchanges, train crew, and work out the bugs before RAAM. Their training volume was never excessive. The highest weekly cycling volume was between 13 and 17 hours (towards peak) depending on the individual. The lowest was between 6 and 8 hours.

Nonetheless, the training was intense, especially given other demands for their time and attention. During the build-up Grinnell was aware that "it would have been be so easy for any one of these women to really get sick or injured! Or just say 'You know what, I can't do this'. I had to keep that in mind at all times. Training had to be fun for them, so I was creative with the workouts when trying to accomplish various goals."

Grinnell also encouraged cross-training which was "a terrific way for them to move their bodies in different directions and call upon the action of other muscle groups besides those used in cycling. In the end, I think it kept them away from injury." Several of the women incorporated yoga into their training as a way to increase flexibility while maintaining core strength. Yoga also served as a form of relaxation, which was important. A few of the women also raced in triathlons and swam a couple of times a week and also ran.

An important part of their preparation was their commitment to each other as a team. They were a team not only during RAAM, but also in training. "There were several occasions when they could have fallen apart as a Team due to other outside factors, but they worked through all the obstacles by talking with each other and communicating with me at all times. We learned to solve problems. Racing RAAM is only half of the goal. Getting to the starting line is the real challenge!" said Martha. "All four of these women were incredibly mentally tough and extremely determined not to let one another down."

As Irby said before the race "The primary reason I decided to participate in Team RAAM is exactly that...TEAM. Sharing the physical challenge with three other athletes and a crew of 12 will be very rewarding. The relationships shared and friendships made will last a lifetime." Team RB4/BIAK was four women who were all strong athletes and experienced cyclists. They hired a coach who understood each of their busy lives and fit training into the real world. The coach knew what was required for success in RAAM and tailored the training specifically to the race, so there was no wasted time or effort. The team was fortunate that they lived near each other, could train together, and learn to race as a team before arriving at the starting line.