a slack day

Took it easy tonight and road at recovery pace for and hour. After 2 very hard nights in a row and a big mileage weekend coming up I figure taking it easy was as great idea. Plus I wanted to eat dinner at a normal time.
Stopped in a Georgian Cyle this afternoon and Dave is hoping that the new ride will be in tommorow. I'm hoping also. My road bike really needs to be torn down. So with nothing really good to report on training I thought
I would go back into racing and training tips.

I've dealt with some of the mental side of things, now its the equipment. You can't ride if things break down. 8 hour races are pretty much a hammerfest and if you have a mechanical or stop you are definatly not finishing on the podium.
With that said. Check your gear. 8 hours don't require lights and even equipment is minimum. I do recomend having atleast an extra jersy and shorts, just in case. Also add arm band, leg and knee bands, full and short gloves, glasses with different
lenses, a couple different thickness socks, booties. Weather can change quickly and the last thing you want to be is cold when you're on course. I have the perk of a second identical bike and if you have a second bike BRING IT!!!
Food is pretty minimal. I still remember my first 8 hour. I brought enough food for a small army. I ate huge also. The biggest thing with those races is hydration. Change your bottle every lap. I'm not a camelbak person.
Most 8 hour laps are short enough that a single bottle is all that is needed. As for food, you want things that are fast to eat and fast to absorb. I'm down to gels, bananas and potato chips. Ya I said it, potato chips.
Look at the sodium and the calories per chip sometime. Plus its a treat for you. I also have a can of coke ready. Any type of energy is good energy.

Now comes the world of 24 hour racing. The first rule. CHECK YOUR SHIT EARLY!!!! Start going over your gear a month before the race, not the week beforeYour bikes should be running like a fine watch and if there is something questionable
fix it. Clothing is easy, Pack it all. Even that ugly jersey that you never wear because at 4am no one cares. LIghts are a big thing. ANyone who has been at a race with me knows about an issue that happened involving lights.
Start running them a couple weeks before. If you can start to time how long each battery will burn for and write it on the battery itself. My teammate in a 24 hour tag team had loaned out his system and relyed on that person to
have them charged for him. Half way through a lap his system died. We lost almost an hour which calculated to a lap because of that. Also, what ever the estmated time needed for lights is make sure you have at least an extra battery
above what is needed. I invested in a charging pack from canadian tire that allows me to charge my lighting system during the race. It also lets my suport crew watch movies on a little dvd/video screen. Keeping you support crew happy
is an important thing. If you have 2 helmets its a great idea. I'm not sure about you but I hate putting on a wet helmet. I have found that bandanas work great at keeping the sweat under control. This is the came with gloves.

All back to bringing every piece of cycling gear you have. You will go through many different feelings and if you can eliminate being cold and wet it will help. A great site that can help riders is RIDE424.COM
Lots of great info there. Well I'm done my beer so I think I will go and watch a movie in the backyard. By request I will get a picture of the Tour de France on the screen. I will get a great base gear list on here soon.