Bristol Bike Fest 2010

Well, at least I know my endurance is there.

Saturday morning came so Jo and I set up the Syncros E-Z up, dumped all of the kit in there and went to the briefing.

The Briefing from Paul Newman (precis)...

..."I shout go, you run like hell, and then cycle for 12hrs."

So we did.

I got to my bike and was breathing out of my back end! Scott got caught up in the start, but I got away relatively cleanly and apart from the initial course cutters the first lap was pretty uneventful and reasonably quick.

My normal "plan" is to do a couple of quick laps until people spread out a bit and then settle down to endurance pace. Lap 3 finished almost to plan but I had to stop and have a go on the inhaler. We thought it was the dust, but it patently wasn't: my chest infection has gone and I'm recovering well but am still suffering from Bronchospasm when I exercise intensely. Unfortunately, as a result of this my pulse was flying high, my legs started to cramp after 3hrs and things weren't really going very well. When I got back on the bike 2 weeks ago, I had hoped to get on and ride for 12hrs solid at 12hr pace? Now that I was in the race all sanity seemed to drain away and it was a case of me expecting my body to perform flawlessly.

Eejit!

12hr pace nowadays is highly replicant of XC pace: It hurts, but it's a nice kind of hurt as it's only 12hrs. Now I feel the need to slap myself for using "only" and "12hrs" in the same sentence. Sorry.

The riding speed wasn't going well but I knew my head was good for a bit of punishment, which it duly got in large helpings. My body, along with everyone elses got a right kicking too due to the rocky, lumpy, bumpy, fast and fun singletrack.

9hrs later and the cramps were still there, but I had managed to deal with it. I might not have powered myself along quickly, but I was hammering it along the singletrack and really enjoying it. However something else which I am really glad about, was also happening. I usually struggle to take on more than 600ml of sports drink per hour, no matter what the weather or temperature. And I've tried all of the makes, too. I either get a big bloaty stomach after 6hrs, or I start to Jam Tart all over the place (not lady like)and pee like a trooper. Today though and in stark contrast to previous experiences, I gave my Infinit it's first REAL test of the year in less than ideal conditions and it passed with flying colours.

Everything was going wrong for me, but I should have expected so really. I got really tired, really quickly and my legs ran out of push after 3 hrs, so I just kept grinding along being headstrong and taking puffs from my inhaler at the transition point every 3hrs or so...

...AND DRINKING 1 LITRE OF MY INFINIT PER HOUR! That's nearly 550 Calories an hour and I have NEVER been close to that. As it cooled down I decided to drop down to 600 ml per hour for the last few laps as I didn't want to be up all night, peeing. Endurance athletes will realise that this isn't normally possible. During hot weather we ALWAYS end a long race like this with a bit of dehydration.

I peed a few times in the night, and I ony drank a can of coke before bed and that was it. Infinit is the word, so don't forget to try it by using the code "24ormore" for a £5 discount. Hopefully you won't be disappointed, and to prevent that possibility you can phone them and they'll design the drink for you, as you speak!

Brilliance.

Bristol Bike Fest is a top event arranged by Mike and Paul. Fun, fun, fun, and some beer with a band make it a true festival. The finishing times were fantastic with James Lister blasting around and having a giggle as he went. He made 5 laps on me and blasted everyone else at the same time. Good lad. I had hoped to limit it a 1 to 2 lap difference this year with my huge gains in fitness, but never mind. Craig Dolwin whipped my booty in the vets race and I can't find the result for 2nd Vet at the moment. Scott had some nutritional issues but managed to pull a fourth out of the Open solo on Saturday, too.

All of our local friends seemed to come along from Cardiff, and they had a prime spot in the trees from which to heckle, watch and participate in the racing. You'll remember that these guys are the ones that held a surprise 40th for me, so they're kind of special. They range in abilities from Spanky (fast) and young, to older and more sedate, but they all love to congregate at various events, gatherings and weekly rides to drink beer, spin yarns and rip the mickey out of each other. They are proper mountain bikers and no question and their results were good too.

But, even on the first lap there were people trying to cut through the course to "save time" by inventive gamesmanship. I actually shouted at a couple just then, as they tried to miss out all of the initial singletrack by taking the smooth line (that wasn't the course) that ran alongside the wall-for miles. One of them came back but the other just kept going. Another place where the signage seemed like an option rather than a rule, was the bombhole. Most of my laps saw me feeling the need to remind people that the left arrow didn't mean "ignore this and avoid the course at this point." Team kit and the identifiability that goes with it didn't prevent some of the cheating going on and that is a lamentable issue.

It ruined a small part of an otherwise brilliant event. Why cheat, or make navigational errors, lap after lap? I know that some of my close friends saw the same thing and are being proactive about it, so let's see what happens next year.

Sunday was the 6hr event and it was Jo's Turn to shine again. She puts me to shame, I tell you. Her and Kate were doing the ladies pairs and to be fair, they hammered it. Lap times were incredibly consistent and they finished a lap ahead of Second place without needing to go out for a final flying lap. Each time they came in after their respective double lap, they looked calm and cool. Jo's nutrition was bang on and they looked fresh as a daisy when they finished. Awesome.

Rob looked fresh too, after he rode a blinder on his Santa Cruz Blur XC LT Carbon to a win on the solo race. He looked like he hadn't tried! Waster.

A great weekend with lots of plus points. My head is strong, friends rode really well, and the remnants of my chest infection will clear fully in another couple of weeks. The end of July will see me peaking for "The Hobbits' Tale" which is getting scarily close.

But it'll be 'avin it!