2011 Australian 24 Hour Solo National Championships

Training for this race had gone well, but the 7 day Terra Australis stage race had taken a massive toll on me, I just never really physically or mentally recovered from the punishment I put myself through there. The result was the taper for this event wasn't the usual energy charged fun time it always is. I was tired; sleeping 12 hours a night, and still waking up tired, I never felt great. Resting HR was really high and it never came down like it usually does, these were the warning signs that this race was never going to go well...

Seeded an ego blasting 4th, the organisers clearly had more faith in my abilities than I did, but it was pretty cool to to be called up on the front row with the Nation's best. There wasn't much time to soak it up though, the start was hectic, so I let the front group of riders go, dropping back to a safe distance I thought I would get to watch them attacking each other, and some of them did, but Brett and the Fenz were playing smart and hung back, so we rolled a few laps together, all the while hoping some of the others would crack at the front.

Ludenia was on fire and setting the pace for the race, pulling fast and consistent laps, while a group of 6 followed, eventually they broke up, English and Ludenia off the front, with Scotty, Stu, Ash, Ed and Andy chasing... Brett was pulling away from Fenner and I slowly but surely, but Fenz and I just kept tapping away, playing it smart, keeping the gap manageable, but never pushing it too hard. Everything was going to plan, so far...

At around 3pm Fenz pulled a good overtake around Laura and took off from me down the descent towards transition, stuck behind Laura I asked her a few times to let me by, but got no reply. Determined not to let the Fenz get away, I risked an overtake over some jumps; It turned out to be a stupid idea, but sometimes in the heat of racing, you make mistakes. I launched of the high side of the jump at a speed I'd never approached it before, and flew higher through air than ever before, which was fun, briefly... when I landed I was slightly off line and the bike slid straight out from under me and I slammed into the ground. I could feel my knee was trashed, but knew adrenaline was firing, if I didn't look at it, got in some anti inflammatories fast, I could hopefully ride it out, so that's what I did, jumping straight up and riding on without looking at my body or my bike.

My brakes levers were stuffed in the crash, so we changed bikes and I took off to catch back up to Fenner. I eventually caught him and chased him down the breakout descent. Out of nowhere I heard the awful crack and tear of carbon breaking up, a second or two later, my seat post snapped and the saddle just fell off! What is it with me and racing without a bike seat? This was on the backup bike, not the one I had crashed earlier either! No time to stop and pick it up the pieces of my bike that were falling off on this descent, I just kept pedalling standing up and stuck to Fenner's wheel for the rest of the lap, blasting into the pits one very unhappy camper. A quick bike swap later and we were off again.

I had already put my lights on last lap, so when he stopped to put his lights on at the end of lap 10, I flew by in the pits and upped the pace to get a gap and go on the hunt for Brett and Andy...

Kylie gave me some anti inflammatories and we crossed our fingers the knee wouldn't swell up too much. Little by little I started to reel the boys back in, 5 laps later I caught Brett and we rolled a couple of laps together, chatting away, while we reeled Andy in. I felt so good at this point, but the night was getting cooler, and I was drinking less than before. When most of your carbohydrate is in your water bottle, skimping on drinking is never wise. My carb intake dropped to under 50g per hour, which was fine for a few hours, but when Andy got into some caffiene, he took off and pulled away, while I only started to get slower, and slower. My laps times blew out from 40mins, to 50mins pretty quickly. I was starting to go a bit nutty too, telling myself crazy jokes and making up some weird limricks, laughing away at myself like a loon! I was starting to forget where I was and being constantly amazed at new pieces of trail I hadn't ridden before (of course I had ridden them, over a dozen times today, but I was like a goldfish in a bowl with a 2 second memory ;)). Quite amusing at the time, but these were the warning signs of Hypoglycemia. I'd never had this before, usually I eat way too many carbs in a race, but this race we were deliberately restricting what I ate, to see what would happen. The experiment was getting pretty interesting too; by midnight every stump in the forest looked like a monster to me, or a person. I would call out to them, but get no answer. It was trippy.

