DNSing Calendar Events and DIYing another day - etiquette and tolerance

[Lady Cavendish]

I'm certainly not one of the most time poor. But I do want to spend the 'free pass' I get for the week wisely.

The weekdays grind me down. I'm out the house at 5am and get back at 9pm every day. And then pretty much go to bed because I'm knackered all the time.

I get one day at the weekend where I'm allowed out to play, and the other day we do family stuff/house stuff/life stuff/football. However, I'm generally lucky in that quite often (not always!!) that day is flexible, as long as I leave the other free. I can't (and don't want to) spend all my time riding, I also have other things I like doing, and people I want to spend it with.

If one day is pissing rain, and the other day isn't, then it's a fairly easy decision for me which I'd rather spend on my bike. I don't feel any need for 'character building' rides, or 'suffering' on my weekends. I want to enjoy my bike rides, not endure them. I've had plenty character building in real life thanks, I don't want my hobby to need to do the same, and I feel no need to man up. Yes, I live in the UK, and it rains a lot, but saying I should choose an indoor hobby doesn't make that much sense, I ride 20,000+ miles a year and enjoy them, I just do it when it doesn't involve rain (or ice) all day. Because I find it miserable.

If that means I miss an audax due to sh*t weather then so be it. I'm very unlikely to bother doing it as a DIY/perm the next day, so I'm not sure this thread applies to me so much. I might do another weekend I guess, or if it's local perhaps I might want to ride the route. I'd only travel for an 'event', not a 'route', so if it was a fair drive away, I'd just write it off.

[rabbit]

I'm certainly not one of the most time poor. But I do want to spend the 'free pass' I get for the week wisely.

The weekdays grind me down. I'm out the house at 5am and get back at 9pm every day. And then pretty much go to bed because I'm knackered all the time.

I get one day at the weekend where I'm allowed out to play, and the other day we do family stuff/house stuff/life stuff/football. However, I'm generally lucky in that quite often (not always!!) that day is flexible, as long as I leave the other free. I can't (and don't want to) spend all my time riding, I also have other things I like doing, and people I want to spend it with.

If one day is pissing rain, and the other day isn't, then it's a fairly easy decision for me which I'd rather spend on my bike. I don't feel any need for 'character building' rides, or 'suffering' on my weekends. I want to enjoy my bike rides, not endure them. I've had plenty character building in real life thanks, I don't want my hobby to need to do the same, and I feel no need to man up. Yes, I live in the UK, and it rains a lot, but saying I should choose an indoor hobby doesn't make that much sense, I ride 20,000+ miles a year and enjoy them, I just do it when it doesn't involve rain (or ice) all day. Because I find it miserable.

If that means I miss an audax due to sh*t weather then so be it. I'm very unlikely to bother doing it as a DIY/perm the next day, so I'm not sure this thread applies to me so much. I might do another weekend I guess, or if it's local perhaps I might want to ride the route. I'd only travel for an 'event', not a 'route', so if it was a fair drive away, I'd just write it off.

 

Good answer!

[mattc]

Coming from women who either;
- rode 600k across Wales with an increasingly f***ed knee, or
- rode 200k with a broken wrist just for RRTY's sake,

the last two posts confuse me somewhat. " I want to enjoy my bike rides, not endure them"??



p.s. I'm just jealous they're both much tougher than me, just so everyone's clear

[Lady Cavendish]

I tried to DNF that ride several times!! Anyway, I was not in a good place at all at the time. If I did the event tomorrow, now I'm of sane mind, I wouldn't finish under the same circumstances.

[red_riviera]

My luxury item on my Audax Desert Island is a pair of dry socks in a zip-lock bag.

If it is a desert island, you shouldn't need them! 

[Greenbank]

I'm still puzzled by the correspondents who claim to be time poor and yet have the flexibility to go riding on a different day.  If I've negotiated a day away from my other commitments (work and family) to do a ride, then if I don't do the ride it doesn't get done, period.  That's time poor.  So riding in the rain is a necessity not a choice.

I've generally negotiated one day being selfish and going for a long bike ride without my family, and spending the other day with my family. It's often quite easy to swap these days, even at short notice. Not if the other day contains something more important (family party/lunch/etc, booked events, etc) but most of the time there's not much difference between the days (it's mostly geared around keeping a 6yo entertained), does it matter whether I'm there for swimming, visiting sister-in-law, going to the park (Saturday) or visiting friends, going to the cinema and then buying some new school shoes (Sunday).

It works both ways, my wife was supposed to be doing a long walk with a friend on Saturday, it had been in the diary for ages. But the weather looked shite and it would mean walking through the Olympic Park when West Ham were playing at home, so at a couple of days notice she swapped it for Sunday. We still had the same amount of family time.

[Phil W]

Audax is a broad church. Whilst many, including myself, are quite happy riding in the rain if we've booked onto a calendar event. Not everyone has or carries the required clothing to remain warm and comfortable in inclement weather, nor wishes to do so.  Had they booked the DIY through another organiser you'd never have known.  I read on the other thread, I think, that about 50% DNS your event on the Saturday.  So I wonder if this is really about the large number of DNS after all your efforts and planning? If I was an organiser I'd be upset at that. The number who entered a DIY of your route for the Sunday must have been a far smaller percentage? Maybe that was the straw that broke the camels back?

Thumbs up for Merino. I carried a merino base layer as an extra layer in case I got cold on the REM 200. As it turned out the weather was much better than forecast and even in the hail it was warm.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Been back in Auld Blighty for a fortnight, still trying to get to the fracture clinic. They say Thursday; I'll believe it when I see it...

Good luck.  There are good parts and bad parts of my experience with the NHS.  Fracture clinics are not one of them.   Sadly I've got used to the system.  I turned up with my laptop, work phone for email connection and got somewhat disappointed when they interrupted my working day 3 hours after the time on my appointment card.  All for two minutes of, "looks like they've set that finger splint OK" and "you shouldn't be typing".

[itinerant]

I'm certainly not one of the most time poor. But I do want to spend the 'free pass' I get for the week wisely.

The weekdays grind me down. I'm out the house at 5am and get back at 9pm every day. And then pretty much go to bed because I'm knackered all the time.

I get one day at the weekend where I'm allowed out to play, and the other day we do family stuff/house stuff/life stuff/football. However, I'm generally lucky in that quite often (not always!!) that day is flexible, as long as I leave the other free. I can't (and don't want to) spend all my time riding, I also have other things I like doing, and people I want to spend it with.

If one day is pissing rain, and the other day isn't, then it's a fairly easy decision for me which I'd rather spend on my bike. I don't feel any need for 'character building' rides, or 'suffering' on my weekends. I want to enjoy my bike rides, not endure them. I've had plenty character building in real life thanks, I don't want my hobby to need to do the same, and I feel no need to man up. Yes, I live in the UK, and it rains a lot, but saying I should choose an indoor hobby doesn't make that much sense, I ride 20,000+ miles a year and enjoy them, I just do it when it doesn't involve rain (or ice) all day. Because I find it miserable.

If that means I miss an audax due to sh*t weather then so be it. I'm very unlikely to bother doing it as a DIY/perm the next day, so I'm not sure this thread applies to me so much. I might do another weekend I guess, or if it's local perhaps I might want to ride the route. I'd only travel for an 'event', not a 'route', so if it was a fair drive away, I'd just write it off.

I think that says it all. Terrific.
We're all different, so long as we are sensitive to the etiquette and correct behaviour towards the hard working organiser.
To be honest, I/we mess Iddu around with Perms/DIYs something shocking but calendar events are something else and should really be 'endured' unless the weather is going to be dangerous (ice or winds).