Training Log Archive: carbon

Event: 24 hrs of Adrenalin Cannmore Nordic Centre
 

24 Hours of Adrenaline in Canmore.

We got a last minute invitation to ride the 24hr race. A team had dropped out and we put together a team with Steve, Mike, Mel and myself. Carrie also came out and completed a lap in between her work shifts. The race started up under sunny skies and hot weather. Steve rode the first lap which took a detour into town adding 7km to his lap. He set a good time despite the running start. Mel headed second and myself in third. My first lap was fast and dry. The course was super fun with a lot of technical climbing over roots in the first half of the course. Some super fun downhill parts as well. I rode the whole course without dabs (if you can exclude one part where I had to step off because other rides were blocking the trail while walking up). At the very end of my first lap it started raining and thundering. Mike traded me off and headed out to a pretty wet course. He still set a great time, despite a crash and some mechanical trouble. It cleared up again just to totally fall apart on my second lap. This lap was crazy! The course was so muddy and all the roots were like ice. It was raining so hard that you could barely see the trail ahead of you. Mud was getting in everywhere (grit is still coming out of my ears and nose). Back at camp I found Steve promoting the idea of not riding in these conditions. I was not convinced that we should quit just because of the weather but then he mentioned the cost of repairs to our bikes if we continued...somewhat of a valid point since we were not competitive. Carrie who was out for a double lap (in between her busy work schedule) came back after just one lap and said "I'm sorry guys, but I'm not doing this". Mike took one look at Carrie and agreed that this was not fun anymore. So we all agreed to quit at 9.30 pm. A few minutes later we found out that we were in 7th place. Too bad, since I think if we had kept going we could have done pretty well (but I agree it was not fun riding in the wet). At 9am the following morning we were in 32nd place out of almost 60 teams and we hadn't ridden all night! Crazy! Best news of the race though was Lonn winning the solo category for single speeds. This was the solo's world championships so now we have a world champ in our gang! On top of that I think he was top 5 overall in all the solo categories! We have to hear his stories when we see him next.

Help, I've fallen of the wagon....and I think I've lost it too...

Rest day with stretching and Thai food. I feel guilty to say it, but Mike is cleaning both our bikes so that we can go riding together tomorrow night. I owe him!