[JOJO]

OK, so now that a bunch of us beginners have decided to enter a 24 hour race we need advice from the veterans in regards to training.

When should we get started, how often, etc etc etc.... any advice would help. Thanks

 

[BarbaRosa]

my understanding

In ultra marathon training the rule as I understand it is:
one long day a week
consistancy
sleep food and rest

translation is

what is your long day today? perhaps 1 hr of ride time, perhaps 3, perhaps 6... Pick one and start out. and after improvements on time, recovery, and relaxation while riding, move up to the next longer time.

Speed work is not as important as endurance, the ability to recover, proper nurishment and hydration before, during, and after working. Over all time. On your long ride, each time shave time off while focused on the above.

Consistancy is very very important. Rain or shine or heat or cold... be out there working. If you are looking at the 24 hr endurance like what is it , the Ohio race? Outside training is important for the nuance skills like mud, roots, rocks, climbs the stuff you do not get in the gym. 24 hrs outside you will need to focus on those little mud snakes and such that will take more energy and psyc you out faster after the 5 fall in one mile.

Sleep food and rest. start cooking your own foods, it is real fun and easy to make good meals fast with out pre processed stuff. Sleep over getting out and about. Your body needs the recovery... (my personal biggest prob these days is trying to get more then 5 hrs, I need at least 7 or 8 and I am not getting it dang it)

Remember, the rabbit and the turtel and the turtel wins. Remember that.

For books, there is good stuff on ultra marathon training. I supported a buddy one year at the Leadville 100. So these points are part from that time, and part from my memory of my extensive library...

Always over hydrate!


But I am sure you knew all this! You are the Queen Monkey! Remember, advice is as good as what you paid for it... in this case, its free, go figure

 

[mikec918]

Get your lights now and starting riding with them.

Depending on the length of a lap 6-8 miles your probably looking at 50-70 minute laps during the day and 70-120 or so at night so with 6 people expect to do 3-4 laps each.

If you can ride for 2 hours non stop right now try to build to 3 hours that should give you plenty of endurance.
1 hr to 3 hrs 6-8 weeks adding 15 minutes per week
2-3 hrs 3-4 weeks

example training program
Sat long hard ride 75%+ Max pace
Sun day long easy ride 60 % Max pace
Tueday short hard ride 1 hrs 85%+ Max Pace
Thurday 1 Hour 70-80%


Hydra and eating, Decide what you like. IE sample Plan goo Pack at the start of every lap plus 1-2 every 30 mins or so during your lap. light solid food at the end of each lap including a little protein. That way you have time to digest it before your next lap.
Bring a propane stove for soup incase it gets cold.

Support Stuff Tent, Cots, sleeping bags Towels, Changes of Clothing incase it rains. first aid stuff. Tires, Tupes, pumps

Big thing have all your bikes looked at by a mechanic the week before the race.


Mostly just have fun

 

[BarbaRosa]

thinking about what I just wrote, and then reading that RM went full throttle for 5 laps....

....er I would say and repeat the idea from Mountaineering, slow and steady. If you jack rabbit, and you 'pop' or bonk, you will have to likely stop, or get injured from your motor control ability shutting down...

... You want to slowly up your ability of slow and steady till youare in front of the pack.. that takes years not months or weeks... so in the mean time, for MOAB, just go out, have fun, take it easy at the start and go steady, burst some speed, recover, burst again, recover etc etc....


Consistency and ability to recover and relax. I am sure you have heard some Tour talk with armstrong and others about what they do, and my favorite part, what those boys EAT! o my, the callories they put down is impressive, steak lobster, cake, rice, soups, salads, beers, wine, fruit... all in one stint of eating! yee haw, that would make it fun to do big events just to consume and burn through those food groups!

 

[Heidi]

Have you guys discussed team manager/crew stuff? For all my endurance races, I've had a crew. A good crew person will have some cooking skills, mechanical know-how, and patience. Basically, it's someone to look after all the details you don't want to because you are busy riding. They get you up, make sure your bike is okay, get you to the staging area, make sure you have food and drink when you finish your laps, refill your bottles, and listen to you ramble before pushing you back out on the course.
Just my .02 worth.
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VOLCANO VAPORIZERS

 

[I Are Baboon]

Heidi, sounds like you've got that pit crew thing all figured out. YOU ARE HIRED. Thanks.

