Brian's blog

I entered the Spring Fat Tyre Festival in a team of 3 with Craig (craked) and Tien (tienster). This was my second team event and the first time with 3. The plan was to head up Saturday to register and do final lap before Sunday. I picked up Tien and we arrived at the track at about 3pm to find Craig had already set up a gazebo reserving a spot nice and close to the transition area. We registered (no queuing for us), got our bikes ready and had a nice cruisy lap.

We were about to head to the start when fellow riders staying in the same place let us know it was delayed and a decision was to be made at 9am. I knew now I wasn't going to be doing 100km because even if they started it later I doubt there was enough time for me to finish in daylight. Anyway, while waiting for 9am to come around we headed down to check out the surf. To our surprise there were four whales there really close to land. Never seen them this close so it was pretty amazing.

I wanted to get a big ride in before the Angry Doctor so I set out with Jon (loki) to do just that. This was a chance to test food, salt and water intake and fitness. This was going to be my biggest mountain bike training ride.

It was good today. Left home at 5am and arrived at 7:30am and got parking quite close. It didn't look good when passing the guy who crashed on the water bar and another rider was checking his pulse. I had a could of stops to remove the layers and have a feed. I was thinking about 3 hours and came in 03:01:36. It must have been the cold weather but I couldn't stop going to the toilet. Either that or old age as the water was going straight though me.

I can now happily say I've done a 100km enduro event

Well done to everyone that finished. I'm still blown away by some of the times posted, you guys are machines.

Preparation

After seeing Pivot Mach 5 resting heart rate I thought I should measure mine as I haven't measured it for over 12 months. I had stopped riding in March 09 due to work and didn't start up until about November 09 so I had no idea what to expect. I did a quick test on the lounge which had it at about 49bpm. I then wore the HRM while sleeping last night and below is the profile. It looks blank but the Heart Rate tab has the info. Also amazingly I gained 27m elevation, no wonder I wake up tired

When I bought my Trance and it came with Michelin XCR AT folding 2.0". These only lasted 2 months before I blew the sidewall out. Since then I have mainly run Maxxis Crossmarks LUST 2.1 front and rear except for a short time when I had an Ignitor LUST 2.1 on the front. I run about 30-32 psi front and rear and it has always been a good combination but decided to go for a complete change to see how others perform.

I know the Dirtworks isn't until May but as it will be my first 100km event I think I better work out some sort of plan . Xmas hasn't been kind and I have added about 4kgs that needs to go plus some. Well, as work finished early today I dusted of the road bike to go for a spin. Bl@@dy hell, not having it out since the Gong ride proved painful. I'm definitely going to need to spend more time in the saddle if I'm going to have any chance of finishing with a decent time.

Below is today's profile and I did it without stops which was a killer.

It must be said again "Awesome Track"

This was the first time I had done the Oaks Up & Back. When we arrived at the first gate (start of single track) on the way up I wasn't feeling the best. I knew it was going to be a hard ride and I wasn't wrong as I was already stuffed. I pushed on and with one stop at the helipad and then to the top. I actually thought the group would have started descending before I made it. I arrived with time to down a Gu stretch and we were off again.