Amateur MTB Marathon: Summer Training Update

Training and Nutrition

In my last update I talked about well things were going, but also about how a niggling knee injury was holding me back. Well I can safely report that the knee is fine. It was just a case of easing myself back in and before long I'd forgotten it was even an issue. So how have things been going since?

With the knee sorted I was back doing the big miles and Jon had me starting to up the intensity a little on my training rides. In fact with the great weather we were having, I confess to really tearing my legs off a bit actually!

It was a bit of a shock when trying to turn the wick up a bit at first, I knew my endurance was good but for the first few rides it felt like I'd lost any power I used to have before focusing on this endurance training. Going fast isn't going to be key to the 24 hour race but it was a little depressing initially to feel a bit, well, sluggish. I needn't have worried though as after a couple of rides I was really picking up the pace and it felt as if I just needed to wake that part of the legs up.

What felt really good though was that once I'd got the legs going, it turns out I'd actually picked up a little bit of speed despite the slower endurance training. But when you factor in my hugely improved endurance and also ability to recover quickly after sustained effort - I really felt like a new rider! I could go for 4 to 5 hours at a very high intensity and then get up the next day and feel fresh enough to go again! With the spring well underway I felt really confident about the summer and focusing on the getting race-ready.

Food wise Jamie has had me focusing on a few key points. We did another food diary and the key points to come out of it were that I was eating too many carbs away from training, not enough protein post training, too much sugary fruit and starchy veg, not enough low starch veg, and I was training on water without electrolytes.

Spring training camp

At the start of May I was booked to go on a week long break with activity holiday firm Neilson. With my now quite pregnant wife Sarah, I was off to Vassiliki in Greece to indulge in my other childhood love, windsurfing. Neilson also have an excellent MTB centre at Vassiliki and with great weather guaranteed it was a chance for some training in hot conditions (just in case!) but also to get some cross-training in and work my core muscles while out windsurfing. My core muscles being an area I've identified as a slight weakness which I think could really suffer in the later stages of the race.

With not a lot of wind at the start of the week and the thermals not kicking in until late afternoon when it was windy, I got plenty of mileage in on the bike. I'd managed to reserve a brand new and unridden 2010 Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo so I figured I'd do some "work" while I was out here - full review coming soon. The riding was certainly tough enough. I suppose the terrain around Vassiliki is probably quite like Snowdonia in terms of height and ruggedness. Although the mountains are only 1000m in height, you actually start each ride at sea level so it's a big old slog up each day and you can't seem to cover much distance without coming all the way down and all the way back up again.

The quality of riding is fairly good but for me it was more about getting the miles in and enjoying the breathtaking scenery. The actual riding was mostly on road for the climbs followed by long offroad descents. The local terrain is very loose and technical doubletrack with not a lot of singletrack. It's exciting to ride but more because it's literally like riding on marbles and you're constantly aware of how bad it would be to crash on it! The trail called "Chicks dig scars" was a classic example of this and it's very loose and pretty steep - it's a frightening battle of limiting speed for the next switchback but not locking up and hitting the deck instantly. The riding was good and nice to have, but the reason you go to Vass is for the Windsurfing!

Non-windsurfers I apologise briefly while I digress. Windsurfing holidays like this are a dream. Rack after rack of brand new kit, already setup waiting to go. Frustratingly young, helpful, vastly stronger and better looking instructors than you are on hand to carry it to the water's edge for you. It is a bit like if Carlsberg did Windsurfing holidays!

Luckily the wind did arrive towards the end of the week and I really got to recapture the magic of this forgotten hobby that occupied so much of my youth. And my core and upper body got the workout that was needed too. I did come away with a lot of cuts and bruises for my trouble (the boards have a very abrasive surface for grip), as well as a suspected broken toe and I almost ripped out a toe nail too! It's a very physical sport and every bit a match for the most extreme of mountain biking in terms of adreneline rush - it was nice to enjoy it again!

I also got to do a bit of sailing and stand up paddle boarding so a pretty good workout all round - trying to sail a Dart 16 solo in a fair old breeze when you're a bit of a novice can be hard work!

And then disaster struck...

I suppose it was inevitable that I would get ill at some point in my training but hindsight is a wonderful thing and I don't think anyone would have prepared for getting as ill as I have been these last few weeks (and still am).

During my stay in Greece I picked up a stomach bug which really wiped me out for the first week I was back. I'll spare you all the gory details but it wasn't pretty and I had some heavy flu like symptoms as well. I got over it pretty quick and was back on my feet by the weekend - all seemed well and I was already planning my first ride. On Saturday evening I went to bed with what I though was some pretty ferocious heartburn; I put up with it all day Sunday; by Sunday night I was phoning an ambulance with what I could only describe as feeling like a heart attack!

It turns out that with my immune system lowered from hard training, then it being completely battered by the stomach bug, I was left completely open and a virus infection got in around the Pericardium (the fluid sack holding the heart in place). The resulting infection causes swelling in the Pericardium, which causes frictional rub against the heart, which in turn causes the pain which makes you think your ticker is giving up!

Well, I'm going to be ok. After many ECG tests, a chest X-Ray, an echocardiogram and a couple of nights in Hospital, they established what it was, put me on a lot of pain killers and packed this very high and dazed cyclist off home for a lot of rest. I've got another echocardiogram at the end of June and an MRI scan at some point as well to give me the all clear.

All in all it's pretty rubbish. I've missed about a month of training so far, I'm not going to be doing much for the rest of June either. I'm going to have three weeks of training, two if you assume I'm going to spend the last week just turning the legs over - not exactly the perfect final preparation time! I was pretty happy with how things were going before the illness so I can only hope I haven't lost much fitness while I've been ill.

Gary Lake - Executive Editor

Gary Lake has been mountain biking for over 15 years now and has had a passion for everything cycle related ever since. He is a CTC-qualified trail leader and wannabe endurance racer.

Gary has always been looking for a way to give something back to the sport. With a successful career in digital media and internet marketing, and with over 10 years' experience in the industry, it was somewhat inevitable that Gary would put these skills to use in something cycle-related.

After a year in the planning and making, in February 2010 Cyclist No.1 was born.