This years 24 was my favourite by far, what a great event this race can be. I'd entered as a pair this year, coming off a six and a three in previous years.
The training had been about the same duration as previous years (6 weeks), but this year I took longer rides (many on the road due to weather) and I did around 4 hill climb training sessions, to work on my riding weakness, getting my fat arse up hills.
The training went pretty well and I made noticeable improvement, especially in climbing hills, I went from stopping a lot during a climb, to being able to keep going, the rapid improvement was very surprising, and nice :)
It also lifted my VO2max from 50 to 60, a 20% increase, and I stripped off 17kg in the 3 month lead up due to a bet with Simon on who could lose weight the fastest, it was some excellent motivation, the first 5kg came off easily with no real change to diet, just avoiding snacks, then I stopped eating chocolate after lunch and dinner, and stopped drinking milk after dinner (I am, well, was, a big Kalua and milk fan :)), this was very difficult, cravings were a killer, but that took off another 5kg, and in the last 6 weeks of training I dropped the rest of the weight by reducing meal sizes and finally counting calories to loose the last 4kg, I tried to keep my daily intake to less than 4000kJ/day, which may not have been the best idea given I was ramping my training up during those final weeks. I should have (and will next year), eat as much protein as I can, because this year I lost a noticeable amount of upper body muscle, due to training a lot and not eating enough.
This muscle loss did probably work to my advantage though, my legs built up and my upper body lost a lot of weight, so climbing and endurance became easier.
I am hoping to keep most of the weight off for next year, so I don't have to diet, just train, we'll see I guess, but the plan will certainly be to get to my target weight before my 6 week pre MONT training period.
Race day arrived and rain the night before with predicted showers had me put off going at all, I called my team mate to see if we should go, he was keen, so Kylie dropped me out at the race at 8:30, the ground was damp, but not muddy. Kylie headed off and bought me some wet weather gear and I borrowed mud tyres from Drew and Simon, I hoped that with the right gear I could just get through the event without too much sorrow :)
I took the first lap, shuffle jogging the overly long run this year, then riding a fairly casual pace, knowing this lap would be slow and crowded, so no point pushing it too hard with many laps to come after it. The bottleneck at the top of the switchbacks only held me up for 7 minutes (last year it was 9), so the improvements to the switchbacks had definitely helped. I pottered my way around taking in a look-see of the new course, which I had not seen. It was markedly different to last year and the changes were great, less hills, more sweeping fast corners and lots of north shore bridges over the muddy spots.
Drew transitioned and took lap two, handing over to me for lap three around 3:20pm, which was going to be my hot lap. The course had dried out a fair bit and become quite tacky, the fast riders had lapped us on Drews lap and where half way around the course and not likely to need me to pull over and let them by, so I opened the taps and gave it a good go, the corners where wet enough to be tacky, not slippery, very railable and I ripped up every climb at over 110 cadence, it was awesome and I'd never felt so good, I was calling out "track left", "on your right" as I flew past people, using the bush or a skinny bit next the course to get by, which is very much out of character for me, I am usually the slow one that everyone else is flying past, it was just awesome, I flicked on the MP3 player and got into the zone, then, with about 5km to go, tragedy, I broke my chain, it snapped coming out of a tight left hander under full pedals... I was shattered, angry and very frustrated. I pulled out Neil's chain breaker (thanking god I had taken it) and repaired the chain and took off as quick as I could, it was a real shame, as I knew my remaining laps would have to be at endurance/aerobic pace if I was going to make my goal of 8 laps, so that was my one shot a good lap time, oh well, crap happens :) I rolled into transition quickier than the boys expected, as they were not there to meet me, I started to walk back to camp when I came across them coming the other way.
Drew took lap 4, and after an unusually long wait with Neil, we saw him roll into transition not feeling so well, I took off for the dusk lap, helmet light at the ready, unaware that Drew had gotten back to camp, thrown up and gone to sleep, poor bastard. I took this lap at a fun pace, but stuck to a strict aerobic rate, chatting with solo riders when I could and having fun with the course, it was getting muddier in places and slippery, and roots were becoming fun spots to flick the bike around. My gears started to play up though, and I had a few chain suck episodes. When I rolled into transition, the boys weren't there, guessing they were late again I headed for camp to find Drew sleeping... What to do?!?? He was spent and not likely to be back on the bike again. I wasn't feeling so well myself and headed for the toilets to expel some demons and do some thinking :)
Neil cleaned my drive train which was clogged with mud and I shovelled down some potatoe bake, a banana and a protein/carb bar and headed out straight away for a double night lap, figuring I would finish that at around 11:30pm, with some time for something to eat, a change and into bed for sleep between midnight at 5am, in time for the dawn lap, which I have been lucky enough to score in previous years. The double went fine, although the VT was playing up badly with chain suck on every climb, I tried to tune it a few times by adjusting the front deraileur over a bit, it would stop chain sucking, but granny gear at the front was not available, so at the hills I either got off and walked or manually changed it into granny at the front and put up with the chain grinding against the deraileur on the way up. It was hard and a little frustrating at times, but I just tried to ignore the problem and concentrate on getting throught the course, which had become pretty technical and slippery, I was really enjoying bunny hopping slippery roots or using them to get the back out and have some opposite lock fun. It was an enjoyable double and I kept within my target lap pace of 1:30-1:35.
