Blogs

My first race blog!

My 2nd attempt at the Half Fling and the first race I had a previous time to try and beat. Successfully took over 30mins from my 2009 time so was very pleased with that (even though I felt the 2010 course was tougher and the heat made things harder).

Overall i was pretty pleased with this effort, paced myself aswell as I could, no cramps and didn't feel i had much left at the end unlike last year. heat and a lack of fitness meant my second half was about 5-10 minutes slower than maybe I could have done, but that always gives me something to come back for next year.

Well that was an interesting way to learn what this MTB racing stuff is really about. I'm pretty happy with my result but what I found most interesting was how the body works (or doesn't) under these kind of conditions and how nutrition/hydration effects things. This was also my first ride on a bike I'd borrowed for the event but which I now think I will buy after it did such a good job.

Lana (my partner) and I arrived at bundanoon at around 4ish, registered and went for a wander, really liked the atmosphere, loved checking out the bikes. Bumped into ps and headed down to watch the dash, had a chat with gazza, then headed off for a bite to eat and some late bike tweaking, last minute prepping and then off to bed.

Got to the start late and was pushing my way through when I saw D-on so stayed and talked to him for a while. Had a fairly conservative start and stayed out of the wind as much as possible. Didn't have any real holdups until I got to early bath. Saw D-on climbing out the other side while waiting in the queue and didn't see him again until the finish. Got to transition feeling good, took my full 5 minutes to mix up some more rehydration and got going again.

Came into this race thinking this is going to suck found out on Friday that my rear race wheel had a big crack in it rendering it useless so borrowed a wheel from my freeride bike at around 300g heavier wasn't impressed.Got to the start late had to jump the fence towards the front to get a reasonable spot,the start gun went off and so did I needed to catch mates who were up front .The first stage was great not too hard with some great new single track.Second stage was still good fun with single track and monster fire road climbs,third stage was torture cramps were starting to be a concern had

The weekend started with the usual Friday carbo loading coopers pale ales, checking the bike and loading up the camping stuff.

Looks like the training is paying dividends. Took it a little slower in the first 10km as my legs needed time to warm up. Walked the wall hill but rode everything else. 82% average heart. no wonder my quads are so sore today! Looking forward to seeing the photos as there was a heap of photographers on the single track. Went left at your call and discovered a tree across the track so ran through the bush instead of going under and got my one and only cramp that left as quickly as it arrived. Big dog sprint finish to the line. Couldn't help myself... I do love a sprint

I started in the second group with Loz. I would catch him on the hills and then on the flat sections he would pull away. This went on for the first 15km or so. I lost him after one of the creek crossings though. So then I backed off the pace a little as my HR was quite high. The first stage was pretty uneventful. It was impressive seeing the Elite riders tear past though. Fortunately I was in an open paddock so it was no issue for them overtaking me.

That was tough. Perhaps it was the hills. Perhaps it was the heat. Or perhaps I was just simply unprepared. Regardless, it sure felt good to roll over the finish line ! After making my way through a herd of riders at the start I was able to settle into a nice pace and was feeling good at the first transition. Grabbed a couple of bananas, topped up the water and headed back onto the course only to wait for a rather large freight train to make it's way south. Into the forest at Wingello I got caught behind a line of riders and thankfully had an excuse to ride at a more enjoyable pace.

First off can I just say, let this be a lesson to all those who think that only a handful of rides in a couple of months and 2 spin sessions the weekend prior is an adequate amount of training for this event. IT IS NOT! I did however think it would be a good day out training for the Fat Tyre in 2 weeks.

ok, with that out of the way...