I’m doing reasonably well in endurance events, but I think I could make a big improvement by spending less time eating, drinking and resting between laps.
I know the usual advice to the question “How do I get better at x ?” is “Do x more often.”, but there’s only so many spare Sundays where I can ride for 12 hours to experiment with resting, pacing and refuelling strategies.

I generally ride one or two laps, then stop for a short break.
Well, it feels like a short break, although according to my GPS I spent;
45 minutes stationary at Hit the North (8 hours)
33 minutes stationary at Oktoberfest (8 hours)
Over an hour stationary at Bristol Bike Fest (12 hours)
Looking at the times for the fast guys, they don’t appear to stop at all, while I’m wasting a lap by sitting down resting.

I normally ride super solo with just a box of food and drink waiting for me in the pit area. I often see slower riders go past me while I’m stopped, only to catch them up and overtake them further round the lap.
I need to find the ideal compromise between riding speed and resting time.

What’s the best way to go from, say, lapping in 30 minutes, then stopping for a 5 minute break, to lapping in 32 minutes ?

Carry more food and stop only to pick more food/drink up and learn to eat on the move. Maybe a good idea to find out what you need as opposed to what you think you need.

drugs

Well, I think you answered most of your own questions….

My friend won the 24hr Solo at Bontrager 24/12 this year, I was his mechanic. He stopped for less than 1 minute every 50 min lap for a new bottle, after 10hrs he stopped for 5 mins for a change of clothes and then again at 18hrs for 5 mins for a change of clothes. He NEVER sat down at all until the finish.

He has a full time office job and 2 small children. He did all this off whatever training he could fit in around his family life. He rode the 3hrs to the office a few times a week and then a longer ride on the way home.

He won the race in the changeovers and by NOT stopping, he set a steady pace that could be sustained, set out a nutritional plan that could be followed easily and was a double hard b*****d mentally.

You need a pit bitch.

i think having a pit bitch would be a massive help – particulary if it is someone who knows what is going on.

to have someone hand you a fresh bottle and a bar/ gel/ pasty / whatever at the right time has got to save you time.

if you and them can work as a team all the better.

imagine if on one lap you say next time i need coffee and when you come in next time a coffee is there made as you like it and cooled down enough to drink.

when you say a short break how is your food organised. when i have super soloed (just the once mind) i had 400kcal food bags. the aim was to eat one per hour. that helped quite a lot.

You just need to be organised.

Why are you stopping?

If you get your food and drink ready, your stops should limited to swapping bottles and grabbing something to stuff in your pockets. This takes seconds. The rest of it is mental.

I’ve never done a 24 but I’ve done a couple of 12s.
You can easily train for the 1st 6 hours of the race by riding 6 hours non-stop at a steady but fairly hard pace. The next 6 just come down to keeping going when you feel like death.

I have found ridng for 6 hours on the road one day and 6 hours on the mtb the next is a pretty good way of approximating the feeling of being well into a endurance race. I’m not sure if this is physiologically sound but it gives you an idea of how hard you can push yourself when you are already tired.

It soulds like you have the endurance – the only other areas are your personal admin and your speed.

As mentioned above, someone helping would instantly improve admin. Rather than endurance riding, do interval training to improve the speed? You’ll get a lot out of that as you have the base endurance.

You don’t need an pit bitch, althoughb they can help in some situations.

You just need to be organised so pit stops don’t take so long. I won Set2Rise solo out the boot of my car without a pit, I just lined up all my food and every lap stopped for as long as it took me to lean over (staying straddling the bike) to grab more food and/or water, which was less than 20 seconds per lap. Similar to the food bags suggestion above.

Like Blazin-saddles says, Craig won TwebtyFour12 by just keeping moving (he also won by being the best rider and by going fast enough to podium in the 12hr and keeping going, a truly top class ride). Bear in mind you have to ride an awful lot harder for an upsetting amount of time to make up 5 minutes on the trail, so take the effort down 1% and stop stopping for so long.

I’m planning 24/12 next year and just wondered, what about the loo? With my bladder it’s going to be a time consuming problem and no I don’t want it running down my leg 🙄

It’s all in the head IMO… once you’ve got a good base of endurance, you can physically keep going for a very long time, but it’s your head which will work against you.

