12 gates of hell

Ah, Tien... what a sadistic b@st@rd he is for suggesting this!

A surprising number of suckers willing riders showed up 7am this morning though and off we went. Soon though, the hills ticked by, as did the laps and one by one they fell away until just Tien, myself and another mystery rider (oops... I forget your name, how embarrassing) were left.

Below is a list of excuses for finishing last (of, did I mention, only 3?) pick which one you like the best...

- Was buggered from no rest the night before and the ride started too early.
- Was riding the Yeti in full fat bike mode as the Rush needs some TLC (as does the Yeti now, mind).
- Was wearing baggy gear (anything else looks wrong with the above).
- It was stupid humid and pretty warm.
- Am on a 'no sugar' diet and other wonderful rules (natropath advice - try to fix intolerances) so drank nothing but water (sports drinks are full of sugar) and had only couple Wallaby bars all ride.
- The trails were wet and chain suck abounded (although on the plus side am now expert in stopping on impossibly steep hills, track stand, back pedal, ride off again).
- My first ride since Yellomundee WWS (2 weeks ago).
- Had been feeling crook Thu/Fri (but OK-ish this morning).

One could also use this list to demonstrate what fun, fun, fun it was! So, next time 16 gates, OK?

MB for the record:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view....

Oh - serious for one sec... I'm quiet amazed that max HR for the day was on the final climb up the sealed section to St Ives (last climb of the day I was just grinding away at). About 30 mins before then - climbing Heath the final time HR was waaaaay too high for the perceived effort (can climb out of there in middle without a worry but was just grinding nice and slow in granny) and could really feel it pounding in my chest (never really happens). This high HR is either a slight concern or a good thing: to still be able to get HR nice and high after 4 hours in the saddle is a good thing (looking at my enduro failures, when I 'bonk' and run out of energy the HR really falls off badly) but... to have the HR so high for such little effort is not really desirable.

I'm just blathering on really, but does anyone know anything about this and a feasible explanation as to if today's stats are a good/bad thing?