I just can’t get my mind around it at the moment. The concept is simply too foreign. One-hundred miles on a mountain bike is nuts. Do people actually do this and survive? How do people race for 12 and 24 hours without bursting into flames?
In my quest to compete in an endurance race this coming season, I set off on a training/test ride along the gravel roads of the Holly Springs National Forest. I explored these routes on my ‘cross bike last week and felt confident in doing it on my mountain bike. The ride started well enough. I felt good and maintained a pace between 15 mph and 17 mph for about the first 15 to 20 miles. However, my left hand started to bother me around the 25-mile mark. I’m not sure if this was due to poor hand position, my thick gloves, or the grips. I definitely need to experiment more with the shifter and lever positions for rides longer than two hours.
My house of cards fell when I hit the 30-mile mark. This was likely due to not eating properly before going out. I just simply ran out of gas and crawled the last 15 miles home
The ugly statistics
40.11 miles
3:14:41 trip time
12.46 mph average
34.71 max speed
11 hours ago
5 comments:
Nice job! I can't imagine going for that long, either. Have you heard about the endurance mountain bike race that goes from Canada to Mexico? Look here: http://tourdivide.org/
I've actually heard about the tour divide race. It looks brutal.
I have a friend who did the Trans Rockies last year. (http://www.transrockies.com/trc/index.htm)
Wow...yur average speed was really high. At least for Leadville, people survive that with about a 10-12 mph average. Altitude does calc in, though....good luck with figuring it all out!
Also....do you shift position, stretch your hands, etc..? A buddy of mine who has completed Leadville (with the aforementioned 10mph average) advocates stretching on the bike. Calf stretches, hand stretches, sitting up to rest the back, etc. about once every hour or two. My time on the mountain bike at the 12 Hours of the Canal Loop was just short of 4 hours, but the stretches helped a lot.
I think my "high" average was due to the cooler weather. However, my average was much higher until I imploded. I do some stretching and shifting around while on the bike, but my left hand just gave me fits for some reason. I'm trying to be somewhat scientific in my approach to this endurance thing with a series of test rides. I adjusted my saddle height and shifted my brake levers a little after my last endurance test. I'm planning another test this Sunday.
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