Esme Sylvia Hall 18 August 2007
I rode this mountain bike cyclo-sportive event yesterday, in slightly less than ideal conditions (it drizzled all day, which made the course a little treacherous in places). There are several different courses to choose, but I went for the long course, which is around 90km.
I'd ridden this 2 years ago, just before going to the Alps for a 10 day mountain biking trip. I then rode the Ruthin round in September. They are great, if tough events, which have a lot of climbing in them and a great variety of terrain - singletrack, fire road, tarmac, farm tracks, mud, purpose-built trails and some technical sections.
Last time I rode Selkirk I completed the course in about 6 hours and 40 minutes. At that time, I was fit but I didn't train and my endurance was lacking. I wanted to push myself this time as I was using the event as training for the Big Triathlon (Ben Nevis) at the end of September, which has a similar length mountain biking section (before running up Ben Nevis).
This time, I didn't stop at any feed stations and completed the course in 5 hours and 30 minutes (or thereabouts). I think the course was riding a bit slower than normal too because of the wet conditions, which made riding some of the muddy, grassy sections difficult. Overall, I was pleased with my performance. I rode strongly throughout and was still pushing hard up the final climbs, where a lot of people were struggling.
I had lightened my bike with new wheels and forks before the event because I had originally built the bike (a Santa Cruz Chameleon) for messing about on, so it had 6 inch forks (Pikes) and fat tyres and bulletproof wheels. Now it had Rebas and UST wheels. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of spec'ing some inappropriate tyres for muddy conditions - they clogged up at the first sight of mud which made controlling the bike very difficult. I now have a badly grazed knee and hip to prove it - I came off on a very straightforward section of grass track where my front wheel just washed out. No real damage done, and my bike is fine!
The only weak link was my lower back. My legs felt great all day and never really weakened but my back was giving me problems from early on. I don't ride the mountain bike much now and a lot of power goes through the lower back muscles. I'd strained them during the week when I was training, pushing big gears uphill (which was a bad move) and 5+ hours of mountain biking wasn't the best recovery! Still, they tolerated it and a couple of days of rest and stretching should see me alright. I really must started doing some strengthening exercises for my core (I'm lazy when it comes to core work).
No events for the next month, while we wait for Emily's little sister to show her face. The Helvellyn Triathlon is next in my diary on September the 9th.
