Audax rides

Fair enough, I missed that bit in the twelfty posts I was replying to (on the general "how do I train for Audax" theme).

Anyone else doing the Heartbeat 400? Seems to be a long old schlep between controls, averaging 80-100Km.

Heartbeat 400?

http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/15-315/

Cycle in the "North"? Are you mad?!

I'm on it. All things going according to plan, it should be my first official outing for my forum jersey.

The gaps are long but the route provides a lot of options for stopping and refuelling if needs be. Night section might be a bit sparse though.

Seems to be a long old schlep between controls, averaging 80-100Km.

Long schleps between controls on longer rides is a good thing. I don't like having to stop every 50k on a ride of 300km or more.

It'll also be useful training for PBP as the first official control is ~220km (you don't need to get a stamp at the 140km control).

plots new route

Any other PBP shortcuts I should know about?

It's a mandatory route. No free will choice.

(I bypassed Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem on the way back but wasted more time than I saved by going the wrong way; and I also went the wrong way right at the finish.)

hands back PBP homologation

That's what they think. Don't they know who saved their cheese in WWII?!

Ha, I like the change of scenery up Norf, (did the North West Passage a few weeks back). Plus there's a dearth of Southern 400s', was going to double up on 600s but decided against it.

I'll look out for you then- did you organise the Ghan?

Just joshin'

I'd ride more stuff up there but have enough on my plate already without organising travel and accommodation too. Sticking with the easy local stuff first and will expand my range when I'm not also training for TTs.

.

Think that was Tim Sollesse. TSK ran The Dean.

I saw that.

Not me. Look out for a tall speccy twat on a blue Planet X. Are you local or staying nearby?

anyone doing oats and coats this year next saturday?

Thank you all very much for your help.

As hippy says, I get round in relative comfort but just get slower and slower as the ride goes on (who'd a thunk it?). I suppose that one of my worries is that one of the ways that I deal with getting through an audax is to try and keep it to a reasonable length of time, and that was possible with a 300, but probably isn't with the 400.

To that end I am actually more concerned about the 400 than the 600. My 300 took me 13 hours all told, which means that I am thinking in my head that the 600 is basically two 300s separated with 6 hours sleep, which I think is probably plenty (or does it not work like that in practice)

Anyway, thank you all for your help.

You are right a 400 is possibly harder then a 600. And chapeau for going full value by kip, ie would think it advisable you sleep a bit shorter to have some time in hand for eventualities on day two.

What fussball means to say is, smash it, sleep is for wussies and you'll be able to ride home afterwards within the day. ;)

For your 400 it's just a matter of pushing through. If you get really tired, a 15 min nap should be enough to get you restarted.

For a 600, if you can do 300 in 13 hours then you'll likely be trying to sleep around 7pm while it's still light which isn't likely to work. Exploit the daylight hours and try to at least get to 350k or whatever control comes around that. 2-3 hours will be sufficient to get you through the next 250k. Depending on what the organisation is like on your 600, 6 hours sleep may not actually be available. On busier rides then sleeping spaces can get rationed. In a PBP year, most rides will be busy.

if you can do 300 in 13 hours then you'll likely be trying to sleep around 7pm while it's still light

You have pointed out an obvious point which I had utterly missed :-)

I guess that this means that I need a strategy change. Maybe something like "Have a deent lunch break, then cycle til say 10 and have a kip. I hadn't really thought about congestion at the checkpoints either, I suppose that that is something I need to get my head around. Or go fully independent; I guess a thermorest and a bivi bag or something would be a possible solution

Best not to make any decisions until you've done your 400. That way you'll know when you're likely to get tired. 10pm may be too soon for you and, if you can do it, pushing to the next control could be worth the effort. You're currently trying to plan for something you don't really have enough experience of. There's no rush, you'll have plenty of time to work out what you be most comfortable with.

Caffeine > sleep

When tired I've no problem falling asleep anywhere. Benches, church porches, whatever. Most of the time I'm warm enough to just stop and nap but on LEL I used a space blanket to keep me warm (it had been raining and I was soaked) for an hour doze in a church porch in Brampton.

Audax: Embrace your inner tramp.

Favourite on the Bryan Chapman was this bench: http://goo.gl/maps/9FzbZ

This was necessary since I wasn't particularly fit and so I was only an hour inside the time limits for the majority of the ride. I had a 30 minute nap with my head on a table at Menai and then 15 minutes on that bench, but I'm lucky that I can easily handle sleep deprivation.

If you're fast then you can build up a decent buffer to use for sleep. 300 in 13 hours would probably mean 400k in 18 hours. For a 6am start that puts you at midnight, perfect time for sleep and you've got 7 hours in the bank so I'd plan to get going again at 5am or 6am to leave some spare time for later. That's then 14 or 15 hours to smash out the last 200km. That's almost cheating.

Can send off your postcards while bedding down too.