Episode 3: The Art of the Buddy System, Part 2, with Aliza Richman and Deann Garcia

In Episode 3, we continue to hear from Aliza Richman and Deann Garcia about their experience with their first bike packing race as a duo.  Make sure to check out Episode 2 where we cover tons of information including details about The Big Lonely, eating, what the race start was like, etc. 

In this episode we talk more about food and snacks, sleeping, and race strategy and what went well and what didn't.  Keep listening to see if Aliza and Deann finish the race and what they learned along the way.  

Transcript

Karey:

 Hi, and welcome back. We are doing take-two or part two of the big lonely recap with. Deann Garcia and Aliza Richmond.  We went through tons of stuff in our last episode. So make sure to check that out, if you haven't already. We've covered kind of their rundown of the race, the start day, the preparation, any body aches, ailments, that type of thing that went into preparing for this adventure race. And so now we're going to continue. We're going to cover food. We're going to cover teamwork, adventure buddies, all that good stuff. So stay tuned and get ready for some more big lonely action. 

[MUSIC TRANSITION]

Karey:

We've covered so much, so let's actually… Tell anything about the food, like your stomach. I mean, that's the last discomfort that you guys have mentioned, like, what happened?  

Deann: 

So winners were sweet potatoes.  So, like, the first day I just boiled some sweet potatoes the night before and I ate those and Aliza had some too on that first day.

They really weren't going to last for three days out there. I really wished I'd had some on the last day because they go down really easy and they have a lot of great calories in it. The general thing though is just that by the third day, like, I think both of us when we woke up in the morning on the third day, we couldn't put food down.

So we had a really light breakfast and that put us behind. And so that whole last day was like playing catch up and neither of us wanted to be getting pushed to the point of puking. So we were eating less to avoid the vomit comet. So…[Aliza], what were those gels you had that, like, went straight through your stomach?

Aliza:

Maurten.

Karey:

Maurtin!  I swear by them right now!

Deann:

Yeah, that's like, that's the one thing that you can get down when you feel like you can't get anything else down. It bypasses the stomach. 

Karey:

Yep. And they carry more grams per, like, thing of pure carb, so your body can absorb it faster with like less mass of product or whatever. That was a horrible description, anyway. Deann, did you try one? 

Deann: 

Yeah, Aliza luckily gave me one at about, I don't know, four o'clock in the morning on the last day. I was like, I'm bonking so hard and I can't put any food in. 

Karey: 

Totally. Yeah, so the texture is something to behold. I'll tell you what! 

Deann: 

Yeah, haven't you been to a frat party? 

Karey:

Yeah, it's like almost a jello shot, but then you're like…I have to bite this kind of, but then like not, but then what I love is that it just goes down and there's none of that sticky residue. And then it doesn't make my stomach go weird at all. And it's like, instant, I feel okay.

Deann: 

It's like a jello shot. And I was like, “I don't really understand how it could possibly be a jello shot.” And then I ate one. And I was like, “that is a jello shot.” Yeah. 

Karey:

So what kinds of things did you have that you thought you would like that didn't really work for you?  

Aliza: 

I had a lot of just candy, thinking, like,  I can eat candy. And I just could not eat sugar anymore.

I just had enough sugar and I got and I was kind of able to get like gummy bears. And gummy worms in, but,  but I brought like a Snickers bar, I brought some chocolate, some M& Ms, and I just… I could not handle the sugar anymore. The thing that kind of saved me when I was feeling  nauseous was I had Tailwind that I put in my water bottle.

And so at least I was getting some electrolyte and calories through that. And I just, I would just take small sips, and it definitely wasn't enough calories, but it was something. Yeah. And there's hydration as well. Liquid hydration I think was super key. I wished I'd had a couple more tailwinds on the last day, but part of it too is that we didn't actually plan to be riding our bikes on Monday  

 Always in previous bike tours, it's like… you can always get a Snickers bar down, if nothing else.  And I had several of them that I never even, I just couldn't even imagine putting in my mouth on the last day. 

Karey:

How was the temperature? Do you think that had something to do with it? Or like during the day, was it warm?

Deann:

Well, for the first day, it was warm. It was really warm actually. . , so that probably contributed to our hydration status. 

Karey: 

I mean, it also affects how well your stomach can digest. You know what I mean? And so like if you're, if you're depleted , it's like once you kind of pass that point of..your body's like shut down.  No.

Deann:

 I was way behind on water on the last day  and made a couple of bad decisions. So, Jesse that organizes the race, had put a neutral water drop out at about a mile to 60  something because there was no water for a mile. 200 to 300. So he had put some water out and I wish I had filled more because what I didn't anticipate was how long it would take us to do the next 40 miles. 

