After the XC season I wasn't sure what I would do over the off season. The local MTB club TORC puts on some endurance races over the winter so I thought I would give it a shot. I had never done an endurance race before. These are 6 hour races where the XC ones are usually an 1 and 1/2 or 2. The longest MTB ride I had done this year before prepping for this race was around 3 and 1/2 hours. The strategy is different for these longer races, basically lower effort and food and water intake are important to keep from cramping or "bonking". I talked to a few people who had done the longer rides and started doing longer rides at CNF. Quick semi-tangent.. I did a 5 hour ride on the bike I did the XC series on, which is a carbon HT 26er. It was fairly brutal, beat my hands and feet and upper body up a lot. I decided to get a new bike and went with a short travel FS 26er. I rode the same course, same distance on the new bike ... wait for it ... more that 26 minutes faster. Insane. Anyway, the FS has become my endurance bike.
I rode Little River (LRRP) a few times which turned out to be great. The lines there are a little tricky at first, but if you find them you can flow a lot of it. Also helps to know where the real hurty parts are. Got to the race and prepped as best I could. Had 2 camelbaks, which I would switch 1/2 through, my gel "bomb", some clif shots and for the end some turbo caffeine gels. The vibe of this race was great, everyone is low key you don't really care about the hole shot so it is pretty relaxed in that sense. The start went fine. I wasn't pushing and probably went into the woods around 10th or so. I was watching my HR and had planned to try and run around 150-ish but was running 158 or so. Used other riders for pacing several times and ended up riding with a couple of other guys for several laps. As the laps went on my HR was right around 160, but I felt good. Anytime I was breathing hard I backed off. Trying to keep momentum everywhere I could to conserve energy. Coming around the 5th lap I planned to stop and change up camelbaks and it was perfect timing, I had drained the first made a quick stop and grabbed the second one. Hopped back in the singletrack. As I passed people a lot of times people asked what cat you were in etc. I came up on a guy who was going pretty good and turned out he was in the same cat. I sat on him for a bit and observed. He looked fast but a little fatigued. He stopped for water/food near the start/finish and I kept trucking. I slowly cranked it up for each of the remaining laps. Wondering if that guy might catch up too. Last lap I attempted to let it fly and did run the fastest of my laps. Came around at 5:30 ish which is past the 5:20 cut off, so I was done. Rolled over to the lap postings and to my shock saw I was the fastest solo up to the 8th lap. No one passed me on my 9th lap so I had won. Beginners luck :). I did pretty much stick to my plan which I was proud of and my lap times were pretty consistent, which was great.
Stats: 1st of 11, 52.2 miles, 5 hours 30 mins, avg speed 9.8, avg HR 161, max HR 175
Lap Time Avg HR
1 37:00 159
2 37:15 158
3 36:43 159
4 36:35 159
5 37:26 158
6 36:48 160
7 36:01 165
8 36:27 164
9 35:48 165
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