After having done a few 12 hour solos I’m stepping up to the 24 solo at Newnham in a couple of weeks. I’ve got all the training done that I can and I’m aiming to come around half way up the old git category so have a rough idea of the laps I need to do. What’s the STW recommendation wrt resting? Do most people have a couple of hours sleep in the early hours or is that a recipe for never getting going again? Any tips and pointers for stuff I may not have thought of appreciated.

Do most people have a couple of hours sleep in the early hours or is that a recipe for never getting going again?

I’d argue that if you stop for a couple of hours sleep you’ve not really raced the 24h at all. It’s not that hard to keep riding for 24h without sleeping.

That’s my intent Tom but having looked at previous year’s results it does seem that a lot of people take an hour or two (of course they may just have had an extremely slow lap).

In that case you should gain extra satisfaction from moving up the rankings while the other losers sleep and the course is quiet!

I think it depends a little bit on you and how you’re wired. I only slept once, which was because I’d smacked up my hand a couple of weeks before the race and reached a point where I couldn’t hold onto the bars, so I didn’t have much choice.

Mostly I tried not to sleep. In fact I’d suggest spending as little time at a standstill as possible. Try and roll in, take a bottle and some food, roll out. If you stop for five minutes every hour that’s two hours over the course of a 24-hour race. If you stop for ten minutes, it’s even worse. It takes ages to make up time you spend not moving.

You can make things faster and easier by having either clued-up support or, if you’re self supporting, making sure you’re organised with bottles etc ready to go. Change of gloves / jersey etc part way through is a nice morale booster. I used to neck a small French beer atb midnight. There’s a weird thing at 24/12 when it all goes quiet then and it’s nice to drink something different. I try to avoid fatty foods,

Oh, and if you can race 12 hours you can do a 24, it’s the same only slightly longer. Most of the same stuff applies. Don’t try new things, fuel or clothing / equipment. Keep eating, drinking and riding if you have a bad lap when it feels terrible. Annoy team riders by chattering inanely at them and take advantage of knowing all the quick lines. Enjoy 🙂

Thanks BWD. I like the idea of several changes of clothes and a beer at half time. I now what you mean about that quiet time, it’s one of my favourite bits. Unfortunately most of my pit crew is made up of a 13 and 11 yo, I reckon they’re going to be crap at 3am.

The best advice I was given was not to sleep, time your lights on/off around mealtimes following your normal day to day practise, and to find fixed points of interest to aim for.  For me his was:

a) 6pm evening meal / lights mounted

b) 10pm drunken party looms cheering you on / music

c) 12pm the drunken Stella boys at the shooting range disco dancing like BeZ

d) 5am – Sunrise, enjoy.

e) 8am – the wonderful smell of bacon as the campsite awakens and you’ve only 3 laps to go

Don’t stop.

Get your pit crew to have everything ready for through the night before they go to bed. When they get up get them to check your laps/position it’s a great boost when you find out where you are.

Take it a bit handier through the night, sight is harder and you’ll have all morning to push with good lines if you feel like it (if the weather is good the trails smooth out so are faster, if it’s wet you’ll need your energy).

Difference between 12 and 24 for me was my tolerance to sweet energy drinks/food. I loved a big mouthful of Bombay mix to give me something different to eat.

Keep pushing the fluids in, I disagree with the “if you can do 12, you can do 24”, it’s a massive step up and for me fluids are key.

Get more of a plan b, 12 hours in the wet is something to endure, 24 can rub you completely the wrong way. Just getting changed if in a small tent is really hard. Maybe change at 8&16 hours if you plan to change. Bike wash during? Spare glasses after losing 3 pairs going around?

What’s the STW recommendation wrt resting?

Eh? Anything more than getting off swapping bikes, change clothes (only when the shorts become unbearable) or repair broken bits on you or bike is too much time off the bike.

Do most people have a couple of hours sleep in the early hours or is that a recipe for never getting going again?

I know I don’t, it’ll just cause all sorts of shit to happen.

Any tips and pointers for stuff I may not have thought of appreciated.

I hope you’ve got your nutrition & pacing properly sorted and tested over long rides, if not you may well be screwed already. Other than that, have fun 👍

The one 24hr solo I did started out fine (although possibly a bit too fast as I was riding with a mate and unconciously we were both pushing each other on a bit) but once we split up it settled down. I’d done several 10hr enduros solo and 24hr races as a team of 4 so I knew what would work, pacing etc.

Had all my kit labelled and laid out on a table in the tent, water bottles filled, spares, tools, change of clothes. All was going well.

What broke the entire thing was the heavens opening about 10pm and after an hour of riding through ever worsening mud (this was at Malverns) I had a shower and crawled into my tent “until the rain passed”. Woke up at 8am and the race course was near-deserted. Loads of people had binned it off, the few hardy souls that were out there were pushing 50lb mud & grass caked bikes through a swamp at 1mph.

I went back to sleep.

But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine. 😉

Crazy legs – the year i got 4th, i was going to quit at 4am, but when i saw how many had dropped out i decided to keep going.

Fool.

Thanks all, I’ve got the nutrition over long rides as sorted as it can be (just one more long road one to go where I’m testing savoury pastry items) and I’ve resigned myself to the fact 24/12 always gets wet at some point. Bring it on.

Keep pushing the fluids in, I disagree with the “if you can do 12, you can do 24”, it’s a massive step up and for me fluids are key.

I didn’t mean it in the sense that it’s the same, but the basic principles carry over ime, you’re just riding for longer. Everyone’s experience is different and it maybe depends on how you’ve approached 12-hour solos. I guess you can get away with winging it a little on a 12h in a way you can’t for a 24, but if you’ve taken a 12h half seriously, the basic tenets are the same and it’ll also have given you an idea of how your body reacts.

Everyone’s different. A mate of mine who took these things seriously and won stuff as a result found what worked for him was fuelling pretty much purely on gels, which most of us wouldn’t do, but worked for him.

Anyway, good luck, always loved 24/12 as an event.

Thanks BWD. I can’t imagine a gels only strategy, I tried flapjacks for 12 hours on my first one and get a headache just looking at one now.

Not very helpful, but the fuelling strategy has to be a very personal one. At the last Mountain Mayhem I ate: a sausage bap, a cold pizza, spaghetti bolognese, 2 cheese and pickle sandwiches, 4 pork pies, half a large packet of peanuts, 4 flapjacks, packet of jelly babies, 4 cans of coke, 2 flasks of coffee, 2 litres of fruit juice and 4 litres of water. Should have taken more pork pies.

I didn’t have a helper so I just had a box full of options so I could find something that I fancied. Covered 261km and felt fine so worked for me, but what you crave may well be very different.

I changed shorts twice, but when I did Pivot 24/12 I didn’t change at all because the conditions were so terrible I figured I’d probably drag a load of crap off my legs into my chamois if I tried to put a fresh pair on!

Good work tlr, I’ll be happy if I get about 220 km. I just know it’s going to be another bloody mud bath.

Thanks BWD. I can’t imagine a gels only strategy, I tried flapjacks for 12 hours on my first one and get a headache just looking at one now.

No, quite a horrid idea. I once had a mid-race chat with Rickie Cotter who said she was glamorously powered by a mix of gels and Imodium… A recent podcast I listened to suggested that experimenting in training basically helps your body adapt to foods that might otherwise not be tolerated, which makes sense. See also don’t use stuff on race day that’s not tried and tested.