The demons were still very much alive and a few more toilet trips followed this double lap, then Neil suggested I eat some bread, which was incredible, two bites in I could feel my body picking up and I felt much much better, so I scarfed bits of bread a no carb protein bar and some gatorade and hit the hay, not sure of the team strategy for the morning, but we all agreed to set the alarm for 5am and see where we stood.
The wind and rain kept kept waking me up, but I was stubborn and kept going back to sleep. I awoke before 5am, the sun had started to come up, but I just laid there and waited for Neil, who had the alarm, when he got up, I knew I had to, it was so nice have him there to motivate me and help. He cleaned my drivetrain again and I tried to tune my gears for a mix of no chain suck and having granny gear, the balance point was abount a quarter of a turn on a very wet screw, and I never really got right.
Drew made me a couple of pancakes with golden syrup, and my god, were they good, after eating them I got dressed and I was motivated and full of beans to go out and double lap.
This double was great fun, even though my gears were stuffed at the front, I was just glad to get around The dawn lap is always fresh aired and many people had returned to the course. Most people I came across were solo riders, we seemed to be at the same pace, so I chatted with a few of them and rode along with them, spurring them on, many of them had ridden all night and were doing so well. Often though, they left me behind on the climbs, I just didn't have much strength to get up the hills, even low grade slight uphill flats had become granny gear (when the bike allowed that gear :)).
The double was over by 8:30am and I headed back to camp, not sure whether I should head straight back out and go for a triple lap straight away, finishing at 1:30pm, it would make my lap tally an even 10 laps, and I felt like it was doable. The weather was turning windy though and the marquees at camp looked like they may blow over, so I opted to skip a lap, half pack up camp with the boys, tune my gears (again!), eat another heavenly golden syrupy pancake and stick to my race plan of 8 laps, if I waited and went out at 10:30am I could finish around 12pm and I knew Kylie would be there to watch me finish with my kids.
The final lap had to be a hot lap, of course, I love this, because if you blow up on the last lap, who cares, walk out cramping, it's the last lap after all :) So I gave it all I had left in the tank, but trying not to be too fast, and get to the end before 12pm, as I didn't want to make my family wait around in the weather for another hour and a half while I did a ninth lap.
On one of the long firetrails I got to thinking (this happens when you don't take music out with you :)) and I knew I had achieved my goal, this was my 8th lap, I'd done it, and the end was coming up. I felt strong and was pulling up behind groups of solos and other pairs, chatting a little, then pedalling off and leaving them behind. I started to think about Kylie and my kids, and how I had achieved my goal, but I wasn't able to share it with them, I dunno if it was exhaustion or that I am a little soft, but I burst into tears while riding along thinking about it. It was most bizarre!
I stood up for all the climbs and flats and really put in for the final 5 kms, I knew exactly how much course there was to go, so I metered by efforts, and as per last year I had "spare in the tank" and tried to burn it off. I ended up coming in 10 minutes quicker than I had hoped, and had to pull into the "waiting to finish area", I was pretty emotional. I'd done it, made it, amazing! It was 11:50am, so I spent 10 minutes chatting with other riders before we all got to cross the line at 12. As I came into transition I spotted Kylie and the boys and Charli, and I lost it, couldn't hold back the tears at all, but tried to hide them :) Tears of joy, for getting through it, achieving a year long ambition and seeing my family again, it was very emotional, and wonderful.
And the end result was we got 13th in pairs, which blew me away, and if I had gone solo, my 8 laps would have gotten me 60th out of 105 solo entrants. Sure, that's not an amazing placing or anything, but for me, it is. I'd only ever dreamed I could enter solo one day, and to achieve a result like that was amazing, I'm elated with it, and am super keen to try again next year, either in a competative pair or solo. I found the beauty of being virtually solo this year is that you run your own pace, stop when you want, go when you want, it was nice. It was also nice to see that if Drew had done two laps while I slept or packed camp, or if I had myself went and did that final triple lap, we would have come 9th in pairs. So I am highly motivated for next year, solo or pairs, it'll be brilliant, I'm really looking forward to it. If only the MONT was on more than once a year...
|
| Here's some data on my lap times versus my heart rate for last year and this year. It is interesting to see I only got anaerobic in the first 3 laps this year, then I started to gradually die off every time I went out (at least I stay consistant on my doubles I guess), luckily that last lap motivated me to pick up the pace or I might have fallen off the bottom of the chart! |