DiD I SCaRE Ya????

I was talking to the 2008 12 hours of Santos Single Speed Champion Aka my PMBAR partner, of whom I assume we are racing again this year since we got free entry, BRETT, last night on that not to be named Social Networking site that I frequent on a regular basis.

We were catching up, shooting the sh*t talking about how things were going for him up there. He's doing the Wilderness 101 this weekend I wished him luck, all that good stuff.

Then we got to talking about the CFiTT. And from the discussion I had with him, I want to clarify my most recent post regarding the race.

I was NOT trying to do Reverse Psychology or Trying to discourage anyone from attending the race. I was more trying to encourage you to study, read up, gear up, prepare, prepare and then prepare some more.

I know the forest like the back of my hand. Know where to get water, know how long its gonna be before I pop out. YOU may or may not know shiola about it. And the last thing I want is someone to go out there and end up in great peril.

SO, thinking like that, I said, let me tell them the realness about the first leg, let me encourage them to prepare and let me encourage them to NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE DIFFICULTY OF THIS EVENT.

I will elaborate further. I predicted a good portion of riders would drop in the first 15 miles. Well the first 10.5 miles is single track threw Alexander Springs area. Its not super tech riding, but you start getting a taste of the rolling terrain that your going to have to battle for the day. Then when you take the "unnamed awful forest road threw the middle of billy bay wilderness", only riders who have trained for those conditions are going to be able to ride the whole thing. What conditions I am speaking of. Well, I am a SLUT when it comes to Off road riding. Meaning, if its off road, I WILL DO IT. So that Road has some parts, that require creative lines to stay on the bike, If you don't choose a creative line, you end up sinking like the Titanic. If you don't know how to ride Sugar Sand you end up sinking like the Spanish Armada. Can you get the picture here. Were talking about a 3.5 mile section, not far, not all sand, but I tell you what. I was riding with Mike Kanning, who is a PROVEN champion, and I stood up and rode away from him Like Alberto Contador in the Alps.

If it would have been event day, I would of easily put him into difficulty and put 10 minutes on him that he would have had to work hard to make up on me. BUT, if anyone could of done it, Mike would of been the one, it just would of been a lot of hard work, early in the race.

The first leg probably has about 15 miles or so of pavement. The rest, is dirty and perverted off road madness. Single track and endless miles of Forest Roads.

As soon as we started heading west, I look over to my Good Friend and President of Singletrack Samurai productions, Rob Roberts and I tell him, LET THE ROLLERS BEGIN. And soon enough, were climbing and descending and then climbing and descending and then you look on the horizon and all you see for miles and miles is climbs and climbs. Now, most of you scoff at the difficulty of this, but I tell you what, Mike Kanning said, "these miles and miles of Forest roads made me want to rip my eyes out."

BUT, to me, since I knew the route, since I made it up, I was just smiling, enjoying, and text messaging the Warriors princess the entire day. Taking pics making videos, multi tasking, having fun. I knew how to measure my effort, I knew how far I had to go to this stop, knew where to get water and food, etc, etc.

My effort that day was measured. 10.1 MPH avg speed of course is probably low balled by the fact that GPS does not track twisty track well. But you think, some of you average 10 mph on your local trail. Now add about 88 more miles and 15 more miles of climbing and you see that 10 mph avg is a good all day pace, and like I said, I was riding and text messaging and taking pictures all at the same time.

Regardless, of my measured effort, by the time we reached Santos, I was ready for a big meal and a break. So without giving away any strategy for my own personal Trial, that's probably what I may end up doing. How long of a break???

On the Walkabout tour, I rode 20 some odd hours with only 2 hours of sleep. I am currently intensely training my body to handle sleep deprivation, I think the winners will do the same. If you want to win, you got to be ready to ride the whole thing and stay on the bike for the whole thing as long as possible and know when to bed down and cat nap or rest.

The second half of the route will have an estimated 50+ miles of single track, and more of the dirtyness you experienced on the first leg. So, after Rolling threw the forest. You then have to start negotiating the technical and beautiful trail system of Santos. That folks is Food for thought.

August 8th, I got a "not to be named social networking site invite" for the Workday at Santos, I think I will join it. Then Sunday the 9th, I will go and do the GPXing for the second half of the route. Then I will sit back and do more miles and more riding at odd times of the day.

Folks, the Cut offs are gone. So prepare, get some gear, strategize take some practice runs and make it so you go out there and accomplish your goals.

Anyone can finish this ride. The question is, how long will it take you??

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN