Over the past three weeks, we’ve done 20 rides, 313 miles, climbed 12,500 feet, and learned a lot from trial and error with both equipment and team dynamics—particularly with our four quirky dogs in tow. We should be doing more but are being careful about making sure our pups acclimate and are having fun along the way too!
Since 2 anxious dogs needed more training time, we took 2 dogs at a time, trying different combinations to see where the best team dynamics lie. Sparkie currently has the most miles logged at 265, Chewb second with 171, Tal Tal 3rd with 133, and Daisy far behind at 57 because she’s the most dangerous to ride with.
The gap to the Great Divide is still pretty large. Over 2,700 miles with 200,000 feet of up and down climbing. To reach our goal of completing it in 30 days, we’ll need to hit an average of 100 miles a day with nearly 7,500 feet of climbing daily. Realistically improbable for humans to achieve that level of fitness. So we're building e-bikes but only for electric assistance—not a full throttle. The intent is to push our physical limits and rely on the motor only for the toughest climbs and to be able to do more miles with the same hard effort.
With less than a year to prepare, there’s still a lot of ground to cover to reach the fitness and endurance and the gear we’ll need for the Great Divide. Our days are packed with researching, purchasing, and testing the best gear (focusing on finding the best quality and functionality for the price not just picking the most expensive or well-branded things), designing custom e-bikes and trailers, expanding our team and partnerships, training on increasingly difficult rides, preparing meals, and then of course trying to keep up with the overwhelm of sifting through, analyzing/reflecting, documenting and editing data and posting/sharing so everyone can see what's really going on.
Prepping the Pack
Our four dogs—Sparkie, Chewb, Tal Tal, and Daisy—each bring their own quirks and personalities to the mix. Sparkie, with the most miles logged so far, seems to thrive with Chewb’s calming energy, making them the top duo. Tal Tal and Daisy the brother sister duo are a different story though. As long-haired dachshunds with an anxious mother, they both have nervous energy. Daisy, in particular, needs special attention—she’s an escape artist who needs to be swaddled and “straight-jacketed” to keep from jumping out mid-ride. She, Sparkie, and Tal Tal have each had a jumping out incident. Luckily nobody has been hurt! But Sparkie and Daisy do well together, likely because they are the most bonded in the group, playing, wrestling, loving on each other ever since Sparkie came at 12 weeks. Tal Tal does best when he’s with the Chewb’s mellow energy.
Logistics, Equipment, and Endless Research & Testing
Right now, the most significant part of this preparation is research and testing. We spend 6 to 8 hours every morning (yes we are morning people) sourcing and testing gear—everything from the big Burley Coho trailer to the basics like panniers, bike trailers, tents, to dehydrators and food recipes to the more specialized tech that will allow us to document every moment of this journey.
We’ve been putting the Burley Coho through the works. At over 300 miles in less than 3 weeks, I wonder if anybody else has used one as rigorously as we have! We have a lot to say about the trailer. It was great in the beginning but quickly started to deteriorate and had a lot of little things that could have been better, especially the quick release axle that connects it to the bike, a nightmare when we got a flat tire. Will deep dive into this bad boy in another post.
We’re testing devices starting with 3 different point of view cameras, Meta Ray Ban Sunglasses, Insta360 X3, and GoPro Hero to record key moments from our journey and find points of need to help us make more data-driven decisions about what we need to bring and how to make a better bike & trailer. We have lots to say here that we’ll deep dive on later, but the sheer volume of useless data, the poor ratio to actual video that’s useful, and the amount of time & compute resources it takes to transfer, store, and edit the data quite frankly has a lot of room for improvement. We’re now testing software to make all this mess go away to make our lives from a marketing perspective easier, but also make the cameras smart enough to assist us on the trail, we’re calling it WISE Life.
The goal is to create a sensing and assistance platform that not only captures key memories but also proactively identifies dangers in the environment we may miss and notify us as well as adapt the trailer suspension & structure to get through safely.
And then, there’s the matter of custom e-bikes and trailers - one of the most complex—and fun—parts. Every component, from the motor to the hubs and wheels, has required careful selection to ensure quality and reliability. We started by sourcing high-quality parts: CYC Photon motors for powerful yet efficient ASSISTANCE (not full throttle motors), their giant batteries for good range and rapid recharge capacity, and Cane Creek’s indestructible titanium e-bike cranks and Chris King’s beautiful hubs and custom Derby Rims built for rough, unpredictable terrain. We’ve also been working with our engineer & electrician in Crockett (20-25 miles away depending on the route) where we ride 1-2 times per week to review feedback, ideate, and refine the prototype design, integrating our ideas into the custom design. Each trip there is a chance to fine-tune, troubleshoot, and refine. We’re stoked to have the 1st part of our prototype on the trailer next week!
Beyond the physical build, the software side has added a whole new layer of complexity and capability. We're developing a WISE micro-grid to optimize power flow between the battery, solar panels, and devices, incorporating wireless charging to keep things simple and beautiful. We’re also designing in the ability to integrate the cameras we’re testing and other sensors like wearables into a “WISE sensing and assistance” system designed to monitor real-time conditions of us as riders & the terrain to assist when navigating particularly gnarly trails or busy road conditions.
TRAINING RIDES
Training has become a daily rhythm, both for us and for the dogs. We’re dedicating around 2-3 hours most days to both riding and walking, making sure everyone gets the exercise they need. The shorter training sessions let us focus on specific skills and behaviors, like managing hills or fine-tuning the dog trailer setups. For longer ride days, we’re out for at least half the day, building up to more realistic bikepacking daytime scenarios. Expect the unexpected — anything from doggy hiccups to mechanical surprises.
