CRAZINESS: I want to bike LOTOJA!

For people who know me, it's not a surprise (or maybe it is, I don't know) that I have this insane obsession with biking. I love it! I'd love to be on the bike all the time, for hours at a time. Having young kids makes that less doable, but I'd still like to. The summer before the boys were born (2010) I did a solo half-century ride around Bear Lake in Utah/Idaho, and I loved it. This fall (2012) I play to do an "organized" metric century ride in that starts/ends in Cary, NC (only a few miles from where we live now). Next summer will probably be a century ride somewhere or other (most likely NC, since we'll still be here). The ultimate goal in all this is LOTOJA! It's a lovely insane single day bike race from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Someone who raced it in 2011 did a "Map My Ride" route of it, and since have removed the fly-over courtesy of Google Maps... it was HUGE!  If you curious, go to "Map My Ride" and search 2011 LOTOJA... you'll find it.

So yes, I'm insane, crazy, and everything in between.

I'm going to try to get a picture this afternoon of my current bike setup.  Like I said, it's hard to bike with young kids, but I've found a way.  Did you know that a tall 3 1/2 year old can "ride" a 20 inch Trail-a-Bike, and that a two-seat bike trailer/stroller will attach to a Trail-a-Bike?  That means that (so long as I can find safe areas to bike, of which there are some in our area) I can reasonably do training rides up to about 45 minutes (the duration of the 3yo's saddle tolerance).  So when I'm feeling very daring, I put the TAB on my bike, the bike trailer on the TAB, the barely 1yo twins into the bike trailer, straddle my bike, help the 3yo onto the TAB, and off we go!  When you pull over 75 pounds of kids plus the TAB (around 30 pounds, is my guess) and the bike trailer (about 33 pounds), plus everything they think they need with them, you end up with around/over 140 pounds of extra weight in training, which makes the actual racing/individual rides a LOT easier.  It's one of the best training method I've ever heard of (and also the best one I have at the moment, with little kids at home).

Sariah was the photographer, which is why she's not by her bike.  It still needs some tweaking to do... the TAB starts leaning toward the trailer attachment side after a couple miles.  I'm trying to get Christopher to work on that one!  And the white thing in front of the TAB handle bars... Sariah drew a map to the library, then taped it on so she would know how to get there :).