June 200km DIY Audax

Second 200km DIY Audax in just over a month.
Following a layoff period of 2 years!
Thoughts & plans for coming weeks and months…

#audax #DIYaudax #longdistancecycling

it’s coming up to 7:00 a.m. on Saturday June the 8th I’m just setting off on my second 200 kilm DIY aax in a month previous to that I hadn’t done one for over two years I’ll explain why later in the road that first 200 was favorable weather conditions not so today there’s going to be strong winds later this afternoon against me and it’s also raining first thing also in 9 days time I’ll be setting off on my Pyle tour this year so I’ll talk to you more about that later on it’s coming up so today’s ride I’m leaving my hometown of bass heading out across East mendip where I am now approaching the summit generally heading south westish and there’s a northwest wind so it’s quite beneficial even though I’m climbing heading down to the outskirts of taon then I’ll do a big turn there head north up to the north Sunset Coast burn on SE skirt around West dare then finally do a northeasterly direction back to Bath up near lgate airport 200 km slightly over that’s about 127 miles the total distance today and I said I’d explain why there’s been a 2-year Gap and now I’ve done two within a month I wasn’t sure if I could still do them I sort of instinctively thought I could but until you do it you don’t know that last one was so easy because it is weather assisted and also mentally I really enjoyed it and I’ve just decided to buy three more breves I’m going to do one 200 a month for the next three months so including the first one that I make four months then I’ll reassess it but I think what I may do is go for another rander Rand theier what rander R the year means is r rty y for short it means riding one roner event a month the minimum being 200 kmers you can go up as high as you like and I’ve done that 16 times so far I think maybe I’d like to make it 17 I don’t know yet I did my first 200 km di orax for two years back in May this will be June I’ve got two more July August that’ll be four that’s the third a year it’s a good time to sort of evaluate do I really want to go into the Autumn and the winter and I think the answer probably yes but obviously the winter months can be harder not necessarily but if you’re going to have problems it’s probably going to be in the winter I found out when I did my super rander around the year several years ago that was a super rander series of two three 400 and 600 kilometer roads every month I believe I’m the only person who have ever done that I don’t know I don’t care to be honest but I did it and I learned a lot doing it and I started that in the late summer and I found by the time I got to January when it really quite testing and challenging I was so far into it you can use some powerful psychological tools to keep going L of version being one of them and so I had a big stake in it already um I had skin in the game a lot of it as well so that helps you not give up whereas if I’d face some of those challenges on my second or third ride of my first month I don’t know I like to think I would have played on through but the honest answer is I don’t know so I’m kind of stacking the odds in my favor I’m coming into the outskirts of Hulen and I’ll soon be passing St Andrew’s old church or rather the lane down to it I went to a picnic there recently and it was absolutely wonderful I cannot say thank you enough to Marie who organized it and the local residents of hul who made me feel so so welcome I’ll maybe visit later in the summer or all the Autumn and I’ll explain what that was all about there’s the turning down for St Andrew’s old church hul come right by the Hulan boundary sign wonderful down there and it’s open every Saturday and Sunday during the summer as we come into hul look at this wonderful bit of knitting I’ll be setting off Monday week on my thankful Villages psychor more about that later this is the crossroads coming in the hul down there called Stratton Road you may see that second Brown sign down that’s the hul come in if you wanted to go to St Andrew’s old church and you didn’t want to go on the weekend when it was officially open you can go down to the hul come in ask for the key and they give it to you and you can let yourself in any day of the week you want by Monday I think on Monday the hotel is closed and if you want access on a mday you got to bring a number I think it’s the vicarage that’s looking up at the mendip ridge my old favorite margar 45b the Roman Road we’re going to drop down in the valley now and then climb back up towards it but head over towards chapter Mallet dting before we then drop off the mendips to everreach quite nice coming down there cuz it’s quite a gr coming up we’ve now crusted the summit of East mendip and we’re coming down maze downhill you can see we’re heading down on Flatlands down towards ever Cree turn right and then we’ll be on very flat ground for several miles we’ll be going through the very small village of pill crossing the mendips has been relatively easy I’m not biging myself up it’s just fact it was wind assisted so geographically it’s about to get easier meteorologically I think it’s going to get harder because of the headwind but we’ll see but I’m really looking forward to getting on the nice quiet sleepy lens heading down towards the outskirts of taon just after we do the turn we’ll stop at Stoke Gregory which is almost exactly halfway there’s a good sort of place to stop there there’s a village shop a bus yard to need shade some seats in the village just a really nice place to head for so that’s probably going to be my lunch late lunch I red my fourth 100 km or that’s calendar event last Saturday the fourth of the Season there is orx club Bristol called the North sunet Wonder organized by Luke it a really really nice event I