Saturday, August 1, 2009
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
TagTeam4 Training
In our last entry we fund out that the Taggart Family of Roseville, CA (TagTeam4) has been accepted to a week long summer bicycle ride across Iowa this July. The ride is nearly 500 miles. Riders dip their tires in the Missouri River on the first day and in the Mississippi River on the seventh day. Each day riders cycle about 75 miles. Each night they spend in a "host" down that rolls out all the welcoming possible to show off the best of the town's people and atmosphere. There are free carnivals, music, parties. Free camping is provided and many Iowans open their houses to the cyclists as a show of friendship.
TageTeam4 found out they made it into the Ride on May 1. Since then they have been doing weekly training which included cycling, running and hiking. For the first three weekends of May they have ridding 30 miles, 37 miles, 35 miles and a short "sprint" ride of 12 miles. "We try to stick to the American River Bike Trail to avoid traffic as well as have great scenery" says Scott, the Father of TagTeam4. Scott says he is slowly working the team up to a "comfortable" 75 mile day ride in preparation for the Iowa ride. He figures of they can easily do 75 miles in one day they will be well prepared for a week long event. This years ride across Iowa is one of the more hilly rides - it has a total of 22,000 vertical feet of climbing (that works out to about 3,000 feet per day of "ups" that have to be climbed. "A mile of cycling up followed by one down is very much harder than 2 flat miles" says Scott.
TagTeam4 is also doing training runs. They did a local 5K (3.1 mile) run last week and regularly do 2-4 mile training runs in Roseville. "We aren't trying for sheer speed but rather stamina and cardiovascular workouts" say mom Julie. They are also using a week of strenuous hiking in Yosemite during June as training.
Many people think TagTeam4 are in better shape or somehow more athletic than that average family with young children but both Scott and Julie insists this is not true. "We believe that with just a modest amount of exercise and commitment, most anyone family can do what we do. Sure, it looks daunting when a family normally never gets on their bikes for more than a few mile ride, but if you set some modest weekly goals and work up to it, it is not all that difficult" says Scott. Scott remarks "With regular cycling - once to twice a week, it isn't hard to work up to 10, 20 and then 40 miles in a day. Children adapt quickly and their young bodies easily build new muscle and coordination. We make our riding fun for our kids by stopping for the sights and a special treat at the end such as Jamba Juice. And, every minute we are on the bikes or hiking is one less minute in front of the video games or TV for our kids".
TageTeam4 welcome you to come and join them for a ride and talk about their adventure. They publish their riding schedule online at "tagteam4.blogger.com".
Our next entry we'll talk about bike maintenance, diet and more.
-END-
TageTeam4 found out they made it into the Ride on May 1. Since then they have been doing weekly training which included cycling, running and hiking. For the first three weekends of May they have ridding 30 miles, 37 miles, 35 miles and a short "sprint" ride of 12 miles. "We try to stick to the American River Bike Trail to avoid traffic as well as have great scenery" says Scott, the Father of TagTeam4. Scott says he is slowly working the team up to a "comfortable" 75 mile day ride in preparation for the Iowa ride. He figures of they can easily do 75 miles in one day they will be well prepared for a week long event. This years ride across Iowa is one of the more hilly rides - it has a total of 22,000 vertical feet of climbing (that works out to about 3,000 feet per day of "ups" that have to be climbed. "A mile of cycling up followed by one down is very much harder than 2 flat miles" says Scott.
TagTeam4 is also doing training runs. They did a local 5K (3.1 mile) run last week and regularly do 2-4 mile training runs in Roseville. "We aren't trying for sheer speed but rather stamina and cardiovascular workouts" say mom Julie. They are also using a week of strenuous hiking in Yosemite during June as training.
Many people think TagTeam4 are in better shape or somehow more athletic than that average family with young children but both Scott and Julie insists this is not true. "We believe that with just a modest amount of exercise and commitment, most anyone family can do what we do. Sure, it looks daunting when a family normally never gets on their bikes for more than a few mile ride, but if you set some modest weekly goals and work up to it, it is not all that difficult" says Scott. Scott remarks "With regular cycling - once to twice a week, it isn't hard to work up to 10, 20 and then 40 miles in a day. Children adapt quickly and their young bodies easily build new muscle and coordination. We make our riding fun for our kids by stopping for the sights and a special treat at the end such as Jamba Juice. And, every minute we are on the bikes or hiking is one less minute in front of the video games or TV for our kids".
TageTeam4 welcome you to come and join them for a ride and talk about their adventure. They publish their riding schedule online at "tagteam4.blogger.com".
Our next entry we'll talk about bike maintenance, diet and more.
-END-
Monday, May 26, 2008
Meet The TagTeam4
[NOTE TO READERS - this journal is written in the third person as if a newspaper is interviewing the Taggart family members. The reality is that Scott Taggart (the father often quoted here) is the author.]
