Audaxers in Hibernation/Stasis

[GrahamG]

A thread for those perpetually looking on here and at the AUK calendar for that 'just around the corner' opportunity to get back on the audax wagon. I must have more rides 'saved' in my calendar since 2015 than I ever actually completed.

Any other lurkers on here with those sad pangs of regret at lost fitness/endurance and general lack of cycling?  What's stopping you? Do you even care?  Is redemption just around the corner?

My excuse is child. The little bugger is now two and a bit years old and still derailing efforts to return to the fold... or at least that's what I'm using as an excuse after yet another bout of D&V was passed on to me.  He only learned to sleep through the night in the last few months which has left me mullered for the last couple of years, then I picked up illness at every opportunity after he started nursery, then an off (admittedly not his fault), then the self-defeatist merry-go-round that can only be countered by a more positive mental attitude, which can be tricky to conjure up!

Anyway, my recent savior has been my wife, who joined a local club and got more in to her cycling than ever thanks to a big group of friendly riders (and plenty of them ladies). That means we can divvy up weekend cycling time without it feeling like I'm taking the mickey by disappearing for half a day on our weekends. Hopefully I can turn it around sufficiently to feel like I can enter a 200 again without leaving myself so knackered I'm incapable of anything the day after.

I spend the last few years not being at all bothered about the lack of audaxing, but now I've realised that I'm a tourist at heart and really miss getting out on a proper two wheeled jolly, let's call it 'deep penetration of the countryside' as opposed to the furtive fumbling outings that barely see you past the green belt on over-familiar routes before turning to head back homewards.

[caerau]

I had an operation on my ankle post PBP in 2015 - just a month later.


About 3 weeks after I started cycling again after that I went over on some ice and ruptured a tendon in my arm - January last year - this required a second operation and this, as it turned out was actually a pretty serious injury.  My arm is largely still borked but that's not really the issue any more.  I just got out of the habit and work has consumed my time of late.


Last time I did a decent length ride was a Fnrttc from Cardiff to Swansea in June-ish last year.


A return to action is definitely on my to-do list... er ... sometime 


An new org just the other day offered me a free place on a local-ish ride in June.  This is a very kind offer  - and may just be the inspiration I need.  Though I would feel churlish to accept the 'free' bit.  I am not so poor that this will make much difference to me.

[guidon]

I'm there.....have been so since 2010  First of all stress related breakdown where nothing was "fun" and the tablets only made things worse. then a move to France with no money plus sketchy work following on the first part...then losing job with the folding of the motorcycle shop I was working in. Cue another house move, a few unsubstanciated job offers, periods of job training, a broken leg, a broken collarbone (un-connected), the wife having a heart attack and now working again in a crazy hours job.....

All this equals a desire to start back into the habit but.....plus the French way is not as organised or as logical as the UK set up....

So still trying to do it Graham - looks like you may be on the way....I hope to be soon...Yan

[Chris N]

I'm on my way back into it.

5 SRs, 3 1200 km+ rides and 180 points in 6 years and I'd had enough. Took some time off - pretty much stopped riding, had 2 kids, got the house in shape, got fat, got stressed, changed jobs and finally moved house.

Now I actually want to ride - have entered LEL - and am trying to get enough miles in to be able to get round within the time limits.

[Hot Flatus]

Got fat

Photos or it didn't happen

[αdαmsκι]

[Chris N]

 

[GrahamG]

 Caerau & Gidon - sorry to hear about the injuries and other difficulties, I knew that there would be plenty of people with injuries and life issues that puts my petty moaning to shame

[Ben T]

Think I would include myself in this bracket. still do the odd 200 (and 100) but have simply lost sight of the point of riding over 200km in one go.

Combination of the fact it's not a challenge - I've done plenty before to know I can do it if I wanted to, it's not adventurous - there aren't many parts of the UK I haven't cycled in, and I'm more into other sports nowadays which sorry to cast aspersions but I find more sociable, a lot of audaxers can be quite miserable 
There just isn't any benefit to audax that I can't get on a shorter ride, i.e. rendering the level of endurance/effort unnecessary.

