Audax Kit

I've started getting all the bits and bobs I'm going to take on the audax with me. To be honest, this is overkill as I regularly do 80-100 mile rides with little more than a couple of spare tubes, a bottle and a cash point card, but with longer events on the horizon it seems prudent to pack for a longer event and see how this works for me.

Gilet / lightweight top / lucky DW snood / base layer / 2 tubes (plus 1 in a back pocket) / tyre levers (plus one in back pocket) / multitool / spare link / puncture repair kit / ibuprofen / spare front light / charger and mini-usb lead / cable ties / cafe lock / waterproof case for my phone. Also not in the picture I have packed my waterproof jacket which packs fairly small.

Still a few bits needed - pack of AAA spare batteries / front light which can velcro to my helmet for when it gets dark to read my Garmin. This shouldn't be an issue for the Amesbury Amble, but will be for longer events. Also need to organise a way of carrying some spare chain lube / chamois cream / sun cream.

So I've bagged it all up as follows. All my clothes except my waterproof jacket is in the Wimbledon bag. The top tube bag contains the charger pack, lock, phone. There's not really any room for food but I will carry bars and sarnies in my back pockets, as I have always done. The blue bag contains all my spare tubes and levers. The green bag contains the multi-tool / spare links / ibuprofen / cable ties.

All that comfortably fits into the Alpkit bag and there's still room for me to put my mini pump and leggings in there. I'm going to sort out how best to attach it under the seat on Friday, but tomorrow I've got a long ride planned with Simon so I will check that the Garmin 800 charges ok from the charge pack.

Which way?

Gurning

I think riding this audax is going to be a baptism of fire, not so much in the miles that I'm going to cover but the navigation that will be required. I've taken some advice from a few facebook and forum groups and rather than trying to upload the whole ride as one file to my Garmin 800, I've broken it down into the 5 sections between controls which has taken me a few hours but hopefully will make it a lot less stressful on the road. This makes the file sizes smaller and should (hopefully) stop my Garmin having a meltdown. I've tried to get my head around the route while I've been copying them using Garmin Connect but it's a very long way with hundreds of junctions. The route card is gobbledygook. I've been told that once you're on the road it makes a lot more sense and I'm sure that it's just a skill that needs learning and practice. I am also hopeful of being able to follow a wheel or two through the hard bits (yes, cheating).

Answers on a postcard, please.

Yesterday was the KPRC Open 10. My TT bike is still un-serviceable (I ordered the wrong rear replacement brake and I'm waiting another week for a new one). So I ended up riding on the Van Nic in full commuter trim. It was also a dog of a day with a block headwind on the way out and added to that, my chain slipped off at the start and my pump fell out my pocket at halfway. By that time I well and truly gave up but I bulked it out to do a solid 80 miles after eating my own bodyweight in Cornish pasties all week on a family holiday. Time to get back on it.

Eyeballs above the road

Lovely flapjack at Proper coffee

I've had a week of cycling where I have deliberately not been on the turbo, as I just wanted to keep it simple, hit the road properly and try to get as big a week in as possible for having next week off on a family holiday. I have really felt the benefit of not doing any intervals as I have felt fresher legged, stronger up the hills and generally just happier with how things are progressing. I've done over 220 miles this week which is my biggest week all winter, but it doesn't feel like it's been that big a week.

Today's ride was properly old school, with Simon and I getting to Ditchling for a coffee before using the southerly wind to gently push us home. I had that amazing feeling as you're pushing over a long drag where it feels effortless and you're just a pair of eyeballs suspended 5 feet above the road, almost oblivious of you being connected to the road with a bike. It's a rare feeling but awesome when it happens. I managed to get 90 miles done at a pretty good average speed, which should set me up for the Amesbury Amble audax in two weeks' time.

In the meantime, it's going to be eat and rest and let the last few weeks' training sink in.

Blogs of note

Reading some new audaxy, touring type blogs.



https://audaxery.wordpress.com/
http://iansaudax.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/newbie-guide.html
https://traumfahrrad.com/

My own Spring Classic

Spring. The time for the hard men and women of cycling to show their mettle; hit the cobbles, tracks and puddles of Flanders and the low countries. One day, I really must go. Yesterday's ride was a somewhat more modest affair, but with copious amounts of rain, extremely deep puddles that came up over my overshoes and very greasy roads it was my own little Spring classic. A 35 mile route with the only real test being a haul up and over Crocknorth, trying to stop the rear tyre from slipping all over the road. Absolutely the best ride I've had in a while.

