A change of heart

The fact I have not blogged for a month tells its own story in that this month has been a relaxed and lovely time with very little training. After the Outlaw I started some regular, easy running  only to get injured a couple of weeks ago. At the time it just seemed like a gentle Achilles strain but it soon got quite bad, not helped by the fact that we were doing a lot of camping and walking so I never really rested it properly. I cycled gently into work last week and it even hurt doing that, so I just put my bikes away and forgot about cycling and training for a while.

This two weeks though has given me a lot of headspace about what to do and how I want to do it. Another Ironman? Sub 53 for 25? Sub 1:55 for 50miles? Sub 4 hours for 100 miles? All good goals and all achievable with a lot of work. The thing is, my cycling has been all about one performance goal after another and all the training that they require, and somewhere along the way cycling has turned into an increasingly joyless affair, with me being more concerned about power outputs and CdA coefficients rather than the landscape I'm cycling through and the sheer enjoyment of turning a set of cranks.

As part of my time trialling targets I have been seeking out faster and faster courses, and this usually requires dual carriageways, with a net downhill, and fairly high traffic flow to push one along.  Not the nicest environment to be cycling on and an increasingly dangerous one. Two months ago, a club mate and friend was killed on the F11/10 course after being struck by a vehicle. It made the National news and our club is still in mourning.  A few weeks before, during my 50 TT where I set my pb, I had my closest ever pass by a van that left me shaken for some time after and in the same event a rider who finished only 20 seconds after me was hospitalised for a week after being hit by a car as he crossed the finish line. I guess you could say that I have lost my bottle, but the more I put myself in harms way, the more likely some idiot is going to hit me and at the moment, that's not a risk I am prepared to take. It's not a case of not time trialling any more, but I do intend to be a bit more selective as to what and when I ride a TT. I want my time trialling to be fun again rather than the feeling of being in some arms race, where I have to find the fastest courses, most areo helmet, buy the latest TT frame just to keep up.  I am just an average MAMIL after all and no one really cares if I I knock 30 seconds off my 10 mile time. Increasingly, I am becoming less bothered too and as I get older I'm going to have to put in significantly more work just to stay still.

So I want to change the way I ride and why I ride and I think I have found it.

 Audax.

 What on Earth is Audax? Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure.  It's described as something between touring and a time trial; a kind of long distance touring ride event with time requirements in order to get to the control points by a designated time.  They are usually fairly long with 100, 200, 300, 400 and even 600km events. The fact is that they are on more picturesque, quiet, hilly routes and they seem a bit more sociable. Not that the people I have met and competed in in time triallling are not sociable, just that when actually riding it. time  trialling is by its very nature an individual experience.

Every four years the premiere event in the international audax calendar takes place, the Paris-Brest-Paris audax and the next one is in two years' time. It's 1200kms long, which in anyone's book is a very long way. That's quite hard.  The other hard bit is that to qualify to ride it by ridding a 200, 300, 400 and 600km event in the run up to PBP. So a big goal but one I can do at a more sedate and sociable pace. The drawbacks? It seems that the most essential bit of kit an audax rider needs is a beard and I have always found one quite difficult to grow. Still, I've got a two year head start..