audax: Kingdom of the East Saxons 400km
July 12, 2017โข277 words
My approach to this one was characterised by a self handicapping nonchalance brought on by the woeful lack of miles I've pushed out this year. Tapering sounded good when another rider wittily suggested this as my training strategy for LEL. Maybe pushing my luck a bit by adopting the approach over the last seven to eight months. Thinking of this I taped both Achilles before leaving home. Correlating with not having sore Achilles during or after the ride makes it seem worthwhile.
There was a fair crowd at the off. Fifty odd riders or there about. Pleased to see a few people I've ridden with before. Got off to a good start though inadvertently pushed the pace a bit with the group I rode with to the first control, the Silver Ball Cafรฉ in Reed at the 40km mark. 20kmph will get me round LEL with stops. This was more towards 30kmph and grunted out at times with gritted teeth. Stupid and I know not to do it.
Having a separate GPX track between each main control was a very good idea. It reduces the risk of the Garmin throwing a hissy fit and losing cumulative miles 40 km from the end. This is what happened last year when I rode a 400. Chunking the miles also makes the whole ride manageable in my head. Lastly the Garmin's functions for ETA and distance to cover related to each section accurately. Definitely worth the time it took to prepare the tracks in RWGPS. Saved each section en route and combined the tracks at the end to get a log of the whole ride. Could not have wanted more.