Audax rides

Thanks Greenbank. Had a little look last night and even at commuter hour it was fairly quiet. Felt more like a country station than a London one. There was an announcement for trains to Gerrards Cross the moment I walked in. Didn't buy tickets to give myself the option of a DNS.

More than 200 booked apparently with the ride now split in two - the 2nd going in reverse.

As a first timer I'll be riding the normal direction.

Just looked at the weather forecast - snow and sleet. I can feel a DNS coming on. I suspect many other potential riders may be thinking the same.

Forecast makes it sound interesting

Oxford only shows light snow at 7am

Ice might be an issue though. :(

Possibly possibly not. Definitely not:

I'm still on anti-coag drugs so ditching it might have nastier consequences than normal.

My mum broke her femur coming off a step through on her eighties birthday in the height of summer. She had been on Makromar for quite some time. ie. HTFU.

That looks like spaghetti.

When I crash I'm usually traveling quite a bit faster than a walking 80 year old.

You are now qualified to audax in Germany. Congratulations.

I am already a DNS. I went out bloody go-karting last night. Cycled down to East London, spent 90 minutes blasting around a track in a go kart and started to feel a bit nauseous but put it down to motion sickness. Came off at the end and was in a right state. Shaky as buggery, faint, pins and needles in my arms. Thought it might be lack of food so gulped a gel that happened to be in my saddlebag, then a bit of chicken. It got worse and worse so that I could barely stand and couldn't really control my breathing and then I was sick.

Spent the night in bed and feel better today but not 100%. Not sure what it was. Dehydration maybe? Severe bonking? just a common or garden virus?

Anyway, I've decided to not start tomorrow as a result

I've never been sick due to dehydration or the book. Sounds more like food poisoning or some other stomach bug.

Sounds like carting to me. Eating was probably not advisable.

yeah, maybe... very peculiar and properly poorly, but much better today. In all honesty I probably could ride tomorrow but I think it would be a miserable day (and out of the question now, I've started but not finished changing the groupset on my bike

At least you've got a good set of excuses :)

I was going to clean the bike, etc. but now figure "what's the point?" so I'll just start out tomorrow, assess the ice risk and make the call on the way to the start.

At least you've got a good set of excuses :)

Feeling a bit like that to be honest. Really would have liked to do it though

I noticed a flint or something in my rear tyre and prised it out immediately followed by air. Good thing I noticed. So took it off and thought I'd better put a heavier duty tyre on. Got a half used armadillo doesn't seem to sit properly and has one bit sticking out. Annoying. But then I noticed that the BB is a bit sticky. This bike also has no mudguards.

Now I feel I can't trust this bike till it's had a proper once over. The other option is to move the dynamo over to my fixed commuter. Been mulling it over while I've been looking after my daughter the past few hours. I'm going to do that now and then make my final decision during the ride from my house to Marylebone at stupid o'clock.

I headed out, did maybe 10k, did some brake checking to test grip and turned around. If it was bad in London it'll be worse in the lanes.

Was riding so slow looking for patches of ice I knew I shouldn't have bothered.

books training camp to Majorca

So, any other nice 200k BRM options?

Three is a midweek one coming up. Half considering taking a day off to do that one but can't really afford the days. Going to make a plan later

This one?
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/15-954/

That's 110k to get to the start and back for me. Guess I could stay local to avoid the crazy early start.

It only runs every 4 years..

On the turbo now. Steamride will have to do.

I hate turbo training.

Yeah, that one.

There is another in Cardiff that I am thinking about. MsGraunch works in South Wales occasionally so we could potentially make a bit of a weekend of it. Bloody logistics and this is the easy one.