Bad spots on Audaxes

[Fiona N]

My sister and I were comparing notes after our respective 400's last weekend. Boo was on an El Supremo event somewhere in Kent/East Sussex or thereabouts (sorry - I'm a bit vague about southern geography ) and I was on a Lucy MacTaggert event in the Borders. Weather seems to have been equally bad.

But when we discussed at what point we felt like giving up, Boo said it was near the end whereas for me, it's always early on, well before half way. By the time I'm 'on the way back' (after half distance), I feel like I'm on a roll, physical niggles seem to have died away, my breathing's settled down, my leg's aren't done and I'm really enjoying it. Sometimes, the last 50km drags on a bit but by that time I really don't care.

It really intrigues me that I usually feel so 'miserable' (i.e. 'why am I doing this' sort of thoughts) so early, irrespective of the conditions, and it suggests that it's totally a psychological barrier rather than any physical shortcomings.

Does anyone else get this sort of late stage* reluctance?


* I call it late stage reluctance as after all, I did get out of the car in the pouring rain and get to the start and, indeed, start. Earlier stage reluctance would have seen me stay in bed or at least the car.

 

[Greenbank]

55%-70% usually for me. By 75% I'm usually much happier as I know I've done 3/4 of it.

It also depends on the timings of the ride. If it's a Winter 200 then it'll be dark before I'm finished, and the impending darkness darkens my mood.

It's useful to know when it happens, and to remind yourself that it does happen and that the bad patch will pass. It's all too easy to give in to the negativity and consider packing, but much more worth it to push through and finish.

I can't remember any particular low points on LEL.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I don't even get to the 'filling the entry form in' bit ....

 

[asterix]

WRT audaxes over 200km I am definitely a very early packer. So early in fact that I always wimp out before posting the entry.

This is why I would never contemplate the PBP or LEL. The Raid Pyrenean yes, because at the end of the day you get a nice meal (or if I cook it, just a meal) a drink and go to bed for the night, the whole night. When you get up you are raring to go (maybe).

From what I understand, on a 400+ you get a snack from a caff and sleep briefly under a hedge or on a park bench. Respect! But it's not for me..

 

[the snail]

I came very close to packing in last week when I got lost, rode in circles for 20k. If I hadn't met up with another lost rider and managed to get back on the route, I was on the verge of retracing the route home. The thing is, after I'd got that far it would have been just as far going back as continuing. I have found myself thinking 'why the f*** am I doing this? Never again' but I don't seem to learn the lesson

 

[HLaB]

I've never done an Audax but on rides I've often had that 5-10 minute spell (around 75% of a distance) when I feel like I want to give up but when I know I've only got 10-15 miles to the end I get a fresh burst of energy/ motivation.

 

[Greenbank]

From what I understand, on a 400+ you get a snack from a caff and sleep briefly under a hedge or on a park bench. Respect! But it's not for me..

Hmm. *thinks back to previous rides of 400km and over*

1) 10 minute nap on a bread crate at 3am at a closed petrol station somewhere on the A44 between Aberystwyth and Llangurig on the Snowdon & Coast 400.
2) 45 minute sleep in the cafe upstairs at Membury Services on the Severn Across 400. (Both times I've done it).
3) 60 minute sleep on the wooden floor of Tenterden Village Hall half way through a DIY 600 that included a calendar 300.
4) 15 minute nap on the bench outside Penrhyndeudraeth on the Bryan Chapman 600 (the only sleep I got in 41 hours).

LEL was much better, I managed 2 or 3 hours each night.

If you're faster you can get some proper sleep, and rides of 400km and over often have a proper sleep stop. I tend to be near the back of the field so I have to survive on what I can grab. Luckily I can handle quite a bit of sleep dep.

The fast riders on the Severn Across are back before midnight, so they don't need to worry about sleep. On the Bryan Chapman (happening right now) there's a sleep stop at the Youth Hostel in Dolgellau. The fast riders will probably get 8 hours sleep there in a nice bunk before the final 200km back to Chepstow tomorrow morning.

 

[yello]

Sleep presents it's own problems, it's true, and can influence the 'wanna pack' decision but I'll not refer to that. I'll stay on-topic because the mental aspect of audax , the pushing yourself through the bad spots is perhaps just as/more important than the physical preparation... and it intrigues me

I've only packed once, and I learnt from it. Now I'm more prepared for the mental ups and downs that you go through during the course of an audax. I can't say there's a particular time I'm likely to go through a bad patch. It can happen anywhere and anytime. That said, it's less likely in the first and last sections. And I'm more likely to go through bad phases during my own rides than on an audax.

As to what precisely brings it on, who knows? I expect to be physically tired, I know why that happens. But the stuff that goes on in the head? I have to laugh at the stupidity of it all sometimes, that saves me from packing through the 'why the hell am I doing this' thoughts. It's just riding a bike after all!

