carlosflanders wrote:
Bring extra chamois cream and change your bibs halfway through. Your ass will thank you.
Set a maximum target HR and don't go above this. I set 140 bpm for a threshold of 165 bpm. Kept most of the ride below 130 bpm.
Start at 3 am and ride in darkness for a couple of hours. With a bit of luck you will only have to ride a couple of hours of darkness at the end.
Enjoy. The best part was observing the crepuscular creatures and the way the day, weather and light changed over the ride. You're going to get lonely at some stage.
True to this.
I started just after midnight, was the best.
Quote:
Ride Report: arrived around midnight & setup 'base camp'. Started the ascent before 1am. The reason was to try avoid the heat later in the day, and finish before sunset. That didn't end up happening. Miscalculated the no. of laps required (thought 55, ended up being 62).
Pretty surreal riding in the dark for so long. Lights managed to stay on the whole time. A cop car slowed to a stop around 3am likely wondering wth was going on, but drove away. Sunrise was at 4.52am which brought a kick of energy but also dread—the sun was up. Temp's peaked at (29C/84F) but it felt hotter than that. Avg temp for the ride 27C!
Started alright but struggled to get a rhythm. Lots of stop/starts restocking. The hottest parts saw lap times drop and break times increase. In the end the heat blew things out a bit.
The amount of fuel & liquids required was ridiculous: Pasta bake, Raisin toast, 5 bananas, 14 clif bars, 10 blueberry banana muffins, 3 oranges, bowl of oats, mango slices, & a few lollies. Consumed about 12L of water mixed with Endura. Around 16-20 bottles, n' a coke.
Misc; the last celebratory lap I decided to smash it out-mouth/lips started to tingle/go numb! Breathing also tends to hurt. Nearly gagged about 10 times because the stomach was so full of liquid and constant eating of food. Animals; 2m long snake, possum, and Gallah's. Saw several riders get punctures from glass, spoke failure.
I rate the night ride, beat the heat at that point which was the biggest sapper. Also it blurs into one thing... music playlist as well. I had that all lined up with appropriate music at various times.
Kept HRM low AF as much as possible until last lap I unleashed.
I could have kept going to 10k vert but had my family there etc. and I'd taken longer than meant to, had gotten dark again. So would have been a big slap in the face ha.