Race Day and Long Events

FIM Europe's enduro rules allow a competition day of up to seven and a half hours. The Hard Enduro World Championship allows two to eight hours of racing a day, on multi-day events too. Your fitness and your fuel have to last all of it.

Race day also changes your pace without asking. Seat Time's enduro guide suggests you first make sure you can ride 45 to 55 miles with friends, because race day "always seems to tick up the pace".

Keep your head on the next job, not the whole day. Rich Larsen, who presents IRC Tire's hard enduro videos, put it this way: "If I'm at the beginning of a Hard Enduro stuck in a tough situation and I think man I've got six more hours of this I'd go crazy before the first hour is over. Instead I take it one obstacle" at a time. The tools for that are in the mental game lesson.

The sport itself is explained in what is enduro and hard enduro. This table covers what each format means for your pacing. Always read your event's supplementary regulations: club rules vary.

In a time-card enduro the clock runs all day. Under FIM Europe's rules:

• Your card shows the time allowed for each section. Arrive at the next time check early or late and you're "penalised 1 minute per minute". The time you're booked in becomes your start time for the next section.
• The flags tell you where you are. White flags stand 200 m before the control table and yellow flags 20 m before it. A clock at the yellow flag shows the time. Wait short of the yellow flag and cross it in your minute.
• Don't stop between the yellow flag and the table. That costs a minute on top of anything else.
• Never miss a check. "A rider who misses a time check will be excluded." So is a rider more than 30 minutes behind schedule for the day.

For a first enduro in the US timekeeping style, Rich Lafferty's advice is to relax: "If you're a C rider and it's your first Enduro going in, I wouldn't worry about timekeeping at all." Introduce yourself to an experienced rider on your number and follow along. And "I wouldn't just blitz and try and hare scramble the whole thing either."

• Check the bike. Run through the pre-ride checklist in bike setup. Fix it now, not on the start line. Know how far a tank takes you on this kind of ground.
• Sign on and pass technical inspection. In FIM Europe events your time card is issued then, or at parc fermé on the first morning.
• Read the route information. Know where fuel, water and help are allowed. Red Bull Romaniacs sends refuelling details the afternoon before and holds a briefing at 20:00 each day. Smaller events have a riders' meeting.
• Walk the test or the prologue if the rules allow it. FIM Europe lets riders inspect special tests "on foot but not by wheeled vehicle". Look for the lines that keep you moving.
• Race in what you've trained in. New boots, a new hydration pack or a new food is a race-day gamble.
• Pack tonight. Lay out the kit list below, fill the hydration pack and charge anything that needs it. Then go to bed.

Check your event's list first. Red Bull Romaniacs, for example, makes riders carry "1 Litre of water (minimum)", a survival blanket and a waterproof jacket, among other things. Missing kit costs 30 minutes. For any long day, carry:

Eat early. The joint position of the American College of Sports Medicine and two dietetics bodies gives "1–4 g/kg consumed 1–4 h before exercise" for pre-event carbohydrate. It adds that foods "high in fat/protein/fiber may need to be avoided" to protect your stomach. Seat Time's nutrition guide says to finish eating 60 to 90 minutes before the start. Eat what you've eaten before training rides.

Get to the start early. In FIM Europe events you may enter parc fermé "5 minutes before" your start time, only to push the bike to the start area. No work is allowed there.

Expect nerves. Use the 20-second routine from the mental game lesson on the line.

At a mass start, let the line go. Donnie, of Dirt Biking with Donnie, suggests a first-timer start five seconds behind the field and miss the first-turn chaos. For beginners, "it's rare that five, ten, or even 30 seconds makes a difference after two hours of racing".

Ride the first hour below your limit. Donnie's warning: "The adrenaline will push you hard for the first 15 minutes or so and leave you drained when it wears off." And: "It does you no good at all to put everything you have into the first lap if you can't maintain that pace for a full race."

Race the clock, not your row. In an enduro you start a test with the riders on your row. Seat Time's advice: "Don't then decide to race them into the first turn. It's not a cross-country race." Your score is your time, so you're "really racing the clock".

Know where time really goes. A steady pace costs seconds. These cost minutes, or the race:

• Time-check penalties. A minute for every minute early or late. Ride the liaison to your schedule, not flat out.
• Getting stuck. Before his first Erzbergrodeo, EnduroGP champion Andrea Verona told Enduro21 "you need to avoid getting stuck and pushing as much as possible if you don't want to drain your energy."
• Crashing and breaking the bike. Verona again: "You need to be able to go up and down without making big mistakes or falling down so you don't break the bike."
• Tired decisions. Late in the day, choose the easier line. See long days and tired decisions.

On hard enduro obstacles, take a line you can ride without stopping over a faster line you might stall on.

How much to eat and drink is in endurance: carbohydrate per hour, the 2% body-weight limit and salt. This section is about when and where.

On a multi-day event, day two starts the moment day one ends.

Drink back what you lost. If you weighed yourself before and after (see endurance), the joint position advises drinking more than the deficit, "1.25–1.5 L fluid for every 1 kg BW lost", because you keep losing fluid after you stop. Dietitian Jordan Sullivan gives the same rule on Gypsy Tales: put back "1.2 to 1.5" times what you lost. The joint position also says athletes "should not be advised to restrict sodium" after exercise, because sodium helps you hold on to the fluid. Salt your food.

Eat soon. Have a carbohydrate-rich meal soon after you finish. The joint position recommends "0.25–0.3 g/kg body weight or 15–25 g protein" in the first two hours to help muscles repair.

Skip the beer. The joint position encourages athletes to "minimize or avoid alcohol consumption in the post-exercise period when issues of recovery and injury repair are a priority."

Fix the bike when the rules allow. In FIM Europe events the bike goes into parc fermé after day one. You may only push it in and out, and no work is allowed there or in the start area next morning. You have 15 minutes from the pre-finish time check, through the last service area, to the final time check. Use that window. At club events with no parc fermé, do the jobs straight away, not at midnight.

Get ready for tomorrow. Dry your kit, refill the pack, read the next day's information and sleep.

The basics are in save energy while you ride: a light grip, letting the bike move, steady breathing, lines that keep you moving, and momentum over effort. On race day, add these:

• Rest on the liaison. Sit on smooth transfers, as body positioning explains: sit on purpose, to rest. Shake out your hands, drink and breathe.
• Stay off the ground when you're tired. Larsen notes that "especially when you're tired you lose balance and need to dab". Keep your weight on the pegs and dab lightly. Each heavy dab costs grip and energy.
• Push less. Verona's point about getting stuck is the big one. A line you can ride beats a faster one you might have to push up.

Nerves tighten your grip, and a tight grip brings on arm pump. The arm pump guide covers it.