24 Hours of Biking

This past weekend was the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo........A great event that takes a scrappy piece of desert and turns it into a bike city of 3,000 plus people every winter outside of Tucson!  RVs, tents, expo, entertainment and lots of just plain good people.  For those that do not know, the race is a 24 hour non-stop affair........A 17 mile loop course and you and or your team making it around the course as many times as you can from 12 noon Saturday to 12 noon on Sunday.  I was in a duo team.  Our goal was 16 laps total..............We were doing well until late in the night Saturday, both of us started to experience BAAAD stomach cramps!!  We both were using Accelerade and think the protein and the bouncing around on our bikes caused some gasseous cramping.  So we laid off and took some sleep and when we felt better headed out for some more laps..........Only 11!!  6 for me and 5 for him.  But our laps were good and fast and competitive, so all was not lost!  AND.........I will never use Accelerade in a competition again!  I have used it plenty post exercise and I think it is great for that, but not during mountain biking!!  So like every race, even though not on the podium, lessons learned for better racing in the future.  The good thing is...........no crashes, no injuries, and my calf felt good!  I even ran 3.5 miles yesterday.  So Ironman AZ watch out!!  Ok not really ready, but still going to do it..........................