DIY 400km audax (the Dean plus extension)

After my failure to complete the Dean 300km audax earlier in the year I was determined to have another go. I decided to get a train to Oxford, ride the Dean route and then ride home to Birmingham bringing the total distance up to 400km. I quick check confirmed that this should be submitted as a DIY ride. I submitted my ride plan, including all the controls for the Dean plus additional controls at Warwick and the garage at the end of my road. It was a slow start, I lost me rear light early on. At Stow-on the Wold I wasted time searching for a bike shop that didn't exist in the hope of buying a new back light. I arrived in Newton and stopped at  co-op to buy food. I chatted to the owner of a estate agents next door.

I was very cold my the time I got to Chepstow. I locked my bike in the foyer of tesco and wandered the isles looking for suitable food options. A pack of samosas and a danish pastry later I noticed a costa coffee at the petrol station.
Layering up with warm jacket, leg warmers, reflective and full finger gloves I rode into the night. I brief stop in Malmesbury at a cash point and I carried on. By midnight I was cycling between villages and passed several wedding receptions in marques decorated with fairy lights. At 3am my helmet light suddenly went out. I'd run the battery down, I was only 15km from the M4 service station. Minutes later I felt that familiar slowing, my rear tyre had punctured. I was on a single track road but found a patch of gravel to pull onto. Lifting the bike upside down I balanced my front light on my shoulder and started to take the tyre off.
A garage forecourt in the middle of the night is a welcome sight, A motorway service station is pure luxury. I wheeled my bike through the corridor past signs for toilets and showers, parking it in front of a costa and wHsmiths. I sat down on a chair for the first time in nearly 24 hrs and sipped a mug of coffee. Sofas, hot food, I could have stayed here for hours.

Three Steps to Severn 600km Audax

Having ridden 200, 300 and 400km  events I needed a 600km ride to complete a super randonneur series. Three steps to Severn had the benefit of an organised sleep stop with food provided at Chepstow. I had managed the 400km event without any sleep but for the 600 I needed to bank as much time as possible during the first half to give me a chance to sleep for a few hours before riding the second day. As I left work on Thursday evening a colleague asked "are you cycling this weekend Sarah?"
"yes I'm cycling from Macclesfield to Chepstow.."
"Wow, that's miles, good luck"
I didn't even need to bother with the "and back"

I stayed at Macclesfield travel lodge. High glucose overnight was followed by an over correction at breakfast. By the time I arrived at the start my watch was buzzing as my glucose dropped to 3.2. Topping up with croissants and orange juice I thought I'd be okay but soon after starting my watch was alarming again. I stopped several times in the first 15km to eat glucose tablets and flapjack. Paul messaged to ask if I was okay given the glucose alerts and because I'd neglected to send him a strava tracker. I was feeling hungry again as a approached the first control, a transport cafe. I ordered an egg sandwich and found a seat. Chatting to Dale another audaxer his face suddenly fell, "I've just seen the weather forecast" he said pointing over my shoulder at the TV.  I didn't need to look, it sounded pretty bad. The prospect of heavy rain still seemed unlikely as a cycled down through mid wales in the sunshine. I was soon rolling down my arm warmers and reaching for the sunglasses. A long stretch of main road led to the next control at a supermarket. Time for a couple of samosas and a croissant. Heavy traffic and multiple sets of lights meant the other riders were soon out of sight and I was riding on my own again. As I reached bluith wells the rain had started and there were no other audax riders  to be seen. A quick stop at the co-op and I was on my way. It was 6pm when I reached the cafe in Llandovery. Cold and dripping wet I joined the audax riders inside and ordered apple pie and custard.

I forced myself back out into the rain. Stuffing my lightweight waterproof in my bag I put on my thicker jacket. I didn't see any other riders until I cycled through a rather soggy street festival in Brecon. Here I was joined by an audaxer with a malfunctioning gps device. We rode together for a bit pausing to check the route sheet to find the access point to the canal. I recognised Talybot on Usk having ridden there on a Tewksbury audax. I was soon riding alone again on the road to abergaveny and despite waiting for several minutes a some very slow traffic lights my follower didn't catch up. As I rode past a garage a group of cyclists flagged me down. I rode the final 40km to the sleep stop with them. The roads were awash with water and we arrived at the community centre drenched and very cold at 00:30. We were welcomed in and offered hot food, and towels. I was glad I'd packed a change of clothes in my bag drop. I was worried about hypoing in the night so gave a very conservative novorapid injection and 2 units of levemir. I selected an airbed, booked a 4am wake up call and fell asleep.

