AKA: LSR, that stands for Long Skate Race right?
I need to thank Lone Star Randonneurs for all the training miles, Shellene for putting up with me in a sport that she doesn't actually do, and Renee for once again being a superb captain. Also, the "other" Brian for talking me into this crazy venture in the first place
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On the weekend of September 6th I was up in Montreal for my second attempt at a 24hour Inline race, my first attempt last year ended when I wasn't able to eat any solid food at the 15th hour point. Last year I had trained with a lot of 6 hour skates, and a few century rides. This year with my move to Plano I knew that my skating was going to be less (no offense to the fine chip-seal up here, but the Veloway in Austin is a perfect place to skate), but I wasn't too worried about that, since skating wasn't the weak spot.
Once I started riding the longer brevets I was able to work a nutrition scheme that worked for me that included Spiz (I learned the hard way not to mix Spiz with strawberry water), Cliff bars and chicken sandwiches. After the race one of the other soloists commented on the fact that I was able to eat and process meat during the race; it was how I trained. There was one problem with my training though, since I wasn't skating enough my back was going to be my weak point (I had that proven during a 12 hour skate in August).
Leading up to Montreal I pulled my numbers for the year, and as expected it showed a major difference between my skating and my riding. I had over 300 hours on the bike, and less than 30 on my skates (12 of which was one skate). To say I was concerned would be an understatement.
The weekend before the race was the overnight brevet, which I supported and I saw the final piece to my training. When Pam came into the Peadenville control, I knew that if I could have half her determination I would have no trouble in Montreal. (Note, Pam's knee was about the size of a cantelope at this point, but she did finish the 300k ride)
Skating a lap in Montreal. The course at Montreal is a nice smooth (F1 racetrack) track, with two climbs on it. You start at the pits and head uphill on the longer climb (which gets longer as the night goes on). After the climb you get a nice fast descending left turn leading to the second climb, which is also a left hand turn and shorter than the first climb. From there it's a gradual descent to the hairpin, a right hand turn that holds water well. After the hairpin it's a flat, relatively straight shot back to the pit area.
Besides being the feedzone, the pits were where the team skaters had to do the relays, always an interesting area since the incoming skater is flying, and the next skater may not be up to speed yet (and there were over 60 teams). The rain, once it began created a really slick section on the left edge, and I watched a few skaters crash there during the relays. Normally the team skaters either sprint ahead of soloists, or slow down enough so we are clear before their handoffs. The race organizers always announce that solo skaters probably won't be dodging skaters well after the first 12 hours.
The race started out a little faster than expected as the solo skaters formed a paceline and took off. The rules allow for the skaters to draft off of anyone who isn't a teammate, and the soloists took full advantage of that fact to get some fast hours in. After the first sprinkles hit I dropped off the paceline. Since I didn't have the hours on my skates that I needed, I wanted to get used to rain again. After a couple of laps I had my wish granted as the skies opened up for a long steady rain. I pulled into the pits put on my rain jacket and a shower cap (yet another lesson learned from LSR) and got down to the serious business of skating.
Whenever a solo skater entered the relay zone, the team skaters would start cheering and clapping, that really made it easier to skate through the dead of night.
I clocked lap after lap, sometimes alone, sometimes working in a paceline with other solo skaters. At one point one of the other soloists commented that I was working too hard with a guy only 2 laps ahead of me in the paceline, I replied that I wasn't after placement, but had a goal of 450k, and would treat any soloist as a teammate.
After the rain the wind shifted, and was now a tailwind on the long stretch into the pits. This would affect my strategy as the skate went on. As expected my back started to give out, so I changed my skating to 5 solid laps followed by a 5 minute break to stretch it out. During this time I would sprint to catch any team skaters who were leaving the pits and let them pull all the way to the hairpin. I'd then say "Thank you for the pull" and then sprint all out back to the pits. The good thing is the team skaters were quite happy to do that for the soloists (I talked to one, he was on his 5th time out, I was on lap 42).
At one point I stopped to add knee and arm warmers. It was here that I made a mistake, when I put on the knee warmers Renee (my captain) pointed out that I didn't put my knee brace back on, and I still forgot it. With 2 hours left my right knee flexed the wrong way on the hairpin, so I slowed down and rolled into the finish. I had set a goal of 450k, and needed 103 laps to do that (or so I was told). I thought I had 103 at that point, so I sat down as Renee checked the lap count. Sadly, I was at 102. I put my knee brace on, did my 103rd lap without any real problems (sore back, sore knee, sore feet) and stopped. I could have done more laps, I had time, my fuel was good and the pain wasn't bad, but I really had no reason to, so I called it a day (22hrs 40 minutes).
In the aftermath I found out a few things, I was told the wrong lap distance, I needed 106 laps to hit my 450k (which I could have done in the remaining time, so I'm not disappointed in that at all).
As I stated, last year nutrition was my downfall. This year I was able to tell Renee what I needed to eat, when I needed it, and since I knew what was going to work, I had no problems at all. There is no way I would have done nearly as well, without all the experience I have picked up in the last 6 months of riding.