That was the slowest part of the entire ride. I think it's right when the washboard got bad and the  grade got a little steeper and the headwind got worse and I went through all my water. And then  we were also not making great decisions. I think when we were at the lake, we were looking around everywhere for a spigot and couldn't find one.

So we had to filter out of the lake and it was dark. It was like, almost 10 PM and I should have filled my bottles,  but instead I was like, oh, I'm just gonna, I'll just fill my filter.  And use it if I need it. And like, yeah, I needed it because it took us seven more hours to finish and I had like two liters of water and that was not enough.

Karey:

It's tired brain.  Yeah,  the next adventure, don't let anybody not fill their waters.  I don't care how heavy it is going up the hill!

Deann, what was your, what was your water capacity? 

Deann:

So I had two one liter bottles plus most of a liter bottle. And then I also had a one liter filter bag.

And then I had a two liter bladder that was for my emergency only bladder and I had thought before we learned about the water drop that was happening on the third day I had been planning to fill that and carry that so then I would have had one two, three, four, five and a half But I basically was carrying three at all times   

Aliza:

I have water anxiety so I pretty much was carrying…Every time I would fill up I'd fill up like five liters except for maybe the first day.  Yeah, I had like five liters and then I had the capacity to have another three liters of net if needed. 

That was in my filter, but I never filled that up.  

Karey:

So yeah, complete your journey. You mentioned, so you're trying to do it in three days.  And that didn't go as planned because of all the things and the terrain and, you know, all that stuff. So what did you guys end up doing? Where did you spend your last night?

And like, what was the last day like? Like, what time did you get going in the morning? That kind of thing.  

Deann:

Our last day, we kind of had a loose plan that we were going to get up at 3 a. m. and start writing. But we'd gotten into town in just about an hour later than we'd expected and then it just took a little bit more to get to bed that night. So we decided to sleep until 4:30AM, I think. I think we were on our bikes at 5, so if things had gone according to plan, we still would have finished around 1AM. So we were still counting on just sort of riding through.  What actually happened was that we hit the high point of the race at 9PM. and then we went down a really steep, long, long descent to the bank of Paulina Lake. Where we wasted like an hour trying to deal with water and also it was insanely cold at the lake. 

So we get to the lake and we like throw all of our clothes on and then we're doing water stuff and In in that hour or so plus the descent down below. I think my legs froze up a little bit So we started to climb out from the lake at around 10 and made it  500 yards  before I called it,  , we just flopped down basically on the side  like there was another little climb, so we're like this might be the flattest place we can find . So we flopped down like two feet off the trail on a flat ish spot.  We both ended up outside our fly, like our feet were down  after a couple hours  and that was with about 45 miles to go.

We set our alarms for 1:30AM, I think. We got in the tent around 10PM, maybe. The goal was to try to sleep for like three hours. I think I maybe slept for like, maybe two hours, maybe. Set the alarm for 1:30. I think we were on the trail by 2:00AM and it was just like a climb out back up to the other side, the other rim of Paulina and then alll downhill from there, which is false. False! There are these sections, it's really fun. I've done the trail before and I remember there being some hike-a-bike, but you just don't remember that. You just think it's like a long, epic downhill,  but you'd get to these sections and there are just these just painful hike-a-bike walls that you're just like pushing your bike up and over.

And it's like, there's multiple of them.  And it just slows you down. It doesn't even like, it's where, you know, the Garmin is supposed to show you. It wasn't, it wasn't even red on the Garmin. It said like, “Oh, you have like 2000 feet of climbing left.” Oh yes…climb up like a 300 foot wall and then it would still say you have 2,000 feet of climbing left and it was all lies.

It's all lies!

Deann:

And the other part was that the rocks in that area, like most of the volcanic areas of Oregon are basalt. And they're really heavy rocks and they're very predictable when you hit them. Well, the backside of... Paulina is pumice, so rocks and they are really unpredictable and they fly all over the place. 

It was really nerve wracking for it to be three o'clock in the morning, 315 miles into a 350 mile race on a rigid bike. We're just running on headlamps and lamps on the bikes. I think we averaged four miles an hour downhill during that section. We had thought penciling it and we were like, oh, that lasts 50 miles.

We're gonna go 10 miles an hour. It's all downhill.  

Karey: 

Oh, so how long did it…

Deann:

It took seven hours. Seven hours. Seven hours to go, like, the last like 40 miles  And then it's like rollers for 13 miles back to Bend, which each of those just felt like a punch in the face.  It was like Monday morning traffic. . 

Well, then the best part is that the race finishes on top of Pilot Butte, which is, like, a volcano inside Bend proper in the city. And so here we are in our granny gears going up this 400 foot climb to the top, going super slow.

