Merida Brass Monkeys

I met Mr Goat on the start line, where he was "laughing" at the same old jokes he probably always gets!
Next time I saw him was on I think his 2nd lap where he was a bit down.. Well done on keeping it going mate!

ps. correct link for Joolz's pics – http://www.joolzedymond.com/joolzeD/BMR3.html

Yes, the legs were feeling it towards the end of the second lap but once they were resolved to a third they picked up a little!
The wife did well, finishing third overall for the three rounds.

Here's me leading the field (as is my want!).
Why is that, year-on-year, I just get better looking?

OK chaps, I've sorted through all my pics and labelled them up with appropriate race numbers, so if you'd like a pic it's £2 each and ALL the money will go to Help for Heros.

So, let me know what your race number was and I'll see if I've got one for you.

I've got a few I can't identify the race number on as well. So I'll operate an 'Honesty Box' principal on those.
Have a LOOK HERE[/url] and if you see one, I'll trust you to cough up for it! 😀

Couple of samples

My race number was 146.

Sorry, no 146. 🙁

I was 819 – I think you got me once! 🙂

Sorry, no 146.

No worries, I was going a bit fast.

😉

204 & 311(the wife).
Thanks

Dez, 819, Interested? 🙂

204 & 311(the wife).
Thanks

Sorry no… Not doing very well here am I? I reckon I got around 250 different riders out of the 400 entered though…..

£2 for charidee mate? Of course!
Shame you missed me attacking the bridge though eh? 🙂

Shame, some good looking photos there. I thought you got me coming down the singletrack near the end. Must have dazzled you with my Uni skills. 😛

That last bridge was excellent.
I used a small amount of brake on the first 1/6th, I just couldn't not brake, to my eternal chagrin, but always got fully airbourne at the top!
Which is rather apt, since Long Valley is where the Parachute Regiment does it's selection course, P Company!

Anybody want a pic, please email me direct on

Peterpoddy@googlemail.com

I'm busy at work, so apologies if it takes a while to get back to you…
😀

That last bridge was excellent

Tell you what though – it was damn scarey to come over the brow on my second lap, thinking "Oh good brakes not needed!" and seeing someone pushing their bike across! I'm not sure what I shouted, but I think it was just "NO!!!" and they leapt out of the way. Can't imagine why someone would walk across the best bit of the course..

I'll check the photos when I'm on the home pc – number 294. The missus got a fantastic photo of me getting a full 6 inches of air and pulling a silly face on the little lip after the bridge 🙂

I did nearly take out some photographer chap who was fiddling with his flash next to the bridge. Apparently he had been getting in lots of peoples way….

Number 234.
Ta

294, No, sorry. (Got 293 and 295 though. D'Oh!)

234, yep, got you on the slippy corner at the bottom of the fence. 🙂 Email me direct (peterpoddy@googlemail.com) and I'll send you a proof to look at. 🙂

That was fairly late on, lap 4 I think, and I got my gears all wrong if I recall correctly, making a mountain out of a molehill!
I think we even managed a quick chat.
Email on its way.

Any more for a cheap pic for a good cause? 🙂

I took the kids up & watched some bits of the race (mainly up at the top rather than too far down towards the field). Looked excellent. We have a Tuesday night ride planned to pootle around as much as we can, certainly nice to have new trails up there to play on.

Was there on the bike in spectator mode, was interesting hitting the descent/bridge into the area blind, I then understood why all the spectators were gathering 🙂

And lol @ the pikey rider who tried to nab a load of ForGoodnessShakes bottles before he was spotted.

The whole course open to the public then? If so I'm going to go back as I think it'd be a good gauge of my fitness improving (or going backwards)

Number 36 PP…

The fastest lap was under 30 minutes!
My 2nd lap was 48, but it's a very different strategy, doing hot flying laps as opposed to when you know you're there for 4:30+hrs. If it had been a single lap as quick as you can, then I'd manage a 42 I guess.
Rather academic since I'm training for 24hr solo at the end of May.

I still need to take on more fuel, particularly in the form of energy bars; I downed 1 gel per lap when I stopped back at the car, but couldn't face much else. Ultimately this would have lead to me bonking and extreme fatigue. There is much still to be done!

I had no idea they were giving out free drinks; can I have mine now?

Why would that lead to you bonking? Plenty of energy in gels, stomach's more likely to be an issue over 24 hours, not the lack of energy.

doing hot flying laps as opposed to when you know you're there for 4:30+hrs. If it had been a single lap as quick as you can, then I'd manage a 42 I guess.

