Audax rides

Cheers!

No I'm not, but I paid my £2 or whatever for "temporary membership"

So is anyone doing the Windmill Ride on Sunday?
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/13-272/

I'm 50/50 on that, depend on what my friend is doing.

If I'm not doing anything with my friend, I would be all over this like butter on crumpet.

I think I'll be doing The Buzzard now, pretty sure I'll be in for it.

My last exam is on the 12th so would be a nice way to relax afterwards!
(Or give me a long time to mull over all the mistakes i'll have made >.< )

You can direct trains out from euston to leighton buzzard on the morning of the 13th to reach the start in time, but I'll try and persuade my sister to let me crash.

Aukweb site is having a hissy fit so currently can't enter...

Email the organiser!

the server is down apparently, will be back up by tomorrow latest

I think I'll be doing The Buzzard now, pretty sure I'll be in for it.

My last exam is on the 12th so would be a nice way to relax afterwards!
(Or give me a long time to mull over all the mistakes i'll have made >.< )

You can direct trains out from euston to leighton buzzard on the morning of the 13th to reach the start in time, but I'll try and persuade my sister to let me crash.
Let you crash?! Who do you ask to let you stay upright?

^ Sorry, think I've had too much sun today :S

Think so too :p

Just back from my first 200. It's a big step up from the 100. Took me 12 hours and a good deal of pain but I made it. Absolutely gorgeous day and beautiful route around the lanes of Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Fairly flat too. Only a handful of medium hills. Good thing I started my audax journey with a very hilly Kent ride as now I'm always expecting some serious hills on a ride. So it was a real joy not to find any. Too tired to write any more but may say more later.

It's a big step up from the 100.

Yup

I find that 60 (100km) miles is a breeze
and 80-100 miles (130 to 160km) starts to get funky, especially if you dont eat right.
after 100 miles it's usually ok.

I generally feel the same way about the ~190mile/300km mark on a 400km, but it's interspersed with general boredom and self loathing at getting into this mess in the first place.

never tried to ride continuously through a 600, but I bet there's a dark place waiting when i do.

^^ Good work arup!

^ 60-70% distance is about when I get a low point regardless of the distance (even on a 100!), this includes 600s where I don't usually get anywhere near a good sleep[1], if any at all.

Anything longer (PBP/LEL) it just becomes a bunch of day rides and so I don't get distance related low points. My low points on these rides were probably more closely tied to hunger/tiredness.

1. DIY 600 (300km ride to the start of the Flattest Possible 300) I had an hour lying down (but no real sleep) before the calendar event started. Bryan Chapman 600 on fixed, 15 minute doze on a bench. Kernow & South West 600, 45 minutes sleep at the Bude control.
   

Cheers guys. Having done this one I'm now even more in awe of you guys on the longer ones. I was more or less comfortable up to about 140k when all of a sudden pain started. Wrists, neck, back and crotch. This continued for about 10k with short stops for a shake and stretch and then it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. It remained then at a low manageable level. So, things I learned.

Food. On the 100's that I've done food has never been an issue. I've never even come close to bonking or feeling weak or dizzy. I've ridden L to B solo with only a flapjack and a bottle of water and been totally fine. On this one I seemed to be eating constantly and still felt like I needed more. Luckily my pannier was full of cakes, bars and bananas. Water was also an issue and as it was a hot day I kept running out. Time for that 2nd bottle cage I think.

Navigation. I spent ages studying maps the day before the ride. Friend's place to station, station to starting point, routes back and the actual route of course. But I still got lost a few times. I had the route sheet mounted on my bars and it was great 95% of the time but going off route means extra time finding your way back on route. I'm now considering getting a GPS device as hopefully that will eradicate these problems and save time tracing the route with street view. So many to choose from though.

Lighting. Sunday was hot and bright and there was still light up till 20:30 but in the country lanes it was dark. No way of seeing the potholes. The lights I have are really for main roads and city riding where the main reason is so that other traffic can see you. In this case you would need lights that would allow you to see the road ahead. Something much brighter and more powerful.

Mental / psychological. You really have to be in a state of 'here and now'. When I got out at Chelmsford (the earliest train arriving after the start time) a guy approached me and asked if I was on the audax. I had a route worked out already and the sheet mounted but stupidly followed him because he had a gps device. I couldn't keep up with him and also doubted his directions but then realised I was lost. I remembered the audax rule later of 'don't follow people'. This made me one hour late starting which bugged me for a lot of the ride. I had to work hard mentally to leave the past (the morning) behind and focus on the current section of the route. I also kept thinking about the finish and how I would get home.

