Irate intern - Mogo

What a good event. Wonderful location.
It's great that the state forests are a place that trail building can occur and we can reap the benefits. All credit to the organisers and locals for the quality and conditions of the trails.

3:23:00 and 69 overall. 23 in Vets out of 103. Very pleased indeed.

I had entered the 50Km for a number of reasons. First, 100Km is really hard for me to train for, second, I had a trip to Peru a couple of weeks before the race to impact training and its just a damn hard event. The trip to Peru may have helped to some degree, certainly where there was some walking when the going got steep!

Went into the event thinking I was somewhat underdone but feeling great after 3 weeks away. Two training rides gave me confidence I could at least do 50Km.

At the event, decided to follow the new routine of staying up late and drinking. Thankfully I shared with Pikey who is great with supporting late night drinking. 6 beers and 2 glasses of wine and 4 1/2 hours sleep seemed to be on the money. Had a few worrying moments in the morning but may have been nerves?

The race started all fine in the second wave and not too much pace. Temperature was perfect for a distance ride. The first lot of hills were ok and feeling energetic. Getting into the bigger hills I was determined, at this stage, to ride them. Going along pretty well.
So after the first hour I was a bit concerned about the average speed 10.4 Km/h but figured there would have to be some higher speed stages to come. During this period I had the rear derailleur problem that had been an issue for a while (which I thought I fixed but a real ride is the only real test) so was busy making adjustments on the fly. When I could no longer drop to small ring on the front I realised I was adjusting the wrong micro adjust. Sheesh! It only took a moment to get things right after this brilliant discovery.
Speed would have to pick up or it would be over 4 hours for 50Km. So with this theory I patiently waited. Had a banana and got into the home brew sports drink. The single track was much faster and some of the fire trail saw speeds of 63Km/h.
This got the average up to something near what I had hoped (the aim was 3-3.5 hours). So at the top of all the hills or sections where the heart was busting out of my chest, I opted to ease up for a bit while still keeping above the planned average to get the heart rate down.
20Km and 25Km passed without too much drama. I had been conscious not to over do any of the hills, ie not blow the heart out of the ribcage and so still grinding most of the hills and only a few bits of walking. I am sure the Peru trip helped with the walking up the hills!! Walking really helped the muscle stiffness in the back too so not all bad.
The plan was to get to 35km and give it everything till the end. I figured I should go my hardest for the last hour. The pace was slowish, I thought, which could only help my plan for the strong finish.
Single trail was sweet as, blasting through the trees with minimal traffic or occasionally tagging on to the back of another rider at a good pace. When riders were ahead there was always that challenge to see if they could be caught and having gravity to assist, not too much energy was consumed having fun.
It was probably about hour 2 that the endless uphill was upon me. It was true that the trail was either up or down and not much in between. The sweet downhill led straight into another climb, short downhill, more climb. Some Gu, energy bar and sports drink seemed to keep body and mind willing.
Average speed got up to 14.9Kmh but never cracked 15. I was really surprised by this but it showed how different this was to other races we have done.
Apart from a few dips into the 13's the average stayed between 14.1 and 14.8 most of the way to the finish.
The single track was getting a little tough as the tiredness set in and arms started to fatigue and balance suffered. Changing direction quickly was not as easy now. I was getting pretty close to the trees then whack, hit one with the bars..later on I smashed a rock that must have jumped out at me. Sure didnt see it and glad it only slammed the crack/pedal and not my foot.
My sprint to the finish started at about 40Km where the terrain would allow it. Pushed as hard as I could and really opened it up on the longer down hill runs to the finish.
There were some jumps, some mud, puddles, hills, decents, twisty bits, fast bits and although not particularly technical was still a whole heap of fun.

Consumed: 1.6 litres (1 water, 600 homebrew sports drink), 1 banana, 1 energy bar, 2 Gu.

Past events I have always felt tired, both during training and at race day. Begs the question for me of overtraining, or maybe just not enough rest. On the flip side, after a few weeks off I have always felt really strong, fresh and enthusiastic on rides.
As much as I refuse to accept that age is becoming a factor in training and recovery, I think what I have learnt is that tapering and having a good week (or two) off before the event really does help on race day particularly as I clearly dont recover like I used to.
I have probably been a bit too serious with training and getting sleep but again, after a few bigish nights before training rides I have found myself quite relaxed and performing well.
So the combination of ramping up training, tapering before the event and a few drinks (all in the right combination) really seem to influence good performance.
Ultimately its all unique to the individual, but I seem to have struck on a combination that has a positive effect.

It was another great nobmob weekend doing what we love..