really really enjoyed that and I Rod there and back which made it about 100 miles so I feel like I’m really prepared for my holiday in 9 or 10 days time and this should be the final oing on the cake I’ll probably do one ride during the week shortest ride just so I’m ready for Monday week talking about all that calendar events I rode these CH gloss 100 km event recently I saw it is by Bristol CTC when I mentioned it in the previous video that was actually all that’s CL Bristol excellent event another really experienced well organized event and it was just such a good event but I did lose my Brey card on that completely my own fault I had been keeping it in my sadle bag I knew an information control was coming up so I got it out put it in my back pocket and in my just come out and I was enjoying the event and companying the people so much I didn’t mind I just carried on around and I told each controller you know sorry I haven’t got me card but you know you can take me off so you’re not waiting for me at the end wonder where I am when I got home from my recent 200 km DIY that was about a few days after that old ax there was a letter waiting for me and somebody found my bre card and posted it to me somebody called Gary so thank you very much Gary that was a lovely gesture I don’t know if Gary was a member of the public or a cyclist my own view is if he was a cyclist he would have probably handed it in to one of the organizers or one of the controllers so my own feeling is Gary’s probably a member of the public although my wife seems to think he’s more likely to be a CES I simply don’t know but I’m very very grateful of that it’s just such a lovely gesture it heck of a lot to me that did we’re just about to cross the a37 which is actually running on the course of the old Roman fway at this part of the country up the top of that hill where the blue car is bends R the actual old Frost carries straight on up there’s a little Minor Road and that’s where I bivi on the first night of my Frost roide I’d left exra that day and I got up there about 11:00 p.m. so as the cars climb up that way we’re cutting straight across so here we are at pill Village Hall this is on about another mile from the busy a37 you can see how nice it is and the road stays like this as quiet as this for quite a few miles now so I’m really going to sit back just switch off a little bit my old ging Edge the one on the stem can’t stand the distance to go cuz it’s a preset course so it’s just about to change from 100 miles to go to 99 miles to go and I always use that as a big mental boost there you go it’s just come down to 99 miles to go we’re just coming into a very Saturday morning busy Summerton Summerton is in between glaster Bri and langport we’ll be heading towards quite shortly but on the boundary sign it says Royal capital of ancient Wessex on my last video as I pulled into Wilton I said that also claims to be the capital of Wessex it’s worded slightly different but Sur it’s claiming to be the same thing I don’t know which is true to be honest I may look it up sometime and see if I can Enlighten myself anyway at the top of the hill through the High Street and then we get on our first little bit of off-road rough stuff this is the start of Our rough stuff you can see it’s fairly hard compact gravel just need to take a little bit of care so I’m on narrow tires and it’s going downhill I could have taken this out of the route but I’d already submitted it by the time I remembered it said thought ah maybe next time it’s not too bad though I won’t want to do this after rain now that’s for sure like this on me caribo my tour and bike this would be fine easy on narrow tires pumped up to about 85 PSI it’s a little bit bumpy good fun though I think this may be the village of pitty on the outskirts of summer turnon so I’m back on t now and we’re heading down towards langport hsh episcopy I think that’s open out it that’s where the Abbey on the Moos is M the Abby or M the Abby I can never remember which it is it’s pretty impressive talking about my tire pressure back there I ride 700 by 25c Janos I don’t think they make them anymore but I got quite a batch at home to still use that I find them a compromise between grip and puncture resistance you know not going to be perfect either way there’s that good balance down the middle I find them comfortable and I’ve come to like them we’ve just come from Pitney at this Junction see we’re about to head down into langport that’s 1 and a half miles just drop down on some flat LS that Big Ridge going along the top I think that would be the poen Hills or possibly the black down Hills in the far distance we’re not going as far as those we’ll be turning the right way before that staying down on low ground another one of my tips is I never think of it as a time limit I always think of it as a Time allowance and it’s another really strong mental trick for me a limit is a liability whereas an allowance is an asset you got much more control over an asset than a liability you can manage an asset a liability is working against you an asset is working for you and just that slight mental shift if you’re not from this area you may sometimes see on the news the sunet levels are flooded and some roads may be close and Emergency Services will possibly come in and use boats or even helicopters sometimes to service the local communities and you can see that’s one of the gates that is used to close this road in the winter at times I’ve had to turn back here a few times and I know other old accors who’ve had to and then you’ve just got to come up with some on the flow here we are approaching our lunch stop nice Ruby just before we go in the post office I wanted to point this out it says there has been a post office here all close by since before 1840 it is one of the oldest in the country nice place to pick up some lunch have