All great advice as above – one of the key things is to keep moving and don’t treat your body to a rest – not at all! Keep a constant stream of food an energy drink going down… then…

keep focused! Just break everything down into chunks. Never purposely think about the end, just keep thinking that lap, or the next lap tops.

stop and piss at the trailside.

don’t take a magazine to the crapper.

😀 cp, There I was with a book ready.

Good advice guys, thanks

one of the key things is to keep moving and don’t treat your body to a rest – not at all! Keep a constant stream of food an energy drink going down… then.

Exactly what i did for kielder 100. Never done that kind of distance before. Just kept going. Each food stop was less than a minute.

If your obsessed enough just do as roadies do when it comes to needing a piss

I know the usual advice to the question “How do I get better at x ?” is “Do x more often.”,

Just stop less.

I find it easier not to stop, you get all cold legs. I have won a couple of 10 hour solos with no pit help. Just need to be organised, have TONS of food drinks water etc and a big variety of food in your supplies cache, as you never know what you will feel like eating. Greggs sausage rolls if you are me. Quick bottle change and grab some food each lap, wee clean of the chain if needed and away you go.

And yes, you think the loo was a problem for you ? I had to find cover as well, but def quickeer to do it on the trail than hunt down a portaloo at changeover.

It’s all mental.
First time I did a 10hr I went out too hard and blew a bit in the middle, had to rest but next time I knew what to expect, had my strategy and just stuck to it, came 5th.
The hard part is forcing yourself to ride at a sustainable pace, not stop for too long and to know how your food strategy works, it’s that last part that takes the planning/experience.

The real hard men have the mental capacity to just switch off, no matter what the weather or how they’re feeling, they can just keep going. I can’t, I start thinking about my comfy warm sleeping bag!

I was never mentally determined enough to work on my own. I tended to stop, rest too long, spend a while eating, rest again. When I had my then GF helping me, it worked a lot better. Someone to hand me food and refill a bottle helped me no end. Also, taking a whole mix of foods helped me too, eating the same thing every lap or two really made me not want to eat.

There again, I tend to ride faster than is advisable, and rest longer – end up doing the same number of laps as some people who ride slower with less stoppage. Of course, if I could ride fast AND with fewer, shorter stops….

Thanks for the replies, even if, as Blazin Saddles says, I’ve already got the answers. Sometimes being told what I need to do by someone else is the motivation to actually do it.

He won the race in the changeovers and by NOT stopping…

Yes, even on a fun ride with friends, it’s amazing how far behind you can drop by a quick pee stop, while they carry on riding, and how long it takes to catch up again. Even a 1 minute break at the end of a lap would be a quick stop by my standards, but I know how hard I have to work to catch someone up with a 1 minute head start.

I’ve only had a pit bitch once, when I rode Bristol Bike Fest 12 hour on the Saturday and Mrs MTG rode the 6 hour on Sunday. Every other time she has been in the same race as me. There is no one else I could ask to stand around in a muddy field for 12 hours for me.

Why are you stopping?

I don’t know.
Because it’s what I’ve always done ?
Because I think that if I don’t I will burn out half way through the race ?
I regularly ride 3 hour trailquests with only the briefest possible stops to punch a Control Point or check my route. I think there’s a barrier in my head at around 6 hours that says I can’t ride that far without regular stops.
Perhaps breaking the race down in to four 3 hour segments would make it easier, although I suspect it would distract me from aiming for the full 12 hours non-stop as my ultimate goal.

I like the idea of having a “packed lunch” ready to grab on the way through without stopping.
At the moment, everything is in one big box. I come back thinking “I fancy some fig rolls”, then have to rummage through the spare inner tubes and water bottles to find them. Having everything portioned out ready and stuffing 6 fig rolls in my left pocket and 10 fruit jellies in the right would give me one less thing to think about.

Oh yeah and pacing, how could I forget. Most people go off too fast, and blow up half way around. Don’t get sucked into First Lap Madness. Select a pace you think you can keep up for the duration of the race.

I have all my food prepped into little packets which is borderline OCD and not so much about the time it takes more about the fact that after about 6 hours you can’t think straight so need to make it as easy as possible for yourself.

