Breck Day 5 - The Crux

First of all I wanted to say thanks to everyone for their support and positive feedback about the blogs this week, the support has really helped and I am glad you have been able to enjoy the journey with us!

Before the daily blog I wanted to quickly share the daily routine: 6.30 am up and at em, eat as much as the body can stomach and get ready for the days ride. 8.30 race start lasting 5-7+ hrs for us (3-4 for the pros haha), by the time we get back to the hotel we get our bikes washed before the race briefing for the following day at 5 pm. For me it is then hot tub, bath for Mel, dinner (thanks Shazza for looking after us this week) and then from 7 onwards it is bike maintenance, pack aid bags for the following day, stretch and then ideally relax for a short while before crashing, which hasn’t happened for me until 10-11 pm each night. This is the bit that has caught me out the most, it is not just a daily ride it is an all day event with no real downtime at all and as the week goes on it grinds you down.

The funny thing about fatigue is that it messes with each of us quite differently. I have friends who have experienced military fatigue whether through interrogation training or extended exercises, other friends and family who have got there through endurance events and co-workers going above and beyond to get a job done. It doesn’t even seem for each of us that fatigue presents its self in the same way each time. In the past I have had hallucinations and inability to do such basic tasks through to being irritable and moody. Last night, I experienced two more symptoms quite comically in retrospect. Everyone had gone to bed, I was finishing my stretching routine and in the background was a music show, not sure what it was called but essentially the contestants were trying to get their self created songs performed by Mackelmore. I started following it as my muscles gave in and relaxed and really liked the songs being presented for Mackelmore to pick a winner. Upon the winner being announced and seeing his joyful emotion I found myself sat there crying, crazy! When I told Mel this am, she laughed, first I would never watch a show like that and second I would not cry about the outcome. Fatigue had a tight grip and the mind was feeling it. This was highlighted by item number two, impaired decision making. Post stretching and having got my emotions under control I decided to ice a few areas of pain. The bag we had filled with ice was leaking so in the freezer I found two coke bottles filled with frozen water, the contours looked perfect to sit either side of my leg. I sat there for 20 mins with the bottles on my leg and when it came time to remove them my skin was hard and frozen. I had totally given myself frostbite and burnt my skin, what?!

For Mel, fatigue is presenting its self as limited appetite, sore muscles, headaches and under performance. While I can reflect on mine and have a bit of a laugh about them they are not overly impacting my ability to embrace the daily challenge. Our plan for the Stages 5 & 6 was to ride solo again, but straight out of the starting gate today Mel was hurting, the first punchy gradient came and the legs had nothing. I knew at this point we would be best together and throughout the day I would have to adapt my personality from riding partner through physiologist to coach and maybe back to partner. We settled in to a steady pace. The first 6 km went well, nice uphill with some technical sections but nothing too crazy to the first aid station. We fueled up and life was good. Then we set off, rounded the corner only to see what lay ahead, a string of people meandering their way up this massive mountain (Wheeler 12,300 ft) to the summit. We could see people pushing their bikes 500-1,500 ft above us, daunting sight! The next 3-4 hours was brutal! Very little of the trail was rideable to the mere mortal at this elevation, so we were pushing our bikes. As we climbed the oxygen content reduced (oxygen content reduces from 20.9% at sea level to 13.2% at 12,000 ft) and so to maintain an aerobic and sustainable pace it had to slow as we climbed. Each step was a massive effort and pushing our bikes over rocky terrain exhausting! Mel was wearing super stiff carbon sole bike shoes which added to the pain of walking with no flexibility. It was literally head down, one step at a time and we knew from the day previous that getting up and above 12,000 ft did not treat Mel well, but she was quietly gritting it out and my tactic was to set a pace that was an achievable target.

At the first summit a team of volunteers had a piece of bacon for each of us, it tasted so good! And, another mad couple who have ridden single speeds all week got married on the summit mid race. Due to the snow having only just melted there has been little foot traffic on the mountain prior to us arriving, so the path was rougher and tougher than normal. We had a short descent into a strong cross wind before climbing towards the second summit (Mt Goldammit). By this point Mel was not enjoying it at all, she wanted to be riding her bike and once again she was pushing it. She was starting to doubt herself as the fatigue dug deep. But I have to say we were on top of the world, the scenery was incredible and we were in the true wilderness. We often see in Media reports about all the natural devastation these days, but it’s moments like these that I love and make me realize how amazing our natural environment is and what we have to do to preserve it. The great thing about being in the middle of no where is regardless of how you feel you are kind of committed. Together we got to the top, in total around 4,000 ft of climbing hiking and biking over 15 km.

For me now the fun began, I would have made my Enduro riding brethren proud and I made the most of having ridden the big bike all week - 35 minutes of technical and gnarly decent. It was so technical most people were still walking! I got to the bottom and enjoyed a 30 min rest while Mel and the others we had been close to caught up. This gave me time to really fuel up, rest and get ready for the last 10 or so km.

Mel rocked up having nailed most of the technical descent aside from a few super exposed areas with significant consequences if you didn’t get it quite right. She had a headache and was hurting. We got her hydrated and fueled up for the last push. My style now had to shift from harsher motivational to encouragement and support. That was until she didn’t stop complaining about a horsefly that was following her, when my irritable side came out and told her to just get on with it and quit complaining. Post fly we were back to encouraging... not far to go, no rush, steady as we go! The route was super fun, rolling, rocky and rooty technical terrain. I love this stuff as it gets you focused and you forget about the tiredness. We worked through it one section at a time taking breaks and for me enjoying the views. By this point Mel wasn’t too interested, headache dominating she just wanted to get it done. After 7 hrs we smashed the Crux day! I polished it off with my new favorite sandwich, oh yea!!

My body has shifted to terminator mode, grinding it out and taking on whatever is thrown at it, tired but focused on the target. Do terminators cry as well, haha? Mel's body is not being as kind, but today she dug deep mentally and physically and got it done even though I know she wanted at times to throw the towel in, super proud!

Last day tomorrow, same routine tonight, partnership ride to top it off tomorrow as a team! Breck Day 6, bring it!