 

[Scoosh]

This is only my third year doing audax rides and it's only been on the 200+ rides that I have had the "why am I doing this ?/ this is not fun" thoughts. They usually occur going up a steep hill, though headwind and rain can also bring them on. They only usually come in the first half of the ride, as thereafter 'it's all downhill, homeward bound' etc.

I packed an audax for the first time on Saturday

, 200k into a 300 but with two more steep climbs before the next control and being pushed for time. My mind gave way first

, then it told my legs that they didn't want to go on

.... so I flagged down a car and scrounged a lift (+ bike

).

I completed this ride last year but the stiff headwind and rain for 70k, including on downhill sections, drained my mind and legs more than I thought possible. I don't do nearly as well being on my own as with company.

After the control and helping a friend who had knee and neck problems get accommodation for the night, I rode the remaining 65k in the dark back to the finish.

At packing time, I really couldn't have gone on - I was completely done. It was the thought of those hills which did me in. There are advantages in not knowing the route ....

- or not having done it before.

 

[Ian H]

Some of the fittest and fastest riders suffered during the weekend's 600 (Bryan Chapman Memorial). Long-distance is as much about psychology as physical stamina. Experience helps because, like Fiona N, you learn about yourself and recognise the mental (and physical) highs and lows. So you know the low is only going to last so long - and meanwhile there's a ride to finish.

 

[yello]

So you know the low is only going to last so long - and meanwhile there's a ride to finish.

It's true! Learning to more-or-less ignore what's going on in the head and keep turning the pedals. Like scoosh said earlier, the mind can tell you that your legs are gone but it's not necessarily true. As long as you're fuelled and not actually stinging with pain then you can keep going.

Being miles from any obvious rescue so often provides the motivation. The nearest train station? Further than the end point. Passing cars? You'll maybe sit there for ages. You have to get to the end sometime, somehow anyway - the train station/car/bag/stuff is there... may as well cycle it. It's the least pffaf option.

 

[Fiona N]

...

Being miles from any obvious rescue so often provides the motivation....

This is one of the 'benefits' of the events from Galashiels which roam the Border country - you don't have much in the way of options if you decide to pack. Before halfway, it's a case of retracing your steps and after halfway, you're usually so far from Galashiels there's no practical difference between the remainder of the route and just 'getting back to the car'. I should add that I don't have an obliging other half / parent to call on

On the recent 400, I was wet and cold and feeling distinctly miserable at the Elsdon control (superb cafe there BTW) in the Kielder area. This was short of half way - the remainder of the route was about 100km across the Pennines to Carlisle, then north parallel to the A74M to Beattock before turning east again to claw our way up the Grey Mare's Tail climb on the road to Selkirk from Moffat.

The trouble with packing at Elsdon would have been that I'd have had to navigate my way over Kielder to Newcastleton / Hawick and then A7 to Galashiels - an epic in itself given the terrain, or carry on westwards for another 80km to join the A7 at Longtown from where it's another 80km back to Galashiels - so hardly any distance saving and there are some good climbs too. In the end, the great food at Eldson removed all thoughts of packing and the rain actually stopped once we got going again and the ride across the Roman Road, roughly parallel to Hadrian's Wall, through Once Brewed was fantastic in the late afternoon glow. I'd almost dried out by the time we got to Gretna Services - where it started throwing it down again for the rest of the night.

 

[Nuncio]

One of my brother’s Audaxing sayings is something like: “When having a tough time on an Audax try and keep in mind that the only thing that can follow a bad patch is a good patch”. I reminded him of this when he was telling me about the Hamburg Cologne Berlin Hamburg 1500km he did 5 years ago, saying that the middle section was very tough. His response was: ‘Yeah, sometimes the bad patch can last 700km”.

 

[Philip Whiteman]

55%-70% usually for me. By 75% I'm usually much happier as I know I've done 3/4 of it.

Same here and no matter what the event distance is! In my case it must by psychological.

 

[johnsss]

One of my brother’s Audaxing sayings is something like: “When having a tough time on an Audax try and keep in mind that the only thing that can follow a bad patch is a good patch”. I reminded him of this when he was telling me about the Hamburg Cologne Berlin Hamburg 1500km he did 5 years ago, saying that the middle section was very tough. His response was: ‘Yeah, sometimes the bad patch can last 700km”.

No need to exaggerate - it was not much more than 600km. It was grim - mostly rain for 24 hours, punctures, nowhere to buy food, very little contact with other riders (including seeing 3 Italians going the other way to find a railway station). But I knew it wouldn't last forever, and when the good patch finally arrived, it was brilliant - the rain stopped, there as a tailwind, the sun came out, the colours were especially vibrant, the villages were exceedingly pretty, and my bike and joints stopped creaking. Then at the next control I was the first rider to appear for a couple of hours and was greeted with rousing cheers by the small army of helpers, who fed me and pumped up my tyres before I turned north to knock off the last 400 km (although it turned out not to be quite as simple as that).

Experience definitely helps. I know after about 15 BCMs I'm going to have a rough patch on the Trawsfynydd stretch, but I also know that Sunday will new day when the bad patch will be history.