Mont 24hr - Mixed 6 team - this weekend

Last race at Wingello was cancelled due to rain, I read the organisers tried to access the site and got bogged on the way in so fair enough.

This weekend is the The Mont 24hr, prime conditions, can't wait.

Rocky Trail 66km @ Stromlo - Fail

Its been a long time between posts, no excuses, no surrender, this is it, back into it.

12 months have nearly rolled over since I started blogging about MTBing action so it will be good to get a few entries in before my first anniversary of MTB racing swings around. That will be an excuse for a party, no doubt, and The Mont 24hr (18 days away) will be no better time and place to celebrate.

Rocky Trail Cruise100 Race Report

I raced the Rocky Trail 66km at Stromlo a couple of weeks back on the 25^th February. In the month leading up to it I was doing alright with training, getting 3 rides a week, the odd one would be decent intervals but most were just social rides with mates. 2 weeks out something happened, I got super preoccupied with family and work commitments and only managed 3 rides in the two weeks before. I woke up on the Tuesday morning in the week of the race and I was genuinely depressed, I couldn’t put my finger on the exact reasons. But I woke up tired from a disturbed night from settling my son 4 times throughout the evening, pissed off that I’d eaten poorly over the last few days and had not had the chance to burn the carbs, and worried that I’d committed to a race that I was totally under prepared for. Still I’ve been through all this before so I couldn’t understand why I was so down.

After a couple of short rides during the week, I tried to feed the machine everything that my body required. I tried to get some good sleep and hydrated well in the 48hrs before. The morning of the race I packed an esky with 2 powerades, a honey sammo, two extra bottles of water and a handful of GU shots.

I had fun in the first 40km of the race, I was actually feeling ok, wasn’t getting overtaken by too many people, was feeling a good flow and hitting all the lines really well. But in getting any sort of a result, the race was a disaster for me.

Half way up the trunk trail, I got over taken by a guy carrying way more speed then me, and had that ‘pro’ look about him. I wondered what length of race he was doing, how could I be in front of him, maybe he got a puncture. He was going way too fast for the 100mile, probably a little to early to catch me if he was doing the 100km, and I was expecting to see Dylan Cooper fly past me calling race leader from that class. Damn that only leaves one category, the 66km, my category. I convinced myself I must be confused in the heat so I carried on. I caught a guy going about the same pace, and confirmed that he was doing the 66km, phew, that’s a relief, everything must be ok. Until he asked me what my bike computer (I don’t use one) was showing as he was only showing 36 km when it should have been showing a bit more then that based on 33km laps. Now I was getting worried, damn we must have cut the track somewhere. It wasn’t until late into the 2^nd lap that I knew for sure, when Michelle Ainsworth came up behind and asked, how did you get past me? We had frog leaped each other a few times on the first lap and then she left me behind with great prowess. I had frog leaped her again, but I had cheated. At this stage of the race I was getting goose bumps all over my body, I was starting to feel a little dizzy and was already going through some mental hurdles. Then to realise that the ‘official’ race was over was extremely de-motivating for me. I got to the section that I cut and started riding out two laps of the loop to get the distance back up to par with the other riders. I got around the 2^nd loop then gave up, threw in the towel and rode back to transition. I’d been out on track for about 3 ½ hours, felt like it was a good training session and with no result to get I packed it in.

Now I know exactly why I was depressed earlier in the week. As much as I couldn’t help that the track marking was down when I went around for my first lap, my body was not up for the 30 degrees temp, searing sun and technical track. I got punished from all sides but can take away from great lessons in enduro racing for next time.

A few things to remember…

- number one, probably need to ride more then 2 - 3 times a week in the month lead up to a race

- number 2, eating when riding also needs to be practiced, burped for 30mins after eating my banana and honey sammo at half way point, maybe just don't eat at all.

- number 3, fully memorise the track, bunting was down and I accidently cut the track.

50km Enduro this weekend at Wingello Forest, bring it on, I’m better prepared for this one and it’s more my distance.

Ride on,

Dave