I woke at 3:50 and was soon tucking into a plate of beans on toast. My glucose had been high all night so a correction was needed. I didn't take any more levemir as it had only been 4 hours since the previous dose. I left promptly at 4:45, onto the cycle path and over the Severn bridge. My club mate John caught up with me soon after. An hour or so later my watch alarmed as my glucose dropped to 3.0. My breakfast insulin dose had been a little heavy handed and I pulled over to eat half a flapjack. We stopped for a second breakfast at the M5 motorway service station (via the back entrance). Further on at Alcester (toasted tea cakes at cafe espresso) I felt like I was nearly home. I had to keep reminding myself that we were riding back to Macclesfield not Birmingham. By Meridan I was struggling. With 2 consecutive nights of hyperglycaemia plus 350km of cycling the previous day I was really dehydrated. I forced myself to carry on, just 100km to go. As drizzly rain came and went waterproof jackets were on, off then back on again. At the final control I drank half a bottle of fruit smoothie and poured he rest into my water bottle.

20km from the end I came across another audaxer with a split tyre, a couple of repair attempts with tyre boots had failed. I emptied everything out of my bulging saddle bag and pulled out the 25mm tyre that the Derby mercury riders had given me on the 400km moors and wolds audax. Handing it over I felt pleased to be ale to help another rider and satisfied that the spare tyre was being passed on.
I arrived at the finish exhausted but smiling, a super randonneur!

Glucose control was good for the first day but generally very high on the second day. Before the end of the ride the I accidentally turned off transmission of results to my phone and lost the last few hours of data.

Kidderminster Killer 200km audax

A tough ride just 4 days after returning from Scotland, I was intending to be full value for this one. I was indeed full value, lantern rouge in fact but for all the wrong reasons. I took the first section steadily, eating a flapjack in the queue at the cafe to maximise carbohydrate intake. The ride from Church Stretton over the Long Mynd was hard going but with beautiful views.  As I rode towards Montgomery my brakes were failing. At Montgomery I managed to adjust them slightly with the help of some other audax riders. However they weren't fully engaging and I had to walk the really steep descents or ride them very slowly. The other riders soon overtook me and by Ludlow I was only just within the time limit. In the final section of the ride my brakes got worse again and by 15km from the end I was walking every downhill. I finally reached Belbroughton with 10 minutes to spare. I've never wished for more up hills on a ride but on the kidderminster killer they were the easiest bit.

Glucose control was shocking. Profile looks similar to the elevation profile of the ride. I'd given up injecting insulin by the time I reached Ludlow.

Highlands Glens and Sealochs 1300km Brevet Populaire audax

As a summer holiday I decided to ride a 1300km permanent audax. Island hoping up the West coast of Scotland, following part of the North coast 500 route before heading south via glencoe, Inverary and back to Ardrossan. Paul immediately declined the invitation to accompany me. Quite apart from the cycling distances involved he refuses to go near the west coast of Scotland in summer because of the midges. I'd be cycling alone through some of the most remote areas of the UK. This trip requires a sub blog of it's own, yet to be published.

Vale of Belvoir 200km Audax

Time for a second ride of the Lichfield Audax. After the last few weeks of very hilly rides I was pleased I had this in the calendar. I had thought Paul might join me for his first 200km rides but after TINAT he was taking a break from audaxing.

This was my first long ride using the miao miao transmitter, changing my libre, flash glucose monitoring device into true continuous glucose monitor (cgm). It was great to be able to keep riding whilst keeping an eye on my watch to check my glucose. No more stopping to scan the libre sensor or juggling the libre reader in one hand, steering the bike with the other and scanning the sensor whilst riding along.

My glucose has high for the first 50km and I had to stop several times to do corrections. I was careful to just correct by a couple of units each  time to avoid hypoing. I was in range and dropping by the time I arrived at the first control, perfect preparation for cake consumption. I ordered a cream tea and sat out in the court yard. Seeing a fellow audax rider tucking into a slice of raspberry frangipane, I ordered one of these as well. Remembering the recent advice from my dietitian to 'eat 2 cakes instead of 1' when stopping during a long cycle ride. The route was slightly different to last year, avoiding the traffic lights through Melton Mowbray. I also opted for the alternative control at the half way point, diverting to the co-op in Colsterworth for a danish pastry and bag of crisps, far better than the A1 services. I judged the 2 units of novorapid for 50g carbs perfectly and spiked up to 8 before dropping back down to 5.5 within a couple of hours. At 150km I stopped at Sutalia cafe in Loughborough. Last year I just had some cake here but this time I treated myself to a bowl of pasta with roast vegetables and tomato sauce. It was delicious and worth the slightly extended cafe stop. During the final 15km my watch started giving low glucose alerts. I had a couple of glucose tablets and continued. My glucose remained stubbornly less than 3.5 and Paul phoned to check I was okay. I scanned my glucose sensor with the libre reader and got a reading of 4.7 so I judged this was an xDrip calibration error and carried on riding. The following day I confirmed my suspicions with a blood test. The xDrip calibration was slightly wrong giving falsely low results. It was a reminder that xDrip should only be calibrated when glucose concentrations are very stable.

