More biking and a little bit of running
 

ChrisB and myself finished the latest in our series of races last Saturday in the middle of the Brecon Beacons with a solid 5th place in class. Blazing sunshine made for a less than comfortable 4 hours of mainly off-road biking (52km with over 750m climbing) followed by a shorter trail run of just under one hour (6km with a lot of cramp on my part). I was amazed at the effort we had to put in this time: 177bpm average over 5 hours and over 5000 calories burned. :eek:

With 500 points in total, we were just beaten by 4th & 3rd places who managed 505 points and 2nd place so close with just 510 points. With a little more energy in the legs we could have taken an extra checkpoint on the run worth 20 points but alas, the hills around Brecon had broken our legs and eaten my bike's brake pads.

Our next race in July around the South Downs should be a little less steep than the hills surrounding Talybont reservoir thank god! We're still on target for a top 5 finish in class for the whole race series. :)

Well done guys :)

Hope you are actually enjoying doing this lol

SJ - bloody hell - nice one! Weren't you injured not long ago too?!

How do you keep going nutrition/drinks wise on the rides? I think I'd need more than a Camelbak of water for that distance.

Would love to do the same thing but family and work commitments mean I'm hesitant to leave Mrs Matt and Mattee Jnr for that length of time. Maybe one day soon though?!

What's the series called?

Snazy, I absolutely love it :D I've been taking part in this series since 2005, the events have really grown and the 400 places are now selling out months in advance. The only downside is they are daytime events whereas nightime orienteering really sorts out the men from the sheep. ;)

Matt, I was injurred last May, had surgery on my knee last August and am due the screws out of my shin this August. We both use 2 Camelbaks (one for bike, one for the run) and swap them at transition. As far as nutrition: I start off with a big fcuk-off carb load the day before, big breakfast on the day, water in my camelbaks, bike bottle with full-sugar Ribena made strong so you need a lug from the camelbak at the same time and a couple of Jordans cereal bars which I'll eat during the race at about 90 minutes and 3 hours in.

Post race, preferable an eat as much a you like buffet and we do some serious damage to that. :D

http://www.questars.co.uk/

SJ - cool. My (much much shorter) tri took me 1h 19 mins and even then I really needed all my water bottle of 50% Lucozade Sport/50% water - and it wasn't even hot!

nightime orienteering?? - now that does sound like a laugh....

we did some of this in Brecon during my ford apprenticeship (late 80's lol)

also yomped around pen-y-fann (sp) and the obelisk IIRC on a snowy february week!!

fantastic place and would love to go there again!!

well done on doing something both healthy and hugely satisfying.