Greg May takes on some fuel mid event in Scotland (Photo: Alison Mitchelmore)
Fresh (OK then, maybe not ‘fresh’) from riding the ‘24 Hours of Exposure European & UK Solo MTB Championship’ in Scotland, Greg May profiles the gruelling event and offers some insightful advice to anybody thinking of having a go.
Time: 4:30am
Location: Newcastleton; Scotland
Race: 24 Hours of Exposure; European 24 hour Championships
Greg (rolls into pit) : “My knee is hurting really badly now!”
Dave (drinking beer) : “Well...you have been riding your bike for 16 and a half hours straight....”
Greg (pit, changing bottles and food) : “Touché Dave....touché.”
Dave (friendly shove in back) : “Bye now, see you in another 90mins”
Time elapsed: ~45 seconds
This more or less highlights the contact I had with my pit during the 3rd edition of the 24 Hours of Exposure. Sometimes longer, but mostly just like that. With no teams racing, this race has become thee 24-hour MTB race in the UK for soloists.
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We don't have much of a history of 24-hour MTB racing in Ireland. Most MTB clubs have one member who has raced a solo; usually more who’ve raced as teams. Hopefully this piece will offer some insight into what needs to be done for these gruelling events.
Preparation:
A solo 24 hour MTB race is not the same as a 12-hour, or a team 24. You need to be willing to spend a large amount of time preparing for this event on and off the bike. Many things will be sacrificed in order to pull it together. I would suggest running it past partners or spouses before contemplating it as the training can become very selfish.
Training:
Obviously you need to be very comfortable riding at night. Not a 90 minute ride in 3 Rock with your mates, but 3-4 hour rides. Self sufficient. In the dark. Embrace the night. Just tell people where you are going or use a tracking application on your phone like Endomondo. I asked riders in the UK for advice in the months before the race. The following pearl of wisdom was a common response: "Ride your MTB, on big mountains, lots. Then wake up the next day and do it again." Riding tired is the key. Riding late and long on a Friday evening and early on Saturday even though your legs are screaming at you - this builds both mental and physical strength. If you think the 6am alarm call on Saturday is hard, you have no idea.
Kit:
Think like a cross rider; two of everything. Two bikes running the same tyres, contact points and gearing. You need a near seamless change between positions on the bikes. After 17 hours you may think that a change would be nice; it won't. It will feel wrong and you'll get angry.
In the pit, think fast and easy; arm, knee, leg warmers with shorts and jersey. Unless it gets really messy down there, you won’t need to change out of shorts. Spare long sleeve and winter jackets for the night so you can switch depending on the weather. Gillets come in handy to mediate temperature. Bring every pair of gloves for every weather condition. Double way zippers on jerseys - hard to find - but will allow you too remove pressure on your gut. Don't worry about looks, worry about function.
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Pit and Crew:
A solid crew and a well organised pit = a fast racer. Get someone anal who likes making lists; someone dependable. It also helps if they can stay awake for the entire race. You will develop a need to see the same person, get the same food from them, do things the same way. If like most racers though you are relying on loved ones, make sure you allocate them some time before and after the race. Let them know how bad things might go, give them boundaries on which they can pull you out. After the race let them be part of your achievement, they have worked just as hard as you did.
Under no circumstances bring your Ugg boot-wearing, Brown Thomas-shopping, frappamochachino-drinking partner to the race unless he/she really knows how messy it is possibly going to go. They will need to deal with it. You need someone 100% dependable in all situations, preferably two. If they can swing hammers to fix your bike, even better.
Nutrition:
You will not be able too ingest, or process, enough food to fuel the event. If you ingest too much, it will result in it spilling out one or both exit holes. Once you are happy with this we can proceed.
You need to be able to understand what you CAN absorb and utilise during the event. The simple and honest science is that we are limited to absorbing about 60g of carbohydrate per hour. Now... why is he talking about carbohydrates and not calories? Well Timmy *science alert* the human stomach is sadly not like a combustion engine. People assume it is a simple {fuel in/ stomach process = energy out} equation. It is a lot more complex than that. We understand that as intensity goes up we shift the fuel that we work on; fats for low intensity, carbohydrates for high intensity. However, these processes are still regulated at the gut by how they are absorbed and by available oxygen. Thankfully this can be trained, but it takes time.
Carbohydrate metabolism is going to provide your main fuel during this event, fat will be burned in huge amounts. However, trying to fuel on fats will result in a decrease of gastric emptying. To further complicate the issue, the combination of carbohydrates used will determine the uptake rates. Sucrose, fructose, galactose, lactose and maltose are all sugars you can use. However, each one will be absorbed at different rates. You need to train your stomach like the rest of your body to deal with the shift in carbohydrate uptake rates. This requires practising your fuelling.
Race Plan:
Although you cannot prepare for every hour of the race, you need to make plans about how you are going to ride your race. If you ride the best race you know you can and all others fail, chances are you are going to do well. You need to have a back-up plan for when things go wrong. After that you need to have a fallout plan for when the back-up breaks down. Think of the simple acronym: PPP=PPP - Piss Poor Preparation = Piss Poor Performance.
Mentality:
Racing solo takes a whole new dimension into account, that of your mind nagging that; 'you can stop - you have no team to let down'. It is easy to sit down. If you do, prepare to slide backwards fast. You need to train yourself to become mentally strong. You need to go places deep within yourself in training and find out where you are weak. You need to eradicate that. Think of Apocalypse now; 'Never get off the boat.' If you don't sit down, or step off your bike in the pit, you cannot stop.
A 24 is mentally difficult. You will be on the bike a very long time. You will have massive periods of ecstasy and periods of utter depression. Get through these periods, ride the highs, coast the lows. You're pit crew is your drug, use them to bring you back up.
Racing a 24 solo is hard. You will get round, but getting round fast is another thing. Building a plan, putting the pieces in place, making sure you have everything covered is the way to attempt this. Just be consistent; as little stopped time as possible, highest aggregate speed. Just pedal damn-it!
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