2020 has been a whirl for all of us. Personally, the break from relentless racing hasn’t been the worst thing in the world, but missing out on the travel opportunities that go alongside the race experience has been the hardest part.

I have written pretty extensively about how 2020 is a great time to try new things, to undertake some big audacious challenges and work on weaknesses. In the absence of anything too wild, friend and instigator of bad ideas, Chris, sneakily tried to get me interested in a 324km event: the Brisbane Valley Rail trail end to end, twice.

With no single track and being an event wholly on fireroad that was likely close to 20hours, there was not a lot about the event that was singing to me. Add in the fact that it started at 1900 and most of it was under lights and it seemed like the worst possible idea.

Events continued to get canceled and eventually I realised that training for peak fitness was probably a little wasted, and why not do something ridiculous like this?

The benefits of being a cycling coach and athlete that has dabbled in many disciplines of the sport, I have a pretty extensive toolkit to draw upon when doing totally new and unusual things. I have broken down a few of the things I did in the lead up to and during the event that resulted in breaking the women’s record by 4.5hrs, and a mostly positive experience in an event that I expected to suffer through for hours.

The start nerves leading into the unknown. The event would be my longest ride by 130km, rocking my Bicycle Queensland jersey here!

Training:

-Like many people I have work responsibilities (including shift work and associated fatigue), family responsibilities (small child, weekend taxi driver type work and all the extracurricular and emotional requirements that go along with that) and a stable full of awesome athletes that need my love and attention. As such, training was ‘make the most of what you can when you can’. This meant that I may get one solid weekend ride in, the other day I may just be in the shed on Zwift.

-The start of COVID saw me embrace Zwift as a training tool and also for a network tool to be able to ride with my athletes, as a result, my road bike has been solidly in the shed for months: all other training has been outside on the mountain bike

-An earlier COVID goal was a FTP >270w, and in the process of attaining that goal, I improved my very lackluster time-trialling skills/physiology significantly. While I let that top-end drop off leading into the Epic and the BVRT event, the work required to get to that level had effects on my aerobic performance which undoubtedly helped in both events.

-Adventure riding was my main go-to. Aside from the specific Zwift, Climbing or MTB effort sessions, my main MO throughout this period was to venture further and stoke the enjoyment of the bike by doing new and unusual routes, including a 194km day a couple of months before the BVRT event: at that time the longest MTB ride I had ever undertaken. I felt awesome pretty much the whole way (even with a 10km climb at 180km…) which was a boost of confidence.

Nutrition:

Not going to lie: the coffee was the highlight

-I had some flirting with some energy deficiency a few months prior. In an attempt to maintain a high FTP while increasing w/kg I watched my energy intake quite closely, but there were a few weeks where my energy, mood and training quality dived, so I had to up the intake.

-A pretty standard carbohydrate load for me prior to the event ensued. I don’t adhere to a standard carbohydrate load as it makes me feel awful and supplementing with lollies and soft drink doesn’t sit well with me, as such I choose more carbohydrate-heavy snacks with more energy in them and will add extra carbohydrate sources at lunch and dinner.

-I had planned to eat sandwiches, ham and cheese rolls, endless biscuits, lollies and stop at Blackbutt for a brownie. In the end the event was less slow-moving survival, more endurance/tempo ‘racing’ the whole way and I survived mainly on gels, with a few more solid items at the start. More electrolyte would have been a great idea as I finished the race a bit puffy, either a bit dehydrated or hyponatraemic (I gained 1.5kg).

The overnight issue:

-As a shift worker I have a pretty solid process leading into night-shift, so essentially I have been executing a ‘pre-race plan’ for a 1900 start for the past seven years.

-The day of the event limiting morning caffeine, eating a fair bit, in bed again by 11 am (leaving for the event just before 1700) awake at 1430, more food, more packing, more coffee…

Caffeine:

-Caffeine is my best friend but I am acutely aware in races of this length and overnight that there can be too much of a good thing. I had coffee at 1500 and 1800, and then deliberately avoided it until the Esk feedzone, which should have been 0130 according to my estimates but was closer to midnight.

-Caffeine is a potent pain reliever: my body was sore at this point, I was stretching out, and as I downed a Suntory black coffee in a can it was only minutes before I felt completely pain free and flying once again.

-Caffeine gels used judiciously through the remainder of the event (maybe 2 in total) and another black coffee can smashed at the 95km to go mark at Yarraman. Fast legs ensued again.

Pacing, RPE, and the ‘experience’:

-I had HR and power data available to me but I didn’t run either. Why? It was a long event and running a backlight on my computer would have chewed through more battery.

