Wednesday, October 9, 2013

"training..."

This weekend I have a race.  The Brunswick Brawl.  It's not my typical race, this is a 6 hour race.  My first.  And, depending on who you ask, it is either Saturday or Sunday.


It's Saturday!  Never trust a singlespeeder for race advice/info - even if they are your friend - I'm looking at TheMutt here!!

You might ask, "why someone would want to ride their mountain bike for 6 hours?"
I might say, "why not?"
Sure this is going to be an entirely new experience for me... one that I have done zero targeted training for.  I've never been riding for nearly that long, so who the hell knows what is going to happen out there.  But, you've got to start somewhere.  There was a 3 hour option, but I guess that wasn't a big enough stretch for me.  Doing 3/4 laps of a course (although still a challenge) seemed much more realistic to me.  So I figured let's go all out and see what I can do in 6 hours.  Maybe I will be surprised, or maybe I'll be cursing everything the whole time*... we shall see.  Hey, at least it's not a 100 miler or a 24 hour race!  

Last night there was no social ride due to rain.  So instead of riding I was going to prepare for this race in a slightly different way - planning the trip.  The race is far enough away (and long enough!) that it won't be an out and back type of thing.  Actual planning will have to go into the logistics of the whole deal.  And, the best part, Annie is coming with me.  So we are going to make a little weekend out of it. Win-win right there.  Plus, she might be able to help out in the pit... if she doesn't wonder off due to boredom...  The plan for last night was to figure out our lodging for Friday and Saturday night.  Then this happened.


I didn't "fall asleep" on our "chair and a half."  I was "training."  I need my rest if I'm going to be on the bike for 6 hours so lay off!  In all honesty, I'm thinking about the race as little as possible.  I don't want to over think anything.  Gearing is the biggest question as I've never ridden in the area and I've never ridden for 6 hours, so there is the huge question of which way to go to make sure I last...  but I'm going with what I have on right now and that is that.  Might I regret it later?  I'm not getting into that - because as of right now I can see that there could be potential regrets with any choice - so it's man up/leave it alone time and just hold strong with the old saying... "run what ya brung."

* I apologize in advance for any explicative you might here mumbled/shouted with no particular target in mind (it will likely be myself or the Glow Worm) out on the trail.

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