Well, I’ve done something stupid……….

And 99kg – you’re not that tall if I remember (although this was +15 years ago at a Gorrick), you’ll make it easier for yourself every kilo you lose.

That’s the plan, I’m 6ft but carry a fair bit of muscle so won’t realistically get below 85-82kg without exhausting myself.

If you can’t do 3x200k (or 100miles) over a long weekend beforehand, you shouldn’t be doing the 1000k would be my ‘advice’.

That’s pretty much the plan:

The Flatlands 600 in May as an overnight / 2-day test.

The Rural South 300 in late June which has comparable amounts of climbing per km (albeit in hills rather than Lakeland passes) which I can probably muster a group for a 200 ish clubrun the day after which will be a good test of climbing on knackered legs.

And there’s off-roads options locally SDW double in a weekend, Ridgeway double in a day, KAW in 36h locally to test myself on.

I’m planning to do this next year: https://midnightsunrandonnee.se/

Although having started looking into travel to/from the start/finish I’ve realised it will be a logistical nightmare (basically need to add on 2 days for travel at each end).

Tempted to put that one aside until the children are a bit older and sign up to Mille Pennines instead…

The Flatlands 600 in May as an overnight / 2-day test.

Yeah, that’s the test: can you get up after minimal sleep and do it all over again.

If you’re after a 3 x 200 long weekend, the Pauline Porter Populaire runs alongside the Bryan Chapman Memorial, 6th June I think. I was volunteering this year and the riders were raving about it. The BCM is a great 600, loads of TLC and the climbs are mostly a steady gradient.

If you’re after a 3 x 200 long weekend, the Pauline Porter Populaire

Looks good, similar profile to the MP1K but with a couple of hours extra sleep!

Which only leaves a 400 which unless you’re fast enough to knock it out as a chaingang at the max speed is likely to end up an almost 24h effort and that’s the one thing that doesn’t appeal.

Righty, well that’s the A Tale Of Two Beauties 100km ticked off.

As expected I suffered on the hills so opted to sit in the group for most of the flatter first half and make good time to the halfway commercial control.  Had a couple of minor mechanicals with my rear mudguard cracking completely through a few inches behind the brake caliper, must have caught a twig or something, then dropping the chain on a small climb meaning I had to ride the last 15k or so solo.

Deciding to turn that into a positive and get used to a long ride without a rest I grabbed a can of beer for later, got my receipt and headed straight out again ahead of the main group.

The 2nd half was fairly uneventful, I got caught on the hills then hung on ok the flats for a rest as each small group came past. Before running out of legs at the top of the last big hill.  Thankfully it was (a painfully steep and unrewarding of the effort put into getting up there) downhill from Bix into Henley then the slippery climb back up Hambleden valley and the road that seems to go on forever because you know it’s ‘almost’ home skirting around the north of Caversham.

Things to do better next time, sort myself a new Garmin computer, the epix is great for a pseudo digital-detox way of riding but I missed one info control because I wasn’t paying attention to the km’s.  And I got the fueling/hydration wrong. Despite sticking to my plan of a banana or cereal bar roughly every 40min I realised I’d not taken a sip of water untill almost 70k.   Next time I’ll take something sweet to drink (I prefer OJ to SiS) and some sweets which should add some simple carbs to the mix. Not much I could have done about the mechanicals, I think whatever took the mudguard out probably jolted the QR (sks raceblade) which tweaked the wheel alignment. 

100k in 5h22min.  Not exactly impressive but not bad.

Total this week: 206miles split between 10mile Z1/2 recovery commutes and 15/40/80mile rides and a slightly harder pace (Z2, edging into 3+ on short hills).

Sticking to the plan of doing roughly that each week for the first 16weeks untill the end of February. Then making an assessment over whether to continue with that unstructured base riding if it’s working well, or focusing more on polarising it with more sweet spot and hill work once the Audax season starts properly.

I set my Wahoo to prompt me to have a drink every 15 minutes, think Garmin do the same

Probably just a time of year thing with it being colder and probably longer than I’m used to at this time.  I’m pretty good with hydration in the summer and most winter rides I get around without actually needing anything more than the cafe stop.

What I really needed was an ‘audax mode’ to flag up a warning when approaching the controls ?.  Anyone know if there’s a way of setting a hard waypoint that it won’t let you navigate past untill you’ve acknowledged the message?  Needs to be something more than the pothole alarm but less of a faff than fully chopping the route up into different courses and having to load each one up as you pass controls.

I was supposed to be riding the Moonrakers and Sunseekers 300 this weekend, but COVID has struck. Gah.

I have a feeling there’s  a way but not sure how.

There are several really good audax groups on Facebook – one is event specific,  the other is focused on tech and kit. Worth asking/searching on there.

Maybe alter the route so it heads up a side street 50m, and then u turns back down onto the actual route? Should be enough of a prompt