By 2am I was completely delirious and unable to think anymore, I sort of knew I had gone mad, but at the same time I was happy to roll with it, it was kinda fun being mad. I still had energy and was pedalling OK, or so I thought, from inside my stupor :)

I just kept rolling around, wondering why it was getting foggy. I even commented to a passing rider "what's with this fog?", but they told me there was no fog. Interesting. Maybe it's dust? A few laps later I was convinced it was my glasses fogging up or getting dusty, and it was getting worse every lap, so I took them off.

My vision was still very cloudy. Hmm, that's not good.

I closed one eye and checked the left, hmm, can't see anything but white, I could only make out a big shadow, that could be a tree I guess... So I checked the right eye; it's not as bad, I can make out where the trail is, but no detail of what is on it, rocks, roots, ruts, forget seeing those. Luckily I had done over 20 laps by now and knew where most of the bumps where, and the ones I forgot, I found them pretty quickly... then I would get back up, find my bike, get back on it and find some more things to crash into. I've never had so many lay down Sally moments in all my life!

It was surreal, I hoped when the sun came up my vision would return. It didn't, it just got worse, much worse. It would randomly flash all green, or all red, like a telly on the blink. Every time I rode toward the sunrise, with the sun in my eyes, I couldn't see a thing, just colour flashes, I had to get off and feel my way forward like Mr Magoo! When the sun wasn.t in my eyes, any shadow on the trail and zero contrast, it was just all blank, or all brown. I couldn.t make out anything and had to ride through shadows by feel. It was a gamble, sometimes I won, sometimes I lost.

Riding slowly is never good on rocks and I was often getting stuck on them; the bike would stall, I would try and unclip, but my foot was stuck in the pedal and I would fall over sideways like an idiot roadie at the traffic lights when they get stuck in the pedals; it's funny to watch, but doing it over and over again, on rocks, was starting to spoil my mood. A few crashes later and I finally worked out the cleat on my shoe had come lose and was falling off, into the pits for a shoe swap, now I had on one white shoe and one black shoe. I rode out looking (and feeling) like Cruella de Vil. It should have been funny, but this when I turned to Kylie and mumbled that it was starting to get hard to remain positive...

She filled me up with some yummy warm Weet Bix and some lemonade, and I finally got back enough brain power back to ponder, would this be permanent eye damage? Kylie checked with Dr Kev a and Dr Dan and reassured me that it was temporary, so I kept lapping, until we got some fantastic advice on how to cure it from Kevin Wells; the fix? Your friend and mine, sugar! I skulled a can of red bull and then a lemonade and viola, literally within seconds my vision went 100% clear! It was a TV evangelist miracle, thank you guru Kev! ;)

Drunk with happiness from being brought back from the dead I drunkenly professed my love for Robyn, Kendra, Anne, Mum and Kylie, who had tirelessly supported me all night during my descent into madness, and continued to profess my love to everyone else in the near vicinity and took off, riding my final laps out with a smile. I was cured!

On my 2nd last lap I begged a waiting Gazza to join me for our usual laps we always do together at Nats, but he was so far ahead in his category (5 laps up, well done mate!), he was keen for a sit down and to roll his last lap later, so I headed out alone. I was chipper, high on life, keen to chat with anyone that would listen, so I was stoked when Andy waited up for me and English caught us and we all decided to roll the last lap out together. I had a couple of mates for the final lap, and it was pure gold. A top finish to a tough day at the office!

A good mate of mine, Adam, is a diabetic and after the race he told me that is exactly what a he goes through when he has low blood sugars; the brain is just not working, and you're unable to think clearly enough to even reach forward and eat some lollies to cure it. Madness! I have a new respect for anyone that has to go through a "Hypo" experience. It's just plain scary (in hindsight, at the time it was pretty trippy though, so not all bad, weeee ;)), and not something I want to do ever do again!

In the end my lack of drinking cost me the chance to chase Brett and Andy and it allowed Quiggsy to catch and pass me, putting me back to 8th place. My worst result in 4 years of competing at Nationals. At first I was devastated, I collected my medal (amazingly I had hung on to a category win) and handed it to Kylie, I just wanted to go home and die. I even told Jess this would be my last race and I would join her in retirement, and I was not joking. A few days later, after some reflection I came out of retirement and my pool of self pity, and am already planning out the next one.

