24 Hours of Targhee is less than a week away and I’m so excited for the race to start I can barely sit at my desk. I’ve been training since last fall for this event. It’s the longest and most consistently I’ve ever trained for a single event and I’m looking forward to seeing if the effort results in a better performance than 2007.
I had a small setback in the form of strep (or some unidentified infection) I picked up in Kona. That kept me from any serious training for about 10 days. Hopefully, it was good taper time. I’ve also had a few problems with my 1997 Marzocchi fork. I spent some time working on it Saturday and hopefully it’s good for at least another 35 hours of riding.
I had a good training ride yesterday. I went out looking for climbs that would challenge me mentally and physically, as well as some practice on tight singletrack and rocky descents. I don’t do a lot of trail riding anymore and it’s always good to go scare the sh!t out of myself on the local trails before a race. I got in about 5,000ft of climbing in 4.5 hours, topping out above treeline, around 11,500ft, on the road to Trinchera Saddle.
While going tubeless has been a good thing, I’m not in love with my Crow tires. They worked well at 24 Hours of eRock, but lose traction too frequently on the local trails. Braking performance is especially bad on anything steep and loose. The Targhee trails are a little less technical than what I rode yesterday. Still, for the race, I’m going to switch to some tires that will hopefully hook up a little better on loose dirt.