Audax rides

Looks like first few hours might be a little grim with headwind and rain, but then from 10ish onwards looks like a nice day. Which is much better than the other way round.

And the GMC riders were off this morning in a wee bit of drizzle, but nothing too bad, especially as it's looking a lot brighter now.

But I found a Castelli jacket in Roan St, which I reckon might have belonged to someone heading to the depart - PM me if it's yours ...

Blimey, that was a tough ride. Kudos to those riding it fixed. Found it a struggle with gears. But I did enjoy it nonetheless and it was gorgeous weather after the showery drizzle in the morning. Good to meet so many experienced riders.

Not sure which I found harder; the going down or the going up. For both you need to concentrate and with more gentle slopes you can sort of switch off but in this case you had to stay focused on bike handling. Stayed in a good mood all day with no thoughts of "why am I doing this?"

Will I be going more AAA rides? Hmm. Not sure. Anyway, that's my September ride done. Time to look for an October one.

Chapeau, that's a hilly ride. Now you can keep to the not so lumpy ones as the days start to shorten.

Mixing it up (with something tough) is a good way to keep the mojo going.

That was really, really hard.
Finished horribly late after getting lost in Crowborough trying to navigate round carnival. Plus also being incredibly slow on the hills. The stretch before Bexhill was very tough.
Failed to stay in a good mood all day... worst bit was Crowborough where after having spent the previous hour thinking it'd be nice to see some people and be somewhere other than deserted country lanes I discovered that crowds of drunken teenagers and processions of burning torches weren't what I was hoping for. But overall a great ride I think. Or at least it will be once the bad bits have faded from memory.
Feeling exhausted today and trying not to mind that my Garmin has lost the last third of the ride due to battery running out.

That was a tough day out!

Fantastic route though, lots of lovely lanes, pretty villages and 2 visits to the seaside (I only had 1 ice cream though, breaking my personal rule of any visit to the seaside needing an ice cream).

Bastard hard on fixed - especially as I was rather overconfident and ran 71" for the first 130km (what I ran for PBP without issue). I knew that was too big for me on that sort of terrain, but was too stupid to listen to myself and run lower from the start. Flipped to 67" at Seaford and life became a lot easier, but my legs were already shot, so it was a very hard 170km to the end, especially combined with having got up at 3:30 to ride over. Slowness meant it was too late for a train home, so another ride across town to home - never a fan of riding through london on a Saturday night, especially when tired.

Great day out though and massive thanks to AC Hackney, especially Ivan for organising and Tim and Adam for braving the wind to stamp cards at the seaside.

Lots of bits hurt today. But pleased to have done my first properly hilly longer ride on fixed.

Great experience for my first audax, we were the last finishers (3 of us did it together), but still happy to have finished. Looking forward to taking on more 300+ rides, and astounded by the kindness and hospitality of Hackney Audax Club.
Would really like to try out the route fixed, but will wait at least a couple of weeks for that.

I think that means I finished 4th from last if you were the 3 arriving just as I left the Arrivée.

Navigating round this while exhausted was challenging -

Crowborough roadblock

It was about 8.00pm when I was going through Crowborough. Saw roads closed and people milling about with glow sticks. Slowed down and weaved my way through the crowd. Looked like things were winding up but I guess it was just kicking off.

The road was clear when we rode through Crowborough, but still lots of people about, some of whom clapped as we rode through, which at that point was very encouraging.
Also on one of the last climbs in the North Downs we went past a house playing Livin' on a Prayer ridiculously loud. The absurdity of this was also quite encouraging.

They weren't playing anything quite so rocking when I went past that house, but it looked like a pretty good party they had going on!

9.5 hours in the saddle Saturday- the best saddle I have ever ridden http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Mountain-bicycle-3K-full-carbon-fibre-saddle-Road-carbon-bike-saddle-MTB-Super-light-carbon/2039685980.html

Any of you guys here do ECE? I don't just mean riding to and from the start / finish point of the event (as some refer to as ECE) but actually mapping the route, submitting it for validation etc. I tend to not bother with the train nowadays for anything up to about 35km one way and give myself the option of using the train for the return journey home if I'm pooped but that has rarely happened. So I'm now wondering about extending the transit rides and making them official.

