Monday, June 25, 2007

15th May 2007 Penrith Merida MTB Marathon


Is 5+ weeks enough perspective for your first mountain bike marathon?

I'm not sure. Or maybe I'm just a vv lazeee blogger.

Penrith, May 2007 - first ever MTB marathon to be held in Engerland.

Main lesson 2B learned: 7Stanes, tarmac, "mountain bike centres" ... none of them are adequate preparation for real, natural trails. No human being would create roads, tracks or trails with the terrain, inclines, texture, obstacles, etc etc that natural trails present.

My main problem was cramp. After an hour or so of do-able riding (on the 50km route), we hit the big climb. Contours on the map suggested this would be mainly rideable; a slog but rideable. But the texture of the ground - very wet, grassy, muddy after rain - reduced this greatly. Pushing, my muscles obviously cooled down, thought the day's effort was over, and transitioned into post-ride cramp mode. I reckon many of us pushed for 6km or so.

From then on it was a fight for survival - fending off cramp, stopping to stretch and using low gears to avoid anything that meant "pushing" - the cramp trigger. That in turn led to walking bits I would hav expected to ride, and riding parts slowly on low gears that led to instability, lack of momentum, etc etc.

The other big issue was pedals. I've almost become comfortable with my Crank Bros egg-beater style clipless pedals on my regular routes, but spent most of this unfamiliar route unclipped - both uphill and downhill. Between the variability of the terrain and the threat of unclippable-from cramp, I was rarely confident enough to be clipped in. This was the worst of all worlds; not only did I not get the benefit of the clipped pedals, I actually spent most of the ride with my feet in unatural, less than ergonomically perfect positions on top of the clips.

Bottom line = 5 and a half hours of living hell. :)

Lessons learned:

1) Cramp - prevention and cure.

2) Pushing vs carrying. Discuss.

3) Pedals - there has to be a better way.

Merida Bikes MTB Marathon - Penrith Course Profiles

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