Our plans to get to the 24 hr Summer Solstice the night before, hook up to water and power with my partner Chris's 12 foot macked out trailer did not come to fruition as we arrived to a spot that looked more like a tent city vs a trailer section....apparently the serviced areas book out earlier than April. Anyways....good thing we got there.
A little recap...I had day off Friday, in anticipation of an early trip up to mellow out and pre-ride the course with my parnter...unfortunately, a lot of crap including Chris attending a funeral for his Aunt changed our plans slightly. Nonetheless we got there and cracked our first beer around 11 pm.
We awoke to dismal and rainy conditions which did not serve the head well. This was my first ever Tag for a 24 hour and I had high hopes with my partner who appeared to be pretty pumped and had some fitness behind him. After getting updates from a site beside us intermittently while we were in the comfort of our camper :), we "rock paper scissored" for first lap with Chris winning.
Finally start at 2 vs 12 resulting in a 22 hour? vs 24 hour I was awaiting Chris to pop out of the switchback pines....first guys were ripping laps just over 45 minutes....another level altogether....maybe in a few years :)...Caught the whites of Chris' eyes and made my way to transition area..he looked tired...I was concerned as this was going to be a long race....my turn
We decided our first lap we would meet each other at the transition vs camp to get the full loop experience. Now......the difference between SOLO and TAG can be summed up this way...standing and hammering climbs is realistic and FUN in TAG and in SOLO a sure fire way of ensuring an early termination. I had a blast passing and outclimbing riders ALLLLL day.
The loop was pretty damn mellow...I generally enjoy some technical descents and full on drops that may challenge the suspension but....nadah...could be that the 5 and 5 of the Giant just makes everything too damn smooth now.
We were doing well trading off laps one to one until my third where I saw Chris at camp looking more like Aunt Jemima than a rider...quick fix....I kept riding...He was ready to roll after my return......now this was interesting. After completing my fourth lap, it was like a switch was kicking in....my mind was getting into SOLO mode and I was LIKING it....HANSOLO here we come. When Chris returned from his final lap on Saturday, the night was coming in quickly, so equipped with my HID lamp off I went.....due to humidity.....super hard to see and was getting discouraged with riders down/hurt and bleeding everywhere i looked. Not having an incident thus far..I decided to play it conservative and finish out the lap with Chris confirming he was done for the night and one beer in.......I looked at the finality in his eyes and turned the switches off in the head to get aligned with the sit, chill, and beer mode...not hard to do, but took everything i had to finish a second beer.
We hit the hay about 10:30-11pm (can't really remember) and knew my internal clock would wake me to either continue with Night rides or hammer out some day laps. 7 am came QUICK!!!!! so much for more night riding :) I looked over at Chris and saw no clear indication he was in for starting off this a.m. so I kitted up, hit trails and was enjoying the packed down terrain. As I was rolling in to transition area of camp i saw Chris standing tall and ready to tag in.......I'm impressed with this guy....would TAG another event anytime with this guy....it was his first after all and a doozer to intro him to a 24 hour..He came back energized after his loop locking up the rear and giving a scream of joy...good sign!!! He quickly told me about the RED BULL combo which I jumped on board with and we continued to complete a total of 10 laps (me 6, Chris 4). Upon completing the final, Chris looked like he was......done....this event was not meant to be a suffer fest....I'll leave that for August...so I compromised with him and said you should finish the last 1 km, hand in the chip, and soak up the experience....he appeared to be game..I met him at the finish and tried to capture a photo, he appeared to be pretty dazed.
What did i learn.....Tag is harder than Solo....in Solo you can just keep riding and suffering comes and goes...Tag, you get to sit, eat, and fight the tendency to just freaking relax in between each lap...it's more of a psychological battle to get on the bike than a physical...also factor in that we had all the creature comforts of a 12 foot pop up camper......hard to keep riding when trail conditions were fair, light...poor due to condensation in air, and wanting to make this first experience for a buddy a favourable vs a "I'm never doing this again" experience....all in all worth it.
My stats as per Polar monitor/15.4 km laps:
Lap 1 - 1 hr 1 min
165 avg hr, 186 max In zone - 11 min, above 51 min
Avg spd 15 km; max 37.1
892 Kcal
Lap 2 - 1 hr 3 min
163 avg, 219 max(?!?!?) error? - In zone 14 min; above 49 min
Avg spd 14.6; 40.3 max
907 Kcal
Lap 3 -1 hr 3 min (doubled up with 2)
158 avg, 227 max (?!?!) In zone 24 min; above 38.....nice looking more aerobic here..warming up
14 - 36.6 km/hr
846 Kcal
Lap 4 NIGHT LAP 1 hr 20 min...was being cautious...hard to see
148 avg 222 max??? something weird here...getting other peoples data???? In zone 55; above 25 min......happy with the aerobic....good sign for SOLO in August
12-36.7 km.hr
955Kcal
2 beer...SLEEEEEP
Lap 5...polar says began at 7:33 am.....waaaay too much sleep :) 1 hour 9 min..took about half lap to feel like I was riding again...warming up just to cool down at end of lap....
149 avg 170 max HR(that's better) In zone 45; above 23 min
13.38.8 km/hr
828 Kcal
Lap 6 - 1 hr 6 min
150 avg- 175 max, In zone 42 above 24 min
13.7 - 38.1 Km/hr
807 Kcal
8th place of 13 showing....could have been 6th(easily) if we rode throughout night........................
A good time.....not feeling guilty about the lack of suffering 'cause I'll make up for it in August Hot August Nights SOLO BABY!!!!
Training plan...clean up the mt bike today...wait for rain to break and get an hour easy spin on the roadie, Mt. bike Tuesday(tomorrow with Fil) and see if Chris is up for it as well. Long wknd will bring road bike to do a nice loop from cottage to smith falls-perth-lombardy- back to cottage. Might start running.....Chris was talking about adventure racing....that would mean running.....ugh
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