Pro-Velo Support

72 Hours with Tracy Miles

Tracy Miles tells us all about her epic challenge to complete three 24hr solo races, in just 8 weeks!

PART ONE: The background

For those that haven't already stumbled across my ramblings on the web before, I suppose I had better give you a bit of a clue about who I am and how I came to arrive at the rather insane notion of attempting three 24hr solo events in the space of eight weeks.

Firstly, don't be mistaken into thinking that I'm some kind of super athlete because I'm not. I came to MTB racing rather late in life, in fact wind the clock back only a few years and I could barely bump up a kerb and getting through those pesky cycle gates without losing an arm was a major challenge. However whilst I appreciated that you can't make a racehorse out of a donkey, I clung to the belief that this doesn't mean you can't be a much better donkey.

Before my current life I was one of those 24/7 long-commute workaholics oft to be found slumped over a computer or fax machine at all hours of the day and night pawing over the endless minutiae of legal and tax documentation. I suppose it was the typical life (or non-life) of any thirty-something exec in a multi-national group and if you've seen the single-serving scene in Fight Club then you'll pretty much get the picture. A couple of years ago however I decided that I'd had enough of being trapped in glass buildings so I left my former life behind and settled for doing just enough work to cover our MTB racing whilst training to become a domestic goddess. Unfortunately my much better half tells me that I am clearly genetically predisposed not to be one, ever, although he does acknowledge that I can rustle up a mean tray of chocolate brownies.

One of my first race memories was flying head over wheels off the top of the wooden bridge at the bottom of the Builth Fforest Fields course on my Orange O2. Race distance was only one lap and half way round I thought I was going to die I was so out of shape, but I realised then that I was hooked. Then came the now iconic Trek STP400 and I spent the next few years simply trying to do it justice (which I never quite did) and it is still loved, ridden and has its own special spot in the garage. Work commitments meant training time was pretty non-existent so anything I had a go at was sheer physical torture but I loved it anyway and by 2004 I was having my first stab at National XC racing which was a real eye-opener. I did the National XC circuit again in 2005 but I was also on the lookout for something different so for 2006 I decided to have a go at some endurance events and targeted the Enduro 6 and the National Marathons as part of what was to be my first 24hr solo effort at Mountain Mayhem.

Even though I'd done some XC and 24's as part of a team I didn't really have much of an idea how to train for doing 24 solos other than the vague notion that I should ride and ride a lot. At the time I didn't really know any soloists to ask for advice and with the glorious benefit of hindsight and also by getting to know folks who have done plenty, I of course now realise that there is rather much more to it!

By this time I had left my 24/7 working life behind and had more time on my hands but I quickly realised that without years of regular cycling (or even regular exercise come to think of it) behind me I couldn't suddenly spend eons on my bike even though I had theoretical hours and actual enthusiasm to do so. I was undeterred though and took the patient approach of just riding as much as I could and tackled the Enduro 6 solo in 2006. This was actually the longest time I had spent on my bike before Mountain Mayhem so I guess if you have the mental determination then you can complete a 24 solo off the back of not as much riding as you'd think - it is, in my opinion, as much a test of the mind as it is of the body.

So there you have it, with my silver tassels, lucky number 2007 and a rather unexpected podium place at my first 24hr solo attempt (behind the always smiling Jenn Hopkins) a little solo seed was sown and by Christmas I had decided that for 2007 I would attempt to complete the big three summer 24hrs back to back as a soloist. It turned out this would give me eight weeks from first to last - Mountain Mayhem, Twentyfour12 and finally Sleepless in the Saddle.

After a bit of a layoff with a shoulder injury sustained hoovering (well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!), winter training comprised simply riding more than last year to improve my endurance base with my major hope being that doing the three in a row would accelerate my learning curve of all those other weird things that seemed crucial to posting a respectable finish.

What I struggled with most on my first attempt was the food part and being able to keep it down once it gets to the early hours (it wasn't a pretty sight). There are not that many training rides where you can practice eating at 2am after riding for ten hours or so (well none for me actually) so this was one of the main things I was hoping to conquer during my epic trio. Other than this I had a reasonably good idea what pain and suffering to expect and I was curious to see how good (or otherwise) my powers of physical and mental recovery would actually be.