Puddles over my feet

Audax Checklist

when I plan longer distance events I tend to overdo it as far as equipment is concerned. None more so than the DW when I came back with boxes full of food that we were never, ever going to finish eating . A 300km audax is significantly longer than any other road ride I have done but it’s not really long. My 12hr time trials don’t really count as food and drink is handed up and navigation simply isn’t an issue. The point of Audax is that it’s a self supported ride and the rider is meant to be self reliant and able to deal with most eventualities on their own. The start of my Audax is at 6am so, in theory, I should be able to finish in daylight, barring mechanicals and stops that are too long at the controls.

My basic thinking to tackle the event is this;

• Battery operated front light so if I need one later on, I’m not worrying about charging. Also means I can buy batteries at a shop or garage if needs be. 
• I will have a few rear lights running throughout the event. I like to have a rear light on even during the day. 
• I will navigate using the supplied route card (going old school) instead of using my Garmin, so I will need to fashion a route card holder for my bars. I will load the route on my Garmin and have it on the bike but more to record than navigate. I have not used my Garmin 800 much and want to get more used to it before relying on it.
• I will have my top tube bag with a phone and nibbles and I’m going to buy a lightweight Alpkit dry bag for behind my seat. I think a front handlebar bag as well as a saddle bag is overkill for a 300, but we’ll see.

Kit to carry

• 2 bottles
• X3 spare tubes and a repair kit
• Multi tool
• Spare chain links
• Chain oil
• Chamois cream
• Phone
• Portable Battery charger and lead
• Spare base layer
• Gilet
• Garmin 800
• Skull cap
• Spare food (mainly savoury) but not much. 

Once I get the route card sent through I can think about planning out eating and drinking to coincide with the controls but I know that I can fairly comfortably keep the food going in, even when on the move. I’m going to try to keep kit down to a minimum but it will be weather dependent and if the ‘ Beast from the east: vol. 3’ does materialise then I won’t hesitate to take plenty of spare clothing. 

Suddenly excited

I’m excited again as I have just entered my first Audax ride in two weeks’ time. It’s one of the events organised by the Kingston Wheelers and at 300km, it’s long, but doable. I hope it’s the complete antithesis of the ride I was on today. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lovely time with five of my club mates on a Sunday club run and after doing 20 miles on my own we covered another forty odd miles. The roads were chokka with other riders and while this is great for the sport and all that, there’s an awful lot of  willy waving going on with herds of young MAMILS gunning it around. Part of it is pure jealously on my part as they’ve all got 15 years on me and are probably faster. The faster they go, the slower I want to go and I do sometimes long for the days pre- 2012, when I could ride for 4 hours and barely see another rider on the road.

 Hence, the Audax. It’s going to be a long way and my longest ride on my road bike. I guess I’m looking at somewhere between 10 and 12 hours in the saddle depending on stops and I’ve started to research what kit I might need to carry and how I can carry it. My main concern is navigation, or rather, how to navigate. A map is best and fairly foolproof, but where to put it? Do I need a bar bag in with a map pocket so I can read on the hoof? Frame bag and saddle bag? Probably overkill for a 300km ride. Lights; will I need better lights if I get caught in the dark? Do I need a method of charging lights, Garmin, phone etc? If so, how? I think the first thing to do is make a list of what I will actually need to take and work back from there. Any excuse to buy some new kit.

Spring post

I’m in a state of flux.  I want to time trial and get faster but a big part of me can’t be bothered to do the work. I’m still using Trainerroad but I have stopped following a plan and instead picking my own sessions. This means I’m not beating myself up if I miss a session and I can fit in a turbo when I have the time. I’ve tried to do a VO2 max session and a couple of sweet spot sessions which are less intense but seem to give my ageing body a good work out.

My Argon TT bike is in bits in the shed.  A whole winter of gurning and sweating all over it and the many ‘miles’ it’s done on it has taken its toll.  I’ve got to the point where I cannot see me generating a lot more power, so I’m going to focus much more on aerodynamics and looking at my position. I have bought a new pair of bars with a view to tidying up the front end and reducing my overall cross section.

I’m sort of looking forward to the time trialling season but it’s not absolutely lit a fire underneath me. I think, partly, because I’ve probably got to a point where I’m not actually going to get much faster. Maybe on a really fast day on a fast course I might take some time off here or there, but so what? It doesn’t actually matter and I’ve probably reached a point where I’m going to have to train a lot harder to see any significant improvement, and I just know that I’m not going to be able to do that without running myself into the ground.