This is mainly as a result of chatting to Tim Sollesse at the Seaford control on Saturday. Having told him that it was my first hilly ride he asked if I was after the points to which I gave a quizzical look. He then explained that he had accrued 100 points last year and was focusing more on organising this year. It got me thinking about a challenge for next year. I definitely want to progress to the 400 and 600 but a points challenge might be an idea too.

The other thing that Tim explained was that in his experience, once you get comfortable at the 200km distance, the longer ones are more about strategy rather than fitness. Eating and sleeping. Would be interested to hear what some the more experienced riders here think about that.

A guy who sat at the same table at the Bexhill control said that he'd ridden 7 x 600 rides this year, PBP and a 1700 in Europe. There are audax nutters and then there are audax nutters.

I used to be diligent about ECE. I've ECE'd a 300km event up to a 600km in the past. I've done plenty of 50km to and from for an extra 100km. Some events I have done 100km there and then got the train back at the end of the day.

These days, I can't be bothered with the paperwork. I ride to and from as many events as possible (no car and it's more time in the saddle, which is always good), but don't worry about getting any points as they are not really my motivation these days.

Personally, I would say 300km is the breakthrough point. Get that sorted and everything else can fall into place. Even the longer stuff tends to work out at having to do 300-350km a day minimum, so once you're happy at the distance, you can then start to apply your strategy to pretty much anything.

Much of the above is why 400km is often seen as one of the harder distances - it's much further than you typically ride in one go on longer stuff (even a 600 tends to have a sleep stop at less than 400km). Well, that's until I noticed that a lot of experienced, and fast, riders actually stop and have a sleep on 400s! No point in rushing around and finishing in the middle of the night is there? Since then I have always had a short sleep on 400s and things have been much easier. Takes a little jump in your approach though, if you are speed motivated and like to try and 'beat' your last time or whatever.

There is always a nutter who will out-nutter anything and everything you can think of/do!

A arbitrary points target can be a good motivator. I went for and got 50 points in 2009 (with all but one 300* on fixed) and it certainly helped me get out and do some rides after LEL (late July) as that had put me on 44 points, so 3 DIY 200s required to top it off. Without that goal I doubt I would have touched the Audax bike for a good few months (I certainly didn't for many months after PBP in 2011).

AAA points can also be good. If you're happy with doing 200km rides then AAA rated 100s and 200s present a good challenge that doesn't take up all weekend (like 300s can with travel to/from and 400/600km rides certainly do). Doing lots of AAA rides will also make the flatter rides seem easier.

Doing more and more rides on fixed too, although that's more about building mental strength to combat the "Why the fuck am I doing this?" fairies that come out especially in the middle of long fixed rides.

The other thing that Tim explained was that in his experience, once you get comfortable at the 200km distance, the longer ones are more about strategy rather than fitness. Eating and sleeping. Would be interested to hear what some the more experienced riders here think about that.

Definitely true. A 600 is just like back to back 300km rides (although you usually end up splitting it up as 350/250 or 400/200), so there's still a bit of fitness involved.

It comes down to how you feel after a ride. If you finish a 200 and are utterly broken then it's unlikely you'd be able to finish a 300, but if you finish a 200 and think "ugh, but that was ok" and do some more riding to/from the event, then you'll be able to scrape round a 300 or even feel the ok at the end of a 300. Repeat this reasoning for 300->400 and 400->600, etc. As long as you don't feel completely done in at the end of a ride then you can ride further.

The trickiest one to crack is the 400. It's long enough that you generally need a nap at some point, but short enough that you never really build up enough time in hand to have a proper sleep. If you can cope with 400s then pretty much everything else is just doing the same old stuff again and again after a short sleep (the faster you are the more sleep you get). Certainly the longer rides (1000km+) are made considerably easier with good fitness, but the experience can help you save hours by not wasting unnecessary time at controls. It also helps to know your body/mind so you can decide to sleep at a control if you think you might not make it to the next one rather than be caught with the dozies half way through an 80km stage with nowhere comfy to sleep in the pouring rain**.

But, don't take too long to build up to things, there's a certain something to be said for just launching yourself in to the longer rides and seeing what happens. Most people do their first 400 and 600 in the same year, I can't think of a reason not to. Anyone who's done that Greenwich Mean Climb should be fine for a non-AAA 400 and therefore a 600.

The Bryan Chapman Memorial 600 is a great ride and those Welsh hills are very different to Sussex. Very fixed friendly too.