…and a big variety of food in your supplies cache, as you never know what you will feel like eating

Good point. I tend to eat a mixture of foods, from salted cashews to fruit jellies.
I normally have the fruit jellies in a frame bag and eat them throughout the lap as an alternative to gels as they take almost no effort to chew or swallow.
I then eat the fig rolls or nuts while I’m stopped between laps as they feel like more of a meal.
I’ve got to get used to eating on the move.

Don’t get sucked into First Lap Madness.

It’s a fine line between going out too hard and getting stuck in traffic jams.
At Ashton Court, for example, where it’s almost straight in the single track, I go flat out from the start, then let people overtake me towards the end of the first lap as I settle in to my endurance pace.

I don’t understand this “Stopping”… it’s a race. You can’t stop for a rest, just adjust your pace and keep going.

You can’t stop. That’s daft.

It does sound daft when you put it like that, Brant. 😀

A race means not just going as fast as you can, but maintaining the highest possible average speed over the distance or time allowed.
For most of us mid pack, that means as fast as we can in between rests.
If you look in the solo pit area at any 8+hour event, it’s not just me having a 5 minute breather.
I know it’s not the best way, which is why I asked for advice.
I’ll definitely give the packed lunch/ration pack idea a go.

You can save loads by tweaking your current system, without going bonkers. Do 3 laps rather than one or two. Get off by your stash, grab whatever you’ve decided you need, carry on. That’s 50% less faffage time already.

Your absolutely right though, first 12 I did I felt a bit foolish catching up with the slow guy *again* every time I stopped. He just didn’t. I do still quite like to get off every now and again to stretch my back out though. It’s not like I’m fit or in danger of winning.

For most of us mid pack, that means as fast as we can in between rests.
If you look in the solo pit area at any 8+hour event, it’s not just me having a 5 minute breather.
I know it’s not the best way, which is why I asked for advice.

Paraphrasing the: You are only actualy racing the mid pack riders who also take a five minute breather, ’cause you’re giving everyone else a 5 min start each time you stop.

You know the answer, and it will hurt in the legs and the head 😉

At Hit The North, I stopped far too much.

After the first lap I wandered back to the tent to refil my bottle and get some more food, then wandered back to do another lap. I’d decided I had to drink a bottle a lap for some reason, even though that was far more than I’d drink on a normal long ride – inspired by over-thinking things on here beforehand.

For the first three laps, I wasn’t racing I was just pottering about on a bike. Combined with my ace tactics of starting the run at the back so having to spend the first lap overtaking people and then stopping to lend someone a pump so they could all ride past be again so I had to overtake them again I lost loads of time.

It was only when Jase was manning the lap dibber and told me I had plenty of juice so I had to do another lap that I actually started racing. I ended up putting in three decent laps before stopping to refill again and then doing another two before a refill and a last lap.

If you look at my lap times, you can see where I stopped riding and started racing.

I ended up doing ten laps and 25th solo. I could have got out for an eleventh with a slight attitude change and, I’m pretty sure, a 12th without the dicking about and with better organisation – that would have been a top 10 finish.

Next year… 😉

Good point, BristolBiker.
Like so many things in life, it’s a question of what standards I set myself.
If I think of myself as a mid pack racer, and see other mid pack racers resting between laps, it becomes acceptable for me to do the same.
If I try to think of myself as an elite racer (yeah, right 😉 ), and race like an elite racer, I might move that little bit closer to being one.

Rob, I got 10th/48 at Set2Rise.
Sounds pretty good when I say it like that.
Doesn’t sound so good when I think that you lapped me 5 times, or did 3 laps for every 2 of mine. 🙁

Mike, I did 11 laps at HtN and reckon I should have done one more.
You did 10 laps and reckon you should have done two more.
Our fastest lap times were within 20 seconds of each other.
I feel a challenge coming on for next year. 😉

I feel a challenge coming on for next year

You’re on! 🙂

45 minutes stationary at Hit the North (8 hours)
33 minutes stationary at Oktoberfest (8 hours)
Over an hour stationary at Bristol Bike Fest (12 hours)

Graham are you sure your GPS is accurate? I know mine never gets the rest time right, might be worth hitting the lap bottom everytime you start and stop. To get a feel for how long your actually spending in the pits.

