For the Crew

For the Crew page has been added. This will be a collection of information to make it easier for all those people supporting a endurance rider.

AIS Study from Hally

A couple of weeks ago a mate of mine was visiting friends in Canberra and he had a chance to go to the AIS and sit in on a seminar. The seminar was about a study they had conducted on recovery after participating in sport and it was interesting to read what they reported. The AIS had found these results after testing athletes as well as volunteers from the public.

Some major points that Hally thought would be useful were:

• Compression slacks do work but have a very short working life. Some brands didn't work and some only provided compression for a short period before stretching too much.
  Nike didn't have any compression qualities.
  Skins compression qualities lasted for about 5 weeks being used 3 to 4 times per week.
  2XU had the best results with the compression qualities lasting about 7 to 8 months being used 3 to 4 times per week.
  The best way to use the compression slacks are to put them on after exercise and wear them for about 4 to 5 hours.
  Some athletes have reported that they reduced shin splints when they wore them during exercise.
  The best results were with the full length legs.
  


• The best recovery method was to stretch and then submerge the body in hot/cold water:
  After exercise Cool down by doing a very easy activity (this lets the body know it has finished the activity).
  Then stretch the muscles, holding each stretch for about 10 seconds. You only need to go through every stretch twice.
  After stretching fully submerge the body to the neck in water that is 12 to 15 degrees then submerge the body in warm water. The total amount of time in cold/hot water should equal about 5 minutes each and always finishing with cold.
  You can use a shower if a plunge pool is unavailable.
  

There is heaps more information and research on performance recovery available at the Australian Sporting Commission/Australian Institute of Sport website. Thanks Hally.

Jet Black/Rocky Trail/Western Sydney 12hr

The 2010 rendition of the Jet Black 12hr saw the event moved from Yarramundi National Park to Dargle Farm which is about 30 mins drive north west of Windsor, Sydney. The move was required due to the national park restricting the number of competitors which were allowed to be entered into the event. Due to the popularity of this event, this number was almost tripled, so a change in venue was required. The last time this track was used was in 2007 for the then Sydney 24hr run by Bright Orange Events which I was competed in as a team of 4. From what I remember, the track layout this year was very similar to that which was used 3 years ago, a good mixture of tight, technical single trail, open, transitional fire access roads and fast, hair raising descents.
On arrival to the event centre on Saturday morning, I met up with Craig Baylis, Michael Crummy and Jamie Bailey from Team Enduro Pulse and they had generously invited me to join them in their pit area. The event centre was a buzz and with world class riders such as Jason English racing, we all knew that this was going to be a long day and particularly fast at the pointy end of the field.
With my preparation completed, we all lined up at the start line. As occurred last year, the raced started 20mins late but this was all forgotten once we got underway. There was a mad rush to the first piece of single trail, a bottle neck, but this soon cleared with the field spreading out and we all got into our race rhythm. The new bike, Merida 96 HFS, was going really well for it's first official outing and with some suspension tweaking required, I am certainly going to be very happy with the package.
I was getting along at a comfortable but higher than anticipated intensity for the first 6 laps and this would prove to be a very big error of judgment on my part. At about the 5hr mark, I really started to suffer badly. I backed off the intensity for a couple of laps but at the end of this lap would see me stop to try and recover a little. Three more hours and I was done for the day, having dug myself into a hole that I wasn't able to recover from. So at 8.5hrs I called it quits, certainly not the result I was after but the decision was made in the interests of self preservation.
I certainly learned a lot from this race, of worthy note are the following:
Make sure you have a race plan and stick to the plan. Preferably, have a crew that can monitor this plan and make sure you stick to it,
Ensure you and the bike are set up and prepared for an endurance event. As good as the new bike is, I just was not used to a pure XC race bike. So my advice is if you are progressing from an All Mountain bike to a XC bike or changing race bikes in general, make sure you get some quality time in the new cockpit. A slightly different body position takes time to become accustomed too and I think this also may have attributed to my early withdrawal.
In closing I must say a big thank you to the Enduro Pulse guys for supporting me during the event, Rocky Trail Entertainment and Western Sydney Mountain Bike Club for running the event and Dargle Farm for allowing the mountain biking community back onto a sweet piece of race track.
Cheers, Mick Smith

Check out the newly arranged Product Reviews for Mick’s thoughts on his new bike.

