Here it is ...
203 miles, ~10,500 feet of climbing, and about 19 hours on the bike. This put me first in the women, 9th in the men, and 74th overall.
What a race! I think I like this 24 hour thing ...
There were 116 teams at this race ... and alot of them were solo. There were 7 solo women and about 26 solo men plus the crazy single-speeders. The race started with a run and I was determined to do a slow jog. I was sure I crossed the line last and Faser later confirmed that I was in the bottom quarter of the field to finish the run. The words on my mind the whole first lap were 'pace'. My coach (Fraser), who has done several 24 hour solos along with Trans Alps, Trans Rockies and several other multi-day staged races, had been coaching me on this approach for months now. Pace. Pace. Even with this word in my head, I got carried away. Fraser saw me exit the fist section of single-track and yelled at me to slow down. He could tell by looking at me that I was going too hard. I looked down at my heart rate -- he was right. I was in my zone2. I backed it off and started to think about where I would eat and drink on this course.
Due to work we didn't get away as early as we wanted so we didn't have time to pre-ride the course. My mission for the first lap was to find eating and drinking spots. My mission for the second lap was to set some time goals at certain places in the lap. After that it was just keep on riding. The other thing that Fraser had suggested is that he would not tell me where I was in the race until after 16 or 18 hours of racing - and only then if I wanted to know. He knew from past experience how much things can change over night, how badly you can blow up if you try to go someone else's pace for 24 hours, and how mentally tiring it is to always be 'racing' the whole 24 hours. This proved to be invaluable ... in the first lap I knew I wasn't first but I didn't care ... after a while I forgot about the other girls and just focused on me. How did I feel? What did I want to eat? It was the perfect strategy.
We knew going into the race that my stomach would be the main factor. I got a stich around 5pm and was very concerned ... it didn't want to go away. It was pushing on my stomach and making it uncomfortable to eat (not to mention that it hurt!). After a phazyme and painfull laps, the stitch finally decided that it had enough and left me and my stomach alone. Phew. This is a good time to mention my pit ... it was run like a forumula1 pit. I would come in and there would be food choices out and ready. Fraser would hand me what he thought I needed (coffee, excedrin, digestive enzymes), force me to eat food, and send me on my way. He even put my leg and arm-warmers on me while I tried to force down more food. Our pits were as efficient as I let them be!!
The dusk lap was a sketchy lap for me. I was feeling sleepy and this was alarming as I was only part way thru the race ... I almost lost it on three of the down-hills and it would have been a bad scene. Like a mind-reader, Fraser had the Coffee ready ... after that I never felt sleepy again!!!
My lap times were pretty consistent (12 minute span between my fastest and slowest laps) the whole race. My pits were another story and need to be worked on. I had a few longer pits of up to 8 minutes. Our goal was 2 minutes per pit on average and I was doing pretty good until the night ... I was having trouble eating and getting food down. It was taking a while to eat. I definately need to work on that and we alreay have a few ideas that I'll be testing out over the next month to prep for the next race in August.
The course was pretty nice ... not too much climbing and some fun fast secitons. The Faze was the perfect bike for the course and i got more than a few comments on it ... it was a pretty 'bumpy' course - alot of horses had riden over the course and you could tell. the stutter bumps on the downhills were getting worse but the Faze just soaked it all up and let my body focus on nice round circles. It was also really dusty -- the weather was pretty perfect but along with blue skies comes the dust. It was everywhere including my disk breaks. I had to take the EXC Hard Tail out for an early morning lap ... and man, was I glad to get the Faze back!!! I didn't realize how rough the course was until I was on the EXC! I even managed to break a spoke on my rear wheel in that one lap.
I brought so many extra kits and clothes but didn't change once. I thought I would want to ... but I just didn't feel like it. What was the point? I think if it was wet and cold, I would have wanted the extra kits and chothes ... I am glad I didn't!!
When I came in around 8:30 I had a seat and finally asked Fraser where I was. He told me I was on lap 13 and that if I quit now there was no way that the girls behind me would catch me. I was winning!!!! I was soo relevied that he wasn't telling me that I had to go faster that I wanted to cry. I had decided at some point in the middle of the night that I wanted to do at least 14 laps so I ate some oatmeal, had a very long pit while Fraser checked the results once more ... and then went out for one final lap. In retrospect I could have done 16 laps and would have liked to ... but at the time it seemed silly to keep on going when I didn't need to. I was tired, and everything was achy! Fraser tells me to keep my 'I should have kept on going' thought as fuel for my next race; and that is what I will do.
After my last lap, where a camera-man was following me around, I sat in the pit, ate some more oatmeal, got cleaned up, and just sat for a while, watching Fraser pack up the pit. Sitting was nice.
In conclusion, I was very happy with the race. There are some things to work on but I am hopefull that we can improve those things ... we will see at Willamette!! I was pretty happy most of the time out on the course and those times where I wasn't I'd tell myself 'but this is so much better than work!'. We made the drive home yesterday after a solid 13 hours of sleep ... and I even managed to get out on a short recovery spin late yesterday afternoon! I am on the road to recovery. There are alot of weird little things that hurt but over-all I am surprised at how good I feel. If things go well I am hopeing to do a 50 mile race in 2 weekends.