I’m hoping to do a few of the events you’re talking about above, look forward to running into you … perhaps not in the pits by the sound of it 😉

Like many people have already said its all about planning your stops regardless of how you feel.

Last years CLIC24, I found sticking to the set routine of 2 laps out pits refilled bottle refilled jelly baby supply, then out again! Every 4 laps came in and chomped some pasta as well as the above then out again and repeated that till the end.

These were very fast stops with little sitting down, I found the longer I stayed still the more my mind would talk me out going back out!

If your racing hard enough pee stops shouldn’t be a problem drinking enough should! Although I found that during the graveyard shift I needed to pee alot more than normal… any excuse to get off the bike!

I also found not having a sleeping bag helped!

don’t stop if possible. In fact, have a rule: Do not get off the bike unless it’s broken (or you are broken).

Rob won Set2Rise without a helper, but generally you’re going to do better if you’ve got someone to organise your food, mix energy drinks, etc. Even better if you’ve got someone who can repair a bike (while you’re out on the spare) and give you a kick up the arse as and when necessary.

Everyone who helps me in a 24 hour solo is given a brief set of instructions before the start, what I’m likely to want each lap, what time I’m going to need lights, etc and then they’re just asked to be firm with me when I’m feeling shite…cos nobody ever died of sore legs.
Some people are better at this than others. My mate Phil gives me a bollocking after every lap (he always finds a reason), my wife on the other hand wants to give me a nice cuppa and a cuddle.

Gothandy, it works out at around 3 – 4 minutes stationary per lap according to the GPS, which sound about right going by the difference in lap times between the ones where I stopped and the ones where I rode straight through.

My mate Phil gives me a bollocking after every lap (he always finds a reason)

If Terrahawk had been on the dibber at HTN for every lap, I’d never have dared stop 😉

Those without pit bitches…do you just leave a stash of filled bottles & gels or whatever at the side of the course somewhere (risking someone nabbing them), or do you take the time to leave the course, go back to your tent & refill?

There’s always a pit area.
At Mountain Mayhem and SITS they provide a marquee for solos.
At others it’s just a roped off area.
Some events like Bristol Bike Fest, people tend to set up their own pit anywhere near the start and finish line.
At Set2Rise it was possible to park right alongside the course.
Proper pit areas can get crowded, especially at Bristol where the team handover area inevitably spills over in to the solo area.

I generally find someone who has set up there pit away from the busiest area, then ask their pit bitch if they’ll keep an eye on my stuff while I’m racing.

Touching cloth at Mayhem didn’t help me…

Came 19th on an SS doing solo this year, I could have got another lap in but it’s all down to preparation and sticking with what you know. I experimented with using more gels and energy powder instead of tried and tested foods. Needless to say it didn’t work.

I had a pit helper for the first time who passed me bottles every lap (as instructed). Usually I use a small camelbak, I think I was drinking too much.

I think food is the weakest link, you need something that you can eat on the bike but not something that is too sugary to give you stomach cramps. I ended up reverting back to the tried and tested rice pudding.

Next year I’m going to try having rice pudding in bottles so I can simply drink it on the bike (somehow).

For me it’s down to preparation and deciding never to stop for anything other than a food grab or wee stop unless I really have to – in 24 hours I would try to have a few 5 min stops for warm food, clothes change etc. as well as the grabs

Came 19th on an SS doing solo this year, I could have got another lap in…..

Phew, I was 18th and you were closing in over the last few laps !!!!

I also had a helper for the first time at Mayhem this year – helped a lot. I had everything laid out and could just tell her what to hand to me depending on what I felt like. I would also tell her if I wanted anything different on the next lap – like warm soup or rolls. In between laps she made up drinks and put out gels etc. No problems with the food but also think I drank too much as I was using bottles instead of camelback !!!! Still, there’s always the Exposure 24 hour next year …

and you were closing in over the last few laps !!!!

That was the six tins of rice pudding starting to kick-in!

As I understand it, training for solo endurance is basically as many base training rides as you can manage. 5, 6 hours or more – as long as possible. Try and do them at constant effort, that is slack off on the hills and ride down on the brakes. After all if you are honking up a hill you’re not base training, likewise if you are coasting down.

Power meters help for this of course but aren’t cheap 🙂