The Ultimate Event Day Guide: Tips and strategies from breakfast time to crossing the finish line and everything in between
By Frank Pike
Head Coach, Beyond Category Coaching
Warning: This is the longest blog in the series, please plan for about 10min of reading!
Embrace the suck
Long gravel events are difficult by design! You must be prepared to be uncomfortable both in training and during the event, this is crucial for your success! You don’t have to set out to intentionally suffer, but you also shouldn’t try to shy away from being uncomfortable.
This goes for equipment and bike fit, too. You can spend an enormous amount of time trying to essentially use your gear and bike fit to smooth out the gravel roads. The truth is, if you’re on the bike for 6+ hours something is going to hurt, no matter what. Embrace that fact and figure out how you’re going to continue riding and having fun when your hands, butt or feet don’t feel perfect.
As far as bike fit goes, comfort is king, but so is control. You need to feel confident going fast, but also have the skill to navigate corners without slowing way down. In my opinion, you also must make sure you can ride effectively and comfortably with your hands in the drops (and sometimes for longer durations), on the brake hoods, and on the bar tops. Too often riders can handle the hoods and top bars, the drops are where issues occur.
Never count yourself out
Gravel events are long, so long that you have time to encounter delays or even setbacks and still reach your goals. You cannot control everything on event day. There will be moments where everything is going right, and you will feel like a champ and there will be times when it feels like it is all falling apart, and you just want to quit. It is critical to remind yourself either of these two extremes will NOT last long so enjoy the moments you feel like a champion. When the time comes when you feel so bad and just want to quit- manage the problem and know that every other rider is going thru the same exact process- there is power in numbers!
Go in as fit as possible
This seems elementary I know, but the point is that fitness solves a lot of problems. The more fit you are, the better you can handle mistakes or unforeseen conditions. When training for gravel races it is easy to get caught up in the complexity and neglect the fundamentals. What intervals should I do on what day? What should my total hours be this week? What about those anerobic capacity intervals I heard on that podcast last week, when should I throw those into my training?
Time on the bike and a lot of time on the bike is key. Next, focus on structured interval workouts during your shorter weekday rides and work in longer endurance rides when you can, for many this means weekend rides are longer. There’s no magical distance you must ride in a single workout to determine you’re ready. Those ultra-long training rides are more useful for experiential learning than they are for improving fitness, this is the time to figure out your nutrition strategy, get use to riding with a water pack on your back, practice using all your hand positions on the bar etc. They’re good to do, but if you can’t fit one into your training, don’t let that affect your confidence.
Roll with the punches
The longer the event, the less likely everything will go as planned. Your perfectly portioned nutrition strategy will go out the window when a bar or gel falls out of your pocket or a water bottle bounces out of the cage, only to realize it miles down the road! Or you might just not have any desire to eat that special sandwich at mile 100. The weather may turn, your bike may conspire against you, or maybe you’ll even take the wrong turn and go off course for a bit.
Learn to be flexible and quick to adapt. Don’t hang on to tightly to a plan that is going off the rails. Having great fitness, and plenty of grit will get you through most problems you will encounter.
Learn to love the process
Staying engaged in training can be difficult. The outcome – whether it’s a spot on the podium or a just rolling across the finish line – is only partly under your control. It’s not the outcomes that keeps you engaged in your sport. It is your love of the sport, the challenges it provides, the sense of community, and the process of training that most likely keeps you coming back for more, and your events give you something to direct your training toward. Events and races are the proof in the pudding so to speak.
Be kind to yourself
One of the best things about gravel events is the fact that eventually at some point you will ride solo. By that time, all the riders are so spread out that you may not be able to see anyone ahead or behind you. It’s just you, the open road, the dust and the wind and the crunch of gravel under your tires. That solitude also gives you a lot of time to fill your head. The same thing happens to athletes in training. You are your own worst critic and when you are exhausted and things have started going sideways, it is very easy to be extremely hard on yourself.
It is critical to recognize those negative thoughts and replace them with positive statements. Negative thoughts will happen, it is natural. You get to decide what to do about them. Don’t let negativity gain a stronghold in your mind, or it will grow and multiply.
