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Is it a case then of firstly being able to complete the distance and then doing it in a faster time?
Sort of, but not directly.
For me it's about being able to complete the distance, the next things were/are:-
- Not being up against the time limits
- Doing it with more rest/sleep
- Doing hillier and hillier rides
- Doing more and more (longer/hillier) rides on fixed
Not being up against the time limits is related to speed but there's an early cut off with just how much faster you need to be to get this. Having 2 hours to do the 35km to a control before it closes is not relaxing; one puncture or mechanical and you could be out of time. Having 3 hours to do that distance makes it comfortable, having any more than that doesn't make it any more comfortable really. Once you're that little bit faster then it makes the rest of the ride more relaxing.
Of course, if you get round a 600km event with 8300m of climbing on fixed with 5 or 6 hours' sleep in the middle and a nice couple of hours to spare at the finish then you'll probably smash the next flat-ish 200km ride that you do on gears.
My goal is generally to finish any ride with about 2 hours time spare. This may change as I get fitter/faster as I train for slvlss.
- Not being up against the time limits
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I can't see the audax crowd wanting to race each other
Ha!
I was talking to Frank during the 400 and my explanation of previous audax scenery was "what scenery, all I see are potholes and powermeters". I'm a bit of an exception though, using these as training rides for TTs certainly isn't the norm.
To be fair, I did stop to take some photos during this weekend's audax so it's not always about training/racing.
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My experience from the 300 and 400 this year.
The fastest rider is on fixed, a lovely bloke and has placed high in a national 24h TT. See him in the morning and at the pub after the ride. The really fast audaxers ride old Bob Jacksons at speed between long time in controls, where I catch up with them and drink copious amounts of beer at the pub in the evening (last time I see them) before what I would think hammering home.
There is a 20mph moving speed rider (lovely chap, on here) overtook me numerous times, when asked what he was doing he said texting, before he decides to ride straight to his van for a nap.
Really enjoyed that wide variety of PBP qualifying number of starters allowed for round the clock company even in the very later slogging stages of the 400.
As to racing, won a race when I ditched a few very fast roadies that had flown past earlier but seemed very exhausted in the later stages of the race.
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So for me "speed" varies.
For the 200km rides, I am sometimes interested in how quickly I can do the distance and sometimes just out for a chat.
For the longer rides it starts to be about "Wanting to get it done". I rarely enjoy the dark bit at the end of a ride (though I love actual night rides like the dynamo) and so am eager to get it done. The idea of spending a couple of hours dozing in a bus shelter holds zero appeal.
I am going a 600 in a couple of weeks. Through a planning clusterfuck I appear to have entries for both Beast from the East and Flatlands so I need to choose now and cancel one.
The scenery on Severn Across was beautiful. Some of the woods with carpets of bluebells were so, so lovely this weekend.
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@arup
OK. So the speed question. I'd really like to know all of your thoughts and opinions on this.
It hasn't really concerned me before but yesterday during the Hop Garden I rode with a cold and I was going a bit slower than usual perhaps but it was bothering me. I'm fairly content to complete the distance and be inside the maximum time allocated for the event but having completed 200km in 8.5 hours as part of the Green and Yellow fields 300 ride and hearing how some of you are managing to complete them in shorter times and then going on to wonder how you could complete them in an even faster time these thoughts niggled at me yesterday.
To discourage racing audax has a maximum speed so I imagine that those of us who do want to improve their times want to get as close to that speed as possible without getting any faster. I can't see the audax crowd wanting to race each other as the objective is to enjoy the scenery and build up serious mileage and eat nice cake of course! Increasing speed then is more akin to time trailing rather than racing. Are we closet time trialists?
Is it a case then of firstly being able to complete the distance and then doing it in a faster time? Then of course proving ourselves in various other conditions such as wind, rain, heat and bad roads. There are always bad roads during some part of the ride.
I've been enjoying audaxing so far without speed being a factor and would quite like to keep it that way but now that I've started thinking about it I need some more points of view. Please help.