The whys and wherefores of Packing a ride

[Chris S]

That 'cyclist in me' you talk about not showing? How long do you think you would have needed to wait for him to 'turn up'?

../..

Or maybe, I'm just putting myself in your shoes 

Normally, I'm fine straight out of the blocks, and continue to be fine for many hours.

Yesterday I was OK (though not fine) to start with and gradually decayed in speed, enjoyment, motivation - everything really. It very quickly became hard work, and carried on getting harder. The decision to pack was based on the fact that it was getting that hard within the first 100km, and I had another 320km to do, mostly overnight. I didn't want to be in Sudbury at 3am, totally unable to continue - so I quit whilst I could.

Once I decided the game was up, motivation drained away - and it was then I noticed all the other stuff - heat, hot headwind (it was about 25kph into my face for five hours across the exposed flatlands of Norfolk and Suffolk) and niggling knee pain, and right there was the reward for stopping - all that unpleasantness stops too.

[Manotea]

Packs, I've had a few, then again, too few to mention (not entirely true...) but clearly more then some posters. I'm a bit suspicious of chaps* who say they never pack, to be honest. It may be they simply are not ambitious enough, are a bit more selective about the rides they do or even (heaven forbid) train, but if you ride a fairly fullish 'season' as against targeted rides then inevitably there will be days when you feel like you should have stayed at home.

I packed on the Irish Mail this year or rather I decided to clip 100km from the ride because the early stages were much harder than I expected, the aforementioned 100km was not terribly scenic and completing it would have made the home run really tough, chasing the clock all the way. As it was I stopped at the penultimate stop for a much needed sleep break. But mostly I turned early because I simply didn't need to complete the Brevet. I already had a 400km in the bag for my SR and I'm not point chasing this year. So I weighed the odds, I decided I had had a good day and headed for home. If I had needed the Brevet I would have pushed on and toughed it out. As is, I plan to be there next year. It was much the same scenario on the Rural South but I ran into a J. Spooner who made me finish!

So Motivation is key. Ultimately, if you are not enjoying the day and you're looking at the sharp end of an entirely pointless painfest then you are better off out of it, the sooner the better. What you don't want to happen is to come away from a ride so exhausted / demoralised / disillusioned it puts you off riding. Likewise as Gordy says, you need a clear conscience, otherwise you'll spend the entire event thinking you shouldn't really be there, which is Not Helpful.

So personally I'm into Discretion before Valour, which is easily confused with but in fact a completely different issue to Dealing With Bad Patches.

* Edit: More correct to say (least anybody thinks I'm having a pop) I'm wary of any impression that packing is to be disdained. Fact is there are a lot of strong riders out there who plan their rides well.  Equally there are less able riders for whom most every ride is a challenge.  My take is that its simply better to ride and run away (eh?) then never to ride at all.

In the same vein, reports of riders pushing on whilst carrying injuries, knee problems, etc.  worry me. Whilst its a matter of personal judgement I don't like to think of inexperienced riders feeling they 'have' to complete a course no matter what. Of course if its 2am in the middle of nowhere there may not be much choice other than to push on.

[ludwig]

Actually I think the key to not packing is running into John spooner as I think many people would testify

[GruB]

I second and third that, motion passed 

[arabella]

I packed twice, once for mechanical and the other 'cos I'd not enough low gears, too many faery visits and decided not to chase the clock., following which the little voices in my head telling me how useless I was have ensured that I tend to plug on. 

[MSeries]

I think the 'heads not in the game' thing is very relevant and this can affect all of us, it's part of being human. Controlling it and psyching oneself up for the event is all part of the game. Through experience one can learn how to prepare for events mentally, recognise the situations before they become terminal, develop coping and repair strategies to stop them becoming terminal.

[chris]

I've packed three times in the 40ish events that I've started -

The first time was due to a broken seat clamp on a 100km from Oundle. The chances of finding a replacement in the middle of north Northamptonshire at 09:30 on a Sunday morning were less than zero, so I had to call on Mrs Chris to come and rescue me. Luckily I had ridden from home to the start, so there was no issue with getting my own car back.

