My 110 Km Fling 2008

Preparation: 2 weeks, 3 training rides
Terry Hills - 80km
Massive Northen Beaches - 45km
Cascades 2 laps - 32 km

Expectation:
Less than 8 hours, and be able to walk properly afterward

Pre-race food/hydration:
1 small tin of cream rice
2 slices of whole grain with peanut and jam
1 coffee
can't remember how much hydration but much less than 500ml

The race:

First stage, started in the back of the middle third of the bunch, felt good, heart rate in the 130s already right at the start, tried to ease myself down to around 110s, saw Gazza flying past. At around 25km-ish, heard "race leader, on your right", thought WTF!. Got to the first drink station in a good physical state, took sometime out to relax a bit, caught up with Buck 10 minutes later. Consumed about 1.5 L of water, roughly 2 scoops of Endura, 2 scoops of Powerade, one Torq bar and one peanut/jam whole grain sandwich (the only bread i could find at home).

Second stage, man it was a nice juicy park of the race, single tracks with lots of tight turns, nearly ran over a snake, black and just over a meter long, became paranoid of any thing that lied in the road, whacked my left ankle in a tree stump hidden behind a little bush at high speed in one of the fast down hill sections, thought i broke my leg, then felt my toes still moving and able to push and pull on the ankle, but boy, it was sore. Started to cramp up, the both lateral quads and left hamstring before the Kick ( or was it the Wall?) and the Half way Hill, could not pass on a chance of riding up the hills, rode it up, what a stupid choice. Felt totally buggered, took a few stops and walked up anything that looked like a hill (around 6 times), many thoughts of catching the Sag wagon, but did not see any (or too buggered to look around for it). From the 62km to the 73km mark, it felt like more than 10 times longer. Got back to the transition, did a "lay down" for 10 minutes in the shade along the pine trees. Felt nauseous, took one more bite of the Torq bar, could not stomach it any further, and the smell of bacon/sausage near by made it worse. Headed off just as Buck arrived. Thankfully for your 2 Gu gels, that saved my day. Consumed about 2 L of water, about one scoop of Endura and one scoop of Powerade, one Gu gel, half of peanut/jam sandwich, one bite of the Torq bar.

Last stage, surprisingly felt much recovered, ditched the skin shirt and gloves, headed off with 3 Gu gels in the pocket, one for each 10 km, in high gears and finished the stage in a sprint to the finish with Martin from Rocky Entertainment with a big smile, shook hands across the finish line. Consumed 1.5 L of water, none more of the Endura or Powerade, 3 Gu gels all with caffeine.

All up:
Around 7.5 hours in total, less 10 minutes of pauses, a fantastic track.
Consumed 5 L f water 3 scoops of Endura, 3 scoops of Powerade powder, one and a half peanut/jam sandwiches, one and a bite of Torq bar, 4 Gu gels.
3 Kg lighter than at the start
Heart rate, max 168, average mid 130s.
The trusted Giant Anthem steed performed flawlessly.
No pee/poo, felt quite well really.

Post-race review: (open to any suggestion)
Nutrition/hydration totally sucked! any idiot could have guessed that.
Training was minimal, 2 weeks and 3 rides for training - clearly not enough.
Need to do something about my heart, can't push beyond 170 BPM.

Next year:
Can't wait to do it again.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7126563