Okay, okay, okay. Let's start over. I just realized a few things, one being that you all are much more serious competitors than I am, and another being that I didn't give you near enough information to help me out.
So let's start over. Okay.
I am a 30-year-old female, who works 8-10 hours a day sitting at a desk. I race sport class, but I usually only do one (MAYBE two) races per year, mostly because I'm busy and I don't make the time to enter races with any regularity. The race I want to start training for (starting January) is the Downieville Classic. And when I say "kick ass," I don't mean WIN (although that would be fabulous!) I mean finish the race in under 3 hours. You guys have probably done the Downieville XC race before, but for anyone who hasn't it's basically 3000 feet of climbing (mostly non-technical, but some spots are tricky) followed by 4000 feet of downhill (starting out VERY technical, but getting easier and easier until it finishes on swoopy, buffed-out, sloppy-grin-inducing singletrack).
The reasons I don't want to do any road miles mainly boil down to the fact that I don't have a lot of time to ride, so when I DO go out and ride, I don't want to spend the bike time doing something I don't enjoy. Also, I live in a very traffic-congested area, with narrow roads that have no shoulders, so it's dangerous and scary, and not that much fun. For me, personally.
My main issue with the Downieville race is technical skill. I have great cardio, and although I've only done the race twice, I didn't bonk either time. I know I still need to ride a lot and put in the miles just because it's a long, tiring race (30 miles), but I'm going to spend most of my training (as soon as it gets warm/light enough to ride outside) working on technical skill. Which leaves me with a base to build. A base that will not include road miles.
So I guess my question is two-fold: Part A) Will riding longer rides on easy dirt do what I want it to do for this particular race? Part B) Should I really get my nipples pierced?
Thanks!
fastequalsfun