OK GO!

Bike / mtb / race

Basically…
It’s the Officer Six Hour: as many laps as you can roll out between 10 and 4.

Time:

6:00:54

So…
Results (PDF)

Hard and dusty but good in it’s own way, my first ‘real’ solo was part self-discovery experiment and part desperation to get the miles in before Canberra. I started up the back after getting caught chatting to Brendan when the gun went off, and felt fine in the traffic anyway. Laps 2 and 3 were painful with the back piping up and threatening to make the race a very long and painful experience. That quietened down as things warmed up and I found myself slipping in and out of the quiet, Zen rhythm that comes when everything is rolling and the mind and body are both pushing just hard enough.

The best advice came from Jim and was on mindfulness: don’t think about the past, don’t think about the future. Think about what you have to do now. Think about what you have to do next. That was key. Watching the clock was agonising, slacking off to save energy disengaged the mind and things got boring (and sloppy). I might’ve finally begun to understand John’s ‘slow down and go fast’ mantra. I think it’s something which reveals itself when being smooth is the only option.

There were holes, a couple of cramps, at least one time I wondered why I was out there at all. Or whether this was something I really wanted to keep investing myself in, but looking back the day after I find myself wondering how I can get in some more real training. In the end my feet and hands gave me the most trouble, the rest of my body was surprisingly good (if not terribly quick). With two minutes on the clock at the end of my 12th lap it was enough to know that I could have gone out for one more, but with commitments to a 7:00 dinner I didn’t want to push it (in more ways than one). Ok, soft, next time… whatever.

Food

• Muesli w/fruit
• 6 bottles of Endura
• Banana & cinnamon slice
• 1 GU
• Coffee
• Bruschetta
• Fruit mocktail
• 2 beers
• Lamb fillets w/potatoes
• Tiramissu