Success in gravel events as well as success overall as an endurance athlete, depends less on your physical capabilities like power output, Vo2Max, FTP or even aerobic endurance. It has more to do with your mental capacity. Can you make good decisions about pacing, nutrition, hydration, and navigation? Can you manage your eating and drinking over hours and hours without upsetting your stomach? Can you keep the negative thoughts at bay? Do you have what it takes to roll with the punches, face adversity, and keep moving forward? If the answer is yes, then you’ll cross that finish line and perhaps even have a smile on your face
Eat a good breakfast
Whatever you do; DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST, even if that means waking up at 4am to eat for your 6am start time! Take the time to figure out what kind of pre-race breakfast works for you. There’s no perfect formula and one of the keys is to avoid overeating. Even though the day is going to be long, and you’ll burn a ton of calories, stuffing yourself with a huge breakfast isn’t going to give you the energy to make it through the day. That comes from the glycogen in your muscles, what you eat the day before the event, the fat you’re carrying around, and the food you eat during the race.
Keep breakfast to a moderate size. Some examples can include rice and eggs, with some toast and coffee. My go to is a big bowl of oatmeal with a couple scoops of peanut butter and of course 2-3 cups of coffee! Foods that have a lot of fiber like some fruits can be dangerous later in the event, so be careful of high fiber foods. Remember to start eating early, I personally will start eating within the first 40-60 minutes of an event.
Start hard
It’s tempting to roll slowly off the start line of a long gravel event that’s going to take 8+ hours, but it pays to go out hard – at least for a little while. With the pros leading the way, gravel events start fast. You want to use the speed of those around you to put some good miles in and stay with people you can work with later. If you start too conservatively, you’re likely to be the strongest rider in the groups you’re with, meaning the other riders aren’t much help. Your hard start is individualized and needs to have some pre-planning on what it might look like. It is based on your abilities and a good place to start is at a RPE of 5-6 out of 10, it is a hard start NOT a max start. Keep your ego in check and avoid “burning matches” trying to maintain a pace that is above your ability! Matches burnt early will catch up to you a couple hours down the road.
Top off at aid stations
If your finishing time is important to you, don’t spend a lot of time in feed stations, because you’re just giving back time you earned on the way there. To keep stops short, fill, and drink a bottle of plain water, and then fill one bottle with sports drink and one with water, grab food and leave. Eat on the bike while rolling rather than standing around eating at the feed station, but drink a full bottle because it’s like leaving the feed station with three bottles (one in the gut and two on the bike)
Get loose
The gravel underneath you in gravel events require your constant attention, and there will be some sliding and drifting occurring vs riding on pavement. The more tense you are, the more the gravel will beat you up, and the more likely you are to overcorrect for a slight drift or bobble and make it worse. Let the bike find the line, stay solid in the saddle, and keep your upper body loose and relaxed. Allow the bike to float under you, it’s ok and designed to do just this.
Do your homework
Gravel races are not something you want to just sign up and show up for. Each race has different logistics to consider, and there’s less standardization in the gravel events compared to road, track, and cross-country mountain bike racing. Events have slightly different rules, different philosophies on feed stations and mechanical assistance, and of course, different terrain. Know at what mile aid stations are located and how many on course, know when you might pass thru a small town to re-supply.
Mechanical Crisis:
Flat tires, equipment and or mechanical failures are part of gravel events. If you trained for months, traveled for the event or this is your ONE big event for the year, take the time to prepare for mechanical issues. This means racing with the tools, parts, and knowledge to fix common problems. For events in remote areas with long distances between aid stations, you will need to carry a wide range of parts. The list can really be endless and the blog prior to this one covers an exhaustive parts list in more detail.
So, what do you do when a mechanical issue happens? Stop and take a few DEEP breaths and figure it out. If your derailleur is making a loud noise, don’t keep pedaling thinking it will just miraculously go away. You could rip your derailleur off. If you realize you don’t have the tools or knowledge to fix your problem, collaborate. Many fellow riders are also just hoping to make it to the finish line, so ask for help and you may just get what you need. Be sure to return the favor! Fix your problem and then get back to the task at hand. Don’t panic or try to make up for lost time, just go back to doing what you were doing. Rushing the repair or rushing to make up time will usually create additional issues and stresses anyway.
Weather Crisis:
Hope for great weather and plan for bad weather. Know what you will need to do if it ends up being hotter than expected or pouring rain, and how that will change your race plan. If it does get hotter, you’ll need to ride slower and drink more. Rain might warrant different tires or different air pressure, and potentially a jacket at the start. Bad weather almost always means your event will take longer, so pack more food and don’t go as hard at the start.
Crashes:
Crashes happen. If you have one: STOP! Don’t immediately get back on the bike, take a second to check yourself over. Often an injury can be hidden, or you are in a bit of shock and so you might not even know you’re bleeding. Rub your hands over your body and look for any blood. Inspect your helmet and look for damage. Make sure all your joints are moving how they should.
