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Thank you all.
I think that you are all right and that basically mostly shorter, harder rides with occasional lingers (which are probably often the audaxes themselves).. My standard commute is 20 miles/day, but it is easy to let that descend to just a trudge that doesn't help much at all. I think I will continue to try and put some efforts into my commute, continue with the TTs and the trips out with the club. I think I will also try and extend the club rides to be 160 km so I get to see that as a "normal" ride.
And I'll put more effort into riding in groups on the audaxes.
graunch-
Everyone suggesting shorter rides in order to make long rides faster?
The principal of specificity disagrees.
Do longer rides, but set time goals or something similar to push yourself to do them faster.Doing short rides is easy and sure if you do them quick you'll probably go faster during your audaxes but doing longer rides in training makes the longer audaxes seem easy as you know you can do the distance, you become more efficient bio-mechanically and with regard to training effect, blood volume, fuel burning, etc. You also learn more about what to fuel with, sort out niggling issues, pack better, etc.
It also depends on what you want out of it. Some people like spending a good time sitting down at controls and riding quick in between. It depends on how much time you can give to the sport - you might only be able to fit in short stuff but the longer stuff done faster is more useful I believe.
hippy
In the audax handbook they suggest 10-14 hours a week on the bike is plenty in terms of training. Riding the events I think is kind of training in itself. Personally as I don't commute by bike as much as I used to and clock up only 5 hours a week I try to get in a longer ride if I'm not riding an event. I have a hilly 100km ride which goes into Kent and Surrey that I use fairly regularly as a training ride. I also do a bit of upper body strength training 3 times a week, things like chin-ups and dips along with some core work. I find it helps with the handling especially when I get tired.
What I've found (and I've only been at it a couple of years) is that fitness and stamina can last a while, say a month without training but strength drops rapidly without training in a few days. I find that I'll be able to keep going but find the hills really hard or be reduced to a crawl. So I need to train on hills fairly regularly and do some intervals.
Aside from the physical training, there is training the mind. This isn't racing but we're out there for many hours and often riding solo. Can you stay focused and in a positive and constructive frame of mind? Are you able to alter your mental state when you sense it is heading in a direction that isn't conducive to your performance? Again looking back over my limited experience of audaxing I would say that the challenge is just as much mental as well as physical perhaps even more so.
Training as far as I'm concerned is the difference between struggling and feeling comfortable. If you already feel comfortable then you probably don't need to train.