Overall glucose control was pretty good during the ride. My dosing for he first and second food stops was very good. I need to reduce novorapid dose further towards the end of the ride. Glucose concentration was high overnight after ride as I didn't inject enough insulin with post ride meal.

Miao miao, converting libre into a cgm

I have a new glucose monitoring set up to test out. A miao miao (yes I thought that was a street drug too) is a device that fits over the libre sensor, scanning by NFC every 5 minutes. Results are transmitted via bluetooth to the xDrip app on my phone and also to my smart watch. I'm now using my sony SW3 as a regular smart watch rather than strapped to my libre sensor so I no longer need it to have NFC capability. I haven't yet upgraded the firmware back to it's factory settings so it doesn't work as a collector device, only as a follower.

Paul also has xDrip on his phone and is set up as a follower. I did explain to him that this would mean regular alarms when my glucose was low or high but he seemed okay with that. Within a few days he was suffering from extreme alarm fatigue and changed his settings to drastically reduce the number of alarms he received. He now only gets alarms for low results and I have a 30 minute grace period to sort things out before he is alerted.

I wear the watch continuously, except when charging it up. The battery lasts a full 24 hours and it only takes an hour to recharge. 

This is not a tour 200km (A) Audax

'This is not a tour' (TINAT) was a weekend of audax rides in the spirit of the late ultra endurance cyclist Mike Hall. Designed to maximise elevation gain with some off road sections and making the most of the mid Wales landscape.  When I entered this audax I was doubtful about my ability to complete it. The elevation profile was harder than any audax I had done previously. Paul had entered the 100km audax with >1500m ascent but a generous minimum speed of 8km/hr. He'd spent weeks researching gear ratios, putting knobbly tyres back on and fitting mountain bike mud guards. I'd put it to the back of my mind until the week before in the hope that I'd somehow be prepared for it.

The weekend before TINAT, south Birmingham was hit by several hours of torrential rain and flash flooding. Met office weather forecast continued to show a <5% chance of rain throughout this period. Our street was knee deep with water and several houses in the area flooded. Thankfully we escaped the worst of it but with more storms forecast we were unsure about going to Wales for the weekend. 
"How are you feeling about the audax?" I asked Paul
"the thing I'm most worried about is that the tent will get wet and we won't be able to dry it out before packing it up to bring home" He was definitely in denial!
Weather in Wales was warm and sunny. After setting up the very heavy but spacious bell tent we unpacked everything, soon discovering that we'd forgotten the camping mugs.
"I'm not sure why we brought this" Paul said uncertainly, holding up a little brush attachment for the vacuum cleaner.
The following morning after a quick breakfast, I rode down to the start point. I gave myself 2 units of levemir rather than 3 given the difficulty of the ride. Underestimated breakfast dose meant doing a couple of corrections in the first 20km. I began riding with a couple of women from Bristol South cycling club but they were a bit fast for me so I settled into a more comfortable speed alone. The first stop was a check point somewhere along a rough track. I was unsure what to expect. Could I have cycled past it? was it someone hiding behind a tree with a clip board? Soon enough I approached a group of cyclists on the track with controllers checking names off on a list. Another brief stop on a bridge across the dam to take photos and we carried on. Shortly after I was overtaken by a group of riders on the other 200 B ride. Some of the off road sections were particularly hard going including the 'mohican' road. A narrow strip of tarmac, less than a foot wide, snaked up a steep slope. On either side of the tarmac were deep gullies filled with rubble. I fell off at least twice unable to maintain momentum up the slope whilst concentrating on keeping the wheels on the tarmac. It was a relief to arrive in Llandidnoes and after having my brevet card stamped I headed further up the road to the Great Oak cafe. I was spoilt for choice with a tempting display of cakes, quiches and pastries on offer. I chose a slice of apple cake and a large flapjack. I rode the next section alone but met up with some more audax riders at the co-op in  Machynleth. This was the half way point for me but they were  a third of the way into a 600km ride and were just stopping to refuel. I brief moment of receipt anxiety forced me to ride further up the road to the centre of the town to get an ATM receipt. Leaving Machynleth, I initially turned right back the way I had come before I stopped, checked my route sheet instructions and back tracked. Relieved that no other audax riders were around to notice my error I carried on.
For me, one of my favourite memories of this ride was the solitude. Riding alone, with views over mountains around me with no people, cars or buildings in sight. As I waited at the traffic lights in Llandrindod Wells, more audax riders joined me. After some uncertainty about the location of the finish and yet more traffic lights, we joined the queue for brevet card checking.

Glucose control was okay, high at the start, generally good during the day, dropping below 4 at the end, just in time for fish and chips.