Audax rides

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+1 the Knog, doesn't rattle against shit either

Retractable cable alarm locks good as well if you're staying in the vicinity of the bike. They wouldn't last 2 minutes unattended in London obviously.

Increasing optimism required when reading forecasts for weather on LOL tomorrow... Depends how you interpret 'showery outbreaks' I suppose.

Yep, was hoping to lose my mudguards fit for tomorrow, but it seems not. Because almost all my riding is commuter length I don't really have wet weather stuff, I either wear a hardshell or just layer up and go with wet but warm. Not sure what to wear tomorrow. Must resist temptation to add rack and take everything.

Also some gannet child of mine has eaten my soreen

My thinking at the moment is take the train to Oxford, get a nice table with the organiser at the pub and get pissed.

Feels like the night before the Willy Warmer when we were stressing about icy roads.

I've guiltily decided I'm going to drive to the start - extra hour in bed + not getting wet before the ride's even begun is suddenly very appealing.
(not that it necessarily will be raining - weather forecast is a bit vague).

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I LOVE this

Oooh, while I'm here I'm looking for a Carradice Bagman Sport for purchase / exchange for a Bagman Expedition. Am sure my fellow audaxers are awash with Carradice spares ....

Have fun kiddies. Thought I might be able to do this instead of Kennett Run but arm is still piss so you'll have to smash it for me.

Was a lovely ride. Rain mainly held off, and when it came it wasn't enough to make me take my rain jacket from my Jersey pocket. Nice meeting you Ash. Not entirely sure where I lost you. Kept losing and gaining people all the time, which was lovely actually. I apologise to everyone, there is no food left between London and Oxford.

I now need a 300 to do. And a handlebar bag. And bigger legs (or smaller body, but that seems unlikely.)

Well done to all the intrepid steam ride 200s out there. @Howard and myself did the 100, and given the cold I'm not sure I could have handled the full distance. Highlight was seeing the 200 peloton rolling along Waddesdon Hill as we were about to cross over between Eythrope Park and Waddesdon Manor Park.

To bad you not around. The fun was dropping a few kiddies on the run in from High Wycombe.

Excellent LOL ride today.
The ride out to oxford felt like a Sunday club run and the return was grand. One flat. 8 banana eaten. So many happy face. 11/10
Would ride again.
The route was smashing.
150 miles for the day.
I might accidentally do a 300km in a few weeks time.

Thinking of Wonderful Wessex on Good Friday to pop my 300km cherry. Pal has been dissuaded from something horribly hilly in Wales.

Yr Elenydd? Tell your pal to ditch you.

Not the Dean or the 3Down?

anyone got advice on training up for a 300? Not an Audax, but am doing the Vätternrundan in June.

I missed a lot of winter base miles due to a knee injury, so almost starting from scratch..

What zone should I be training in? If I only have time for a 50k should I go at a quicker pace?

It does look beautiful and actually I would love to do it, but it does look tough. Once he looked at the climbing he didn't want to do it.

I think that this one fits pals timetable better and I am easily led :-)

I failed at the weekend to find a similarly paced group so at least if he rides I know that there is one person.

I actually find it very hard to work out what pace to ride on these distances that I don't do often enough.

The Vätternrundan is incredibly flat and open (and fast). You could do a lot worse than horribly long z3 sessions on a turbo (gross!). I ride mostly in the Cotswolds and found the multiple hours of constant effort a bit strange. The occasional 'hills' around the lake were bliss.

Generally don't worry about what you do. It's overall work done that'll equal fitness (along with staying comfortable, warm, dry-ish and fed). So (once you've got through a handful of 2hr+ z2 rides to get back in the game) train in the zone that leaves you knackered at the end of the ride.

If you've got 5hrs that might be z2-3
If ... 3hrs ... z3
If ... 2hrs ... z3-4
If ... 45mins ... above threshold.

#notanexpert

cheers, although 3hr turbo session sounds like hell.

I am wondering what the constant effort will feel like, flat isnt my specialty.

Have you done the vätternrundan?

Just a quickie report for the LOL Steam ride on Sunday. After all the stressing about heavy rain it was pretty much dry apart from the odd bit of drizzle and some steady medium ish rain around 3.00pm which lasted about half an hour. Pretty much flat aside from a couple of climbs towards the end. The new SON dynamo wheel which I build up last week worked fine. Rode it with @mustardbeak all the way and he made a really nice route from South London to Ruislip Lido along the canal. We also rode part of the way home too making the whole day around 260km. Felt pretty fresh at the end and could easily have done more so feeling confident about doing a 300. Starting to get callouses on my arse!

The only thing with all the riding and training is that you're constantly on catch up mode the rest of the time.

Next audax for me is the Wormingford Dragon on the 28th. Month 3 of RRtY in the bag.

Green and Yellow fields on the 11th of April entered. Will be my first 300. Looking forward to the curry. Midnight start!

http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/15-900/