Concentrate on the race. It's a race, after all – and you're not trying to win but you are trying to beat as many people as you can. Try and get yourself worked up as a competitor.

Also – I listen to the BBC World Service (on Radio 4 frequency in the middle of the ngiht) whenever I have to stay up really late. Worked for me on 24hr solo 🙂

It's easy – just take a positive approach and don't stop. 🙂

What works for me is looking at my watch and saying to myself something like, "Great only 23 hours and 55 minutes to go", and then after a bit of hard work "Great only 23 hours and 53 minutes to go", etc. But seriously taking a positive attitude towards the passage of time helps me.

Also take the attitude you'd sooner walk or crawl round the course carrying your bike than stop. They only count the laps you do, not how you do it. As long as you're moving, you're winning against the forces of despair/misery.

The biggest danger for soloists is being sucked in by the speed of fresh team riders in the small hours, and trying to keep up which rapidly leads to exhaustion.

Thanks Molgrips, I'll have to download podcasts as it's highly unlikely that there will be radio 4 reception around Strathpeffer 🙂
…Any recommendations on cold and water proof Ipod cases?

I tried riding with music the year before last, but didn't get on with it. Might try it for the really late/early laps when there will be fewer people out and about.

Thanks Jo! Good luck for the puffer!

At least the puffer course will be interesting/challenging/reasonably technical. That will surely be better for the mind than a slog around a soggy field somewhere in England.

Having failed in my previous two 24 solo attempts to finish due to injury this years Mayhem was make or break for me. My gym trainer/masseur's (trans Wales, trans Rockies etc. competitor) last words to me before the event that I was in better shape than ever before but it would be 80% mental and 20% physical – and it was.

I broke the race down into two laps at a time with only stops to get drinks/food, bike cleaning and quick change of clothes – I was NOT going to stop for any extended length of time. I tried not to have preset goals to get to but when day break came I did think to myself "I've broken the back of this" but had to remind myself there was still 8ish hours to go!!! At one time I did think to myself "why am I doing this?" but just focused on the trail and back to knocking off two laps at a time. I had one moment where I had to stop by the side of the track and down a gel as I felt woozy but then got back on and focused on someones wheel for the next 5 minutes to get back on track. Things won't go according to plan for the whole of 24 hours but just accept it and keep moving forward.

I'll train with music but don't race with it. I concentrate on the lines I'm taking and how the track is changing over time, trying to be smooth and do each lap as well as or better than before. What can seem like a boring section can have some interest in it.

This worked for me but then again 90+ percent of all my riding is done solo 😯

Interesting reading.

I'm thinking of having a bash at a 24 hours solo next year and think the laps nature will make it hard for me. I was thinking of pretending that there weren't laps and just having a "feed station" set up by my tent – trying to simulate one big lap.

i seem to gel with listening to music, finding people who ride the same pace as you and take turns leading etc. The mental aspect was the hardest part when i done the kielder, i felt physically i was good enough though a 10 mile 'downer' sick patch made me wanna give up.

I remember when i done the merida sportive this year i rode the last 30 miles or so with this guy. We both had same pace but the last 15 miles he pulled me through. I thanked him at the end and we chatted about the event. Although this was my first sportive he had done plenty and he told me that he knew at 1 point he would feel sick, want to stop, become lightheaded etc but he also knew that if he could ride through it it would disappear and he would recover. I used that at the kielder 100 and sure enough i pulled through ( just).
I guess if you know what to expect and what your mind and body will do to you and you know how to pull through it, the event should become easier.

some laps really go for it on the climbs

DO NOT do that.

The first reason you get tired when riding is you run low on carbs. This won't happen in a 24 hour race because you'll be eating and drinking well. Won't you?

The second reason you get tired is lactic acid hurting your muscles. So the idea is to ride below the onset of lactate production (this is not the same as the anaerobic threshold ie sprinting pace). It's a very gentle pace, which jsut about corresponds with the onset of enough breathing to interfere with normal talking. Because it's so gentle, you need to train with lots and lots of long gentle miles to train your fat burning endurance metabolism (burning fat doesn't produce lactate). But you've been doing that for months already, right?

If you ride over this gentle threshold even for just a short effort per lap you'll produce lactate which will hurt your muscles and make the whole race a lot more painful. It's the reason why so many people fall to bits during the night. Seriously stick to gentle riding and you will be more comfortable all race, and the mental side of things will come easily!

I remember when i done the merida sportive this year i rode the last 30 miles or so with this guy. We both had same pace but the last 15 miles he pulled me through.

Latching onto other riders really helped me at Kielder (big thanks to Martin for the first 1/3 and Kate for the middle 1/3). From the food stop onwards, I didn't fall in with anyone riding at my pace, which made them really hard.

With it being one big lap, it was really hard to latch onto people. I think I was only about an hour behind Martin when I arrived at the food stop, and he only finished 90 minutes ahead of me, but there was no way I'd have seen him in that last 40 miles.

On a lap race, it's more likely you'd find someone of the right pace to ride with occasionally, I'd guess.

On a lap race, it's more likely you'd find someone of the right pace to ride with occasionally, I'd guess.

I wonder if anyone else will go slow enough for me to keep up with them?

My thought is to set off at "Sunday afternoon pootle pace" and just get slower. At Sits when I soloed I did find it hard not to try to race folk who overtook. Just keeping to the gentle pace I know I can sustain was hard

TandemJeremy – Member
I wonder if anyone else will go slow enough for me to keep up with them?

