What's your next Audax?

[Tribansman]

I think next time I want to do a much flatter route if I do another audax. You must have really muscley built-up legs from all these audaxes- like those folk in Richmond park!

When are you doing another audax? I don't know if I would just do another 100km or try push to the 200km? I still don't know how I ever did those 173km a month ago, I thought to myself whilst doing this audax yesterday!

The routes are very nice, much nicer than A roads.

I don't know what to do next now, probably catch up on weeks of uni work

Well done on completing it 👍

Think it's a good idea to try a flatter one next. Climbs at the end of a long ride can feel really tough, much more so than we think they should or than they would be at the start of the day.

Maybe look for an audax in Suffolk or around Newark or Lincoln. They'll probably be flatter than most

 

[Ming the Merciless]

So no visible muscles in them?

Good luck!! Did you plan your Chinese take away stop? How are you prepping?

That didn't really go to plan today ://///

Well we all have visible muscles by the shape of our legs.

I don’t plan Chinese for a 200. More likely something savoury from village shop on this one. But if I see something open at about the right time I’ll stop. I fancy a hot pie but I’ll see what’s available on day. Plenty of village shops to choose from. Chinese tends to be if I’m riding into the night.

Prepping? I’ll just ride my bike every day this week. I’ll do a couple of longish rides tomorrow and Wednesday with shorter rides on the other days. I have plenty of 200s in the legs so not much in terms of prep other than keeping legs turning over and getting decent sleep each night.

The bike has its winter tyres on after the blowout on the 400. Chain oiled Friday but possibly top up on Friday depending on mileage rest of this week. Everything else running smooth.

 

[oreo_muncher]

Well done @oreo_muncher It sounds similar to my first audax: 100k, finishing not knowing if I'd got round inside the time cut, taking a wrong turn, walking up hills ... Since then, although I haven't become an avid audaxer, I've done a few.

There may be somewhat fewer available for now, due both to the onset of winter and the dreaded Covid. In the meantime just keep riding your bike and having fun doing so.

What's the longest audax you done?

 

[oreo_muncher]

Well we all have visible muscles by the shape of our legs.

I don’t plan Chinese for a 200. More likely something savoury from village shop on this one. But if I see something open at about the right time I’ll stop. I fancy a hot pie but I’ll see what’s available on day. Plenty of village shops to choose from. Chinese tends to be if I’m riding into the night.

Prepping? I’ll just ride my bike every day this week. I’ll do a couple of longish rides tomorrow and Wednesday with shorter rides on the other days. I have plenty of 200s in the legs so not much in terms of prep other than keeping legs turning over and getting decent sleep each night.

The bike has its winter tyres on after the blowout on the 400. Chain oiled Friday but possibly top up on Friday depending on mileage rest of this week. Everything else running smooth.

Now I'm craving Chinese food. What distances do you class as longish and short distances for your prep?

I washed my bike, degreased it and lubed it before my audax, I hope I done it correctly!

 

[oreo_muncher]

Well done on completing it 👍

Think it's a good idea to try a flatter one next. Climbs at the end of a long ride can feel really tough, much more so than we think they should or than they would be at the start of the day.

Maybe look for an audax in Suffolk or around Newark or Lincoln. They'll probably be flatter than most

I would need to take the train to those areas. For my first audax, I thought it would be a good idea to cycle 53km to Fulbeck for an audax and only managed to complete half the audax because I was worn out. So I'm not doing that again.

 

[matticus]

400 is my limit, I can't see myself ever attempting a 600.

This makes no sense at all to me! But it's a broad church, as they say ... :-)

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Now I'm craving Chinese food. What distances do you class as longish and short distances for your prep?

I washed my bike, degreased it and lubed it before my audax, I hope I done it correctly!

Longish is 4 hours and up. So today was 122km and a bit under 6 hours. Done non stop. I won’t do non stop on the 200km as that’ll bite me in bum later into the ride. More likely stop for a 10 min snack once every couple of hours. I’ll look to cover around 80km on Wed but anything over 3 hours would be fine. My short rides will be a couple of hours stretching up to 3 hours if time permits. I try and do routes that circle round where I live, so I can cut short or extend as little or much as I like, depending how I feel as I go round.

Well you successfully got round your audax ok, so the bike must have been just right. Get into the habit of dealing with any new noises on the bike sooner rather than later. Then a bike shouldn’t need special prep before an audax.

 

[oreo_muncher]

Since my audax on Saturday, I haven't been cycling even once Just feel like every day is a struggle, a bit fed up with uni and sort of giving up on everything.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

So the week turned out to be 120, 60, 70, 70, 50 (km). DIY 200 for tomorrow now submitted. Looks like tailwind out, headwind return. Possible rain towards the end but hopefully nothing too heavy.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Since my audax on Saturday, I haven't been cycling even once Just feel like every day is a struggle, a bit fed up with uni and sort of giving up on everything.

It is good to recover , you’ll get your mojo back. The hard bit is getting out the door , once riding it’s all good.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The DIY 200 went well and even back before sunset and out ran most of the rain. The heavens opened and haven’t stopped whilst I was drinking first cup of tea after shower. Stonking headwind for 100km though. Never felt so good to turn out of it and have normal air resistance on last leg home. That’s the RRTY still in motion.

 

[oreo_muncher]

The DIY 200 went well and even back before sunset and out ran most of the rain. The heavens opened and haven’t stopped whilst I was drinking first cup of tea after shower. Stonking headwind for 100km though. Never felt so good to turn out of it and have normal air resistance on last leg home. That’s the RRTY still in motion.

What did you eat to fuel yourself?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

What did you eat to fuel yourself?

Every hour for first 6 hours I had a short bread finger. Then at 140km I had two chilli chicken wraps and a large bag of wotsits. In the last 30km I had Jaffa cakes. Drank 3 litres of water. Right side of hydrated but an extra 500ml would have been good. I was keen to get back before the heavy rain moved in, so didn’t do a long stop.

Evening before Lasagne and garlic bread followed by ice cream.

 

[oreo_muncher]

Every hour for first 6 hours I had a short bread finger. Then at 140km I had two chilli chicken wraps and a large bag of wotsits. In the last 30km I had Jaffa cakes. Drank 3 litres of water. Right side of hydrated but an extra 500ml would have been good. I was keen to get back before the heavy rain moved in, so didn’t do a long stop.

Evening before Lasagne and garlic bread followed by ice cream.

What is a bread finger? How many hours did it take for you to complete it?Encounter any difficulties?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

What is a bread finger? How many hours did it take for you to complete it?Encounter any difficulties?

An image is just a search engine away 😀

Approx 10 hours elapsed I think. I haven’t loaded up GPS data yet. But based on roughly when I got back and had showered and sat down with tea and toast. No difficulties, just a 20 mph headwind most of second half. The smart charger I bought has sorted out my AA rechargeable. They are still showing 4 out of 4 bars on GPS after today’s 205km. So I’m expecting to get 600km out of a single pair between charges like they used to..