-Occasionally on long straights I would try and cup my hand around the computer just to see my average speed was stable.

-The start went off hard. Everyone was aware they were doing 324km but perhaps ambition outweighed ability. I stayed with a quite spritely group for 20-ish km. I was doing turns with them, not sure if it was a case of ‘there’s a woman doing turns so I need to do harder turns’ but after my stints on the front at one stage it got quite fast. I asked if they felt this was a pace they were capable of for 16hours….crickets.

-It blew apart and I was happily just riding my own pace, at Wulkaraka there was probably 15-20 riders in front (it was a turnaround point).

-From here I rode solo and listened to podcasts, getting a bit uncomfortable until that feed at Esk, a quick coffee grabbing a jacket and setting off I passed probably 4 people who were in front but hanging out at Esk.

-Drive time; just in the zone, just me and the moon cruising through fields. How’s the intensity? Keep the cadence going, I rode up to two riders. They picked the pace up again when I rode up to them but doing some turns allowed for some periods of recovery.

-Stopped in Moore for more snacks before heading up the range to Blackbutt, the riders I were with didn't stop.

-Also got quite lost heading out of Moore, probably only a few minutes but without a headlight I had to ride around in circles with my handlebar light to try and find out where the f%^& I was going.

-Climb up the range was some kind of sadistic amazing joy. Ran out of podcasts here. It’s such a mild climb I decided to ride it as if it was flat, this was pure flow zone just me and my legs and near an hour of uphill. Still without light, I ride on feel, at top of endurance zone bottom of tempo around 205w for the climb, which was around 50mins. The was at 7:30hr in so I was feeling good.

-Picked off the riders again mid climb…then promptly lost the trail at the top of the climb. I was riding around in circles in a caravan park….until the two riders popped out and saw the trail (it went straight ahead…)

-Riding through to Yarraman seemed to take ages. My schedule had me in light near Moore but didn't have light until after Yarraman. Did some turns with one of the riders Michael, the other rider had dropped off.

-Dropped a power bank in a creek crossing, lost Michael again but again rode up to him and another rider and drove it to Yarraman.

-Stopped at Yarraman for that amazing coffee, and some snacks.

-Left the boys I rode in with at Yarraman and headed for the homeward stretch.

-Wow the sun is coming up, amazing.

-Ate some Clif Shots and had a sudden onset bad stomach, needed a rest stop mid-descent down the range again (awkward) no witnesses.

-Aido had parked at the bottom of the range and was riding up with another person who had just hit the climb when I was coming down (around 270km in) nice to ride with him for a couple of km’s (no unauthorised feeds though, I was still changing here).

-Rolled into Moore, sun well and truly up. Made two mistakes: not putting a short-sleeved jersey on again and not refilling the hydration pack and just grabbing a bottle (it’s only 40-something km…)

-Still feeling strong, rolling through until maybe 305km. One of the guys I had been at the feed zone came hauling by on the long flat on his gravel bike. I was still ok but starting to suffer. I just let the magpies bounce off my head. They’re up early in the country.

-Heat was setting in and was still wearing a soft-lined long-sleeved jersey and had only a bottle of gatorade, the heat was making it hard to eat so a bit of a trifecta of creep setting in.

-20km to go the creep was well and truly hitting, but I was still managing 130-140w until around 7km to go when the wheels well and truly fell off. I had reverted to a robot toddler making animal noises.

-Aido had driven to Esk and ridden out to meet me and ride with me at the end, which was a blessing as without his gentle toddler wrangling I may still be out there in a ditch, just a couple of km’s from the end, babbling incoherently.

-The detonation was one of the most catastrophic I had experienced and such a weird place to be in after feeling so bombproof for 13+ hours already.

-Crossed the line after many ‘we there? we there? we there?’ on the way in (poor Aido) in 13:38. A very long time to be on a bike but significantly less than it could have been!

-Immediately decided to call in sick to work, couldn’t move properly until I ate a packet of hot chips. Didn’t end up calling in sick, it was just a moment…

Post Race musings

I was surprised to recover so well, especially considering my sleeping remained out of whack for the next three or four days, and I was back on the ‘work’ bike in the city on Monday. Real race highlights include almost ten hours of flow zone staring at the light at night, tearing up the range and exceeding my expectations by a long way. I signed up for a challenge and expected to not enjoy it, but surprisingly it was enjoyable for all but half an hour of the event. Setting a new record was just a side effect of having a good ride and keeping my brain working well, and proof is in the ticking off of all my process goals. But next time i’ll swap that jersey….

2020: The Longest Night