M
MattB
Guest
I got a call from my friend Rick last week asking what I was doing
this (now last) weekend. After telling him not much he asked if I
wanted to stay up all night. It didn't click right away. "Huh? A White
Rim trip or something?" Nope. He had put a single speed team together
for the 24 Hours in the Sage and had a guy bail because he had to
work. He needed me to sub. I wasn't planning on it, but decided what
the hell. I was in.
I had two days to train, so I thought I'd just start off with the
taper part of a training regiment.
I just did one low intensity
ride Thursday night to test out my new NiteRider MiNewt.X2 light
system (which is awesome, I might write something about it later) and
generally tried to stay rested, fed, and hydrated.
Rick got a great hookup on some cabins so we could have one for
sleeping and one for staging. It was pretty plush for a 24 Hour race,
but that's ok with me!
At first I was nominated to do the LeMond start which was a short dash
around a pond, but Rick changed his mind and wanted to do it himself.
I wasn't going to argue with that. I'll run sometimes, but not usually
in my cycling shoes.
The race started and it was a bit of a cluster. We're still not
exactly sure why, but some guy grabbed Rick's bar end and yanked on it
right as he was riding out. We think maybe he felt he'd been cut off
or something but it was weird. Rick made a recovery move and just
continued on, having a pretty good lap. We might have gone to talk to
the guy but the rest of us missed it and nobody got his number so he
disappeared into the crowd. Oh well.
I was fourth in the rotation and we all just did one lap per shift to
try and maximize the total laps. I was fortunate to get both the
sunset and sunrise laps, which were both beautiful. The course was a
rolling 1500' of climbing over 13 Miles, two on the road and 11 on my
home turf trails. I felt pretty good and had some great laps. We all
did. I really enjoyed taking different lines than the masses and
getting a cleaner shot through some technical sections.
Unlike last year I didn't crash, which was a plus. That was one of my
goals. I also posted times at least a couple of minutes faster, which
is pretty cool. Unfortunately there are some laps missing fro the
results. I think my last lap may have been pretty good. I'm hoping
that data shows up. I'm also not all that sore which is a little
surprising. Last year I felt like more of an old man afterwards.
We wound up doing five each for a total of 20 laps, winning the single
speed four man and being 9th over all. I'm happy with that. It was a
fun event in a strange and painful way. It seemed to be all good vibes
except for the weird thing at the start. I felt like I did well for
not specifically training for it. It could almost motivate me to train
for next year. Almost...
Matt
this (now last) weekend. After telling him not much he asked if I
wanted to stay up all night. It didn't click right away. "Huh? A White
Rim trip or something?" Nope. He had put a single speed team together
for the 24 Hours in the Sage and had a guy bail because he had to
work. He needed me to sub. I wasn't planning on it, but decided what
the hell. I was in.
I had two days to train, so I thought I'd just start off with the
taper part of a training regiment.
I just did one low intensityride Thursday night to test out my new NiteRider MiNewt.X2 light
system (which is awesome, I might write something about it later) and
generally tried to stay rested, fed, and hydrated.
Rick got a great hookup on some cabins so we could have one for
sleeping and one for staging. It was pretty plush for a 24 Hour race,
but that's ok with me!
At first I was nominated to do the LeMond start which was a short dash
around a pond, but Rick changed his mind and wanted to do it himself.
I wasn't going to argue with that. I'll run sometimes, but not usually
in my cycling shoes.
The race started and it was a bit of a cluster. We're still not
exactly sure why, but some guy grabbed Rick's bar end and yanked on it
right as he was riding out. We think maybe he felt he'd been cut off
or something but it was weird. Rick made a recovery move and just
continued on, having a pretty good lap. We might have gone to talk to
the guy but the rest of us missed it and nobody got his number so he
disappeared into the crowd. Oh well.
I was fourth in the rotation and we all just did one lap per shift to
try and maximize the total laps. I was fortunate to get both the
sunset and sunrise laps, which were both beautiful. The course was a
rolling 1500' of climbing over 13 Miles, two on the road and 11 on my
home turf trails. I felt pretty good and had some great laps. We all
did. I really enjoyed taking different lines than the masses and
getting a cleaner shot through some technical sections.
Unlike last year I didn't crash, which was a plus. That was one of my
goals. I also posted times at least a couple of minutes faster, which
is pretty cool. Unfortunately there are some laps missing fro the
results. I think my last lap may have been pretty good. I'm hoping
that data shows up. I'm also not all that sore which is a little
surprising. Last year I felt like more of an old man afterwards.
We wound up doing five each for a total of 20 laps, winning the single
speed four man and being 9th over all. I'm happy with that. It was a
fun event in a strange and painful way. It seemed to be all good vibes
except for the weird thing at the start. I felt like I did well for
not specifically training for it. It could almost motivate me to train
for next year. Almost...
Matt
