Reto a la Frontera - 85km MTB
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Reto a la Frontera - 85km MTB - Cycle
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Comments: Even though I've taken part in 3 events, accompanying my GF, after my IM (5k, 12.5k and a city adventure race), this was my chance to do some real racing on my own and test my fitness/skills. I started out at the back of the pack and almost got caught up in a couple of pileups. Couldn't find a suitable wheel to draft off, so I ended up doing a lot of solo riding on the first 25km on pavement. Once we got to the dirt I felt good as I finally started passing people. Lots of ruts and short, fast downhills. Felt good on the climbs; even though they weren't excessively long, they were constant and came up one right after another. I was surprised to see that my handling skills are still solid after so many months of mainly road riding. I'm glad to say that I was not passed on any of the downhill sections. However, I was beaten up on some of the climbs! At the 50km mark, there was a huge steep climb aptly called "the Patrol"...I decided to walk since my back was hurting a bit. It seemed to be a good call since a lot of the riders who were still on their bikes were going at the same pace as I was. Once we reached the 70km mark, I decided to see how long I could hold a hard pace. I went as fast as I could until the finish line! Left it all there. A lot of people were cramping from so much heat and humidity. Having suffered from major cramps in my IM and, to a smaller degree, in last week's adventure race, I was very happy with my hydration/nutrition strategy. I drank a liter of water with 3 diluted Endurolytes, as well as a bottle of Powerade with another salt tablet; ate a small honey pack at every :30 of the hour and a gel every hour. I also took water and gatorade at most aid stations. If I had been told a year ago that I would be eating and drinking so much, I would have laughed. But I'm finally trying to understand and satisfy my own specific nutrition/hydration requirements in races. What would you do differently?: I was happy, and pretty surprised also, to do so well in this race. I definitely need to do more MTB-specific training as I felt I had some difficulties changing pace and "exploding" on some climbs. Post race
Warm down: I stretched a bit, got some food, got a cake and waited for Maydelene. She arrived an hour later and we sang happy b-day as she crossed the finish line. She beat her projected time by over 30 minutes and had no serious falls; only some minor scrapes around her knee. She was also very happy with her result. What limited your ability to perform faster: More MTB training...more intervals and changes of pace on the bike, and eventually on the run. Event comments: The Amazon jungle as a setting, raced better than expected, celebrated my GF's b-day...priceless! Last updated: 2005-06-27 12:00 AM
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2005-06-27 1:19 PM |
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2005-06-27 4:32 PM in reply to: #184620 |
2005-06-27 11:09 PM in reply to: #184620 |
2005-06-28 8:21 AM in reply to: #184620 |
2005-07-01 3:25 AM in reply to: #184620 |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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Had some left-over pizza from the previous night and Powerade about three hours prior to the race. Took a couple of Endurolytes.
Rode around for approx. 10 minutes with my girlfriend prior to the start.