PART TWO: The Challenge begins

I suppose you might be expecting me to rabbit on about training specifics and you must do this and must do that but to be honest I didn't really have the ultra-race experience to go about it in a very sophisticated way other than to read general principles that can be picked up from most books and websites and then try and adapt them for what I had found in practice were the extra challenges of riding for such a long continuous period. What I did learn is that apart from the obvious things like pacing and nutrition it certainly helps to be able to suffer like a dog and carry on regardless - us girlies seem to be quite good at this - mind over matter will take you a very long way.

Anyhow, there were a couple of new things that came about in 2007 that in hindsight turned out to be truly great occurrences. Firstly I invested in the regular physiotherapy talents of our friend Neill who somehow managed to keep me in one piece for what turned out to be over one hundred hours of racing this season! Secondly was a by chance hook up with online sports clothes retailer girlsruntoo. Jo has a huge knowledge of technical fabrics and became a dab hand at solving all my weird clothing problems.

A month before Mayhem we also managed to squeeze in a week in the Swiss Alps and were so lucky with the weather that we were able to spend the whole of every day riding up and down mountains (mainly as the Mountain huts at the top usually contained ice cream). As a result I was still a bit pooped out for the Margam marathon but I didn't really care, as I wouldn't have swapped that Alps week for anything!

Apart from the physical and mental preparation there are of course the actual race logistics. Packing for a 24hr solo is a mammoth task and feels a bit like you are going to be gone for a whole year never mind just a weekend. Doing the three in such a short space of time meant that most of the ground floor of our house was permanently covered with endless piles of all kinds of food, clothes, bike spares, bottom chafing creams and light chargers. Still, it was a good excuse for skipping the downstairs housework!

If you're still awake then this brings us nicely round to the subject matter in hand so without further delay here's how it all went down in the end...

Giant/T-Mobile 10th Anniversary Mountain Mayhem

Of the three on my plate I had hoped that this one would be my best shot at a respectable result but turned out in the end not to go quite as planned. We had organised ourselves leading up to the event so that the week before would be as stress free as possible with no rushing around and plenty of early nights but a few days before however, things started to go a bit pear shaped. Our promised easy-up disappeared and we spent most of Friday running around frantically to finally settle on both racing out the back of a hire van. Way too much stress the day before a 24hr solo - lesson number one.

For those that remember, oh yes hang on, those that were there will actually NEVER forget, the weather for this year's Mayhem was not kind. Despite the not ideal preparation I was determined to be positive and despite the looming cloud I optimistically donned my favourite white shirt for the first eight-hour shift and lined up crammed in the start funnel humming the look good, feel good mantra and trying to ignore the rain pattering on my face.

The women's field was high quality with several 24hr solo winners gunning for the podium spots so it was an experience simply to be in the same race! The great thing about 24hr events is that whatever your level you can have a huge amount of fun (or pain) but all be on the same course at the same time.

I'd had my usual night-before nerve-settler of wheat beer and was raring to go as I hate the hanging around part on race day and can't wait to be at the start. I just love the feeling of having nothing else at all to think about for 24 hours but keeping myself on my bike. The first lap was a lesson in tyre choice and once I'd got this sorted the course was pretty OK to ride. I was hopeful that if it didn't get any worse than this then it may not be too bad but little did I know that the worst was yet to come!

Around 10pm I stopped to change clothes and steeled myself for what is usually for me the really tough shift. Tough was converted to gruelling when at around 2am it started to rain again and although I love eating peanut butter I decided that I didn't really enjoy riding my bike through it! By 4am I was soaked to the skin and shaking uncontrollably with cold, not helped by the fact that I couldn't keep any food down either. Looking back I was maybe bordering on hypothermia, which is totally crazy for mid June!!! Lesson number two. I was lucky that this time Mr M happened to be in the pit between his team racing duties so he decked me out in a beanie and sleeping bag combo and bundled me into the van to warm up. A while later I emerged from my cocoon and changed into dry clothes whilst stuffing down custard, rice pudding and crisps like it was going out of fashion.

By now it was fully light and I spotted Jo in her rather cool pink fleece dog blanket wandering over to see how I was getting along. Although I must have looked half dead I did actually feel a darn site better than I had a couple of hours earlier!