my lunch bought sages also stocked up with food from the post office it’s always a bit of a sun trap here so you get a nice little bit of shade and how’s that for inspiration rest a while I will thank you very much round about halfway I’m just going to have sandwiches fizzy drink drink ice cream afterwards charging my devices here drying out my topin this morning pack that away and suppose about half an hour or so here when I enter this event and anybody who enters a DIY you’ll get a virtual breev I’ll put it on the screen now and the most important the most important number on that brevy for me is the maximum a Time allowance and for this event it’s 14 hours and 15 minutes by left home at 700 a.m. this morning as I planned my maximum time allowance would be 9:15 tonight but cuz I was up early and feeling okay I was on the road by 6:45 so that means my cut off time maximum time allow is 9 p.m. tonight I’m about halfway and you can see it’s not even 1: p.m. yet 12:54 that gives me 8 hours to do the second half of the road I’ve done the first half in six hours so you can sort of see I got straight away a mental picture that I’m doing okay for time you know I can’t afford to be complacent but I’m doing okay the time you know there’s a good chance I’m going to Tire towards the end so I’ll certainly slow down and there’s this big hill coming up past lgate airport but you know I just feel I’m doing okay for time that’s how I personally manage my time on events I don’t bother about the speed the pace I don’t want to get R quick what I do want to do is Maybe finish with 45 minutes to an hour in hand just in case there’s any problems in the last few miles you know getting stuck at traffic lights for instance have the puncture you know if you got an hour in hand that’s not an issue if you’re quite tight to the deadline is it can be quite stressful it’s actually quite easy to do those calculations on the road as well cuz my garments will give me an estimated time to the finished of the course because it’s a set course and I can tell you know if there’s six hours to go and it’s 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon you I’ve got till 9:00 p.m. after I I just use I imagine a uh a clock phase so I can do the calculation especially when I get tired cuz the figures are subtracted are quite difficult sometimes I just picture a visualize a clock face it makes the calculations easy if it’s 1:00 p.m. and I got 9 hours that’s you know 700 p.m. plus another thing at 10: p.m. so I just find visualizing a clock face helps me do the SS okay we’re leaving this way says restricted access plenty of cars Vehicles going along here we’ve just come in from that way from lunch we’re now just crossing one of the two major Sunset level Rivers the tone or the parrot no matter how many times I look this up I can never remember which one this is they’re just about to join there the tone and the parrot then they flow underneath burrow bridge and that big mind up there like a mini glass that’s burrow M very evocative that glass and to got the ruin of an old church up there see if I can zoom in all fancy wild camping up there probably wouldn’t get away with it but you can dream can’t you m up there just as we turn left into Riverside appropriately named the river parrot it’s actually quite hard now it will be for a few miles so I’m going into teeth of the headwinds I got a little bit of protection from the hedges here but not much orax is all about self-sufficiency how you manage a timed event I can see from my readout 66 miles done 60 miles to go so you can see there’s fewer miles in front of me than the are behind me and shortly I’ll be down to 59 49 is always a good one you know less than 50 that always gives me a mental boost shot of dopamine it’s actually quite hard one of the things I look do is look down at the ground and you realize you’re still moving quite fast it just feels hard worked and it is but that’s why I did that calculation earlier on I know I’ve got two hours in hand if I carry on riding at the pace I did the first half of the riding so there’s no time pressure yet anyway plus the fact I know once we get north of bur on sea skirt around the edge of West we make our way up to lgate airport will turn and the wind will be beneficial so this is just a hard leg you need to learn how to endure really plus far I can get down on the drop T the bar to make life a little bit easier it’s been quite hard this leg actually I’m heading towards ched soy then onto nearby Bridgewater got a little bit more shter from the Hedge R some of this section’s been quite hard but I’ve been really enjoying it in a kind of strange way because I know I’ve got that time Surplus and yes I know I can’t be complacent about it but at the moment it’s not an issue we got from Chad soy Lane to the outskirts of bridge water and now we’re just about to cross the M5 you may hear it luckily there’s a psychopath here gosh look all those puppies love this time there going to go along there turn right shortly cut to a Housing State get on the a38 then start heading northish within a few miles hopefully we’re going to get the benefit of the Wind I didn’t film much along there because it was mostly psychopath and then pavement along a very busy road also I took the opportunity to charge the camera we’ve now got up to pull it what’s happening is this road is going to go around curve around run parallel to this and then rejoin it just before we get to burning on SE so we’re cutting the section of busy road off it’s actually quite nice R I wanted to th this which is why I wanted to recharge the camera I think this may be the river hunt spell flowing into the Bristol Channel there’s the 838 look see the car has going across that bridge actually the wind’s blowing it that way little church going there I think we’re going to curve around past that church