The next time was on the Daylight 600 in 2007. The week before I had been suffering from a chest infection and I was taking anti-biotics. I had arranged business meetings close(ish) to the start to the on the Friday before and the Monday after, so I had nothing to lose in starting. I arrived at Ballachulish (about 140 miles) feeling very weak, having been sick twice on the climb up Glen Coe, and quite close to the time limit. I decided that next 100+km riding alone around a very sparsly populated peninsular at night was not wise, so I bimbled 25 miles down the relatively flat road to the control at Benderloch, got some sleep and joined some other riders for the ride back to the start/finish.

The other time I packed was on a 200km from Oundle. I rode the 30 miles to the start, and the first part of the ride was good. However despite drinking and eating well I began to feel very weak, and at about 100km the route passed close to home (through the next village), so I sent a message with some other riders that I had packed, and rode home where I immediatley fell asleep and woke up a couple of hours later with severe leg cramps. I rode 100 miles the next day with no problems.

Then there are the other times that I have packed before the start. Sometimes due to illness, sometimes due to bad weather, and once because I just couldn't be bothered.

Sometimes I would have packed, but the easiest bail out option was to ride to the finish, and then drive home.

[vorsprung]

I packed twice.  Once on the Bodmin 300 in 2007 when my rear derrailuer destroyed itself in the first 50km.  I converted the bike to single speed but lost too much time to make the Lands End control in time.

Other time was on the Kernow and South West 600 in 2008.  I'd had all the early season off with a broken collar bone and missed the BCM etc.  Before attempting the k&sw 600 I did do a 200km test ride which went ok.
Apart from a lower level of fitness than normal before this ride my daughter had been ill and waking me up every night that week at 3am.  So I was short on sleep.  I got to Penzance towards the back of the field but I was ok.
The night section from Penzance to the sleep stop at Bude didn't go well.  I couldn't stay awake.  I had a couple of catnaps in bus shelters and crashed into a hedge when falling asleep on the bike.  Got to Bude but with no time in hand.  Had a rest, not really a sleep for about 30 minutes then went on.  The next bit of the ride is easy until after Holdsworthy and then it gets really lumpy.  The buzzard must have sensed I was at the back of the pack, easy meat and had a go at me.   I knew I was in trouble when a bunch of women on MTB doing a charity ride overtook me going up a hill.  The route went past my house(ish) at 400km and I was out of time for the next control so I packed there and then.

I've DNSd twice, once due to weather (local 200km, lots of rain) once due to lack of lead in my pencil ( tough BCM meant a 400 round cornwall the following weekend wasn't possible )

I have done a couple of BCM where there was a high drop out rate but I finished ( 2006 and 2009 )
Finished a 200 in Devon/Cornwall when it rained all day, big rain and then blew a gale.  And my lights kept failing (i'd given my spare light to a friend)
Finished a local 200 after crashing at 100k, think I was concussed large grazes and bruising
Finished a local 100 after crashing, My brakes wore out in the wet and braking with your foot doesn't work on twisty 25% gravel lanes.  I ripped up my new coat on that occassion
The overall packing rate for PBP might have been in excess of 25% but for UK entrants it wasn't so I don't count that as a "ride other people packed but I didn't"

I always think it's easier to ride to the end of the event than to mess about finding a train/taxi/bus/hotel
I always carry a ton of wet/cold weather gear/spare food/a map/spare lights

[Charlotte]

I ride my bike because it's one of the things that I most like doing in life.

Usually, riding my bike is a joy which feeds my soul and makes my body feel fabulous.  Sometimes though, riding my bike is really hard and I don't feel so good.

If I'm neither mentally, nor physically getting anything out of a ride, I'll stop riding.

Sure, I'll continue a hard ride in order to prove something to myself (viz this weekend's Ordinary lunacy - my arse is still in a Remarkably Bad Way) but when I put aside the physical discomfort, I have to be getting something else to compensate.

If there's pain, but no glory - what's the bloody point?

[MSeries]

I always think it's easier to ride to the end of the event than to mess about finding a train/taxi/bus/hotel

On the ride I packed on it wasn't easier to ride back. Had I not been with the someone else I wouldn't have know how easy it was to get a train back so would almost certainly have not packed. I have no regrets about packing that ride or any others and don't blame anyone for packing.