No wonder people think we are insane for doing this sport, I have finally seen the light and agree with them, we are freakin' nuts! But am happy to roll with it and see where the next adventure takes me...

Thanx:

Radical Lights, the new light units were amazing at this race, even when I was blind from hypoglycaemia, I had enough light to keep me moving around the course, and that was on half power!; Onya Bike Belconnen, Azza and Micko were constantly looking after my bikes, keeping them running flawlessly all year, as well as all race, best mechanics in the business! The new 2011 Giant Anthem Advanced prooved to be the bike of choice for this course too; Hammer Nutrition, for amazing support these last six months, and fuelling my first race without any stomach problems, the Heed and gels were awesome; Robyn, Anne, Mum and Kendra, for supporting Kylie and I through what was a tough race, your smiling faces every lap is what kept me going, I am humbled by the support you gave me and owe you girls big time; and Kylie for supporting me though another 3 months of build up for this race including the trip away to the Terra, for being the amazing mum you are and keeping our little family rolling along all year round, let alone the support during the race while in recovery from surgery, you are an amazing, strong and generous girl to keep supporting this crazy guy that's for sure! I could not even contemplate rolling up to the start line without your tireless support, year after year.

Tech Notes:

Tyres: After extensive testing on course I had UST Schwalbe Rocket Rons shipped in the day before the race, I ran these at 25psi. I note that the Evo versions were pretty good at 30spi, but the UST ones had to be dropped to 25spi to get the same bite, probably due to the stronger side walls. UST turned out to be a good decision as they survived the many sharp rocks and dug into the loose over hard pack surface well. On the rear I went with Conti Race King Protections at 30psi as they roll fast and also stand up well to rocks, they offer plenty of grip too. I had two flats during the race, but they were both slow leaks (in the Conti's) I could limp back to the pits. In hindsight running UST on the rear tyres as well would have been better.
Geometry: I ran two Giant Anthem Advanced bikes at this race, an older '08 model and the new '11 unit. The newer bike has a slacker head angle and it was majorly better than the older bike on this course, due to the many techy rock sections that just got harder and harder to ride as fatigue set it.
Lights: I was lucky enough to have uber bright Radicals on for this race, we went with 5hr run time configurations to require only two battery swaps. These light were seriously bright, so I ran them at half power for most of the lap to sneak some extra run time, as they were plenty bright enough on the dim setting, amazing!

Some stats for fun:

Race Distance: 380km
Climb: 6.3 vertical kilometers
Energy Burned: 14,483 Calories - The equivalent of 94 Easter Buns
Speed: Average 15.8km/h
HR: 119bpm
Power: 204WNP
Cadence: 86
Crashes: Countless!
Result: 8th (1st in my category)
Training: 250 hours over 4 months
ABC News Coverage of the race.

A look at the lap times of the top 10, with some key points in the race highlighted. The stands out for me here are McDonald and Brown, the most consistent performers in the race.

A look at the results of the top 20 shows that yet again this race gets faster and harder every year, especially the top 5 this year, who were closer, and more out in front, than ever before. I miss the old days of 2008 when everyone was much much slower ;)

The data from the powertap shows a lot of free wheeling, 1/4 of the time infact, that's heaps more compared to last year, and the power curve has a lot more high power efforts too, interesting! Day Laps 1-8 215WNP: Duration: 4:39:44 (4:39:54) Work: 3045 kJ TSS: 203.2 (intensity factor 0.661) Norm Power: 215 VI: 1.19 Pw:HR: n/a Pa:HR: n/a Distance: 93.818 km Elevation Gain: 1356 m Elevation Loss: 1337 m Grade: 0.0 % (16 m) Min Max Avg Power: 0 685 181 watts Cadence: 31 218 88 rpm Speed: 0 45.8 20.1 kph

An analysis of the gaps between certain riders that interest me; my race was going perfectly until around lap 20 when I started to go blind, at the same time Hall took caffiene and Bellchambers decided it was time to run McDonald down, the result for me was devastating, both of them pulling away, this is where my race ended. In the SS battle, on lap 7 McDonald pulls away from Bellchambers until lap 28, when the Master starts to reel the Padewan back in, but the Padewan will not take it lieing down, fighting back to retain his lead, defeating the master!