JetBlack 12hrs!

Coming off a late shift week was probably not the preparation I had in mind heading into the Rocky Trail weekend at Dargle Farm. But so it was, fighting sleep deprivation and an out of whack body clock we arrived early Saturday morning for the crispy cool start of the JetBlack 12hr. Arm warmers and wind vests were a must as the temperature hovered around the one to two digit mark. Team Enduro Pulse all had arrived with our dedicated support crew, excited to get out on the bikes, ride and have some fun.
With a simple plan in mind for the next 12 hours, I wasn't going to get bothered by the racing up the front, just keep in my heart-rate zones, transition fluidly, ride smart and have a ball on the Yeti. It took a lap to settle in and just a couple of laps to sort out the best of the chosen lines. The track was in fairly good shape and in most cases got better as we went on. A mixture of open fire-trail, rocky single-track traverses, berms and pumps, with just about all the downhill sections being single-track. I even managed to use the 27 tooth cog, finally a climb tough enough!
After some solid hours out on track I got the word my laps were consistent and I was sitting comfortably in the top 20. It seemed like everyone was out for a good time, happy to chat and offering room to pass. There were few incidents that I saw, the occasional flat of the first few hours, a couple of chains broken and a few of the unfortunate stick V’s hanger outcomes especially after the 5km mark along the flat. There was a generous vibe and relaxed atmosphere over the course of the 12hrs, can’t forget a big shout back to those people encouraging me throughout the race.
At the half way point I swapped onto a spare bike for one quick lap while the Yeti received some TLC from my support crew. Then once we had swapped back it didn’t seem long before I was told I would have to put lights on, bring on the darkness. The darkness brought with it a temperature drop and out came the arm warmers and wind vests again.
A massive effort that was made look easy by Jason English, Male Solo winner of the event, backing up after the Merida 24hr and managing to keep even the top teams in check for most of the race. James Lamb and Ashley Hayat rounded out the podium. I placed a solid 7th with 21 laps and Team Enduro Pulse member Craig Baylis in 10th with 19 laps.
It didn’t go well for all with many riders cracking around the 10 to 12 lap mark and not being able to ride on. But the other podiums of note included an easy win for Katrin Van Der Spiegel in Female Solo and Brett Bellchambers making the Single Speed idea look so easy. Team Hoax Racing Australia claimed the Male Team of 4 top spot with 26 laps and managed to edge out Jason English as overall winner during the late stages of the race.
A big thanks to my supporters for their real food, real advice and keeping me riding. Thanks to Team Enduro Pulse and our team partners who keep us on the trails and racing. Keep an eye on Enduro Pulse for a full report and the next great event.
In other news Sean “Bozz” Bekkers is the Ay-Up Dusk to Dawn 2010 Champion, check his report out soon here, watch out for Bozz and Andy Fellows come October.
　

Team Enduro Pulse

It is time to introduce the latest endurance mountain bike racing team, Team Enduro Pulse. Things were pretty laid back, the launch would be a combination of mini enduro followed by the launch party at Enduro Pulse HQ. The mini enduro was held on some muddy sweet single-track in Albion Park and the scene was set for the inaugural running of the Enduro Pulse Cup. A mystery finish was how the enduro would end, only the time keeper knew how long the race would be, the riders only knowing it’d be somewhere between 1 hour and 1.5 hours. Yeti Australia's Paul Rowney was still buzzing from his 3 Ring Circus experience, after a mild first lap he went on to chase down Team rider Jamie Bailey from the back of the field and steal the win. Juliane from Rocky Trail Entertainment had here eyes peeled during the race and picked up two of the three bonus toys, every toy counted for an extra lap but she remained just one lap short of Rowney.
The team’s first event will be the Jet Black 12 Hours WSMTB at Dargle Farm this Saturday of which the team riders will be soloing.Reviews have been added, check the review page.