I subjected myself to another day of hot weather racing at the 12 Hours of Temecula @ Vail Lake this past weekend. This was also an opportunity to camp out with some friends that were racing as well. That always makes for fun times.
I was so afraid of cramping, that I think I may have actually been taking in more electrolytes than I needed. But I guess that worked out, because I kept riding until about 8PM (with breaks in between laps of course), without any cramping at all. Tired with low energy, yes - but not cramping.
My on-bike nutrition consisted of the following for each lap:
1-2 Saltstick tablets
2 scoops Perpetuem + 1 scoop of Fresh Apple Cytomax in a bottle
50oz of water w/ Elete
A few Clif Blox - Margarita
In between some laps, I had a total of:
2-3 Clif Bars
2 bottles of Pickle Juice Sport
1 Gatorade
1 Red Bull
1 Banana
1 PBJ
Leftover rice, chicken, potatoes from night before
Each lap was about 11 miles long with approximately 1500 ft of elevation gain. My laps times weren’t exactly blazing fast, especially during the hottest parts of the day. My original goal was something along the lines of 8 laps, but that quickly changed, as I found myself already behind pace after only 3 laps.
Instead I finished with 6 laps, good enough for 2nd in the Solo Men’s Beginner class.
Lap 1 @ 9:00AM - 1:17:45
Rode the last portion of the lap with Carl. I think we kept on saying we were going too fast. I guess we were as this was the fastest lap of the day for me.
Lap 2 @ 10:23AM - 1:23:10
Uneventful?
Lap 3 @ 12:00PM - 1:33:31
Stomach started growling near the end of the lap. Thoughts of food crowded my mind.
Lap 4 @ 2:17PM - 1:35:47
Food must have still been digesting. Felt super sluggish here. Thoughts of calling it a day started to cross my mind.
Lap 5 @ 4:23PM - 1:31:08
The Red Bull from Michael must have helped a bunch. Felt re-energized.
Lap 6 @ 6:24PM - 1:25:09
The happiest feeling in the word is knowing that you’re going out for your last lap. I figured I would come in around 8PM, which wouldn’t be enough time for me to complete another one.
The course had some fun sections, as well as some soft powdery areas this time. It seemed that quite a few people kept going down. I can only describe the descents on the soft powdery sections as controlled chaos.
What makes these races a ton of fun is all the people who are out there giving their support, not just those working the pits, but also fellow racers.
The next 12 hour race at Temecula is in November, which is a bit less than 5 months away. With this ample lead time, I may be able to get in some serious training and see what I can really do.
Tags: clif bars, electrolytes, endurance race, mountain bike, pickle juice sport, vail lake
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