and then join the a38 shortly turn off it again left into buron SE I’ve just come in The Last Mile South B one SE through this housing area this is called Old station way this the course of the Old Railway and this is where the station used to be there’s one of its old buildings literally just behind the sea front that big purp on the right hand side on the corner the yellowish one that’s now weather spoon I think that used to be called the suet and door set I’m not sure if it still is and Beyond I’ll stop there and show you the railway actually continued to appear and then it went down a ramp cuz they used to run fies between bur on C and Cardiff from here at South Wales so once upon a time the railway would have come past the station to here I’ve gone down that ramp where there’d be fies come across at the qus all over there there’s all the construction site of hle SE the new nuclear power station loveely sandy beaches up there the very iconic wooden light house it’s a nice view of burn one sea big sandy beaches it’s that white building up there between the dunes and this halfway down the sand to the Sea it’s long way out that’s the lighthouse that’s the wooden Lighthouse we’re going to be passing the Trinity lotos soon as we leave it’s on the main road just a few hundred yards back from the coast and then there’s a short lotas well there was here we are at Keeper’s Cottage I won’t go any further it’s OB private property there’s second of the three load houses there we’ve now turned off the main road onto some quieter lens this is really nice up here see the wind blowing in from the sea we should be having that behind us now for most of the rest of the road as we head back up towards the mendips get a good view of it there where it goes along then dips down and goes back up that’s crook Peak kind of nipple on it and the M5 CS right through that Gap I’ve just passed through loon couple of weeks ago my last dy I went up to Webbington there and then you see that straight line hedge row above the motorway where there’s some houses a road along there this time I’m heading this way and I’m roughly heading up to Congers breur where I’ll then change direction yet again for my final Direction Change Up on to Low’s gate and back down to CH Valley to Bath we got 29 miles to go we just gone 5:00 p.m. so we got 4 hours to do 29 miles so bwing accidents and illness should be well within time probably going to stop for one more snack just trying to think where there’s a shop where I can stock up on some food maybe find a seat and another a snack I have think about that it’s been a long time since I’ve ridden this rout so it’s coming back in stages um I’m trying to think where it’s going to be a good place in the next five six months it’s now about quter 6 and I’m just outside the co-op at Congress Bree just got myself an Oreo ice cream small can of Coke I’ve got a sports drink as well and I’m charging my G and I just got a low battery alarm the smell of fish and chips coming out that chip chop is just amazing some nice seats inside as well see some older people in there and some young people as well it’s like a really nice Community fishing chip shop so about a mile or so back I had a low battery Al on that I just plugged it in and it said 21% so I guess it gives you the alarm at 20% and it’s already up to 26% that’ll get me home okay another 10 minutes here I’ll be on the way this I’ve got the big climb coming up that’ll take me up along L’s gate and after that it’s pretty much here most of the way home this is broccoli Road and we got 20 miles to go so it’s about a mile mile and a half up here it’s quite a long climb but it’s nothing particularly steep like this a lot of the way wooded till we get near the top and then it opens up a bit I don’t know what the gradient is but it’s nothing too steep it just goes on a long time just going to cut Rend this es Ben and then it levels out and we’re run right alongside Bristol airport it’s not easy to film up here but there’s a plane just taken off I guess the hedges here are same protection for these houses I’m now on 9.4 miles to go I’ve said this so many times in the past when it counts down after 10 it goes down in decimal fractions so before it’s 15 14 1 Etc now it’s going to go 99.9 9.8 9.7 and as long as I’m not chasing the clock and I’m not tonight I’ve got at least an hour and a half in hand at this point in time I can just really Savor that and enjoy it and I do I just flood me brain with happy chemicals I really really do I’m just at the top of the final short and sharp climb out of Compton D heading up towards Cor and we go along the top duchy corn land just coming up to 8:00 p.m. so I’ve got an hour to go I’m pretty much on the outskirts of bath looking over at kelston roundhill over the hill there would be the A4 over that ways the a39 I’m heading to intersect with the A4 for about half a mile I’ll rideing long cycl track next to it and then take a Spur down onto bath Bristol bike track hope you’ve enjoyed coming along on my second aax in 2 months I’m about a mile or so from home here just going to give my dialing wife a call and then I’ll shoot off home it’s been relatively easy today again the the weather is nowhere near as bad as I thought it may be after that wet start I had a little bit headwind over near Bridge Water and buron part from that it’s been fairly easy today very enjoyable my next video will be towards the end of June because as I referred to really want I’m going off on holiday in 9 days time visiting nine thankful Villages around the north of England and then I’ve got plenty of time at the end I hope all goes well to just explore a bit of the coastline round by lithen St ANS Blackpool Southport for B before I head into Manchester and get a train home you got this far us thanks much for watching look after each other everybody see you soon