Training Log Archive: Mounty

Pit crew report

Weekend on the support-crew side of the fence for Katrin's 24 hour. Not quite sure how to log 24 hours of standing up and walking around, but legs pretty tired the next day.

Pretty impressive support crew setup this time around. Trek team manager (Chris) came down to work as wrenchman, brought a mate with him and my Dad was there too. Chris turned up with the 6m * 3m Trek tent and a Transporter full of kit. With bike rack out the front holding Katrin's 2 bikes and our 3 (support crew gotta do some riding), made for an outrageously over the top set up. With the Trek emporium all for her (not to mention a box load of top-of-the-line Lupine lights), Katrin was rather nervous that she would look like a tool if she didn't deliver. Good motivation.

Up early while Katrin slept and drove back and forth from hotel to event 3 times (once because I forgot something), then devoured a huge Olims hotel buffet brekkie (discovered it last year). Nice.

Settled in to a nice routine after the start with Katrin knocking out nice even laps - 30 31 31 30 31 31 31. Alternate lap bottle swaps without stopping, with food attached to the bottle.

Homework suggested one other rider with form to threaten, had settled in on Katrin's wheel with a couple of others for company. Got a small gap at end of 4th lap when the others stopped for a few seconds to grab food while Katrin grabbed her bottle with hot-cross bun impaled on the nozzle and rode thru', then kicked to lose them. Good move as their lap times dropped off without a wheel to hold.

10 second stop at 3hrs to swap bikes, glasses and clean out jersey pockets. Then back to nibbling on the race lollies and watching the action while Chris and Matt went off to clean and service bike (soo glad i didnt have to do that this time around).

Slight mishap just before dark when Katrin ran up the back of someone in the pit-lane (watching for her bottle) and went over the bars. Lucky soft landing on the safety bunting fence so no harm done.

90sec stop at 6pm to swap bikes and put on lights, and the banana frenzy began. From then until 1am she ate 9 bananas - sports dietician input would have been handy - never seen so much banana action before.

All important support crew run to pizza shop at 7pm, then time to supply first of the nurofen and no-doze for the evening. Had debated the best way to do this without stopping - put together a prototype banana with a couple of pills embeded into to the top of it, but got a bit worried she might choke it she didnt hear the call of what was in it. Taped them to the outside of the banana instead.

First real stop of the day at 10pm. 6 minutes to put on warmer clothes, relube, battery swap and eat some more substantial food. Slightly nervous moment when she grabbed a coke can off the table, and took a second to confirm she hadnt taken the one with scotch in it.

Took a 2nd lap out of second place around midnight, eased up a bit and on to a defensive race plan to avoid risk of blowing up. No Rob to chase this year.

Still in good form at the traditional 3am-4am low point. Support crew hodling up well with the latte van working through the night.

Little bit of a hunger flat/over it hour at 7am. Getting harder to find food that was acceptable. Rescued by the bubbly Aroc Celia with mandarins right on cue (Id forgot to include the all important oranges in the race kit). Also took the opportunity to experiment with a different motivation technqiue (had plenty of lead to work with). Responded to complaints of difficulty eating with a suggestion that she was much fresher than in the past and thus might consider the option of hardening the f*ck up. For future reference, dont think she appreciated the humour.

Bit of excitement around 10am when Katrin turned up unexpectedly in transition with a broken bike. Confirmed with race umpire what the rules were, before handing over the other bike (she had to restart the lap). Then it was just a matter of getting around for the last couple of hours without crashing or breaking bike again.

Short stop before final lap to avoid having to do an extra one. Loaded up jersey pocket with extra tube and bike fixing tools just in case, and support job for the weekend done.

Solid ride to collect the dough and trip to Canada in July. She's getting better at these things.

I felt a bit guilty about how much of the hard yakka was handled by the boys - 10 bikes swaps - with a fully cleaned and serviced bike for each of them.

Nice photo...

C • Pass on our Congrats! 3

3 laps of the majura solo course.
- First lap cruisy on the commuter bike.
- 2nd lap with katrin on her race bikes. Knew that Katrin was ready to race based on the pace of the 2nd lap.
- Final lap in the dark to sort out light setup. The Lupine lights Katrin had been given for the race were insane (2 Wilma 15W LEDs). I back-to-backed one of them with the HID light, which made the HID look like a hokey little spotlight.
Decided on 15W (full power) on the helmet, and 12W setting on the bars for race config. Felt like I could see pretty much as well as during the day on the singletrack. Impressed until I worked out that there was $2.5K worth of lights on the bike (and thats without extra batteries), in which case you'd hope they were bloody good.

Had planned to go downstream but nice high-tide so did a pipeline - still dark at 6.20. 5min w.u then paddled pretty hard. Split 40:00.

LMC intervals: 2:41, 2:30?,2:26,2:31 Recoveries a tad long.

Had planned a rest day, but went to the gym to wake up after suffering from 'a couple of beers at lunch snooziness'.

Rest Day. Legs feeling a bit unspringy & in need of a bit of a refresher, so going to take a couple of days rest.

Went to the physio to see what most needs loosening. He worked on area around the left knee and one of the right glute muscles (begins with p - piriformis?). Elbow to the glute ouchy, but felt much better walking back to office. Booked another sess for next week.

Nondescript ride until I got a puncture. Couldnt be arsed pumping, so used a cartridge.