Tonight I went out to Canmore to do a practice run for this years installment of 24 hours of punishment, and I have to say I wasn’t totally disappointed with my efforts.

After an initial gong show to get myself on my bike and actually riding (it took 40 minutes to get out of downtown, I forgot my helmet, my camera, my large tire pump, I scratched my car when my bike fell over, I didn’t bring bug spray), I set off up what I believe the start will be for this year (I didn’t see the map until writing this post), and promptly almost bail on some rocks. Fortunately nobody was around to see that (mental note: don’t do that on race day), and I resume riding on what I have now named the highway to hell.

I know most of you would assume that this path would lead downwards, but I’m here to tell you it is actually a never ending hill with roots, rocks, mudholes and more roots. When you stop to catch your breath the mosquitos descend in swarms to bite you until you decide resting isn’t as important as avoiding the cloud of bugs. I’m making it out to be much worse than it actually was, but for my first time on a mountain trail since (oddly enough) last 24 hours of adrenalin, it was about as painful as I expected.

I did actually take an unscheduled pit stop in some bushes a little later on (read this as fell off my bike), but this just highlights my need to hit this trail once more before it is for really real. My physical conditioning isn’t what is holding me back, it is my lack of experience with trail riding. I’ve done my commute so many times I can do it blindfolded and never miss a point where I need to change gears, but trail riding / picking the line / shifting my weight on the bike for better balance is relatively new to me.

The trail is fairly well marked with 24 hours reflective “police tape”, but now seeing the map I am certain I missed out a part of the course in my trial run (almost the entire bottom half). Last year it was 14-16km long and I remember more ups and downs and narrow single track than what I rode tonight, and at the end my odometer only said 8.7km.

My two laps during the actual event last year stick out like a sore thumb when you look at my team results, but I definitely went in with a “finish in one piece and have fun” mentality. 1 hour 48, and 1 hour 43, but if you take off the walking with other people, stopping to chat at the water stations, helping people with their bikes, and generally not concerning myself with how long I was out there I know I can do better.

My best lap last year translates to something like 7 minutes 20 seconds per kilometer, and tonight being cautious and looking out for trail markers I managed to cover my 8.7km in 48 and a half minutes. To meet my goal of finishing in 1 hour 15 minutes, I’m going to need to pick up the pace significantly after that first 4km is over with.

Oh, and as an added bonus I didn’t check the dates for anything when I committed to doing this, and I also bought tickets to the Calgary Folk Festival for the same weekend. This means I’m going to be up late on Saturday night and then driving out to Canmore at some ungodly hour to get myself into the rotation for one, possibly 2 laps before returning to Calgary and resuming the Folk fest.

I’m smrt.