MTB vs Road Averages

[madisongrrl]

Renee, I ride at 35-40 psi with whatever tires came on the rockhopper. I'll have to look that up for you. Knock on wood, I've never flatted. I think the WEMS race was a rockier trail and the expert loop went UPHILL on the rocks, thus a lot of pinched flats. How much does it cost to go tubeless?

It depends. I'm guessing that your wheels aren't tubeless ready so the cost would be considerable to go that route. I think you could do a conversion to tubeless with your standard wheels/tires and a conversion kit. I wouldn't necessarily worry about that, but it is a consideration for the future (with the next bike you buy) if Wausau is where you do most of your riding and racing.

I would worry about your tubed tire selection though. The stock tires sold with many mountain bikes aren't necessarily the ones you want to race XC on. A nice fast rolling tire is generally a good choice for many of the races around here (this might reduce the resistance on your legs, thus making you less fatigued and faster....and believe me, I learned this the hard way!) Many of the racers around here will run Kenda Karmas or Kozmiks and Maxxis Ignitors or Larsons amongst other tires.

When I was at Wausau, I think I ran my tire pressure at 31-32psi. I'm don't remember what trails we were on (Ho Chi Minh and others), but they had us climbing some technical rocky sections. I can see why so many people flatted.

As for time, I can committ 3-4 days a week to riding. Two days during the week for 1-1 1/2 hours and whatever I need to do on the weekends.

That is great! You can certainly accomplish your goals on 3-4 days/week.

I agree there is a MUCH different atmosphere between WEMS and WORS races! What exactly is the definition of a XC race?

In the NORBA sense, XC races are usually 30-40km and marathon races are usually 65-100km. A Wems races is very much similar in distance to a NORBA Marathon race. Our XC races here in wisconsin range from 10-25 miles depending on the class that you race in.

I plan on doing my first century Sept 9th (Door County Century with Sue - assuming the hand heals), the quadrathalon for BS games the end of January, the Big Ring next June, as well as the GEARS race again (May), and the Dirt Retreat in July. Can I chat with you off line on developing a training plan?

I think that is a great race/ride schedule. The WORS race, Gears, and the Dirt Retreat will be a nice lead up to 24-9 next July. We can certainly chat offline, but I'm no coach....

As for my warm ups, I don't think I'm doing enough - only 10-15 minutes in a low gear, higher cadence.

You might want to warm up longer. Especially if you feel that it takes you a long time to warm up once you start racing. I easily warm up 20-25 minutes before a WORS race (unless it is a blistering 95+ degrees out, then I might scale it back)

Crazy Canuck brought up a very good point, and a non existant skill in my arsenal - night riding. I will need to learn that as well before this race. Good thing I have a whole year to work on this

Yeah, definitely get some off road night riding in. You are going to need some decent lights though....something I have yet to purchase. We also did some night riding at the dirt camp this year...nothing big, but enough to get a little taste of it.

[spokewench]

I'm just a normal old gal that has done a couple of 24 hour races on a 4 women team. It was great fun! The years that I did these races, I was racing mountain bikes on the local mountain bike series and did these races with others that were used to racing mountain bike races. I wasn't the fittest however cause our 24 hour race comes early in my season. I am training on a trainer cause it snows where I live in northern Arizona and it is perfect riding weather down in Tucson where the race is held.

The race experience really helps especially because there is a lot of passing involved, you passing others and them passing you. The ability levels are quite different.

I'm not the greatest endurance athlete so the challenge for me was to keep my speed up on my 4th laps, and to keep the motivation going at night. I was not ever totally successful at keeping my speed up later in my laps, but you have to realize that if you go out as hard as you can like you would race one lap in a race, you are eventually going to run out of energy for your later races. I'm sure there are some really fine athletes out there that can be real consistent, but you need to tune it down just a bit so that you can be consistent and last all of your laps.

Eating is a real hard thing and something on your first 24 hours that you probably will not have tested completely. I used a replacement drink on the bike along with my water/gus, etc. and always a recovery bottle after I got back from my laps. I would supplement with chicken, bread, peanut butter, canned peaches - things that work for me as what I call sort of easy soft food to digest. This is different for everyone.

Not everyone can sleep, but get off your feet and rest if you can't sleep!

If you are doing this race on a team, make sure going in that most everyone is on the same wavelength. It is no fun to get there and have someone screaming at you that you didn't ride fast enough on a lap! Things happen, flats, body flats, etc. that you can foresee and everyone knows you are doing the best you can do and really that is all you or anyone else can expect. If you can find a good team - with the right attitude, IT IS THE GREATEST EXPERIENCE EVER!

Don't forget to get some SO's or something like that to help you work on your bikes between laps, help feed you, etc. It makes all the difference! My husband was a trouper par excellence!

If you are doing this solo, all the more power to you!