One full day turned into a “fiasco day,” reminding us just how much unpredictability is part of this journey. Between a broken spoke, a flat tire, losing “special” Burley tools, and getting caught out later than expected, we came back exhausted but a little wiser. It’s experiences like these that remind us why we’re training hard now: better to iron out the kinks close to home than on a remote mountain pass!
Finding Great People
We also spend a good amount of time looking for great people to join our team & partner along the way. We already looked far and wide to find the best right engineer for our custom trailer, passionate local bike mechanics that love building bikes and are eager to work on something cool, and software developers to build tools that automate specific workflows. We’re now looking for the marketing side, creatives that love UI/UX, industrial design, and motion graphics in video editing to elevate our storytelling.
It’s amazing who you meet while out adventuring. We happened to find our hopefully star bike builder Jay serendipitously after having 2 big fails out riding and needing to roll up to a random bike shop in El Sobrante. Jay is one of the nicest people we’ve met in a long time, going out of his way after work to come find us stranded in the dark with a flat because we embarrassingly lost the “special” tool required to release the Burley Coho Trailer and change our tire… There’s hope for humanity! Not only is he nice though, he really knows bikes, having worked on them for decades despite his young age. He’s built custom bikes including his girlfriend’s cool Surly setup. We’re stoked to see what he can do with some of the top of the line components we have for him!
Analyzing and Documenting the Journey to Continuously Improve & Share to Find Others
In addition to our physical and technical prep, analyzing, reflecting on, and documenting the journey is equally as important. It’s not just about posting highlights; we want to share the full experience, including the daily grind, unexpected hiccups, and small victories, while continuously improving our approach and equipment along the way.
But, after hours of researching, building, training, and troubleshooting, finding time and energy to fully capture and share it all has been a challenge. Editing videos, drafting posts, and organizing photos often feel like scaling a new mountain altogether. Not to mention the frustration of sifting through all that data to find there isn’t any because of dead batteries, full memory cards, or just being too caught up in the moment to hit record.
Our hope in sharing these reflections is to connect with others who may resonate with the journey, exchange tips, and maybe even find people who want to join parts of the ride or share resources we hadn’t considered. Balancing real-time experience with documentation isn’t easy. We're learning to balance the need to stay in the moment with the need to document it for others, so we can join each other in experiencing both the successes and the challenges that come with preparing for something as big as the Great Divide.
What's Next: Diagnostics and a Wiser Training Plan
The next crucial step is building a personalized, evidence-based training plan that combines diagnostics with real-time sensors to fine-tune our preparation so that we make sure we progress sustainably to our ambitious goal. A major focus is adapting our load to real-time progress, with the aim of achieving our long-term goal without overtraining. Using diagnostics, we can calibrate training to our body’s hidden needs, continuously refining load based on sensor data to ensure we avoid fatigue and optimize all aspects of recovery. For example, glucose monitoring via CGMs can help us avoid “bonking” by balancing energy levels with the best foods and how they affect our body’s personal glycemic index during long rides.
Training Plan: Finding the Right Progression Strategy: To reach our goal, we need a structured progression plan. The current options range from a fixed plan (like those offered on Training Peaks) to dynamic, AI-driven coaching (like Strava or Garmin), or even working with a professional coach (the most high touch and personalized). A great training plan not only guides us toward peak physical shape but ensures we’re not overloading ourselves, so we can build endurance and resilience sustainably.
Diagnostics: Building a Baseline for Smarter Training
In order to truly understand how to personalize our training for our body’s potential, we’re gathering a full diagnostic profile to understand where our hidden issues and opportunities are for making the Great Divide. Here’s our streamlined approach:
Genetic Sequencing: Using Whole Genome Sequencing to identify traits affecting both physical markers for endurance, recovery, and resilience & mental/emotional.
Biological Age & Inflammation: AgelessRx’s Cellular Age Test, along with inflammation markers, will provide insight into cellular health, resilience, and any hidden factors that could slow recovery.
Microbiome: Viome’s microbiome test assesses gut health and immunity
Blood Panels and Performance Testing: A thorough bloodwork analysis and athletic performance testing, like muscle composition and metabolic markers including ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) and glucose, helps us manage energy and performance.
Mental and Cognitive Assessment: Using personality and resilience tests, we’ll explore traits like openness, emotional resilience, and reasoning abilities. These insights will help us tailor our plan to handle the mental parts of performance, which most athletes & experts will tell you is 50-90% of the real battle.
Integrating Real-Time Sensors with WISE Life Analytics
Based on the diagnostic, we then use sensors to capture real-time data, such as hydration, nutrition, and sleep. We’ll integrate this with the cameras and other WISE life sensors, allowing us to detect hidden triggers for performance, causes, and effects that might not be immediately obvious. By analyzing real-time data alongside pre- and post-event diagnostics, we hope to uncover patterns that can inform smarter decisions in everything from training load to mental recovery. We’ll start with daily cycles, with a goal of making this a real-time system so that these alerts & recommendations can happen real time.
Making it to the Great Divide
We're definitely doing things a little differently than the norm. We'd be crazy to think we could do what Strava labels an "Extreme" route in less than a year. But maybe, with the help of the right people and right gear we can do what would otherwise would be considered impossible. Stay tuned for deep dives amd updates!
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