It’s been a long six months (Dec 2014-June 2015), as I tried to upgrade myself from a cake powered cyclo-tourist to potential endurance racer. Starting from the position of a complete novice in endurance racing, the last months turned into a journey of discovery. Testing bike frames, components, nutrition ideas, sleeping gear and bike setup. It’s been expensive, and quite a lot of ideas failed leading to some very short rides indeed.
The significant outcome has been the sheer quantity of experience and knowledge all that testing produced. I rode four bike frames, three sets of forks, innumerable luggage setups, six energy products, and a whole lot more. I love learning new stuff, but it does feel particularly hard won knowledge. Particularly the cold days and nights when long rides were disappointingly shortened by kit failure.
So while there has been a huge amount of learning, there hasn’t been a huge amount of training; only about 5,000kms. I’m still very far from being an endurance racer, but I do feel I know what I need to do for next year.
Yes, I’m already thinking about and looking forward to preparing for next years race! For the race this year though, I plan to have a goal of simply enjoying the ride…
Here’s my take on a few salient points:
Comfort is key, when you’re planning a 200 hour bike ride. Little things which don’t show up on a 10 hour ride, can suddenly cause seepage (physical or mental) after just 20 hours. Regular skirmishes with my ego have made me aware of what the real priorities of endurance racing are comfort and fuelling, not bike-bling.
Real food is more effective than ‘sports product’, by a long stretch.
The only drawback with real food is finding it (especially through the night) and digesting enough of it to get the maximum benefit. I suffered from poor fuelling quite a bit, swinging between eating nothing till too late and other times eating too much junk. It’s tough living out of petrol station shops, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.
Fighting fatigue is pretty high up on my desicion making tree, but it’s part of a vicious circle involving ego and feel. Some stuff tickles your ego and feels fast, like 23mm high-pressure tyres which do look very racer. But those tyres only feel fast because they’re putting some high frequency vibrations right into your body. My ego was disappointed when I mounted some fat 32mm low-pressure rubber, but they’re actually faster and bring less fatigue so I can ride longer.
Audax rides continue to be a great periodic check on progress, particularly the longer distance events (300+ km). The audaxers at the sharp end of the field, on the longer distances, are a great source of info, advice and encouragement. Such an unassuming and easy going bunch of folk.
The biggest surprise has been the ongoing mental battle to avoid becoming a feartie when things get a bit tough. My ego provides no end of believable excuses as to why I should seek refuge in a cafe, or a hotel for the night. It’s job is to make me feel good in the here and now physical world, but it ignores what’s good in the longer term. While it has been difficult, I think me and my ego are now level pegging on arguments won.
It’s only 10 days until we line up at midnight to start this years Transcontinental Race, Geraardsbergen in Belgium to Istanbul in Turkey. 4000km of unsupported and non-stop bicycle racing which should not take longer than 14 days. In a weird way I feel like I’ve already achieved more than I expected, so the race is almost like a holiday.
You can follow the racers at TransConRace, our GPS trackers go live at midnight on the 24th July 2015. The spills, thrills and bellyaches will be pushed out onto Twitter (@FarOeuf, @transconrace, #TCR2015). There’s also a Facebook group for the race, TransCon FB Group.
— racer #86
thisdougb 