I wasn't interested enough in LEL to enter it early enough to get a place but will probably do PBP again.

[Greenbank]

Pretty much the same as chris n. Parenthood and not wanting to be away for entire days or weekends.

I usually do a couple of 200s a year but this year my usual two (Brazier's Run 100 including ride to/from, and Ditchling Devil 200) coincide with other things so I'll have my first Audax free year for 10 years.

I'm not worried, in ~10 years I'll still be below average Audaxer age and parenting responsibilities will be much less different.

Started running as that training doesn't take anywhere near as much time per week as Audaxing and I can fit most of it in without impacting family time.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

After a fairly serious crash last August, I am only just beginning the process of getting fit again. Discomfort and inertia has meant not much riding, let alone distance riding since then. I've come back from long-term layoffs before and the inevitable, long, difficult period to reach fitness is discouraging.

[Whitedown Man]

A heart operation last year kept me off the bike for three months from early October until early January. Although I've ridden eight 200s since the end of January I'm still 10% slower than this time last year, and 200km is still feeling like a bloody long way to ride a bike. However, taking the end-Jan to end-March period as a whole I can definitely feel the sense of climbing back up some kind of curve. This Saturday will be a big test, with my first ride over 200km since before the op. As the great man said, KBO.

[caerau]

Caerau & Gidon - sorry to hear about the injuries and other difficulties, I knew that there would be plenty of people with injuries and life issues that puts my petty moaning to shame

Meh, I have first world problems, there are far worse off than me.


Nice thread, I have been posting around here feeling like a bit of phoney for a while now - in fact I stopped posting here at all for a while as it was all getting me down a bit.
It's actually quite heartening to see I'm not the only one.  And looking at who else is posting here I am in illustrious company.


We should organise a group perm 

[DrMekon]

Hernia, gut problems and a RTA (bone graft and implants yesterday) as meant last year was stop-start, and I've only ridden outside 4 times since September last year.

Zwift and a Neo has been a godsend. After the initial recovery periods, I've tried to keep up 10hr a week. The neo is quiet enough that I can do it an any time without waking the kids, and the metrics and environment are engaging.

2 of the rides were 200kms each, one an overnighter to Blackpool. Riding exclusively on turbo has meant that when I have done the distances, I get unusual aches where my body is unaccustomed to actually riding, but it's nothing dreadful.

For those looking to get back to fitness when getting out is tough, it is a good option. They have just started doing efondo events

http://zwift.com/events/view/8523

[caerau]

I have to say it was coming back here after a hiatus and seeing what had happened to you Dr Mekon that gave me good kick up the arse to realise that it aint so bad.


I hope you are gradually making much progress.

[mmmmartin]

We should organise a group perm

"The Flat Ride for Fat Blokes"..... 
After packing on PBP I realised the 600k was fine for me but I finished that distance with insufficient time in hand to sleep enough to do it again, so gave up hopes of doing PBP or LEL.
So audax went to the back of the queue and I did more very long tours, seven weeks in Patagonia and seven weeks in 2016 in Norway, plus week-long European trips sleeping in buildings instead of bus shelters or tents.  Did nothing through what seemed a miserable winter weather-wise, so my week in the Netherlands in October was the last big ride. Then finally got round to riding an AAA Milne perm brevet I'd bought 13 months ago, and remembered how nice it was to be out riding. Entered the Man of Kent 200 and enjoyed it immensely in spite of the constant reminder from my legs that I'd spent the winter sitting down in the warm instead of riding the bike.

Am now pondering a comment by a friend that my decision to volunteer at LEL gives me guaranteed entry for 2021. ....

[LEE]

I always knew that PBP2015 would draw a line under Audax, hence my decision to ride to and from St Quentin, to make it a full-value experience, to "do it properly".
Although I had to pack on the return leg of PBP itself, the ride back home a couple of days later was the highlight of my cycling life.  In fact my 2015 failure was a much nicer experience than my 2011 success.

I have shoulder/neck problems that have always meant 400/600/1200 Audax rides were a test of my ability to put up with neck pain more than my ability to pedal a long way. 
It's hard to describe just how "not enjoyable" it is to deal with neck-pain right through the night(s) but it's not a cycling challenge in my opinion.