[Really Ancien]

Doing anything extraordinary inevitably means tricking ourselves in some way. We might get sponsorship or tell loads of people or promise ourselves a treat if we get through, but most people are deceiving themselves somehow. The idea of 'packing' is one such trick, we have to be careful with it, if we make it too shameful, we will cease to try. But if we think that packing doesn't matter it ceases to be a motivational tool. There are loads of 'mind games' people play in Audax, the ones who don't indulge in them are usually those who are working to a different agenda; long distance time-triallists who are using them as training, their mind-games are reserved for the TT events themselves.

Oliver Burkeman's column in Saturday's Guardian was about stoicism, and has some relevance.
         This column will change your life: The worst that could happen? Bring it on, says Oliver Burkeman |
            Life and style |
            The Guardian
   

The most telling sentence for me is this one.

Stoicism can be just as easily seen as a way to participate more fully in the world, to plunge in more deeply precisely because one has sapped it of any absolute power to dictate one's emotional state.

Packing allows circumstance to reassert its power to determine your emotional state, that's why we need to match ambition to ability.

Damon.

[CommuteTooFar]

I can find lots of reasons for packing.

First time. I got horribly lost on the first ever Glamorgan Glory in signpostless lanes then failed to find my way back onto the route. Eventually I found a place I recognised from  The Best of British that I had ridden the previous day nut I had lost too much time.

Second Time. Crashed. Broke a bone in by left wrist and cracked a finger on my right hand. I needed to ask someone to help me change a tube. In Tregarron I decided to pack when I needed to ask someone to cut my toast into pieces. I decided to ride to Carmathen the nearest railway station.  I knew a route, I had ridden the Plynlimon Polka the previous year. Fortunately a Carmarthen sign appeared at Cwmann so I did not need to follow the hilly route after all.  I really hate cattle grids. I was changing right hand gear with my left hand because it hurt less at that time. Eventually I go to Caramarthen. I felt really wrong about buying a train ticket in the middle of the afternoon when I had a bike.  I got on a Train in the wrong direction. Eventually I got home and recieved a angry phone call from the organiser for not telling her directly that I had packed.  I explained and the tone changed to concern.  I went to bed.  The next day I wake up to find my left wrist was double its normal width and visited casualty.  I still think I should of finished this one. Did I mention I really hate cattle grids.

Over the year I have become less motivated. For instance I could of continued after a silly  crash on a  Doctor Fosters.  I got a puncture and discovered that dripping blood on to the new tube is remarkably demotivating.

This year I have been quite shameful.  On the Milford Haven Brevet I was riding towards Carew on the A4075.  A gusty cross wind nearly blew me under a car. Phew that was close. As I was decending into Carew it happened again. Bugger this I thought and turned left instead of right at the roundabout and returned directly to Carmathen. Very naughty.  I almost certainly would of continued if I had gone onto the control at Manorbier which was quite close and thought about it.



 
 

[vistaed]

I've been know to pack half way round a mid week 40 mile after work ride!

[Greenbank]

So personally I'm into Discretion before Valour, which is easily confused with but in fact a completely different issue to Dealing With Bad Patches.

Exactly. I've packed because of bad patches, luckily not because of something that's out of my control (severe injuries or unfixable mechanicals, etc).

If I gave in to the pack faeries every time I felt glum I'd end up packing on my commute at least a couple of times a week. I don't always enjoy all of the cycling I do, I've definitely had to push myself through yet another 3 lap blast round Richmond Park despite the "fuck it" valve blowing and not really wanting to be there at all.

Giving up is the easy option, but I don't get on my bike to do a x00km ride because I want to take the easy option so I expect some negativity and try and make sure it doesn't take me over.

[Chris S]

Goodness - I forgot an Autumn Tints 200 I packed on after 3 punctures and a crash led to a SoH failure. Funny how you forget these things in amongst all the successes isn't it?

[Weirdy Biker]

DNF's, I've had a few.

