Bear with me ...In case you've never heard of this:
The Rapha Festive 500 is a simple "Bit of fun" with a free badge for completion. Just ride 500k in the 8 days from Xmas Eve to New Year's Eve (inc). If you're crazy fast <cough>zigzag!</cough> and/or get a run of good weather and/or don't have many family work commitments, that's very easy - it's just a carrot to make sure you get out there. But many will struggle - cos of time, weather, or just bad luck.
This is the first year I've given it a go. I'm currently bang on schedule after 4 days, but feeling that this is harder than I expected! No bad thing of course.
My point is that I feel this has given me a small insight into Steve's world. It's not like any other riding I've done, and it weirdly distorts how/when you ride.
Shall I sit here until it gets a little warmer? I can still do a nice ride, or get a good "session" in if that's why you ride. but NOOOO! Time really is miles! The clock is ticking, even as I type this. You even realise that route-planning is wasted time.
But Matt, you've done tons of Audax kms, isn't this the same shit? Well sort of ... but you have a more defined schedule then. There is a sort of self-imposed pressure here, there is too much temptation to put off the miles until later in the week.
And then there's route choice - suddenly that hill you enjoy seems a really stupid idea. And you find yourself taking the bypass route instead of cutting through the houses. Or main roads over your usual nice laney option. A really smooth bit of tarmac has you tempted to ride up-and-down it 5 times. And of course doing an extra lap of the estate when you get home, just because! Off-road? Sod that, I'll need twice the time - better to ride on that icey road again.
You make weird choices - I'll cycle to some distant shop for stuff I don't really need, instead of walking to the local shops for stuff you really will need quite soon. I even found myself resenting our regular christmas morning walk - that's several hours of daylight wasted! I considered carrying the GPS - noone's gonna check, are they??
I haven't really found the words to describe this properly ... perhaps I should just get out there again!