I will tell you all this. I no longer consider myself an ENDURANCE athlete. I think ENDURANCE is riding a long time, long time being 12 hour range. I have since about Last October when I won the CFiTT (albeit everyone dropped out accept one guy who had a GPS issue and had no choice but to stay with me) with an a time of 25 hours and 37 minutes, considered myself an Ultra Endurance Athlete.
What separates Endurance from Ultra Endurance? Well In My Opinion, its time. Endurance is 12 hour day or less, Ultra is 24 hours or more straight. Simple 12 hour racers are Endurance athletes, and 24 hour racers are ULTRA endurance athlete. Let's break it down further. Riding a Dirty Hundy is an Endurance ride, Riding a dirty Hundy and a half or double dirty Hundy is ULTRA. Makes sense.
So, when it comes to Ultra Endurance Athletes I am on the Long List no doubt. There are TONS of Ultra Athletes out there most of them way more hardcore than me. I completely accept that. BUT, on the list of Fixed Gear Off Road Ultra Endurance Athletes I am on the Short list. There are not many Athletes that do Off Road Ultras/Let alone On Road Ultra's that do it Fixed gear.
That's kind of Cool to me. To be on the Short List. It's cool to be on the Long list too, but to be one of the documented few and proud is kind of RAD.
So to finish this post I will share the top ten things I have evolved too after completing an ULTRA:1. I used to think riding for 3 hours was a long time. During PMBAR this year, I said to myself, at the bottom of Pilot Rock, I got 3 more hours left and I am done with this thing!
2. I used to think a Dirty Hundy was a long way, now I call a Dirty Hundy an Easy day.
3. I used to think Riding a fully loaded bike was a bear, now when I do, it seems normal and riding without a load feels O SO light.
4. I used to think That There was NO WAY I could ride 12 hours straight let alone 16 or 20 and if I stopped and took a break I would most surely cramp. But I have done both, without cramping.
5. I used to think the only way to fuel for a ride was with the appropriate astronaut food, Now I eat all kinds of things to fuel my rides. Astronaut food is cool, but real food agree's with me better.
6. When I first started packing to ride, I way over packed, I know have a firm understanding of what it is to pack for comfort and what it means to pack for speed.
7. To avoid Saddle Sores, LUBE every 50 miles or so, sweat washes it away.
8. Fueling by the Clock makes me stay on top and not bonk, although I am by far no speed demon.
9. I find that small goals works a lot better than the big picture. I dont wanna think, I got 177 miles left, I wanna think, Ok, ten miles to this point, 3 miles to the top of this, 1 hour till Im here, then set goals based on that.
10. That the human body can be pushed to do anything and everything, you just have to break the barriers and extend your comfort zones.
So folks that's the long and the short of it all...
Take Care,
Laters,
The NaKeD InDiaN
No comments:
Post a Comment