Bio: A serious bicyclist for only five years, Tim Cody is training to ride the 3,000 miles from coast to coast in 30 days this summer as a fundraiser for victims of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. A Denver native and Regis High graduate, he served four years in the Army during Desert Storm and now works as a computer systems administrator in the Denver Tech Center. Cody, 40, lives in Littleton with his wife, Dawn, an airline ticket agent, and their two daughters, 16 and 9.
The Journey: Cody was inspired to take up the cause of ALS after the death last May of his best friend’s father, construction engineer George Ralston. “I’d known him since I was 14, and he was really close to me – he taught me how to be a man,” Cody says. “I had heard about ALS but never had a full understanding of it, and when I saw him the Christmas before he died, it was amazing the toll it had taken. It’s a terrible disease. Your mind is intact, but you can’t move your muscles.”
Cody concluded that to have real impact he couldn’t just “do a century ride or a walk” like the annual Walk to D’Feet ALS in September, but “something on a grand scale.” Hence his “crazy” plan to pedal an average of 100 miles every day for a month.
The Strategy: Cody intends to leave May 27, following most of a route established by the annual Race Across America, from Oceanside,
Calif., to Ocean City, N.J. He will be accompanied by four friends who will each take a week at the wheel of an RV carrying food, gear and sleeping quarters. (Cody is seeking donations of gas cards and the use of a vehicle; for details go to rideforstrength.org.)
He has a main bike, a 20-speed carbon-fiber Giant TCR model weighing a little over 15 pounds, plus two aluminum bikes as backup. He figures he’ll go through at least two sets of tires and “burn through 7,000 calories a day” in food energy.
The Details: Besides training hard for three years as an amateur racer, he says, “I’ve climbed Mount Evans a few times, done the Triple Bypass twice, and several century rides.”
At 5 feet 9 and 161 pounds, Cody has dropped nearly 40 pounds since he was diagnosed with high cholesterol at the age of 35. “The first 10 pounds was from cutting out all the high-fat and junk food, and the rest was just from riding,” he says. -Jack Cox
Exercise
70 miles of cycling daily, in three hour- long circuits around Chatfield and Cherry Creek reservoirs, plus two sets of 30 to 45 minutes of stretching. Pilates three times a week to strengthen core and lower back.
Diet
Oatmeal, yogurt, banana, orange juice and V-8 for breakfast; turkey sandwich with salad for lunch; chicken, pasta, vegetables and two glasses of milk for supper. In the saddle: Clif Bars, GU20 energy drink and Hammer gel.
