Why consider riding for 24hrs solo? Why not? My first foray into 24hr riding was a workmate who introduced me to riding organised for 4 of us to enter a 24hr as a 4 man team. At the time I had a basic hardtail non-tubeless tyres, v-brakes and a seat that was way too hard.
I did 4 laps and I swear it was the hardest thing I had ever done. My butt hurt, I hadn't heard of Chamois creme and I was glad the whole thing was over. But I did learn a crucial lesson during the last lap. I was not particularly enjoying it, but I didn't want to stop. I just kept going slower till it was a pace I could sustain. And I kept it at that speed for the rest of the lap. In retrospect, it was the right thing to do and it set the right mindset for the future. Even when you're feeling bad and you want to stop, just keep plodding on. As long as you're going forward, things are good.
I then entered various combinations of 2's and 4's with friends, eventually getting a dual suspension bike. That was a game changer for me. As someone who has fluctuated up to 100kg, a hardtail for 24hrs is just murder. Dual suspension is where it's at. A second hand Giant Trance was my friend from then on.
Eventually I decided to do a 6hr solo. At this point, I'd only ever done 2 laps of a race consecutively, which would take me about 2hrs. This would be 3 of those in a row and was quite daunting. I approached it with the same mind set, just keep moving. I managed a reasonable showing, only stopped for pit stops and actually had quite a good time. This spurred me on to eventually try riding one for 24hrs solo. 4 solo's later and I've competed in the World Championships.
I'll start laying out the posts loosely along the lines of:
* Training
* Eating
* Bike
* Pit
* Contact points
* Apparel
* Mental
Hopefully someone will get a bit of use out of the posts.
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