Dreaming of Dakar

For too many years I spent too much time at my desk at work then on the couch in front of the TV in the evening.  So, as you might imagine I am in less than "athletic" shape.  Many times I have said I was going to get into shape but of course never really stuck with it.  The problem was I didn't have a real reason to get motivated, now I do.
To start with I am working on trying to loose some weight and do some simple strength training.  I plan on working up to more intense exercises in the months to come.

The majority of my exercising is in the form of hiking.  I have always felt I could get a much better workout hiking on trails rather than walking or running on the road.  I have been trying to do a lunchtime hike every other day.  At least once a week I am taking a longer lunch break and doing a longer hike.  Today I did a little over 3 miles in just under 1.5 hrs (however part of that was me eating the lunch I had packed).

My wife Jane and I have been trying to do a good hike each weekend.  We did Mount Major a couple weeks ago.  You can see the route we took here.  The mountain has a great view up top.  I took several pics and stitched them into a panoramic photo.



I have a goal of loosing 10 pounds for the last 10 weeks of 2009. So far I am on track for this goal.

As I said I am also working on some strength training, more on that in the next post.

As I said in the previous post this is a 5 year plan.  A lot needs to happen before I am ready.  I am out of shape and also very new to off-road motorcycle riding.  Also, I need to raise a considerable amount of money.  So, I have been working on some interim goals.

The first goal is to get my knee issues taken care of.  Several years ago it was injured by a jaguar!  No, not a big cat, a 1963 Jaguar XKE owned by my brother in law.  We were moving it to my garage to work on and while pushing it off the trailer I slipped and my knee went sideways.  I didn't have any major damage but ever since then I would aggravate on occasion and I would have difficulty walking for a week or two.  Finally I have decided to do physical therapy to get it strengthened to hopefully avoid this.  I started physical therapy about a month ago and am making good progress.  The therapist has given me some exercises and stretches that should help.

The second goal is to start loosing some weight.  When I made the decision to do this I weight myself at 213 pounds.  I really need to be about 180.  So, for a short-term goal I plan to be down to 203 by the end of the year.  That is 1 pound per week from the time I started.  I weight myself this morning at 208 and with 4 weeks left I still need to loose 5 pounds so a little behind schedule but moving in the right direction.

The off-road trails in New Hampshire open in the spring in late May.  It seems like a long time but this is to avoid the trails getting overly torn up during "mud season".  So, I won't be doing a lot of trail riding until then.  My plan over the winter is to continue loosing some weight and work on strength training.  I also plan on getting back into mountain biking like I was back in college.  I hope to be down under 190 pounds by the time trails open and have better strength.  I am looking forward to how much easier the bike will be to control without lugging around so much body weight and having more strength!

Once the trails open up I need to do a LOT of riding.  I just bought my dirt bike (an older used Yamaha IT200) a few months ago so am new to trail riding.  For the street I ride a Kawasaki KLR650 which in theory is capable of doing some trails but it really is a little heavy for real off-road riding (at least with my skill level).  So, for June and July I hope to be out on the trails with the IT200 nearly every weekend getting in some good practice.

After a month or two of trail riding I hope to feel confident enough to do some racing.  Nothing major of course, just some of the hare scrambles and enduro races held by NETRA (New England Trail Riders Association).  I should be able to start out using the IT200 for this but would like to upgrade to a better bike soon.  The IT is a good bike for learning on but I don't know how well it will hold up if I really push on it.

Of course through all of this I need to continue trying to drop a few more pounds, increase my strength and do a lot of cardio workouts.

Longer term plans are to ride some RallyMoto events and also get out to the southwest to do some desert races.  Riding the trails in New Hampshire is certainly good practice but certainly nothing like the terrain of the Dakar.  I need to race in the Desert.  In a year or two I would like to do the Vegas to Reno race and possibly even the Baja 1000.

And of course I need to get a bike built, find support (likely will use Rally PanAm for both) and .... need to save/beg/borrow/steal about $75k to fund the whole thing.  Hopefully I can find some sponsorship money but certainly not enough to cover it all.

I have always dreamed of doing something larger than life.  Of course like many people I never really pursued that dream.  I figured I would do something big someday.  Then a few weeks ago I turned 39 and realized that if I was going to do something I need to get serious about it.

I have often dreamed of doing something like the Dakar rally but never really considered it a real possibility.  Over the past year or so I have been an avid reader of the forums on advrider.com, especially the racing forum.  I have started to realize that it is possible for a "regular guy" like myself to do the Dakar.  The big thing that made me realize this is a possibility is I found out that there are a few companies that will do support for hire for privateers who want to race the Dakar.  The thought of having someone with the proper experience who could build a proper bike that can survive the 2 week long race and who knows how to take care of the logistics really got the dream going again.  It isn't cheap, and it certainly isn't easy.

So, the day before my 39th birthday I decided that I was officially going to start preparing for the Dakar.  I announced it to the advrider world on this post.  At first I was calling it a 10 year plan with the goal of doing the Dakar before I turnned 50 but after some good feedback and much more thought I have decided that a 5 year plan makes more sense.

The goal is to complete the Dakar.  Yes, it is a race but honestly for a guy like me the real goal is to just finish.  This is a 2 week long race of around 9000 kilometers through some very difficult terrain.  Typically less than 50% of the privateer riders make it to the finish.

A little about myself.  I have spent the majority of my "prime" years sitting at a desk.  Certainly not the best way to stay in shape!  In general I am in good health but I am overweight, out of shape, and have a bad knee from an injury a few years ago.  There is no way I could do an event like this without getting in shape so that is the first goal.  I have started physical therapy for the knee and am working on loosing weight and improving strength, flexibility and endurance.

I plan on keeping these pages up to date with my plans and progress.

- Doug