That'll be me then 🙂

The puffer is an excellent 24hr event, althought pairs or quads for max enjoyment.
Last year we had all manner of weather which at 3am and when it's drizzle at your base camp then almost white out at the highest point was something else.

I doth my cap to the folk who enjoy solo (including two of my mates this year), barr mechanicals these guys just keep going, not for me though, I prefer an all out lap the hand the tag to someone else,relax,tea,fix bike dry clothes,eat then out again 🙂

Although I have no medical knowledge I wholeheartedly agree with Molgrips.

Best piece of advice I was given was by a another soloist on the startline at Mayhem:

"Every minute lost at the start is an hour gained later on"

Unless you're superfit, trying to race will break you. The aim is simply to ride the bike for 24 hours…

I did a couple of 24 solos back in the day. I totally agree with the comments about it being mainly a mental game, especially for the mid pack type of rider that I am.

There are various strategies for dealing with the length of the event, you should know what works for you beforehand from doing some long rides on your own. I found just staying in the moment without looking too far forward was best for me. Try and get the best out of each lap, focus on the bits you enjoy, and look forward to a little treat like a breather at the top of the hardest climb, a hot drink at the end of the lap.

Be aware that you will hit some low points in a 24. There will be times when you feel like you are pedalling through porridge and another lap is just not possible. You have 2 choices – jack it in (loads do at that point), or fuel up and press on and the chances are that the bad patch will pass and you'll feel fine again.

I have done a few solos recently, not the whole 24 hours yet, not because I don't think I would manage it's more I dont want to do it solo yet.

I have improved at all the tens this year, solo at ben and Moray. The best thing for me is not to stop. Just run in get some food, bottles and keep churning away. Yeah you are going to have those couple of really bad laps but usually in my case time wise there are not bad, just the way I feel is!

24 hour is different. I would say still keep churning away as long as possible, but maybe a couple of times come in and get some decent food down you, rather than just the convenient food.

Split the race up into sections like terry, I also try and use the same gear for the same sections. Yeah maybe you will shift down a couple late on in the event but you know that you are going roughly the same speed.

I have not jacked one yet, I just couldn't! It usually does start to get better after your really low point so just keep going!

molgrips – I tend to agree with you but the guy I was talking about is pretty successful at solo and it works for him regardless of what common sense dictates which I think sums up a lot of the solo experience – do what works, not what someone tells you should work based on simple scientific theory – another good example of that is the food – in theory there's all sorts of energy gels, specific types of food you should eat but eating something that you actually like will most likely actually be better (within reason…) in the long term just for the mental side of it.

In the 'Puffer, there are 2 things soloists have to contend with, exhaustion and the cold.

Exhaustion is par for the course, so you just have to keep going.

If you're suffering from cold, there's nothing wrong with having a short/long sleep and then carrying on (assuming you have decent warm sleeping gear).

Fair play to those who do the Puffer. Exhaustion I can cope with but the cold, at the moment would be beyond me…

I suffer with any sort of race at all – I'm just not competitive. I hate riding laps (christ, its just boring repetitiveness) and I don't like feeling like I'm useless if I don't come first, so I don't put myself into that situation. I suppose you're just a bit further towards the competitor side. I'd start off thinking "i dont want it enough to enter", rather than finish!

I suffer with any sort of race at all – I'm just not competitive. I hate riding laps (christ, its just boring repetitiveness) and I don't like feeling like I'm useless if I don't come first, so I don't put myself into that situation. I suppose you're just a bit further towards the competitor side. I'd start off thinking "i dont want it enough to enter", rather than finish!

Unless you're superfit, trying to race will break you.

Even if you are super fit, what I said will still work better.

Clubber – everyone's body works the same way, but the parameters are different for some folk. If your mate followed the science, he would probably do even better 🙂

I know a guy who could do pretty well (like top 3) at these things, but he would often just burn out. Then he got supported by a pro who made him follow the science of which he was previously sceptical and he won with a really great ride. So he finally realised that the science is actually right after all…

From the Strathpuffer website:

Dougie Vipond is entering the Mens Pairs with Duncan MacCallum. Desiree is going for the Womens Solo title too. Expect lots of tears (mainly from Dougie . . . )

Surely that's all the motivation you need? Nobody wants to be beaten by someone who seems to be named after a potato…

Interesting comment on the PoW comparison.
I'm vegan and often think while I'm racing about all the horses and other animals that have been worked to death and how easy I've got it.
I don't suppose this makes much sense to anyone else, but then, nor would most of the other stuff I think about while close to physical and mental collapse either.

I've nearly always raced entirely solo with no support crew.
A few friends turned up on Sunday morning at Mountain Mayhem (101st/150), but seemed more interested in sitting around chatting than motivating me.
I think a proper support crew would make a big difference. If they had been there all night, I might not have slept for 6 hours.

I've always said the first 3 hours is fitness, after that it's attitude.
At Bristol (34th/69) and Cheddar (11th/34) I could have got one more lap in if I had really tried. I ran out of attitude.

One good thing about doing a 24 is it makes any shorter race easier.
My first ever race was the SPAM Biking Winter Challenge and was quite concerned about riding 50km in a day.
I did the September Blast (24th/43) recently and my only concern was whether I could do the 100km within the 6 hour time limit. I had no doubts that I could ride for 6 hours.