The last 6 hours or so of the race was nothing short of gruesome, the mud got thicker and thicker and many riders were simply calling it a day. I just couldn't help bursting out laughing on some parts of the course when stopped with fellow riders scooping enough mud off our bikes for the wheels to actually turn! It was with some relief that I rolled - well slid and pushed - around my final lap and finally got to the finish. It wasn't quite the euphoria of finishing my first one but it was such a different experience from 2006 and I therefore learnt lots of new stuff.

I was back on my bike by the Thursday after Mayhem and on the Sunday we went down to Cotswold Farm Park to have a pre-ride of what was the bones of the course for the next stop on my little tour - the Bontrager Twentyfour12. As if we hadn't seen enough mud and rain already, the weather for the pre-ride was unfortunately more of the same but this didn't dampen the enthusiasm of those that turned up and it was great to have the opportunity to ride it and give some feedback.

I did actually ride most days between Mayhem and the Twentyfour12 but not for very long and also spent time with my legs up (no, not what you're thinking) and had a couple of visits to Neill for Physio. I was looking forward to the very different challenge of the Cotswold Farm Park course but I knew it wasn't really going to be a course that suited me as I freely admit that technical riding is certainly not my strongpoint (yet). When I was recounting some of the problems I had at Mayhem to Neill on the Physio table, he kindly offered his services to come and crew for me from early evening and also as Jo did not have the shop to run this time she was going to come and be Neill's trusty assistant. This was brilliant news as hubby was racing in a team again so I was really excited to see what difference having a "just for me" pit crew for most of the time would actually make.

PART THREE: The Challenge continues

Bontrager Twentyfour12

For the first time ever we camped the night before and I am not totally sure that it was a wise idea as I was still wide-awake at 3am listening to the sound of lashing rain and a zillion soggy tents flapping in the wind. We had walked the course the day before with Kate and it did look rather more inviting than a couple of weeks ago but my cheery optimism started to wane a little as the stormy night wore on. I had also forgotten to pack the wheat beer. Lesson number three.

Thankfully when we woke up the weather was much nicer but the rain had taken its toll on the course and the first few laps were very hard going until the multitude of wheels had packed it down into something that was starting to get to be more fun. The slippery roots continued to be slippery and rooty, and that BMX section at the end you came to either love or hate!! I personally went through phases of both

High point of the evening was the glorious sunset and there are loads of pictures of this all over the web so here is one of ours.

At midnight the twelve-hour folks were finishing up and not long after this the rain returned with a vengeance and the course took on a whole different persona. I was really struggling to ride through the mud and for much of the lap I resorted to running and just dragging my bike. I also had a rather new experience in that I actually managed to fall completely asleep whilst riding and only came to when I rode straight into a tree! Mmmmm, I'll be needing more coffee then - lesson number four.

I managed to keep on going but it felt an agonisingly slow pace and during the night I had slipped down the running order a little. One of the most memorable moments for me was coming across the field out of the woods towards the BMX bit in the lashing wind and rain to find a bloke actually drafting me! I did query that it may perhaps be a little desperate drafting a girlie and he replied, "well I am doing 24hrs solo" but to his full credit when I said that I was too he burst out laughing and got on the front to give me a break!

Neill and Jo did a fantastic job of keeping me on my bike and trying to feed me with every conceivable food product in the hope that something would stay down. Jo discovered first hand (to her horror I think!) just what I mean when I say that I need a base layer that has near biblical wicking properties and my much better half had the unenviable task of trying to keep my bike running in between his own racing duties.

I suppose what puzzled me most about this one was that considering the amount of calories that I wasn't eating and also the deteriorating condition of the course, I was actually started to speed up for the last batch of laps and when I finished I actually felt that if I'd had to, I could have carried on riding. In a bizarre coincidence that I probably couldn't do again if I tried, I also apparently crossed the finish of the Twentyfour12 in twenty-four hours and twelve minutes!

This time the finish was a rather surreal experience as I was pounced on by the Countryfile TV crew to give an interview. To be honest I can't really remember what words I managed to string together so I was rather relieved that when it eventually came on the BBC it had been left on the cutting room floor.

Only in its second year, this event already has different qualities to other 24hrs. Different folk are of course always looking for different challenges and it is a great thing that we now have such a healthy choice of quality events on our MTB calendar. Although I did sneak on to the podium I honestly wasn't expecting to do great here. There were a lot of positives that came out of the experience and it definitely reinforced my motivation to try and improve my technical skills! Lesson number five.