 

[JOJO]

Hehe my thoughts exactly

for real though that is great advice Heidi.. and everyone that has participated thanks!!

 

[Heidi]

Originally posted by I Are Baboon
Heidi, sounds like you've got that pit crew thing all figured out. YOU ARE HIRED. Thanks.

Haha- I could never do that job, I would just wanna ride the whole time!
________
GM IRON DUKE ENGINE SPECIFICATIONS

 

[chunk]

My advise is buy a road bike. I concentrated on riding my road bike more than my mountain bike this year and have sceen a HUGE improvement in my endurance AND strength. Do a long ride (start our small but build up to 5 or 6 hours) Saturday or Sunday and then a few high intesity rides a couple days a week.

 

[Heidi]

Originally posted by chunk
My advise is buy a road bike. I concentrated on riding my road bike more than my mountain bike this year and have sceen a HUGE improvement in my endurance AND strength. Do a long ride (start our small but build up to 5 or 6 hours) Saturday or Sunday and then a few high intesity rides a couple days a week.

If you guys have a corporate team with more people, you won't have to ride as many laps so the long distance riding won't be that big of a factor. You definitely will need to practice the night rides if it's not something you normally do. Night riding can be quite challenging.

If you do go with a 5 person team, I agree with chunk. Do a long ride once a week and treat it like a race. If you can ride the road for that long ride, do so, because it will beat your body up less. Eat and drink what you will be eating and drinking during the race. You want to know for example, that eating a banana after riding 40 miles will make you puke. Experiment with drinks (Cytomax, Endurox..) and bars/gels to find something you like.

Most of all, my advice is to have fun!
________
Arizona marijuana dispensaries

 

[BarbaRosa]

actually Jo and RM, if you two are going to race MOAB in OCT, well, I have have missed 2 oportunities to ride my motorcycle down on the rim trail do to weather... and am a good cook and have my bike tools.... I would could perhaps have interest in pushing you guys into the race, keeping you hydrated, fed and beered up afterwords... could be fun for an aging 2 wheeler like me and would be the excuse to finally see MOAB.. since I have all the area guide books now....

what are the dates?

an outside option.

Just Barbarosa the redbearded one
justin

 

[The Toninator]

hey sirknight is this the one you were talking bout? I am totally interested in this, I wonder if my club would sponsor me for this. Theres lots of good advice here, road biking and all that. I also started training with my club coach this week, it appears that Satan is just a title. Joe is his name, Coach Joe as we refer to him. I think doing interval training during the week and distance (back to back 62's) on the weekends would be the way to go. It might just be me.
P.s. heidi is the woman, How many is it now? 3/24's? wow!
Maybe she could be a trainer!?!
Hey when is all this going down? Are all the team member slot's filled?

 

[RideMonkey]

Originally posted by barbarosa
thinking about what I just wrote, and then reading that RM went full throttle for 5 laps....

Uhm 6 laps........

 

[RideMonkey]

Originally posted by barbarosa
actually Jo and RM, if you two are going to race MOAB in OCT, well, I have have missed 2 oportunities to ride my motorcycle down on the rim trail do to weather... and am a good cook and have my bike tools.... I would could perhaps have interest in pushing you guys into the race, keeping you hydrated, fed and beered up afterwords... could be fun for an aging 2 wheeler like me and would be the excuse to finally see MOAB.. since I have all the area guide books now....

what are the dates?

an outside option.

Just Barbarosa the redbearded one
justin

Yeah, we would love to have ya along. Its going to be a huge event. October 13-14. Not sure what the vehicle situation will be yet.....

 

[BarbaRosa]

well that is a doable weekend... just 2 days or 3 or 4?

I have a subaru wagon with 3 trays for the roof so I could take 2 other bikes besides mine and a couple people and gear. I think the drive is ... 7 hrs? one way.

I will send you my phone via email it is the best coord way. and lets get coffee on monday after work or so, I can be in boulder town after 530...

this could be a good adventure.. I may do a day or two in front of or back of to get a little explore time in the area... maybe...

have tent, will travel... also the world best hostel is in MOAB. the lazy lizard

 

[igjr]

We've done Moab a couple of times (very successfully). This is VERY LONG, but should prove worth the read for anyone racing Moab.

Don't know if you've even been to Moab before for the 24 hrs, but I'll assume you haven't. I'm also going to assume you're in good shape.

