good luck norm!

[Norm]

I can never have enough of salty peanuts.

Norm, don't confuse time on the saddle and ability to go hard for a long time. To do the latter you have to train to go hard, period. Ultra-endurance types are first and foremost fast riders because they've trained for that. Get up that hill faster and you get more time to recover. Get through this rock garden faster and the other side you can keep moving and recover at the same time.
I did my first 12 hour race last year with no more than 4 hour in a row of saddle time. Never had a twinge of a cramp.
I've cramped up as little as 1.5 hours into XC races because I was pegged the whole time. It's all about emtpying the clip and re-loading. You have reserves, you train to make them bigger and also to re-load faster/more efficiently. Time on the saddle helps your noggin' accept the idea that riding is cool, and prepares your metabolism, but unless you push hard it's not going to make you much faster.

I hear you on the basement rides thing, no easy solution... Can't you ride part of your commute? Lock a beater bike a couple stations farther? There may be safe(r) routes. I'd go (more) nuts without some riding outside during the week.

Maurice

Maurice,

I don't think I'm confusing the 2, though I obviously have a disconnect in there somewhere so let's just say maybe I'm not taking anything for granted. I'm thinking you probably think I was going harder than I think. I don't know, since the course is a one-off. If this had been at LM I would know exactly how above the normal pace I was and would at least have a baseline.

It's a good point about getting through hill/rocks/etc as fast as you can so you can recover. But then I know I don't have that high-end right now. Maybe I need to focus a little more on that. Certainly off-road is a lot more erratic than the road.

I've been out of the basement for weeks now. But it's still 50 degrees when I'm out there. Those temps don't get you used to riding when it's 80, which was my point. If the weather had been 50 I probably would have fared better, but you never know because it wasn't. But I went back and looked at my write-up for the All-A-Muchy race and I didn't cramp. So my very small sample size says this:

If it's 80+, I cramp in races. If it's 50-, I don't cramp.

In comparison, I am in much better shape today than in October. Heythorpe can back me up there. The big difference between the 2 is that one day was 80 and the other was 35 degrees when the race started. I'm sure I need to train harder, I agree. But there's something to the heat too, I have to believe.

 

[Maurice]

Fair enough. Cramps are often a combination of things. The course at Granogue is very hard though, just getting through it is painful.

Do you over-dress when you go out in the morning, or anytime it's cool outside? That helps, something I was told very early on and I made a habit of it.

Anyway keep up the good work, it will pay off.

Maurice

 

[Norm]

I generally don't overdress, though that's an interesting though. Thanks for the comments, they're much appreciated.

 

[bonefishjake]

I can never have enough of salty peanuts.

<snip>
I did my first 12 hour race last year with no more than 4 hour in a row of saddle time. Never had a twinge of a cramp.
<snip>

you're giving me some hope here maurice. i have always subscribed to the "marathon" training theory as i understand it which is something like:

once you have the legs to run a 1/2 marathon consistently, you're basically in shape enough to do a full marathon. the rest is mental.

my training plans have pretty much gone out the window as my kids have basically refused to sleep past the hour of 6:00 am with any consistency. since my commute is, well, 18 steps, i don't have that option. i get in rides as much as possible (which of course isn't as much as i'd like) but when i do i try to hammer.

hopefully this hold for me b/c i still need to do a dry run @ LM on the SS for the LMC race...