First TT of the season

Last Sunday was the first chance for me to see how the winter training has gone. I went into it feeling pretty upbeat as I had  recently pushed out a new ftp highest value on TrainerRoad, and I had also dropped 4kgs. The event was the Kingston Wheelers’ Sporting 14. A two lap event that took in the Hungry Hill road just outside Ripley. It’s a steady, long drag rather than a hill and a felt that I should be able to power myself up and over it fairly well and with Simon starting 2 minutes behind me I thought that I should be able to keep him at bay fairly easily. Factoring in the last time I did this event a couple of years ago and the improvements that I have made since then, I thought a long 35 should be manageable.

I didn’t work out that way. I ended up riding 37:57, a long way from what I thought I would do. I can’t really explain it. I did have some mechanical issues with my shifting not working properly, but other than that I was just a lot slower than I should have been. Simon is probably a good 7-8 kgs lighter than me so I would have expected him to take some time out of me up the climbs, but when he overtook me halfway through the second lap, he kept pulling away from me on the downhills too. I just wasn’t generating the power tha5bi had been in training and it was very frustrating. Oh well, it’s only a hobby and it’s a very long season, so plenty of time to get my legs fired up again.

In other news, Mrs Wheezy and I have joined a gym. While I have been regularly bashing out 8-10 hours a week, Mrs Wheezy has been holding down a career and doing the vast majority of the childcare while I have been out riding my bike with my mates. We thought it was time that she had the opportunity for some health and fitness stuff and as our children are older and can look after themselves for a few hours,  joining a gym and doing a few things together seemed like a good idea.  So far, it’s been great. A 25m pool that’s usually deserted and has a lot less chlorine than other pools; watt bikes for me to do some interval sessions on, and some very funky treadmills, which hopefully will mean I can get back into some gentle running. Mrs Wheezy loves the pool and the cross trainers  so it mean we can do a few bits together, which is a bonus. It almost means that I’m a triathlete again.

Winter; do one.

The lurgy’s hit hard, after I did a 60 miler at the weekend. Two days off work feeling sorry for myself but it’s the first time I have beenproperly ill in a long while. The said 60 miles was good fun, low speed, low stress on a Phoenix Sunday club run. I had a couple of friends come out to join us and one has even ended up joining the club as a result.  It never ceases to amaze me, the shear number of cyclists out on the road every weekend. Most look like bunches of mates but with quite a few clubs thrown in the mix too. There’s the whole debate about waving when you see other cyclists. Quite a few don’t, and it’s cool when others do. I am an ardent waver, it just seems a good thing to do, minimal effort and a shared camaraderie. I’d like to think that I would never be ‘too pro to wave.’

I have to say I’m done with Winter.  I don’t mind being cold but the constant low cloud, drizzle or heavy down pours are starting to become a bit of a bore. I can’t wait for some warmer weather and the chance to get rid of snoods, leggings and winter tops. I dream of Majorca and Sa Calobra,  it it’s going to be a while before I see them again.

Pleasantly surprised 2

So Simon and I did the 4th cat. racing training, and despite the absolutely awful weather (2 degrees above zero and persistent rain) it was really useful. It was run by Paul of PB Coaching. He’s a pretty experienced 2nd Cat rider, mainly on the continent. We had a rectangular loop set out on the South of England Showground at Ardingly, which was only a 40 minute drive away. The loop had quite a few hazards; potholes, narrowing of the track, gravel etc although Paul and his assistant Tim had swept the course before. That said, it gave a more realistic feel to what we might encounter on the road rather than it being a completely sterile track with no real hazards.  There were 40 of us, most from clubs but also quite a few BC members. A small handful of the riders had already done some racing but most had not and there were about 10 ladies, which was really good to see.  

We started with a quick briefing, mainly focussing on cornering; correct weight distribution, vision, braking technique etc.  With the weather so bad (it was only just above freezing and incessant, light rain) these points were particularly important and hammered home. 

So out on the bikes for the first time we just orbited the track on our own,  getting used to the hazards and corners. Paul told us we all had to stay in the small chainring to get our legs spinning quickly and to avoid people getting carried away in the first 10 minutes. After that, it was a succession of drills to get us used to riding in larger and larger groups. Basically, the order was as follows;

Ride in pairs, focussing on good vision and awareness through the bends.

As above, but in fours, keeping within 1 meter of the wheel in front. (Closer if confident).