Also, don't know what kind of team you'll be entered in because that matters. We raced the 4pers coed/pro when we were at Moab. Anyway, fast coedpro and expert teams were doing 4-5 laps per person. I think we got 21 laps last year? 5 person teams can do as many laps without the toll on the body.

Here's my strategy:

Training wise, it's like doing a bunch of races back to back, with a couple hours in between. Moab laps are sub 1:10 for the fast folks. Add time to that dependent on skill and fatigue. Maybe expect to add 15m-1/2 hour per night lap. If you're going to Moab to RACE, expect it to be hard - really hard. Fast teams were doing at least 4 laps per person. Figure on a minumum of 6 hours in the saddle at a rapid pace. Figure (at least) 1.5 hours on, 2-3 hrs off, etc.

The course itself is very varied. Lots of high speed fun sections, as well as sand pits and rock crawling sections. There's also a hill that seems super steep after you've ridden it a few times. If you've got skills, all of the downhills are 100% doable, but if you have ANY DOUBTS at all, walk them.

Bring tires that are good in the sand. Expect them to get wasted. Bring an extra bike or at least spare parts - anything and everything that you can bring along. Better to have too much. Your bike may be 100% for the whole race and it may not. You don't know what you might need at 3am.

Moab is very dusty. Dust will permeate everything that you own. Even inside a tent with the fly closed, there will be a solid layer of dust covering everything. Also, it gets really cold at night. Bring lots of extra riding clothes so you don't have to wear wet ones. We've brought a hunting base camp style tent and that really helps. You can rent them for about $250. They're about the size of a room, made of thick canvas, with a wood burning stove inside. Sleep in your tents and use the big one for hanging out and cooking. The stove really helps keep things warm for riders that are staging.

Unless your really abnormal, you probably won't get much sleep, even when you're "sleeping." Stay off of your feet as much as possible. Eat and drink as much as possible. BRING CHAMOIS BUTT'R or something similar - your ass will be on fire as the race progresses.

It's better to have most of your food premade and precooked so all you have to do is warm it up. It really helps to have a few non racers there to help wrench and cook and everything.

Get there as early Friday as you can so you can register (expect super, super long lines in town at registration - you'll be there close to an hour), set up camp and preride easily before dark.

Here's some tips for camp spots. You don't want to be very close to the main tent - it'll be very loud. Also, right where the main tent is, there's a road going west up into the hills. That road is the border for generators. RVs with generators are loud, so try & stay away from them. You don't want to be too close to all of the commotion, but it's a pain when you're far away. You want to ride & walk as little as possible when not on course to save energy. Also, camp back a ways from the main roads to keep the dust down a little.

That's about all the ramblings I can think of now, but email me if you want more. I'm more than happy to share. If I know what kind of team you've got, I could probably help with strategy, too.

Oh yeah - I'll only be available by email until 4 or so on Friday 9/22. Then I'm unemployed. (another reason I'm not going to moab - $650 team entry, ouch!)

 

[BarbaRosa]

wow dude... I live in Longmont, south west corner lets get coffee and talk.

You have great advice! I will be with RM as support team member and RM is here in boulder... lets get beer!

call my mobile... i am supposed to go to a motorcycle gathering/rally this fri sat sun... but my starter motor died on the old bmw bike so i will be hunting parts this afternoon and wrenching tonight and maybe sat... but if you are in lyons, dang, we are neighbors.


email a phone # to me at 3035881996@mobile.att.net

justin

 

[igjr]

My wife and I used to live at Nelson & Airport, but we sold our condo to move to Lyons.

Looks like I'll have email for a while at least. My company was bought out and will be relocated, but I've been hired temp as a transitionary employee. I've got another 30 days or so in front of a computer.
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I'm definitely going to miss riding Moab this year. The dust, the sound of the generators, the hurting ass, my white doggie turning into a brown doggie, riding that lap in 19degrees at 3am being completely warm, oh, and waiting for the awards after the race was over, delirious, spaced out, and ready to vomit.

Ahhh, the best - for whoever is riding Moab this year, definitely try to get the Sunset lap or the Sunrise lap - you will not regret it. My best memory of Moab (in any capacity) is doing the Sunrise lap in '99. Going out, pitch freaking black, but it eventually gets lighter as you climb towards Prostitute Butte, then, BAM, there is the sun! Excellent!

Have fun.