And there are these people out walking their dogs in the morning, having this nice little walk. And here we are like, just like totally ragged bikepackers who look, like, totally tired and granny-gearing it to the top, super slow.  And all these people are like, “Oh, you guys are doing so great!”

And we're like, “You don't even know what we've been through!”

We've literally been uphill both ways. We don't even know how. 

Karey: 

I mean, I was definitely dot watching and... I just, I knew because when I was there [in Bend], Aliza, you pointed out, “Oh, the race comes out right here and then we have to ride this road all the way into town.” And I know the view. And so when I saw you guys were on that portion, I was like, “Oh, they're hating life right now.” You were winding up and [the dot] is going like, so slow.  

Deann:

And Karey, you texted us literally as we rounded the corner. 

Karey:

That's  amazing! 

Aliza: 

 I want to say, I want to say someone, I don't know, maybe it was you or someone else texted us. “It's all downhill from there.” And I think that text came through to my AirPods as I was hiking up a section and I was like, “it is not, I'm hiking my bike up a hill right now!”

Karey: 

You told us to send jokes!

Aliza: 

Yeah, that was not a funny joke!

Karey:

It sounds like such an epic adventure. I sort of want to try it sometime! 

Aliza:

I... I kind of want to do it again next year. I'm going to make some changes. Use the suspension fork. I think now that I've done it with, as a team and I know what it's like, I think I've always been kind of fearful of riding alone. And I think that maybe this would be a good one now that I'm familiar with it.

And I know that like there's other people out there, but we'll see. It  was a lot of commitment to, to commit to that, you know, and train for that. 

Deann:

So, yeah. for me, that's the part that will probably stop me from doing many more of these races. It really was a year of commitment to be ready for it. And  it's just hard to maintain that. 

Karey:

Yeah, especially when, I mean, we love to do all the things. Mm-Hmm. and  so it's hard because also, you know, Deann, your partner, he also loves to adventure. So there's stuff you wanna do with him and Aliza has…people in her life as well…

But would you guys say that now that you've experienced a race-type setting, two things: Do you prefer [just touring or racing?] Or are they just two completely different experiences? Do you think it was a lot different of a commitment level than if you were just like out riding this ride or any other ride? Like, what's  the difference?  

Aliza: 

Well, I don't think we would do a tour riding 100 miles a day and 10, 000 feet of elevation gain. Like, I just don't think that ever happens.

I mean, that's not the point of having a tour and going bikepacking and having an adventure. Like, even when we did the Colorado Trail , Karey, like, we still were sleeping seven hours a night, and we would have time at camp in the morning, time at camp in the evening, you know, and even though it was hard, it was still a tour.

Yeah. But this is, yeah, totally different. Like, trying to go fast, trying to minimize your weight, like, making all these sacrifices. Yeah. It's just different.  

Deann:

I think one thing I've really loved about it is... I'm insanely fit and it feels really good and I did a lot of rides this summer that I would not normally be able to complete like one day I decided I was going to ride the C2C route which is a bikepacking route that a lot of people do in two days and I decided I was going to ride the whole thing both directions in one day.

So I rode 112 miles and I just got on my bike and did it. And there's no way that without this race  as a carrot or as like, you know, a driving force behind it, I would never have been fit enough to just decide one day I was going to do that.  So that's pretty awesome.  Every time we've done a big thing like that, like the three of us, we all did the Oregon timber trail together and my level of fitness at the end of that, I just felt amazing.

Like, I'm a super woman and I wanted to keep it and it's too hard to keep that. Like just maintaining that, especially through an Oregon winter is next to impossible. So there's definitely part of me that's like, what, what is going to keep me that fit next time? Cause I want to live my life being that fit, but without me having to sacrifice everything else in my life to do it. 

Karey:

It's  like sustainability. Because so my problem that happens sometimes is when I do these big things I'm so exhausted afterwards that then I don't ride for X-amount of time and I'm eating all the things and then all of a sudden it's been like three weeks or two weeks before I've gotten another good workout in and I'm just commuting like to the coffee shop.

 So that's the thing for me is like trying to find that balance between really pushing yourself and having these goals or like, you know, maybe these once or twice a year, whatever they are, but also having your fun times enough that figuring out ways to push yourself, but not to the brink of exhaustion, but still getting that like  fitness and having the mojo to want to do it. 

Deann:

I'm freaking out a little bit right now, just with my hand injury. I can't ride a bike. And it's been nine days or whatever since we finished and I'm now at the point where I'm like, I want to go ride. I'm ready to go ride, but I can't, I can't go climbing. I can't really lift weights. So I think I'm going to start swimming again as a way of exercise, just  triage here.