Ride laps with your hand in your partners shoulder, they had there hands on their head, then swap on the next straight.

This next drill was the one that was really good fun and really got you thinking about your positioning but the main focus was on communication, both verbally and by a gentle touch on the back or arm.  We lined up in 10 rows of 4, and the four riders at the back had to come through the three channels and make their way to the front.  It started off quite easily but as you can imagine, after a few minutes it got quite chaotic! It was all about calling your position and letting the rider in front knowing where you were and what your intentions were. I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

after a break to warm up and another quick briefing, we were back out, but this time we were working in groups of 8. We self seeded so there was a faster group going down to a slower group (that said, none of the activities we did were carried out at speed. Tim was always at the front controlling the pace and it was very gentle. The focus for the whole day was safety and enjoyment). This time we learnt about pacelines and chaingang riding and focused on that for half an hour. 

We had a final talk session from Paul in the clubhouse which focussed a little more on race specific tactics and some basic training principles.

Although a fairly experienced rider, probably like a lot of us I like to ride with my mates who I know and importantly, I know how they ride. I have been sat behind Simon for so long, I can often pre-empt what he’s going to do before he does it. As a result, thankfully, we’ve never had a crash. It’s a very different kettle of fish when you are riding with people that you don’t know and I think the big takeaway from this course was that if we are all basically riding the same way with really good communication than our safety is going to be much greater. I went from being very sceptical about the riders around me (and I’m sure they felt the same about me) to trusting them within a very short space of time. How often can we say that about the people we sometimes end up riding with or encountering on the road?

My ego's writing cheques.......

my body can't cash.

Possibly the greatest line from Top Gun, and very pertinent to this post. Last post I was crowing about my very healthy increase to 263 watts from my last ftp test; a personal best. This has proved to be a false positive. I did a couple of TrainerRoad sessions and it was impossible for me to attain the numbers needed in each set. I would get a couple of reps in and my legs would be absolutely shot, with no way back to complete each session. When I took the test I had to use a higher than normal gear as the other gears were slipping so I was working on a much lower cadence. Somehow, this has given me a false result and I have had to suffer the ignominy of lowering my ftp. The good news is though, not by much; down to 256 watts and this has made all the difference.

So on Saturday, I'm trying something new.  I'm heading off to Ardingly to do a 4th category training session so that I can take part in the Surrey League Road Racing events.  To be honest, I'm actually pretty nervous. I have managed to get to 47 years of age without breaking any bones (despite coming off a motorbike (twice) and falling out the sky in a hang glider) I have therefore led a fairly charmed life. However, it seems that putting 30 or so MAMILS in very close proximity to each other, all thinking they might be the next Cav, could well end up in shattered carbon, aluminium and bones. Because of this, the Surrey League, very wisely, introduced compulsory training, which all riders have to attend. It basically ensures that all riders understand basic group riding skills so that they can be as safe as possible and it also covers racing techniques. My hope is that even if I don't race it will improve my personal skills when Group riding. Simon and I are riding down, doing the session then riding back. It could be a very long day in the saddle.

Pleasantly surprised

Despite the January and back to work blues, this is usually an exciting time of the year as I'm formulating the racing season to come and starting to get into some more meaty training.  I have some very good news. Yesterday I did another ftp test after completing the latest Trainerroad sweet spot base training block.  My last test was a little disappointing with a very modest 4 watt increase, and it was partly due to this that I decided to complete two base blocks.  I really went for it and I was a blubbering mess at the end. So my ftp result was 263 watts; a new power pb and some 30+ watts more than this time last year. This is a significant improvement and I'm thrilled that I have this power base to work from. That said, I also weighed myself on January 1st and that's an all time high too. 77kgs, which is the heaviest I have been in a very long time. So the plan is to get this down to 70kg by June and that should see my power/weight ratio get within striking reach of the magical 4w/kg.

I've started entering a few events, most notably the Gill Jessop Sporting 14 time trial organised by the Kingston Wheelers. It's in February so it's always a cold one but it's a good, no nonsense season opener, with excellent cake. (Although that's currently banned from my diet). I have also entered the National 12 hour TT on the same course as my failed 12 hour last year. The aim here is to hit 240 miles minimum and if Simon and Dale enter, which they probably will, and the day is a good one, I am sure we will have a crack at the Phoenix 12hr team record.

However, for the next month it's all about the turbo, with a long ride at the weekend.  I've got an ftp value to improve on.