Now do the ABC check of your bike: Air, Brakes, Chain. Check your tires to make sure you didn’t flat, this may have caused your crash, and check the wheels to make sure they spin and are still tight in the frame. Brakes: Are they still working, are the levers where they should be, and are your rotors straight? Chain: put your chain back on the crankset, if it has fallen off, lift the back of the bike and spin the crank with no pressure on the chain. This will tell you whether you have a bent chain link or bent derailleur hanger.
If your bike, body, and head all check out, get back on the bike and take it easy as you check your body and bike while in motion. If everything is working well, gradually accelerate back to your goal pace. If there are any red flags, don’t ride through them; address any medical or mechanical problems. Again, don’t try and make up for lost time, it usually backfires.
Nutrition Crisis:
Nutritional strategies were covered in a prior article, but even with a great nutrition plan, your stomach can still give you problems. If you run into problems, back off the pace, slowing down is better than stopping altogether. Look back to see if you have overeaten, not eaten enough and what you have eaten along the way. You NEVER want to try new foods on event day unless it is a must, for example you stop at a C-store and they do not have sports nutrition foods or they do not have the candy bar you usually get and are forced to get something you may have never had, or at aid stations do not grab the ham salad sandwich provided by the local rotary club if you are not accustomed to this delicatessen. No offense to those that volunteer their time and homemade goodies for aid stations, I love this community support of gravel events, but please be smart when purveying the “buffet” at aid stations.
Cramping
Cramping is a common issue faced in long gravel events, but muscle cramps don’t necessarily mean your race is over. The latest science is now telling us that cramping probably isn’t a nutritional or hydration issue as much as it is from overexertion or excess fatigue. However, some nutrition and hydration strategies may help alleviate them: slow down, cool down, eat, and drink a little more, and try eating mustard packets, drinking pickle juice (vinegary and spicy foods/liquids can help).
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Upset Stomach/Gastric Distress
“Gut rot” is a real thing, and you need to be aware of the consequences. Usually, gastric distress is caused by having too much food and not enough water in your gut, which slows digestion. Gut motility drops when athletes are overheated as well. If you encounter this, stop eating food and start sipping small amounts of water more frequently. This will help dilute the solution in your gut and restart absorption.
Mental crisis:
Endurance sports can take you to some dark places. Most have probably heard the phase “and this too shall pass”. This is true when you are feeling terrible and when you are feeling great, both will happen and probably multiple times thought-out your event. Your first strategy is knowing it’s temporary. Whatever you are going through, it won’t last forever. It will likely last for less time than you think.
Your second strategy for getting out of a mental funk is redirection. Start counting fence posts, sing, whatever you must do to distract yourself, heck, we are in Nebraska for Pete’s sake, evaluate the corn alongside the road- it should head high and the most beautiful green you have ever seen! Focus on things like pedal cadence, pedaling as smooth as possible, look for a new line to ride, focus on your breathing, listen to your surroundings- what do you hear? Making up a mantra can be powerful; it can be corny or motivating. By now, you all know mine: Ride! Fight! No Surrender! This has become my mantra and it was thought of during one of my dark places in a gravel event a couple years ago.
A third strategy to get yourself out of a mental funk is to get social. Positive self-talk is one thing, getting lost internally talking to yourself is another thing. Talk to the person next to you, ask them how their ride is going, where they are from- get them to talk back, crack a joke, lifting their spirits will lift your as well.
Don’t Surrender; find a new focus
There might be a point when your goals for your event have come completely off the tracks. You’ve lost time fixing your bike. You’ve flatted. You have encounter gut rot- Sh*t happens, but rather than surrendering, try changing your focus.
You can work too hard trying to stay with the lead group or a group who is just 3-4 levels above you and must stop completely to recover. You think about surrendering, but then you remember you have a friend who was riding further back in the field, and you make it your focus to help them finish as strong as they can. Or maybe you just become super unselfish and look for opportunities to help your fellow riders, the possibilities are endless when you give of yourself and focus on others. Your race might be over, but it doesn’t mean you can’t help someone else have an epic day they will never forget!
Problems, issues, call it sh*t is gonna happen in gravel events, it is part of the adventure and it’s what you do when you are faced with adversity that determines how the rest of event will go. A former RAAM participant (Race Across America) once put it this way: “Take adversity and make it into an opportunity “. Be forward thinking of what problems or issues might arise. Play out scenarios in your head of what you are going to do when those things happen and what skills are necessary to take adversity and make it into an opportunity. Every time you zip-tie a number plate onto your bike or pin a number onto your jersey there are always takeaways that you learn from and grow as an endurance athlete.
I am looking forward to sharing the “gravel seas” of Nebraska with you on August 20th! Please stop by the BCC tent at the vendor expo, I would love to connect with you.
Ride! Fight! No Surrender!