Training for 24 Hours

TRAINING FOR A 24 H

A FORWARD, TO CORRECTLY APPRECIATE

Among the staff of 24hpassion there are not trainers, coaches, sport managers, doctors, dieticians, or whoever… these hints are based on personal experience of the members of our staff, and are just meant to give advice to those who are interested in the 24h world. Therefore, as follows, you will not find detailed tables, methodologies, etc. but just trickiness, to give a proper meaning to the experience you are going to face. Thanx.

Bikers who participate to a 24h are divided in two main groups: those who join a team (4, 8, 12 members) and the solos, and, as it can be easily guessed, the rhythm of the competition and the quality of the effort required are completely different.

It all makes a sense, but, as a main rule, it must be considered that the 24h is for most of the people an event, a party or a gathering. So, what we are proposing is aimed to those who want to give their best while racing. For the teams, we will not focus on the training before the race, supposing that any single member manages it according to his or her abilities and aspirations.

TEAMS

Obviously there are great differences in facing the race among the categories of teams, as a team of 4 will grant much less time to recover to its racers than a team of 12.

If any of the member of the 4 team does two turn, considering that each of them in the average Italian 24h takes 15 minutes, he or she will have to race every 1 hour and half.

During this relatively short period of time, he or she should recover energies, eating but also resting, having a shower, relaxing… if you add the time required to enter and exit the trail and to be ready in the change area, it is clear that there is not so much time for a proper rest.

That’s why it is important to maximize your time, eat something that gives pretty good energy and that helps to fight cramps, due to the high effort all along the 24h, and, above all, to plan in advance the team’s strategy, so that during the race all relays are already organized.

The psychological aspect must be prepared with the due consideration, to avoid bad mood caused by toil and stress. What it has been said so far can be applied to any team, because the harmony in the group is the most important thing, as once the race starts, it cannot be stopped! (still, keeping in mind a sporty approach).

So the solidarity between the components, the spirit of group and its unity are the basic thing. It may occur that, after a change given unwillingly, nerves might break down, argues might erupt, as a consequence of luck of lucidity or sleep, fatigue, stress for the continuous changes.

In such circumstances a racer should be ready to make the sacrifice of a turn more, to preserve the harmony of the group and to pursue the common goal. Different strategies can be chosen to overcome the difficulties: some teams at night add a turn to every racer to make the others rest longer, others all over the race make a change to every turn (usually top teams of 8 or 12 categories) … the main point is to have plan as many unexpected events as possible, from what to do in case of rain, to how to replace a wounded (hopeFully not seriously) member.

The efficiency of the change is a very important moment for those who aim at the top of the chart. The 24h races have different types of change: in some you are required to exchange the transponder (a Chip at your ankle), in others the witness may be just an elastic bracelet, in others you have not witness at all, and the change is recorded by a passage over a carpet of survey by the exiting racer and then by the entering one.

Whatever teams do to maximize the time during the change, it is important to pay a special attention in the change area, since it may happen to be overcrowded with racer, all in a hurry, especially those from the leading teams.

It is advisable to be there one turn before its own and already ready and warmed up, at any chance.

Some highly motivated teams have their own system of communication, such as, all along the route, assistants equipped with radios, changes for the bike, if not entire new bikes, which is usually forbidden by the regulation. Still, when you face the race your effort and your devices should be proportional to your goals and in line with a sporty attitude and behavior.

That is all that may concern the psychological and technical aspects of the 24h for a team.

THE SOLO RACERS

If you want to compete alone, trying to arrive to the end of the race and to give your best, you need weeks of training before it and a strong mind predisposition.

You may train as any other Biker, but at least once a week (max. every two weeks), you should cycle for hours, no matter how fast. The purpose of this extra training is to strength your psychology and to get used not to panic but to take your time, at heart. Of course the extra training will also enable you to improve you resistance, your forbearance of toil, to overcome tiredness and long period on the bicycle.

These sessions, as well, will make you understand how to feel comfortable on the Mtb, since if you are not, you may be injured up to bleeding in a very sensible part of your body. So provide yourself with excellent quality saddles and pants, the ones that suit you more, to prevent from physical and psychological break down.

Obviously training on the road is very convenient, cause it allows long times and distances.

During long sessions you are always supposed to bring with you something to eat and coins, in case of a sudden hunger. Although you are taking it easy, at - let’s say - 140 km from home you may be in desperate lack of calories and energies… and it’s not funny! Therefore sugar, proteins but also fat are welcome, as mini-sneaks or whatever.

You’d better not exceed with this sort of extra training, in order not to arrive at the race already discharged physically and psychologically. The management of a solo race can be improved only by practice. Some Bikers have a natural predisposition that enables them to be quite successful in carrying on the race for some good hours from the very beginning.