In terms of dark or negative thoughts the only ones were of pulling out especially when it was hurting. But as I'd DNF'd on Wednesday there was no way I was going to do that again for no good reason other than a bit of pain. I swatted those thoughts like flies. I also kept thinking about whether it was time to get a geared 'proper audax bike' especially for the descents. It's hard to spin with a sore crotch. But no, I want to stick with my "one bike, one gear" philosophy.

A big thumbs up to the organisers who manned the controls and wondered if I would make it through. The lady at the cafe in Newmarket (control) had closed up but came running out when she saw me looking in and got me some drinks and snacks. Arriving at a manned control with food and drink really felt like reaching an oasis. "I hope there's shop, I really hope there's a shop . . ." and then boom a buffet of food all to myself and a guy handing me a pint of squash. It really was quite magical. Apparently the others had gone through "hours ago." I started late and rode slowly to try and pace myself so was around 2 hours behind the field. Hopefully I'll get a bit faster when I get comfortable at this distance.

All in all a good experience of my first 200. Very happy that I made it and recovering well today and a lot less achy than my first 100. Definitely want to try another one this summer while the days are still long ish.

Arup

Chapeau bas!

Good report. I'm just about ready to find a 200 to do. I will be sure to learn from your write up, as I've only ever done a couple of Dunwiches that are close to this distance, and a solo 160k ish brevet.

Anybody fancy doing this 100 starting in Finchley this Sunday 7th then?

delurking to respond to Arup's musings on GPS devices. I have a Garmin Edge 200, which you can download routes to that give you a 'breadcrumb trail' to follow when out on the road.

This works pretty well: more than adequate to get me around a recent 100k on unfamiliar roads. But it's of little use if you go too far off piste... and you can't change navigation on the fly.

Still, for £100, it does almost everything I need, and nothing I don't.
The only feature lacking is a constant clock: I like to know what time it is...

I've yet to venture further than 100km, Audax wise, but Arup's making me think that I should give a 200km one a go...

Seriously impressed by all the ride reports in this thread, btw!

I think I'll be doing The Buzzard now, pretty sure I'll be in for it.

My last exam is on the 12th so would be a nice way to relax afterwards!
(Or give me a long time to mull over all the mistakes i'll have made >.< )

You can direct trains out from euston to leighton buzzard on the morning of the 13th to reach the start in time, but I'll try and persuade my sister to let me crash.

Has anyon got any idea why this ride starts/ finishes in Leighton Buzzard? as a veteran of Milton Keynes I have experieced first hand the full horror of Leighton Buzzard (Vesalius - Leighton Buzzard is often referred to as the thinking mans Hexham).

I did have this pencilled into my rides list, but unfortunately I'm away that weekend!

Anybody fancy doing this 100 starting in Finchley this Sunday 7th then?

I may well be up for it as it starts in London. Should hopefully be recovered by then.

Did a fair bit of research yesterday on GPS units. Seems that the choice is really between the Garmin Edge series and the eTrex models. The Edge ones are more geared toward racing and training but the audax riders seem to prefer the eTrex ones. Here's an article in the Arrivee magazine from last year.

http://www.aukadia.net/gps/e30-review.pdf

Now that there is DIY by GPS this opens up a whole new world of rides. Still yet to do a DIY but would like to do one before the season is out.

Can't go wrong with an eTrex if you need a garmin just for the route, AA battery too last for over 25 hours, maybe more without backlight.

I had it on for like 8 hours through the night and show 1/4th battery left, 22 hours altogether.

Gonna pack lots of AA and I'm sorted, only a touch bit bigger than the Garmin 605.

Edit: mine the eTrex 20.

+1 for eTrex,

well done on the ride btw arup!

Cool, just ordered an eTrex 20 from amazon. Need to get a handlebar mount now. And then learn to use the thing.

It take some practise to get the hang of it.

Just don't repeat the same mistake as I did by trying it out on a 400k, I've finally got the hang of it after 280k.

Booked myself on the Finchley one for this Sunday.
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/13-581/

Thinking about this one as my next 200
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/13-870/
It's fairly close the last one I did so imagine it will be fairly flat.

Cool, just ordered an eTrex 20 from amazon. Need to get a handlebar mount now. And then learn to use the thing.

Try it out as much as you can before hand, i.e. on your commute, or leisure rides, etc.

Most importantly try it out in various sitations where things go wrong, i.e.

• Go off route intentionally, what does the unit do? Does it guide you back properly?
  
• Intentionally go off route but join up with the route a bit further on. Does it handle that?
  
• Plot a route that's a loop that shares the same roads for the first few km or so and then deviates, what happens when you get to that point, does it send you the right way?
  
• Turn the unit off half way through a route, then turn it back on. Can you get back to navigating along the route?
  
  

etc, etc.