So, that was two down and one to go - Neill said that with three of anything the middle one would be the worst and he wasn't wrong. It was also a chance to experience for the first time having some dedicated pit help and I have to say it did make a huge difference, not only for me but also for my also racing hubby! Lesson number six.

I was back on my bike again by the Wednesday and although I did short rides most days leading up to Sleepless there were parts of my body that I noticed were now starting to suffer. My hands were the worst problem as they both had tendon damage and my grip strength was so bad that holding a pen was even a challenge. I was expecting the physical pain but I wasn't really expecting the emotional trough. I suppose looking back it shouldn't have come as a surprise as you get such highs and lows during these long events that when you are just hanging around in between I guess you are simply missing the adrenalin. I was also starting to get a bit fed up of not being able to do much riding in between events (lesson number seven) so I was pleased to be at the final hurdle where this time I would be sharing pit with the infamous single-speed rocket Sara and we would also have Mr M to look after us as he wasn't racing this time.

And so finally on to the last piece of the jigsaw...

PART FOUR: Sleepless in the Saddle

This time we had the benefit of a luxurious hareem-like tent by the water jumps, Mr M in total charge (complete with Oscar the Grouch socks) and a sub pit-crew of friends Mr and Mrs Evilgordon and Harold the dog. This meant that the nutritional side of things contained an even more interesting than usual variety of carbohydrate sources.

We also seemed to be finally blessed with some glorious weather and when Sara and I were getting ready we realised that we needed to plaster on enough factor 30 sun cream to at least last until dusk! Keeping hydrated was going to be the major challenge especially as we hadn't really had any hot weather this summer and you forget just how much more you need to drink in the heat.

The laid-back atmosphere of the SITS event is rather unique and this year the course turned out to be potentially fast and furious. The dry and hot conditions meant it was really tempting to go just too fast and die a horrible death although I didn't really have this temptation as by now my legs were only capable of one speed and all I wanted to do was get to the finish in one piece.

I did think it was particularly cruel though that just when it got dark I had my only puncture all season which I suppose is great in the sense that I don't get many punctures but not so great in the sense that I'm therefore not forced to practice and made a bit of a meal of changing tubes. The rest of the night stint just seemed to roll by in a bit of a blur although it was made rather interesting when in the early hours it started to rain for a few hours and the grass sections became like sheet ice. This meant that the usual dewy dawn was even more dewy than normal so you really had to keep your wits about you until the sun came back up and the temperature started to rise. I was religiously eating and drinking and riding probably a tad over-cautiously but there was no way that having got this far I wanted to die before the finish.

It's an emotional lift to finally start shedding the nighttime layers and hear the arena banter and music coming alive again as by this point of the race there is still a long way to go but at least you have broken the back of it. Oscar the Grouch had got me through the night and I really knew at this point that I was actually going to complete my epic trio. I spent the next few hours pondering what I'd learnt and what I'd do differently, generally soaked up the atmosphere and tried hard to ignore the fact that the abuse I had put myself through this past eight weeks was really starting to take its toll.

I do confess that for the first time at an event I indulged in some gratuitous lurking as I realised that I was going to have to go out for one more lap when it wouldn't have made any difference to my placing. There were lots of body parts that were starting to seize up and I just wanted to get to the finish.

So that's just about it really. I don't feel the need to repeat doing three as a soloist in such a short window but it has given me a good base to build on and it certainly was the huge learning curve that I was hoping for!

There are of course plenty of other more experienced and more successful 24hr solo racers out there that could tell you much more about this subject than I can but here are some of the things I learned from my own solo experiences in 2007:

• 24hr Solo racing is a great way to find out about the REAL you.
• Don't attempt anything like this without bum cream.
• Always expect the unexpected.
• A dedicated pit crew who know what they're doing is a definite advantage.
• Invest in the best riding gear you can afford (particularly shorts, gloves & shoes) and don't underestimate how cold you can get in a UK summer.
• Always wear a smile, it's free and it definitely helps.
• Oh yes and it's a godsend to have a beloved other half that totally loves mountain bikes too.

Next year? Well there will definitely be a 24hr solo in there somewhere but at the moment as it says in the movies; I'm feeling the need, the need for speed...

Happy Riding xxx