real pain.
Serious pain.
achey.
These are all so subjective - it's a painfully difficult discussion to have online! Anyway ...
[anecdote]
LEL '09 was my only long ride with any (to me!) real pain. It was intermittent. I knew what was causing it, and it only came on more than 2/3rd through. So I assessed on a control-to-control basis. (this is no tale of heroism - it really was no big deal, except that I'm a massive wimp!)
A massive stroke of luck that week was chatting to some newbies who were bloody stroking round the whole thing - one happened to be a Pain Management Specialist Nurse! He had a briefcase of the right stuff, and could advise EXACTLY what was safe. Needless to say it was ALL normal, over-the-counter, vanilla pills. No horse tranquiliser!
[/anecdote]
Nevertheless, I do value my health over audax points. I just acknowledge that there are more grey areas than black/white ones. If you are going to have fun, challenge yourself, have
adventures! etc, then sometimes there are compromises. Hopefully the more adventures we have, the wiser we get, and the more data we have available to inform our decisions.
Just be careful out there kids