Logan's blog

Coming into the Fling it had been touch and go whether I would race as I didnt have a bike, however that was solved one week out from the race which was fortunate, however having not touched the MTB in 3 months since August, I was definitely out of shape on the MTB front, however I still had some goals, which was a Sub 5 Hour Fling.

Having had a near disaster race at the Nationals only a few weeks back and with not much time to really rectify the form, I went in with the mindset of no form and no expectations. Lined up in elite mens thinking I am little out of my depth to be honest, anyway the gun went and the pace was on with Jet Racing trying to control the front however I noticed James Downing had attacked early. I boosted up the left hand side and found myself in the middle of the pack and tried to settle into a good rythem, I had no intentions of trying the fast boys and wanted to race my own race.

Wow the Mont 24 Hour 2011, what a great event and a great track and great people in the team and who we camped with as well. It was great a great weekend if a little cold.

I got down on Friday Arvo with Rob and we quickly got our gear sorted and pitched the tents etc. Scouting lap in the arvo with Gazza and I going pretty balls out during the singletrack, it was clear it was going to be a sensational piece of track to race on with some nice bermed corners and technical challenging stuff. Friday night, chilled with crew and watched NWD10.

So 6 days on from Willo and looking for a sub 5 Hour for Capital Punishment.

Got to the start and no rain and a little bit chilly but apart from that all good, headed out in the 2nd wave and came across a roadie immediately struggling with the single track, dispatched him and continued through the nice singletrack of Kowen, once again really found my flow in the singletrack and managed to pick up some places. It was a bit wet in some of the singletrack which led to a off, unfortunatly the Racing Ralphs didnt cope to well with some of wet patches, however no major damage.

So the first marathon of the 2011 season, the Friday before the race my apprehension grew as to whether I had done enough training to be competitive and with Capital Punishment literally 6 days away it was going to be a good test to work out where my fitness was.

A better race result for me, given that I crashed badly last time. CCOMTB had slightly different course this time round for Round 2, big crash at the start as Dylan mentioned and then a hold up at the first rock step up meant we were walking, lost some time on that unfortunatly and then cause I had not pre ridden the course I didnt know exactly where I was going.

I felt pretty good on the climbs, however I know my technical skills are letting me down some what, so I need to improve on them.

So my first time out for the CCOMTB XC Series, I am gonna be racing the majority of these races this year and having checked my calender there are very few races that clash with my road calender so I am lucky on that front. After being told that B Grade is where I should race, I reluctantly pitted myself against the likes of Gazza (sandbagging git) over 3 laps. The Course was short meadows with bits of the Magic Carpet taken away.

Wanted to get my goals down on paper and thought in a blog on here would be a good place to go as I am likely to posting up blogs from races on here as well. I have really been enjoying my riding on both road and offroad and have been putting in some solid hours on the bike in the run up to Christmas and had already decided in my mind that I was going to race alot this year. I currently have both my road and MTB license and intend to utilise both.

So goals for 2011 are as follows:

So my first Enduro and first full fling, on the new Yeti as well and I am pleased with the result.

Wasnt to sure of what my target time should be, talking to Whisperer he suggested 6h30m would be decent. Start of the race was good and I was keeping my HR to 80% of max which was excellent, got to the first transition and lost some time as I was putting my nutrition into my camelback, however once back on the bike I think I hot the 50k mark with a average of 20 kph showing on the garmin and had covered that in 2 hours and 30 mins, at that point I was feeling pretty decent.

This was meant to be some serious practice ready for the Fling for me, however earlier in the week I had been in bed for 2 days straight with a nasty cold and was still suffering the side effects come today, even though I had a good hit out on the road bike yesterday. Lack of sleep last night due to dinner with some friends and with hindsight, one beer to many last night even though I didnt drink heaps.