Desert X 2010/11 5 Weeks To Go!

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Kenisis

Race Dog
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
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Location
The sand pit
Bike
KTM 990 Adventure
Desert X 2010/11 In The UAE.

Hi there all Wild dogs.

Last year I bought my first ever “Plastic Bike” a CRF 450 X from  Chris Jackson that had completed the 2008 Desert challenge on the bike and I decided with a friend of mine Lloyd to start riding in the dunes around Dubai for some fun. Being a Pocket Rocket lover this was a totally new experience for me!

Lloyd and I at Fossil Rock.
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The Dirt where i learnt to respect my Plastic Bike
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We met some other “week end warriors” and found out that a lot of them were taking part in “Baja” events. It sounded awesome but in the same breath I Karked myself and decided not to race the end of the 2008/9 season but rather to try my hand at the next season. I have posted some videos and pic`s from the last season.

The Boys day out in the dunes
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My Bike.
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Pictures During one the Race.
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The Bivouac and Camp Sites.
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Awesome Racing terrain in Arjan near the start of the empty Quarter
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So now having raced the last Season and I must admit going to watch the UAE Desert challenge I was majorly Jaggs(Excuse the spelling) to take part in the next UAE Desert challenge. So bearing this in mind I started my preparations for the 2010/11 Desert X Season and hopefully or Insha’Allah as they say here I will be going all the way to the Desert Challenge. Blue Bull you are my inspiration for this one!

Scenes from the Prologue!
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Mark Ackerman
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The Plan
My first plan of attack was to ride with a faster crowd. So I teamed up with a Mate, Phillip Van der Walt and we planned to ride every (Almost every) week end through the summer. This entails waking up at 03:30 in the morning and getting to our starting point before the sunrises and set off as the sun sets. All this to avoid a little heat. Starting off the Temp is around 36 Deg C and usually climbs to around 44 Deg when we finish. Any later and it would be 48 Deg. Not a joke at all.

“50 Phil”
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Riding with Phil has definitely improved my average speed through the desert. I was riding at around 42Km/h Ave and improved to around 50Km/h. It doesn’t sound like a lot but bearing in mind that the Pro`s like Sean Gaugain, Mark Ackerman and James west run at about 60 Km/h Ave it’s not bad. Please bear in mind that I have only been off-roading now 18 months.
My Second Plan of attack is to get fit. I think I totally underplayed this as I deemed myself overweight but riding Fit. Now that is one major underestimation from my part. Now I am very lucky to have 2 motivators or life coaches. Phillip and Mark. Both are Nuts about riding and both are very competitive. They both gave me the Pep talk I needed and prior to my summer vacation back in Cold SA. The Plan is to do some Spinning or RPM as they call it here and then Rowing. Then to cap it off with a week end ride.


It’s been 3 weeks of training now and I can honestly say I feel great. The tally of what I have done is as follows.


Date
[tr][td]Type Duration Ave HR Peak HR Cal Burnt
19 August 2010 Bicycle Ride 40`12" 150 161 515
21 August 2010 Desert ride 2:06`20" 122 157 996
22 August 2010 Bicycle Ride 37`08" 148 161 451
24 August 2010 RPM 58`33" 147 171 721
25 August 2010 RPM 59`16" 146 169 705
26 August 2010 Bicycle Ride 27`01" 146 158 333
28 August 2010 RPM 54`55" 140 161 658
28 August 2010 Desert ride 2:38`26" 143 166 1344
30 August 2010 Bicycle Ride 33`26" 140 157 397
30 August 2010 RPM 42`57" 141 161 519
01 September 2010 RPM 51`40" 144 166 667
05 September 2010 Rowing 56`58" 139 166 697
06 September 2010 RPM 50`38" 143 162 659
07 September 2010 Rowing 46`56" 150 168 689


My Third plan is to get up to date with all my safety gear and navigation. I bought myself a new Shoei Helmet and Alpinestars Boots. I am planning to get myself a pair of Asterix Knee braces at the end of this month then I have the best of everything with regards to safety.
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I bought myself a new Garmin Foretrex 401 as my old GPS has a nasty habit of turning itself off during a race and there is nothing more irritating than not knowing where you are going.

All in all, things are on track now to go forward with this season. There is currently 5 weeks to go and I hope to give you guys updates of everything as it unfolds.

Do you guys want stats on my Training and maps etc of the training rides that I will be doing?
 
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