Until next time ... Monilee
203 miles, ~10,500 feet of climbing, and about 19 hours on the bike. This put me first in the women, 9th in the men, and 74th overall.
What a race! I think I like this 24 hour thing ...
There were 116 teams at this race ... and alot of them were solo. There were 7 solo women and about 26 solo men plus the crazy single-speeders. The race started with a run and I was determined to do a slow jog. I was sure I crossed the line last and Faser later confirmed that I was in the bottom quarter of the field to finish the run. The words on my mind the whole first lap were 'pace'. My coach (Fraser), who has done several 24 hour solos along with Trans Alps, Trans Rockies and several other multi-day staged races, had been coaching me on this approach for months now. Pace. Pace. Even with this word in my head, I got carried away. Fraser saw me exit the fist section of single-track and yelled at me to slow down. He could tell by looking at me that I was going too hard. I looked down at my heart rate -- he was right. I was in my zone2. I backed it off and started to think about where I would eat and drink on this course.
Due to work we didn't get away as early as we wanted so we didn't have time to pre-ride the course. My mission for the first lap was to find eating and drinking spots. My mission for the second lap was to set some time goals at certain places in the lap. After that it was just keep on riding. The other thing that Fraser had suggested is that he would not tell me where I was in the race until after 16 or 18 hours of racing - and only then if I wanted to know. He knew from past experience how much things can change over night, how badly you can blow up if you try to go someone else's pace for 24 hours, and how mentally tiring it is to always be 'racing' the whole 24 hours. This proved to be invaluable ... in the first lap I knew I wasn't first but I didn't care ... after a while I forgot about the other girls and just focused on me. How did I feel? What did I want to eat? It was the perfect strategy.
We knew going into the race that my stomach would be the main factor. I got a stich around 5pm and was very concerned ... it didn't want to go away. It was pushing on my stomach and making it uncomfortable to eat (not to mention that it hurt!). After a phazyme and painfull laps, the stitch finally decided that it had enough and left me and my stomach alone. Phew. This is a good time to mention my pit ... it was run like a forumula1 pit. I would come in and there would be food choices out and ready. Fraser would hand me what he thought I needed (coffee, excedrin, digestive enzymes), force me to eat food, and send me on my way. He even put my leg and arm-warmers on me while I tried to force down more food. Our pits were as efficient as I let them be!!
The dusk lap was a sketchy lap for me. I was feeling sleepy and this was alarming as I was only part way thru the race ... I almost lost it on three of the down-hills and it would have been a bad scene. Like a mind-reader, Fraser had the Coffee ready ... after that I never felt sleepy again!!!
My lap times were pretty consistent (12 minute span between my fastest and slowest laps) the whole race. My pits were another story and need to be worked on. I had a few longer pits of up to 8 minutes. Our goal was 2 minutes per pit on average and I was doing pretty good until the night ... I was having trouble eating and getting food down. It was taking a while to eat. I definately need to work on that and we alreay have a few ideas that I'll be testing out over the next month to prep for the next race in August.
The course was pretty nice ... not too much climbing and some fun fast secitons. The Faze was the perfect bike for the course and i got more than a few comments on it ... it was a pretty 'bumpy' course - alot of horses had riden over the course and you could tell. the stutter bumps on the downhills were getting worse but the Faze just soaked it all up and let my body focus on nice round circles. It was also really dusty -- the weather was pretty perfect but along with blue skies comes the dust. It was everywhere including my disk breaks. I had to take the EXC Hard Tail out for an early morning lap ... and man, was I glad to get the Faze back!!! I didn't realize how rough the course was until I was on the EXC! I even managed to break a spoke on my rear wheel in that one lap.
I brought so many extra kits and clothes but didn't change once. I thought I would want to ... but I just didn't feel like it. What was the point? I think if it was wet and cold, I would have wanted the extra kits and chothes ... I am glad I didn't!!
When I came in around 8:30 I had a seat and finally asked Fraser where I was. He told me I was on lap 13 and that if I quit now there was no way that the girls behind me would catch me. I was winning!!!! I was soo relevied that he wasn't telling me that I had to go faster that I wanted to cry. I had decided at some point in the middle of the night that I wanted to do at least 14 laps so I ate some oatmeal, had a very long pit while Fraser checked the results once more ... and then went out for one final lap. In retrospect I could have done 16 laps and would have liked to ... but at the time it seemed silly to keep on going when I didn't need to. I was tired, and everything was achy! Fraser tells me to keep my 'I should have kept on going' thought as fuel for my next race; and that is what I will do.
After my last lap, where a camera-man was following me around, I sat in the pit, ate some more oatmeal, got cleaned up, and just sat for a while, watching Fraser pack up the pit. Sitting was nice.
In conclusion, I was very happy with the race. There are some things to work on but I am hopefull that we can improve those things ... we will see at Willamette!! I was pretty happy most of the time out on the course and those times where I wasn't I'd tell myself 'but this is so much better than work!'. We made the drive home yesterday after a solid 13 hours of sleep ... and I even managed to get out on a short recovery spin late yesterday afternoon! I am on the road to recovery. There are alot of weird little things that hurt but over-all I am surprised at how good I feel. If things go well I am hopeing to do a 50 mile race in 2 weekends.
Until next time ... Monilee