* 5390m climbing in a 300km ride. Ouch.
** Me in Longtown on the 80km leg from Eskdalemuir to Alton on LEL in 2009. Idiot.

I think I must have gone through Crowborough about 30 mins later, by which point it was chaos. I suspect if I'd not been exhausted and going through a low point I'd have probably found it really entertaining, but was just not in the mood for dealing with loads of people at that point.

The party house in the North Downs was blasting out Tiffany 'I think we're alone now' when I went past, was pretty surreal.

Talking of distances, I jumped straight into doing an SR this year, not really having done much over 200km ever before. It's been tough... still feel like I'm trying to figure out what does and doesn't work for me. As rides go on I struggle not to watch the clock and count kilometres on my Garmin, which psychologically is really bad as I'm pretty slow, particularly on hills. I found GMC much harder than my 400km as a result. I think I enjoyed 400k more than most of the rides because it was in Scotland and the scenery was a lot more interesting. Also about the only audax related thing I'm good at is dealing with sleep deprivation.

I think while it is mostly psychological, bike comfort really seems to get important on 300 and above. I suffered a lot on WCW and I'm feeling pretty rough after Saturday. I reckon I over-inflated my tyres due to not wanting to risk pinch flats and am now paying the price.

Have concluded that if I'm to do more long distance rides I probably need a dedicated audax bike with bigger, tubeless tyres, higher bars and an even lower gear than 34-28.

Thanks for the input guys. Much appreciated. Feel like I've really moved forward this year. Last year I did a handful of 100km rides and only one 200km so have stepped things up quite considerably this year compared to that. I really want to build on what I have now and take it to the next level. Did a DIY 400 which was Dun Run and back. Also Around Weald including transits was 370km. I'm also fairly comfortable with lack of sleep. But need to ride a calendar 400 to feel like I've done it. So that's on the list for 2016 and I think I'll have a go at BCM. Everyone who has ridden BCM says it's amazing.

Well, back to the present. Another ride for September to plan and probably a perm for October as I can't find any calendar rides that fit.

Time to get Jan Heined then.

Wondering when BCM will sell out - tempted to enter now, but sort of want to wait until I'm sure I'll have a more appropriate bike.

Doing Dunwich and back seems harder than most 400km rides - obviously not a lot of climbing, but psychologically hard to drag yourself onto the road again when everyone else is finishing and you've been up all night.

I probably need a dedicated audax bike

It's not about the bike, but if it's going to be a psychological boost then get n+1.

I've done Audaxes on:

• A 1990s Colnago Master, 23mm tyres, 40?x26 lowest gear
  
• An Aravis Audax, Reynolds 631 steel, 25mm tyres, 30x29 lowest gear
  
• A Wilier Izoard, Carbon Fibre, 23mm tyres, 34x26 lowest gear
  
• A Condor Tempo, Dedacciai SAT 14.5 steel, 25mm tyres, 46x18 only gear
  
  

It's way more about you and your fitness (both physical and mental) than the bike.

Usually I'd be the first person to say that buying multiple bikes for different purposes is unnecessary, but the amount of pain I was in yesterday & this morning suggests I need to set up something a bit different.
Of course I could probably achieve this just by getting a bigger rear cassette and a longer cage mech + adding in a load of headset spacers, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun...
And letting some air out of my tyres as well. Though I have not had a single puncture while audaxing this year.

Dibs on Bicycle Quarterly when you are done reading ;)
About time you board the 650b train.

Lovely day out on the GMC.
Weather was just right.
Hills were lovely.
I felt like I was climbing for ever!
Club run the next day was tiring.
Anyone doing the uni challenge on sat?

LEL 2017 places open (£100 deposit) for those who aren't current Audax UK members or don't have a guaranteed place (from volunteering or contributing to the Madegood film). The first 100 went on sale earlier today and sold out in minutes. Another 200 going on sale at other times today.

http://londonedinburghlondon.com/enter/

Good news is that current AUK members (well those who were a member on 25th March this year) have a guaranteed place and don't have to pay anything until early 2017.

"
Early entry for Audax UK members

If you were an Audax UK member on 25 March 2015, and remain an Audax member, entries open on 6 January 2017, and we will guarantee you a place until 19 January 2017.
"

Am glad I can postpone making any decisions on this for a while longer. Really can't decide if I want to do it or not.