High Epic drop out rate

[The Drongo]

 

T.I.T.S. ?

 

Nope.

 

Just tit.

[Chain-L]

Nope.

 

Just tit.

 

yes, as I said...what happened to the OP tit?

[Toxic]

How much training (on average per week) do you think is required?

Over how many weeks?

 

I am very interested in your answer

 

Well, with Tons I actually meant 20-25 hour weeks for long periods of time.

Doing +- 10 hour weeks (including a 4 hour hard club ride) from now till SEP/OCT, and then the hours will be pushed up to max week of 16-18 per hours.

 

I know the EPIC is not walk in the park, but I have read a couple of the Epic training Topics on the forum and if you train effectively with a 16-18 hour peak week, I reckon the training should be sufficient to be mid pack

 

I have read all the replies, and from that I guess it is the simple pimpel and weak mind that is the major cause of EPIC failure.

The last thing you don;t want is to fight for cut-off times. That places more stress on the hole experience.

 

That is why my concern about the drop out rate, So that we can make sure we are properly prepared for 2013.

[Mushilele]

'Weak mind' ... Please define.

[Shebeen]

Sorry if i'm opening a can of worms but i think the difficulty to finish the Epic is highly overated.To do well (top 100) i agree takes lots of training,to just finish i'm sorry,thats a lot easier than people make it out to be.

robby kempson finished it.nuff said

[reteid]

robby kempson finished it.nuff said

on the same sort of topic i see ollie le roux finished IM.do not judge a book on its cover.

[Tubehunter]

'Weak mind' ... Please define.

 

It's waking up on the 4th morning, when you haven't put in enough training and your body is fighting back. You've probably got a rash that's just broken skin on your ballsack and simply walking around is painful. You've just about emptied a tube of fissan paste on your chamois and ass, tried sticking a special synthetic skin plaster to your affected area before hoping it will stay there until it goes numb from the ride and now you're trying to will yourself to get to the breakfast tent to make sure you take on enough food to sustain you through the start of the morning at least. Every single movement is almost a force of will as muscles are tired from back to back days of riding and are mostly in weird unfamiliar places like inbetween your fingers. You even see it in the eyes of others around you. You know you need to hurry up, cos you still need to get your stuff packed and to the transport before you try to fit in a toilet stop and make it to the start. You feel constantly rushed, playing catch up and maybe you've got some mild overuse pain in a knee or two to compound things. More often than not you end up with some mechanical issue on your bike just to amplify the situation.

 

Anyone who has not put in enough training will wake up to at least one of these types of mornings at the event, where the logistics of everything else, pushes them over the edge and they either have the strength of mind to push through or bail.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Tubehunter

[Top Fuel]

Once you have done it you will see why. You don't need that much training if you are already reasonably fit. People go out for all sorts of reasons. Can you believe it even the pros and I am pretty sure they put in the training. You go out because of bad luck. It happens. When you ride it you will see. I hope you enjoy it as I have dont twice in the past. My best advice has always been to take everything you have with 2 cups of humour. The rainy day this year was fun cause we treated it that way. It was hard for sure and the bikes were in pieces by the end but we kept lauging and joking and at the end we made it in a pretty good time. We passed people getting frustrated and it made their situation worse.

Look forward to your race report.

[slabs]

on the same sort of topic i see ollie le roux finished IM.do not judge a book on its cover.

 

At "Dictator"

 

Ja, and you are an ex Springbok as well??? Maybe there is a lesson in that these guys have been disciplined in their training, have been superfit and know what it takes to suffer. Look at all the other top sport personalities that do the race succesfully (Joel Stransky, Marius Hurter, Andrew Patterson, Alain Prost, etc).

 

Once you have reached the top level of your sport, then comment

Edited April 26, 2012 by slabs

[wacker]

TO me the drop out rate doesnt look bad.

I race motorcycle enduro and we have a huge drop out rate even at world class level, like Roof of africa, only about a 10% finishing rate.

With the cape epic being one of the toughest multi day stage races Id say its a pretty high finishing rate!

[bassasdaindia]

One of three things

1. Undertraining
   
2. Mentally unprepared
   
3. Mechanical
   

I would imagine that anyone who dropped out would have been able to tick one of those boxes.

 

As for tons of training, I haven't done an epic but I beg to differ. It requires tons of training, in the region of 15 - 20hrs a week during the bigger blocks and immense amounts of sacrifice.

 

What about injury during the event ?

[Firemeister]

robby kempson finished it.nuff said

and your point exactly?

 

For Springbok front rowers to pass the "fitness" test, they are required to, among other things, run a 3km stretch in under 12 minutes...

 

and also, getting national colours in any sport requires a lot of HTFU. nuff said

[G-Unit]

Once you have done it you will see why. You don't need that much training if you are already reasonably fit. People go out for all sorts of reasons. Can you believe it even the pros and I am pretty sure they put in the training. You go out because of bad luck. It happens. When you ride it you will see. I hope you enjoy it as I have dont twice in the past. My best advice has always been to take everything you have with 2 cups of humour. The rainy day this year was fun cause we treated it that way. It was hard for sure and the bikes were in pieces by the end but we kept lauging and joking and at the end we made it in a pretty good time. We passed people getting frustrated and it made their situation worse.

Look forward to your race report.

 

On the rainy day, I saw that Swiss dude on the tandem with his wife pick up the tandem and hurl it into the top a bush after getting stuck with chainsuck for about the 100th time. That was freakin' classic!

[Firemeister]

It's waking up on the 4th morning, when you haven't put in enough training and your body is fighting back. You've probably got a rash that's just broken skin on your ballsack and simply walking around is painful. You've just about emptied a tube of fissan paste on your chamois and ass, tried sticking a special synthetic skin plaster to your affected area before hoping it will stay there until it goes numb from the ride and now you're trying to will yourself to get to the breakfast tent to make sure you take on enough food to sustain you through the start of the morning at least. Every single movement is almost a force of will as muscles are tired from back to back days of riding and are mostly in weird unfamiliar places like inbetween your fingers. You even see it in the eyes of others around you. You know you need to hurry up, cos you still need to get your stuff packed and to the transport before you try to fit in a toilet stop and make it to the start. You feel constantly rushed, playing catch up and maybe you've got some mild overuse pain in a knee or two to compound things. More often than not you end up with some mechanical issue on your bike just to amplify the situation. Anyone who has not put in enough training will wake up to at least one of these types of mornings at the event, where the logistics of everything else, pushes them over the edge and they either have the strength of mind to push through or bail.

 

very well said Tubehunter

[Goodbadugly]

As I sit here sipping a glass of red wine I think about this.

Always a few clever couch potatoes with rather daft remarks like "if Kempson can do it, it is easy. So everybody that could not finish must be really bad/dumb/not real mountain bikers(my favourite)/unfit."

Only a rookie in mountainbiking and stage racing will wonder why people are not able to finish big stage races like the Epic.

[Beablebro]

Entered my first one, 2012, only lasted until stage 6, immune system gave in on stage 5, but made cut-off with 9 minutes, longest, hardest day of my life !

Unfortunately I now have a beef with the Epic and a hangup for not finishing.

Epic will see me in 2013, come hell or high water.

Training: max 18 hour week.

Big mistake: only started training in Jan, when I got offered an entry !

Lesson learned: start trainingin August of preceeding year, train climbing until you throw up, because you will be climbing in the Epic - a lot !