Audax rides

My 300 two weeks ago failed with the 1000 filling with water again. Only had 60k to go + ride home. Stupid Garmin. Saturday 200 i ran three Garmins. They all worked, of course.

Don't use a Garmin for navigation.
Eat and drink often.
Enjoy.

I rode it on a TT bike.

Lies!

Sugar is your friend. Fat slows gastric emptying so hampers carb uptake. Riding is one of the times sugar is actually good.

I prefer to drink when not eating. Don't dilute your stomach acid while it's working on food. Set alarm 20-30 and eat- drink alternate.

Right, what's the go with a AAA SR series? Is there an 'award' for it? What set of rides should i do?

I only really know of the Wessex series and that doesn't have GPS files and takes a while to get to/from Poole.

Check out the 'Grimpeurs de Sud' rides
for Southern Hilly rides

https://sites.google.com/site/grimpeursdusud/

Start with the Shark 2.4. from Greenwich?

Routesheet.

Ride to Poole.

Yeah, that. I want one of those. Well, I don't care about the badge so much I just want to have done it.

I've already done some AAA 200s this year but that's what I don't get - there's AAA points so is there some kind of points requirement for the SR series or is any AAA event ok to contribute towards it?

Some ideas in that list, cheers, but I see lots of shorter rides but only a couple of 300 and a 600, no 400?

Greenwich Mean Climb
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/16-91/

Oasts & Coasts
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/17-545/

Sea Lovers 600
http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/AD01/

Not in the south east, just do the Wessex

Can we chat a bit more about this 20-30 eat-drink business? Pretty interested in that, I suspect that most times I'm struggling is because of nutrition. I'm basically really bad at listening to my body until it shuts down on me.

My curiosity is: when you knowledgeable folk say 'eat', what kind of quantity are we talking about? Let's say I eat every hour, how much are we talking about? A couple handfuls of trail mix? More?

(I know nutrition is one of those things that's very individual, I have to have a mix of sugary and salty things, for instance, otherwise I saturate either way)

Without putting myself out there for inevitable flak - I researched all the awards a bit 'cos I designed all the new badges/medals for AUK...and the AAA ones are by far the most convoluted of the lot - pretty sure its just any combination of SR rides that all need to have AAA points, and longer can be counted (i.e. 600 could take place of 400) or I guess if you got really technical you could claim the hilly part of a 600 as a 400km with AAA points......

maybe?

http://www.aukweb.net/results/aaa/aaawds/

aaawds­

Haha.

Of course, they could call them 'upwards', too.

Then again, what goes up must come down.

I don't know where I'm going with this.

My typing teacher (yes, motherfucking typewriters, how old am I?!) said "Practice doesn't make perfect, but it does make you better".

Before I started training for 24hr TTs I'd got out with one bottle and a couple of energy bars and ride 200k and then demolish everything in the house on my return, unable to touch a bike for a week because I was so destroyed. After getting into the habit of regular eating and drinking (helped by a Garmin or watch alarm) it's much easier to regulate intake and keep the bonk at bay.

Of course now I've intentionally gone back to my old ways because I'm training my 'unsupported ultra racing' skills.

What I did was read a lot about performance nutrition and then try to apply it. Aim for a minimum of 60g/hr of carbs - I tried up to 120g/hr and found for me 90g/hr was optimal.

Take note of what you ate on a ride and then put that into MyFitnessPal or add up the carbs using the nutrition panel or estimates, divide by the hours spent riding and then see what you consumed. For example, my 200k on Sat I was only at 45g/hr (actually less because I only ate more stuff right near home - actually ~250k ride total)

So, my 'self-selected' service station junk food diet only got me half of what I usually take in for a 24hr race. So, next time I go out I will be eating more than I did and find new things to increase my carbs and decrease my fat intake.

This all needs to be balanced against intensity - I was riding reasonably hard compared to an audax and balanced against what you can actually tolerate and like the taste of.

Also, not eating anything for ages then stuffing yourself right before a big climb.. not sensible so you need to think about intake timing a bit.

Thanks, this is the bit I think I want:

"AAA Super Randonneur Award

The award is for completing an SR series in one season which is composed entirely of AAA events. Any event which can be included in an SR series can also be included in an AAA Super Randonneur series, and a longer event can be counted as a shorter one as long as it has AAA points. The award has to be claimed."

Which means ages riding to/from or a train/car. Stupid flat London.

So - AAAnfractuous, Greenwich Mean Climb, AAAnfractuous x2, Greenwich Mean Climb x2, sorted.