Meet TagTeam4, a family of 4 cyclist/athletes from Roseville, California, who signed up for and are training their way to a week-long summer bicycle ride across IOWA (along with 10,000 other cyclists). Beginning with this journal entry, we'll learn about the Taggarts and how they came to enter this 500-mile ride and how they train for it. We'll post daily journal entries and pictures once they start the ride on July 19 in Iowa. Find out what they'll do for an encore.
Mom and Dad are Julie, 46, and Scott, 52, both naives of the San Francisco Bay Area. Their two sons are Logan, 9, and Austin, 11. Everyone is the family is "reasonably" athletic according to Scott, but nothing extreme. "We have always hiked and ridden our bikes with our sons - they have come to know this as part of their normal activity times with mom and dad," according to Scott.
In this series, TagTeam4 encourage you to follow along with them not only in spirit but in reality. Meet them on a local training ride or hike. They invite you to come with them to RAGBRAI next year. "You can do it. If we can, you can too!" says Julie.
Scott has been actively cycling for the past 15 years. He regularly rides with local cycling groups and does an occasional "century" (a hundred-mile bike ride in one day). "I enjoy the longer rides for both the physical and mental aspects," he says. Last year he was talking cycling with someone at the health club when they mentioned a family-friendly bike ride across Iowa. Intrigued, he went home that night and found the web page for RAGBRAI, short for "The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa." RAGBRAI is a cycling event started on a lark 36 years ago by a couple of employees at one of Iowa's newspapers. It grew from a few dozen people to a mega event now requiring a lottery to limit the number of entries. Even Lance Armstrong has ridden it.
The more Scott found out about RAGBRAI, the more convinced he was that this would be a perfect Taggart family event. He had been eyeing a family hike across Europe but has shelved that because of the dwindling spending power of the US dollar. RAGBRAI offered some many attractive features - loads of exercise, family-friendly towns, people to greet the cyclists as they arrived, and something everyone in the family could enjoy. And, a "free" cross-country driving trip!
"I signed up for the lottery and made our pre-payment the first night I found the website. I was so excited, I marked the May 1 lottery drawing date on the calendar," beams Scott. He adds it was a challenge to wait for May 1. To his delight, the RAGBRAI organizers sent him an email April 30 announcing that TagTeam4 had made it into RAGBRAI 2008!
"The real work began soon after we got the news we were picked in the lottery," says Scott. The Taggarts immediately began a weekly cycling workout to prepare for the event. Upcoming in this series, we'll learn how the Taggarts train for this type of event, what they eat (and don't), and more about this "average" family of four.
-END-
Meet TagTeam4, a family of 4 cyclist/athletes from Roseville, California, who signed up for and are training their way to a week-long summer bicycle ride across IOWA (along with 10,000 other cyclists). Beginning with this journal entry, we'll learn about the Taggarts and how they came to enter this 500-mile ride and how they train for it. We'll post daily journal entries and pictures once they start the ride on July 19 in Iowa. Find out what they'll do for an encore.
Mom and Dad are Julie, 46, and Scott, 52, both naives of the San Francisco Bay Area. Their two sons are Logan, 9, and Austin, 11. Everyone is the family is "reasonably" athletic according to Scott, but nothing extreme. "We have always hiked and ridden our bikes with our sons - they have come to know this as part of their normal activity times with mom and dad," according to Scott.
In this series, TagTeam4 encourage you to follow along with them not only in spirit but in reality. Meet them on a local training ride or hike. They invite you to come with them to RAGBRAI next year. "You can do it. If we can, you can too!" says Julie.
Scott has been actively cycling for the past 15 years. He regularly rides with local cycling groups and does an occasional "century" (a hundred-mile bike ride in one day). "I enjoy the longer rides for both the physical and mental aspects," he says. Last year he was talking cycling with someone at the health club when they mentioned a family-friendly bike ride across Iowa. Intrigued, he went home that night and found the web page for RAGBRAI, short for "The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa." RAGBRAI is a cycling event started on a lark 36 years ago by a couple of employees at one of Iowa's newspapers. It grew from a few dozen people to a mega event now requiring a lottery to limit the number of entries. Even Lance Armstrong has ridden it.
The more Scott found out about RAGBRAI, the more convinced he was that this would be a perfect Taggart family event. He had been eyeing a family hike across Europe but has shelved that because of the dwindling spending power of the US dollar. RAGBRAI offered some many attractive features - loads of exercise, family-friendly towns, people to greet the cyclists as they arrived, and something everyone in the family could enjoy. And, a "free" cross-country driving trip!
"I signed up for the lottery and made our pre-payment the first night I found the website. I was so excited, I marked the May 1 lottery drawing date on the calendar," beams Scott. He adds it was a challenge to wait for May 1. To his delight, the RAGBRAI organizers sent him an email April 30 announcing that TagTeam4 had made it into RAGBRAI 2008!
"The real work began soon after we got the news we were picked in the lottery," says Scott. The Taggarts immediately began a weekly cycling workout to prepare for the event. Upcoming in this series, we'll learn how the Taggarts train for this type of event, what they eat (and don't), and more about this "average" family of four.
-END-
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