This is the hardest stuff, to remain on the saddle, no matter how fast you are. After 8 or 10 hours, you may happen to fail in keeping your motivation, or find out you started with a wrong rhythm, and stop.

Fatigue, disappointment with the management, poor determination, improper feeding or drinking together with the increasing darkness may lead you to give up, and are the worst enemies of the solo. Usually the first to retire are those who started to fast, or cycle beyond their possibilities for up to 5 hours, or didn’t drink enough, and, as a consequence, suffer from cramps. To stop means often not to continue at all, since it is very common to lay down, resting for 4 or 6 hours during the night, never to jump on you saddle again…

During my first 24h in Finale Ligure, I managed to cycle for 21 hours, and then understood that I had to improve the technical and alimentation sides, without of course forgetting the psychological approach.

So my advise is to start not too fast, even slowly, at your debut in the 24h race. Let me remind you that motivation and psychological training make the difference. It’s not a matter of km, it’s a matter of hours and hours. You are required to know how to balance your strength for distance and for time.

Failures may depend on the desire of overdoing or speeding up. It’s useless to run as mad for ten km and to stop half destroyed by cramps to legs and stomach, unable and unwilling to start again.

You’d better keep your 16 km per hour speed, but go on for up to 16 hours, accomplishing a distance of 288 km, which is a successful result for a beginner, it’s motivating and provides you a good feed back for the future races. On the opposite, a wrong approach, which causes you to stop too often for cramps, hunger, thirst, brings directly to depression and retirement, and doesn’t allow you all the data you need to become a good solo performer.

For me 24h is synonym of 24h on my saddle, although now I am experienced enough to allow myself to rest for ten minutes, but still, the most difficult thing is to be all the time on the saddle.

After many hours you may feel so tired to create yourself excuses to stop. It may sound odd, but I know what i’m talking about because it happened to me too. But I didn’t yield, and crossing such a border proved to be an important step for me.

If you miss the sight of your goal, which may look too far, and the effort seems too overwhelming, almost a torture, you lose you motivation, stimulus and the reason itself to be there.

It is not a surprising process, because cycling for 24h is somehow not natural!

But the 24h rewards those who last longer, makes more turns, and so it’s the only thing to do if you dream to be at the top of the chart. There are not changes or planned stops, it’s just an endless cycling.

The two most important roles are to eat and especially drink properly. I will no go into details, like what and how much, since i’m not a doctor, nor a dietician, nor a trainer. Personally I don’t use any kind of integrators, just mineral salts in summer 24h.

Eating and drinking properly effects the quality of your performance also on the psychological side. During my 24h I eat and drink regularly: I eat before the start, then one hour and half after the beginning of the race, then every 45 minutes. I eat a big variety of food, but mostly what contains proteins, sugar salts and fat, because long’lasting efforts reduce the quantity of these elements in the organism.

Some moments during the night are as critical as those of pregnant women, when they are in desperate want of some kind of food. To fulfill this need is mostly satisfying and helps your mood.For these kind of crisis my favored medicine is Nutella, but I had also dreamy visions of toasts, sandwiches with steaks, cappuccino and brioches, coffee… whatever may make me feel rewarded and happy to go on.

I’m not here to teach you anything about what you should eat. Everybody is adult enough to know himself or herself and decide what suits him or her more.

About flasks, I would say I just cannot count how many of them I do need. Especially in very warm weather, in hot Italian summer, I drink one every two turns, if not more, till sunset. In the following hours I drink usually one liter per hour.

If you don’t drink when your body needs it, you are more likely to suffer from cramps, with the awful effects we had already discussed. It all means, after all, to be constantly supported by a person with whom you have also a good personal feeling, who knows you well enough to understand you up-and-down, who has always the right word to motivate you and keeps you high….

And who also bears the hard time, without reproaches if you behave rudely…

At nighttime it means a lot to find something warm, if you have asked it in advance, to eat or to drink, and keeps on your saddle!I do advice you to eat on your Mtb. But it’s all very personal… some Biker do not eat at all, and just drink waters and integrators, others go on with a tremendous quantity of sneaks, it really all depend on you.

About the wardrobe: bring with you as much as you can, of everything, cause you may happen to be in need of undressing from wet and cold stuff every two turns, or of warming up during the night.

You’ll never know what’s going to happen in the next 24h.

Warning: during night stops, no matter how long, nor weather conditions, you may suffer from a slight hypothermia, causing you to tremble, due to the decrease of body temperature and tiredness.

It is advisable in such a case to undress, dry up ( with a towel or paper filled with alcohol… it makes you feel warmer, it really works!). Then, dress up with something dry and clean, preferring to wear something warmer till you don’t feel completely recovered.

I hope I have been useful, or at least that I gave some good hints for those who are approaching the world of the 24h. Enjoy your training, your race management, your research for what makes your 24h special… in the name of sport and passion, the only sheer motivations!