Solo Surly Single Speed Summary

Bike: Surly Karate Monkey 29’er and single speed (32/20)
Weather: 25-29 degrees sunny and windless.

My mindset approaching today was that this was a “me” day. I had gotten a day long leave pass to go riding and train for the Dirt Works 100 so I wanted to test ride my SS over a reasonable distance (not just Terrey Hills fire trails) and to see how my ass and quads would survive.

My goal was to ride consistent times but to also keep my average heart rate down to around 150 bpm (85% of max). I knew I would blow it on the hills, but with an average of around 150.

I started mid-pack not knowing how long the track was or what it was like so I was happy following people who looked like they knew the track. My initial plan was to ride until I needed to refill with water. Keeping a steady pace I didn’t even notice the hills on lap 1 and everything was going fine until I overcooked it in a fast downhill rutted area (just after the bermed corners) and went airborne tumbling down the track. Only minor damage to my pride (only two strangers saw it) but I did sprained my ring and little finger on my right hand which made it hard to grip the handle bars. I dusted off and continued on.
A little later at the 5k mark saw a sign saying 2k, this lifted my spirits – they were 7k laps and lap 1 was nearly over. A little while on the track meandered back past the start/finish line and I’m thinking around the corner the lap will finish, but then off into the bush we go again for another 3 k’s – what a sucker punch.

Lap 2 and 3 saw me have two more riding incidents, not really crashes, more like ricocheting pinball style from tree to tree in the wooded areas and using my shoulders as brakes. Note to self don’t try and cut the corners so close to the trees.

Lap 4 was incident free but this is were I started to dread the first 2 k’s - these first 2 k’s started out with a rutted fast downhill sniggle (made for a dually) which was also the collection point for water bottle that bounced free. This was followed by newly cut technical sniggle uphill followed by fire road uphill, followed by technical sniggle uphill plus some more uphill. There were some downhill bits but only nanoseconds worth – the first 2 k’s sucked on a SS. The remaining 8k’s were fun with bermed corners, forest sections, technical downhill – why couldn’t they just bypass the first 2 k’s and get a really, really fun and fast track.

After Lap 4 (40k’s) I stopped to eat and fill up my water. I was in around the same time as some others – so I was happy. Apart from a few raisins I hadn’t had anything but water since the start. This track doesn’t provide much opportunity to down a gu or similar during the race and my energy levels were down.

Lap 5 - after eating, changing gloves, my new full finger ones bought to stop the numbness weren’t working so I put on my most padded gloves – this was a big mistake because the extra padding along with my swollen hands meant I could only grip the right handle bar with my thumb, index and middle finger – not a major issue on the easy bits it was only concerning on the rough bit when I need to hold on tight.

The rest had also done me no favours because as soon as I hit the uphill I had nothing in my legs. I also had the uneasy feeling in my stomach that I put down to too much Endura leading up to the race and the effects were about to be realised.

Lap 6 – I was dreading the first 2 k’s and as soon as I needed to dance on my pedals my quads had nothing - half way up I got off and walked (note I walked the technical uphill sniggle from lap 3 onwards). The beauty of a SS is that I don’t feel bad when I get off and walk.

At the end of lap 6 I called it quits, happy to just sit and relax. After a while I contemplated going out and doing a few more laps, but luckily commonsense won through.
My lap times were;
Lap 1 49.23
Lap 2 43.14
Lap 3 44.11
Lap 4 45.16
Lap 5 1.14.13 (lunch stop)
Lap 6 48.51

I’m happy I kept all laps (except the lap with lunch) under 50 minutes and my lap times were comparable with other solo nobs.

I finished in position 36th travelling 57k in a time of 5:05:05

Time: 4:35 ride time for 5:05 elapsed and 4 stops (lunch and 3 crashes)
Speed: Average 12.4 kph, Max 32kph
Heart Rate: Average 152 bpm, Max 177 bpm, 2hr 10min at 95%+
Elevation: 1,651 metres gain with 23k of climbing over 2hr 18min

My conclusions.
• Good fun track – get rid of the first 2 k’s and it will be a great fun track.
• I need to pack a few more hill k’s into my quads.
• My nicks are great – no problems there.
• Gloves – I need to work on these.
• Nutrition – I need to change my feeding strategy for lap races – my energy levels were low because of the nature of the track I couldn’t eat while riding, so the first 4 laps I just had water and a few raisins. I might need some energy drink in my camelbak rather than water.
• HR Training – need to get the average down but the speed up

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7761992