Week 7 and the ATTAKWAS

Target: 12:30
Achieved – Attakwas

ATTAKWAS = 126km MTB, 2620m of climbing, Technical enough to make world renowned riders push their bikes through technical descents, yes descents! Plenty sand lots of rock, river crossings, awe inspiring rip roaring descents, the ones you manage to ride. Views that make me get goose flesh here and now just thinking about it. Man! I am privileged to live in this country. All of this is the reason this race was rated the number 1 race for 1 day races in country last year.

‘Wow!’ is all I can say. When I heard it is the toughest 1 day MTB race in the country I was a little concerned whether the legs would stand up to the test. Then to add to the pressures of the day, this was also the first time I could show my partner that I was able to take on the Epic. Then I see the MTB’ers around me in the shoot and there is no BS here, these guys can ride.

One would normally work towards a race like this and treat it as an * “A” race as it deserves nothing less. Unfortunately this is not in our plan and our “A” race is the Cape Epic. This meant that we could not build in much or any taper at all. This is tough on a race like this.

I decided not to do too much riding in the week before and try and build in some taper. I did miss my target time for the week BUT if you take the entire experience into consideration and also the effort for the day one can see that we over achieved.

My nerves were shot by the time I got to the start. Nutrition was sorted (see later for the detailed plan) and packed with all the water I could carry. Then the start and just over 10 hours of mind boggling pleasure we finished this amazing race.

I will not bore you with all the details but rather sum it up.

Legs:
My legs passed this test and yes they took strain but I had no cramps and pumping them for 10 hours with some radical bike hiking, just for a real test, and they felt good enough to be able to ride the next day again.

Nutrition:
Hour 1: 15 min – 200ml Game
30 min – ½ banana + 200ml Water
45 min – 200ml Game
60 min – ½ banana + 200ml Water

Hour 2: 15 min – 200ml Game
30 min – Nougat + 200ml Water
45 min – 200ml Game
60 min – Nougat + 200ml Water

Hour 3: 15 min – 200ml Game
30 min – ½ Jelly Babies + 200ml Water
45 min – 200ml Game
60 min – ½ Jelly Babies + 200ml Water

Hour 4: 15 min – 200ml Game
30 min – ½ Peanut Butter Sandwich + 200ml Water
45 min – 200ml Game
60 min – ½ banana + 200ml Water

I then tried to repeat this cycle to the end, but ended up eating a hamburger in between and yes, paid for at with quite a serious loss of energy a little later. I did manage to work my eating plan again and felt good for the last 20km again.

Do NOT stray from your eating plan as I would have paid for it in the Epic the next day.

All said and done I am happy that I consumed exactly the correct amount of GAME which provided me with 25 carbs per hour and then I made up the other 25 carbs with solids.

Recovery:
1 x sachet rehydrate and standard recovery drink with a good dinner x 2 that evening.

Technical:
I learned a hell of a lot in just this 1 race. My bike is awesome and took everything I could throw at her and ate it up waiting for more. I pushed my limits in this race and it was good to see afterwards that some of the pro’s pushed as well on the descents.

Partnership:
Boy do I have some work ahead of me. Rick is a horse with plenty of go. The man took a while to warm up and then all of a sudden I was just hanging in there from about 70km onwards. I recon I am safe when I say that we will compliment each other, for when he was struggling I felt good and when I was down I just sucked his wheel and he pulled us through. I will surely be able to add some value to the team in the form of nutrition as I have done the IronMan before and it is all about nutrition in the end. The 2 is now a team and we will work hard to keep it this way.

Next week:
We are doing the 4 day Epic training camp and this means we will do about 450km of riding with 8000m+ climbing in a mere 4 days. This happens this week and will show us exactly where we are in preparation for the Epic.

This week in summary:
WOW with some serious work ahead. Stick to the eating plan. Trust the technical lines and most of all work with your partner.

Thanks all.

* “A” race = training plan with load, overload, recovery then taper. This would typically take 12 – 16 weeks of final preparation on the back of a huge base.