Denmead 600 (2005 calendar) - feeling the effect of the heat
Denmead 600 (solo perm) - poor planning meant overslept at 300km
Hailsham 400 (solo perm) - poor motivation
Rural South 300 (2005 calendar) - puncture problems

There are also a few other rides I should have packed but didn't through gritty determination.  Springing to mind are the Kidderminster Killer where I did the last 50km without any brakes (other than my shoes!).  PBP 2007 where I was very wet and miserable after 500km of rain, bloody rain.  Likewise the Bryan Chapman in 2006.  LEL 2005, where I suffered physically in my first season of AUK and poor pacing at the start (and poor facilities, it as to be said, despite the enthusiasm of the helpers).

Nowadays, with more experience, I know when to DNS.  Although perhaps it is rather too frequent at the moment, due to motivational issues.

[mattc]

There are 2 subtleties that are coming out of this:

- sometimes you're suffering, but still enjoying it.(This often comes from the satisfaction you know you will feel afterwards).
- sometimed you're not enjoying it, but reckon you will start at some point. This seems to require rides over 150k, and you can only really know this from similar experiences.(I find this harder when it happens unexpectedly - I know I'll suffer on a particular climb, but unexpected cold/headwind/crap food/crap digestion can catch me out and trigger an instant hissy fit.)


Both of these situations are impossible to define until they actually happen. I find the grey areas fascinating. The rides I've almost packed have been the most satisfying.

[scottlington]

I packed on the Dean - twice.

First time was the calendar event earlier in the year. I'd been feeling shit from the start and was seriously contemplating packing after only 20k or so. I thought, I'll see what's over the next hill and, lo and behold, a very kindly chap caught me up and gave me the motivation to carry on (through nothing more than company and simple chat). After another 10 k I felt absolutley fine and was going along very nicely - until a broken rear spoke episode going fast down Winchcombe hill put paid to that.

So, I thought I'd give it another go a couple of weeks later as a perm. Duly entered - got as far as Newent and gave up. This time, there was only me and no kindly soul to 'help out' when it got bad. Grinding to a halt halfway up Cleeve Hill all I had for company were the little voices in my head saying 'you feel like crap, you can't climb for toffee, you've got another 200k to go, you could be at home, you DON'T need to do this ride etc etc'. I carried on until Newent but that was it.

The only other time I thought about packing simply due to my psyche was on last year's Asparagus and Strawberries. I felt much the same as on this years Dean and, again, was saved by other riders turning up at very timely moments (this occasion it was Ed Nevard and Jane).
 

[GruB]

I agree with vorsprung about riding to the event.  I think a lot about what I am going to take and once I have set off, I either have it or I don't.  Planning to ride also means a good bike check beforehand.  I have enjoyed the audax events I have ridden to and from the most, to date.

[gordon taylor]

Despite having packed on a few short Audax rides with pathetic excuses, there are several rides I've done where packing would have been the sensible option*... but for some unfathomable reason I've just ploughed on.

Perhap we should have  a thread on "Rides on which I've not packed but should have?!"



*Breaking a pedal off 50 miles from anywhere on the Hay Plain in Australia was one of those days.
Stuff the heat. Stuff those flies. Just pedal, you fat bastard.

The mind is a strange thing.

[TOBY]

Perhap we should have  a thread on "Rides on which I've not packed but should have?!"

My commute everyday.

Nothing to do with the ride though.

[Datameister]

Perhap we should have  a thread on "Rides on which I've not packed but should have?!"

I'll start that one off. This year's Cambrian 600. Didn't pack but I've spent at least 2 weeks since wishing I had. One day the symptoms will go away................hopefully prior to LEL

[andygates]

It's much easier for me to pack solo than in a group - I'll cling hard to a group rather than end up grinding on my own when the black dogs start to sniff at the wheels.  Suffering in a group is an adventure; suffering solo is just horrid. 

[De Sisti]

I've never packed on an audax ride as I usually drive to them, and am in areas I'm not
familiar with in order to take a short cut back to the start. I did however consider packing
on the Alpe D'Huez climb on this year's Marmotte due to my breathing problems.

[Weirdy Biker]

So is that it? Does it all come down to motivation?

No, it's because you are lazy