Maybe that's something I can do without hurting my hand. But  I guess that's the flip side is when you push your body to the limit like this, you're, you're setting yourself up for the potential of literally not being able to continue to push it because you break.  Yeah. 

Karey:

But, you know, on the other side, it's probably good, though, that we're giving our bodies a break anyways.

Aliza:

And yeah, we're losing some fitness, but we're not losing all the fitness. 

Karey:

Which is important. The rest and recovery is just as important, and your mental, and all that stuff, to come back to it fresh. And, like Aliza said, you're not losing all the fitness, even though it seems like, absolutely. You are, and you know, don't freak out. Its just to say that Aliza is like, on her way to Nepal to hike the Annapurna circuit, so she's gonna maintain some fitness. 

Aliza:

Different kind of fitness. 

Karey:

So Aliza is going… tomorrow, on a big adventure.  That's very exciting!  Do you have, while we're on you, do you have any other bike goals for this year, the beginning of next year, anything like that? 

I'm doing, not riding a bike. I'm doing the Birkebeiner again…cross country ski race.

And that's in February. And actually, well, I do make my yearly trip to Phoenix to ride with you guys. So probably March, you'll see me like last year. 

Karey:

Perfect! And Deann, what about you? Do you have any goals?  

Deann:

I have a couple things I'm planning for next year that are less hardcore. I'm gonna do the White Rim, but I'm not doing it fast and I'm doing it with some first time bikepackers, my friends I'm doing that with have never done a bikepacking trip.  

I like the idea of  being able to head to Nepal next fall to do an enduro mountain biking trip on the Thompson Munctonath area with World Ride. I'm not planning anything that's going to like push my body's limits next year. I want to learn to surf and I want to spend more time swimming in lakes and doing things like that.

So since I was so focused this year, next year I want to do the opposite and be like super scatterbrained and do everything.

Karey:

 Perfect!  That's my year this year. Running, rock climbing, and whatever else I'm trying to do. Baking, and...  Well, is there anything else you want to add? Any tips?

Deann:

 I'm just glad I did it, and I'm proud I finished. 

Karey:

Yay!

Aliza: 

 I'm proud I finished, I'm proud I got to do it with Deann.  I couldn't think of a better partner, and I feel very grateful that we had the experience together. I think everything just went so well, as well as it could possibly go, and I'm very grateful for that. 

Deann:

You know, more promoters should do duos, because that was a huge plus to just trying this out.

I think the barrier, if, if either of us had tried to do this alone, it would have been... So much harder to just  make that first trip. And I mean, obviously there's people who do it, but this was a much easier entry point and I think it should be something that's embraced a little bit more.  

Karey:

So how many duo teams were there?

Deann:

Three. Well, there were two duos and then there was a thruple who only finished as a single. So that didn't really count. 

Aliza:

We were the first and only team that finished. 

And then only three women finished. We were all just three hours behind Cassidy, who was the only female, so big props to her because she didn't sleep and she just kept moving the whole time. 

Yeah, very, very impressive. 

Karey:

That's cool.  

Deann:

A little bit interesting is this year, also the week after we did it, they did the Big Lonely backwards as just a test sort of race. And three people started, two of them quit within the first 25 miles because it snowed. So like we got off Paulina peak and 24 hours later, it was snowing up there.

Karey: 

Interesting.   We'll see what happens with that…  Well, thank you both for your time. Really appreciate it. Do other of you guys do socials…that are public? 

Deann:

Sure!  I'm DCGarcia.  Yeah, on Instagram.  

Aliza: 

I'm on Instagram at Azila22.  

Karey:

Azila with one L or two? One Z or two. 

Aliza:

It's my name Aliza, but the L and the Z are reversed. 

So,  Azila22. Just one L. Yeah. 

Deann:

My last tip is . Get yourself some crazy ass friends who will do all your crazy ass things together. 

Karey:

Love it! Yeah. Well, on that note then, we'll sign out.  Signing out….

Karey, Aliza, Deann:

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[OUTRO MUSIC]

Oh my goodness! I am so glad that I was able to meet with those two. They are just fantastic ladies and fantastic adventure buddies and I am sure that we will be hearing more from them along the journey of this podcast. I hope you enjoyed it as well. If you did please make sure to share this episode or the show with a friend!

You can also catch us on the Art of Type 2 Fun. Everything spelled out except the number two is the number “2” on Instagram. And if there are any people you want to hear from on this podcast or questions that you want answered either from myself or from others, as I continue to have guests on to share in this experience, feel free to drop me a message!

I'd love to hear from y'all with that, take care and signing out!