I may still do an occasional 200 (something I've been saying since I got back from PBP) but I'm more likely to save up my weekends in order to spend long weekends cycling between Cafes in Normandy and Brittany with friends, something I find hard to beat.

Having said all that, I did the same after PBP2011, when I felt that the PBP Audax "treadmill" had removed the joy from my cycling.

Audax, for me anyway, was about constantly proving to myself I could do it.  I think I proved it.  Now I'm just waiting for the ferry to St Malo in June.

[DrMekon]

I have to say it was coming back here after a hiatus and seeing what had happened to you Dr Mekon that gave me good kick up the arse to realise that it aint so bad.


I hope you are gradually making much progress.

Very kind of you to say that. Yes - surgeon said yesterday, jut before he started chipping bits of bone away, we're on the path to putting things right.

I currently have a very pouty top lip

[RichForrest]

I lost interest in 2011 after working away for 3 months meant not cycling to work regular and getting fatter on hotel breakfasts and eating out every night. Cycling felt like a chore, I wasn't enjoying it and PBP didn't happen. Last 200 was in Nov 11.
Many thing in the intervening years. Moving to a place where I could have the kids at weekends,took up running to lose some weight and that took the place of cycling for a couple of years, started doing squats deadlifts etc at the gym after that which then replaced the running.
Kids are getting older now and soon be at the age where they will not want to stay over.
A few house moves later and now back to an easy 7.5km commute I'm getting back into enjoying it again.
Maybe 

[LEE]

Cycling regularly is habit-forming*


*As is not cycling.

It's worth noting that Steve Abraham did more miles last week than I did in 2012

[paul851]

My youngest 5 was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia (Near Haploid) in May of 2015 which obviously scuppered my PBP aspirations and meant no rides from then onward, his treatment went really well and the decision was made not to go ahead with a stem cell transplant but carry on with Chemo.

In 2016 he seemed to be doing well and I signed up for the Wild Atlantic Way Audax but constant stays in hospital dealing with infections and such like meant I only managed a few rides and was DNF on the WAWA (I did manage 1996km though), unfortunately Shaun relapsed a week after I got back home and within 3 weeks was fighting for his life in ICU so cycling wasn't really on my mind much obviously , thankfully after nine weeks of scaring the crap out of me he finally started to get back on top of things though we still had to deal with Sepsis , C-Diff , ESBL E-Coli , Vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Pneumonia among various other infections.
We finally managed to have a stem cell transplant the day before Christmas Eve last year and on a positive note Shaun breezed through the transplant process apart from some quite bad Graft-V-Host when the new cells decided to attack Shaun but that is now under control.

This year I have decided to just ride a few Audax as and when I can and decided to volunteer for LEL rather than commit to riding it and hopefully look forward to 2018.

Paul

[Cudzoziemiec]

That certainly puts things into perspective. Wishing Shaun much health.

[hellymedic]

Wishing Shaun and family 851 well.

I sit here comfortably unable to ride my bike. I had some GREAT rides but can't ride now.

But I am alive, well, painfree and in one piece...

[LesH]

I am coming back in a fairly determined fashion.  Second cardiac ablation finished in December so just out of the 3 month blanking period.  Picked up a diagnosis of SMZ Lymphoma at Stage 4 with 80% bone marrow infiltration on the way just to add spice to life...at least the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton are next door to each other.  But I am coming back did the Man of Kent last weekend and aiming at 3Down in 10 days time.  Booked on the National 400 and looking at other rides.  I am also 20 kg lighter than before  all this silly distraction.
Les
(Over the hill and away with the fairies)

[rabbit]

I just got very bored of road riding again and returned to the MTB.

Then I burnt out a bit with the endurance stuff.

Then I realised there was so much more to life.

I doubt I'll ever do an audax more than 300 km again, I just can't see the point of sleep deprivation. I know I can do the long distance multiday stuff, I have no desire to. I'd rather tour and enjoy the scenery, or push myself for a few hours and then stick my feet up with a film and good food.

Why would I want to constrain myself to tarmac, between hedges and to a clock, when on the MTB I can see places like this? :