As I’m having another crack at LEL, I’m going to try to keep a ride diary of sorts. Don’t think it’ll be amusing. It’s mainly to keep a note of what worked, what didn’t, what went well and what went horribly, catastrophically, OH MY GOD IT’S EATING MY LEG, wrong.
If you’re a fellow long-haul cyclist, you may learn something. Or possibly not.
The Benjamin Allen Spring Tonic is a 200k ride from Tewkesbury. Organised by the excellent Mark Rigby, of Blacksheep Audaxes fame, it’s one of dozens of rides he puts on in the Welsh Marches. On paper, it looked ok: 200km, but with under 2000m of climbing. One day I’ll learn that ‘on paper’ is a lie that I ought to stop telling myself.
The weather was grey and chilly, but dry. Recent rain had wreaked havoc on parts of the route and although Mark had indicated alternatives in his pre-ride emails, I had no local knowledge whatsoever to guide me, so I stuck doggedly to the track provided. An hour or so of studying the map & tweaking my GPX route would have saved me quite a lot of pain and soaking wet feet, but that’s hindsight for you.
What worked
Achilles is a mighty steed and is well dialled-in. No complaints on that score.
My clothes & layering were good and I was warm enough, apart from my feet. The Stolen Goat Climb & Conquer gloves are truly fantastic and you should buy some.
https://stolengoat.com/product/stolen-goat-unisex-climb-and-conquer-4-seasons-full-length-cycling-gloves/
Again, the B&M Luxos U proved its worth, running off an SP dynamo hub. It has a decent enough light for audaxing, although I wouldn’t try a sketchy downhill at full speed, but the ability to charge stuff as you ride, from the *built in* USB terminal is a godsend. I use Ride With GPS on an old phone for my navigation. It’s great, but only possible with such easy charging. I think there are other ways to get device power from your dynamo, but they’re either expensive, complicated or both.
It’s not a mantra, but muttering ‘don’t panic Mr Mainwaring’ helped. It works for my Dad when he’s stressed, so why not me? Despite the ride being very hard (90% down to my lack of fitness) I managed to keep going and didn’t bail. That’s a big deal. I have a lot going on right now and my head isn’t in a happy state, so that counts as a good win. The fact that I had no f*cking clue where I was most of the time, or any clue about local trains or indeed a usable phone signal may have helped. But I did consciously ride past several tempting looking pubs which would have sold me a comfy bed and some beer, so that definitely counts.
Walking up hills is better than not moving, or busting a lung pedalling. Walking also warms up your feet when they’re frozen. Walking (probably) loses you less time than you might think, as long as you save it for when you’re struggling badly. Walking is good and there is no shame in it.
Micro-rests – literally just a 60 second breather – are handy when you’re finding it hard going. Just long enough to get your HR down and have a little pep talk.
A lip-balm stick keeps the edge of your nostrils from getting sore, what with all the running, sniffing and wiping. Small things like a sore nose can really piss you off on a hard ride.
What didn’t work
Well, nothing really. At least nothing was horribly wrong. But it was a hard, hard day out.
My feet were frozen, despite being in Ground Effect bootee things. I suspect they work best with more air around them, and they were very snug in my shoes. A good pair of merino socks would probably have been better.
I tried to discipline myself to eat something every hour. That went south after the first control and I almost certainly didn’t have enough liquid on board. I’m really, really bad at this fuelling on the go thing and I have to get better at it.
Pulling a deceptively hard 200km out of my arse, after having barely ridden at all for three months previously was definitely an error. I struggled to get into any rhythm and even my monster gear wasn’t enough to winch me up the hills. A runny nose is a sure sign that my body is unhappy and mine started to run after less than half distance.
I’m still too heavy (around 91kg). Losing more weight will help (duh) but it will also mean I can use the tri-bars and be more efficient. Right now, there’s too much belly for them to be comfortable. I reckon another 5kg would put me in the right place.
So?
I finished with about 5 minutes spare. That’s seriously squeaky, but I’m pleased that I kept going and didn’t wuss out in a warm pub. Hopefully I can hang on to some of that ‘just keep moving’ attitude, as it’s nearly always my head that falls off on a ride, rather than my legs.
It’s far to early to make predictions for LEL, or extrapolating from the limited data I have available. Basically I’m very unfit right now and I need to get better at pounding down the right calories and the right liquid while I’m riding (and pound down a lot less when I’m sat on my arse).
Well Chuffed Cycling 
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