George only slowed down to 32 minutes on his 4th lap, hardly a one lap flier then settling down. He also came 3rd at his first attempt at Mayhem Solo, he's a rather handy rider!

atlaz … you should be fine to ride the course as often as you like with no dramas.

Winner of the 40+ cat did 7 laps. 7 LAPS! Madness!

One last thing. My pic from PeterPoddy is excellent (yes, even though I'm in it). So if he has one of you – BUY IT 🙂

Not if you're using up more energy than you're putting in!
I know the winner of the Montane Kielder 100 mile race was consuming 3x gels an hour plus energy bars, every hour, plus an energy drink in his water bottles and so it's something I need to practice, eating more on the move. Yesterday, 30 minutes from the end I was out of strength.
When I got back to the car all I could do was prop myself up and then sit down. I could not speak for about 3 or 4 minutes.

Sorry – I don't know anyone called George. Who is he, Atlaz?

George Budd – gee on here.

You'll see him up the top in the results of the 2 hr 🙂

Yep.

And he did Mayhem solo on a gel and a bottle of energy drink a lap, plus one soup and a microwave spag bol IIRC, wasn't doing bars I don't think.

Just because that's what the chap who won Kielder was eating doesn't mean you should be eating it too, different people have different metabolisms etc.

Let's be honest, you're not going to win, you just need to concentrate on plodding on, and working out what food/supplements you need to do that.

I'm not being funny, but 4.5 hours is not a particularly long ride, if you were that much of a wreck after that, I'd be seriously worried.

How did the new steed fair njee?

You came past me once that I know of, and said "Hi" – or at least I think it was you (I was fixing a new inner tube by the far side of the reservoir) but since you did 3 laps, you must have passed me a 2nd time.

One by product of having a large flint slice open your tyre, spewing out the tubeless gunk, is that the first you use your back brake you realise your rear rotor is coated in slippery gunk, thus rendering your rear brake completely useless! It gave me quite a surprise!

Not sure that completing 5 laps and ending up 46 out of 59 in the vet's 4hr was technically last, but it's a matter of perspective I guess. I was the last of those who managed 5 laps, in the same way that Simon Lewington came last with his 7 laps (to those who'd ridden 7 laps but faster than him). I don't think he'd consider himself to be last somehow!

Aye that was me, by the lake, I realised it was you and give you a 'bad luck Tim'. Bike was surprisingly nice, much more comfortable than I'd expected.

Yes I've been a victim of the 'crap on the rotor affecting braking' before. I managed it with an errant gel.

Me, 32 minutes? I was closer to 1hr 32minutes

The general rule of thumb is that your body will only be able to process about 1gram of carbohydrate per 1kg of body mass per hour. So if you are 70kgs you can only process 70grams of carbs per hour. Anything in excess of this will be wasted and IME sits in your stomache and makes you feel decidedly ropey.

How you get your carbs is up to you but a combination of complex and simple carbs usually makes most sense. A gel has approximately (depending on brand) 30grams of carbs. So for a 70kg person they would be looking to make up the 40grams elsewhere. Energy drinks are usually the easiest way of doing so. Over 24hours however, I would use gels, bars, energy drinks and then whatever you feel like eating. At some point you will get sick of sweet foods and you'll be thankful then.

IME a strategy of just stuffing yourself with gels and energy drink is not a good one. Some consideration on how much you need (and can) consume will make things more tolerable.

Njee – got there before me 😉

The whole course open to the public then?

Yup. And a lot more besides, probably twice as much again in that area alone, actually. Maybe more. I live in Farnborough and I can ride from my house (3 road miles to the trails) and do a 20 mile loop, including some of those trails, that only touches roads to cross them: So 99.999% offroad then!

And you wonder why I avoid Swinley like that plague? 🙂

Aye, but you got the sciency bit in there!

When I did the 12 hour solo at 24/12, I did about 12 Torq gels, a tub of mini muffins, 2 tubes of Jaffa Cakes, a few Torq bars, a couple of Snickers, some jelly babies, a few bottles of High 5 and several caffeinated Zym tablets. I got it right in that I never had cramp, and posted my fastest laps towards the end of the race, I got it wrong in that I finished with loads of energy left and feeling I should've gone harder.

At the end of the day, it's going to be trial and error!