Middle Pack

Its been a while since I did an an adventure race. In fact over a year, and that was a dark and white 6 hour event in macc forest. Unfortunatly I missed out on the recent Open 5 series due to injury.

I haven’t trained properly for a while and only started running training this week after a lengthy abscence but thought the new 4 hour events may be a good option just to see what my levels of fitness are. Figuring I didn’t have to do too much running if I didn’t have to.

An early sunday start and a drive down to the start was the only uneventful part of the day. After registering and getting sorted I set off on my way. First 2 controls went fine, but this is where things started to go wrong. A mechanical problem on the bike and a wasted 15 minutes trying to sort out my chain and rear derailler as my gears decided not to shift properly and my chain had jammed between cassette and derailler. I may have fiddled a bit too much trying to work it out as I was then just missing gears. Then there was a lot of crunching and grinding, especially from my little gears.

The next couple of controls and I was distracted by my bike but was getting back on pace, only for a slight error sending me over the bars and me banging my rear derailler on a rock this time. So again more faff and a bloody elbow and a wasted 10 minutes as loads of people I had passed overtook asking if I had a puncture? Soon I was up again only to again fly over the bars, luckily onto smooth grass and I was soon back up again and on the bike. My head really wasn’t in it today!

I eventually found that middle chain ring meant i was okay with my gears so stayed in this until the transition for the running stage. Some steep hills and long road sections made this a bit of a bind but was just good to be moving and not having to pull out due to my mechanical numptiness. I was however running very late.

The run was an orienteering course in Lyme Park, the setting for pride and prejudice. I was a bit longer than I thought it would be. The tendon in my foot ached and I was a bit nervous on it but was good to put on my inov8s for the first time this year. They really are like slippers. It did show me though that I have a long way to go before I am realistically fell race ready. It was tough and I chose a route with heavily tussockked grass.

Back on the bike and I was now up against it. I chose my route back to the finish and pushed as hard as I could with my 9 gears. Not good enough as I was 16 minutes late and losing 60 hard earned points. Finishing with 157 points and 8th out of 10 in the male solo under 40s .

On the plus side, some of my splits on the bike are not too bad, although you can see where I had mechanicals. Probably wasting 25 minutes overall and a further couple of minutes with being in the wrong gear for a lot of the rest of the race. I also enjoyed being out and about racing for first time in a long time.

Probably the best thing for me was I learnt how to set up gears. After the race I set upon my gears both front and back and got them running smoother than ever before.Thanks to the sheldon brown, the park tools website and shimano’s tech centre. Just wish it was that easy to get myself up and running smoothly.

Sadly, fitness has suffered more than I thought, especially my running. My nav and route choice is another that has suffered having not used a map in 6 months. I was unable to choose a route and when I did my time estimates were considerably out. I am unsure if this is due to my fitness levels not being what they were or lack of nav practise. Probably both.

Thanks to Dark and White for another great event. A great location and good to see them trying different things. With an ‘O’ course and two bike stages you really had to think about timings and route. This is shown by the amount of people who arrived late.

My only critisism is that I am not sure that 4 hours is long enough and I did prefer the 6 hour format. I guess it is a move to appeal to more people and last years 6 or 3 hour would be an nightmare to administer and also reduce the results.

The next event is in conjuntion with the Sheffield Cliffhanger event, so should be a busy one and I am guessing that the special stage will be slap baing in the middle of the event.

Spent a couple of hours the other day turning my front wheel to ghetto tubeless and found it an easy enough task (if a bit fiddly). If you don’t know, then Ghetto Tubeless is a cheap way to turn your bike wheel into a tubeless designe i.e no innertubes. This makes it much more like a car tyre. If you also put in some sealent then you have a puncture proof wheel that you can run at lower pressures.

Not quite sure what to make if it yet? I run front and back at around 30 psi and never suffer pinch flats but decided to make the change after a few rides with a couple of punctures per ride. Since then I have not had a puncture front or back so unsure if it is making a difference or not.

I suppose it will be helpful to have less thorn punctures but all the other supposed benefits are a bit too slight for me to notice.

I will be doing the back wheel soon and I will put up a picture step by step tutorial when I do it as I found the ones I looked at made it just seem really easy. I would like to put up a tutoruil including what not to do, what may go wrong and what to expect.

Will I ever go back to running as much? Have to say probably not. A great bike and I wish I could give a decent review of it but as I have so little experience owning decent bikes I feel it unfair. Suffice to say it is damned fast and great fun to ride although the back end does kick a fair bit.

Done just shy of 200 miles in the first two weeks that I have owned it, however I have now decided to take off the computer as I am only checking total miles. I am experiencing a different type of tired than from running as you can really notice the difference between a battered impact tired from running to the general dull ache of biking.

Also managed to get myself to Dalby on Sunday and have another go at the Red route that I did a couple of months ago. Set off from the bottom car park and the first section up to Dixons hollow I was bouncing and pinging off rocks all over the place. A quick stop to deflate tyres and then I was setting off with a bit more speed.  I managed to get stuck in a pack of 4 lightweight full suss bikes for the next section. Bit of banter and I tried to hang on downhill whilst not running into the back of them on uphills. As most of it was sharp downhills then I was probably going as fast as I dare.  As soon as the flat ground re-appeared I was off then up the adders back climb, with them just a distant memory.

I had my first major bail soon after as well. A head over the bars moment, a bit of blood but the most important thing was the bike wasn’t scratched! Really my own fault for hesitating on a drop and ending up going too slow. From there it took a good 5 minutes to get any decent speed up without hanging on the brakes but I soon got most of my confidence back on all apart from the steeper stuff.

Dalby is surprisingly a lot bumpier than I initially remember (I was on a full suss). Not very tricky or rocky, just loads of little bumps and roots that can shake you around a bit. Once the tyre pressures was sorted I was good to go though. Finally managing the whole route in 2 hours 11 minutes.

Enjoyed that as a good workout, pretty annoying timing that the physio has told me to start running again. So I supopse I need to put my bike down for a day and give it a go?