I completed my first endurance event of 2023 on 19th March. The event was a 200 Km Audax organised by Kingston Wheeler’s , starting in Surbiton, South London and doing a loop around Reading and Basingstoke.
It was a lovely ride, with beautiful lanes and a good start to the season. Giving me a good foundation to build on.
The key learnings for me were:
Rest
I rested well the week before, with only a Zone 2 session in the 4 days before. Although I didn’t sleep that well the night before, probably as I had a lie in the day before. On the day I didn’t feel the lack of sleep affected me.
Going forward I will aim to get out of bed at a reasonable time to day before so make sure I can get a full nights sleep the night before.
Fuel
I fueled up well the day before on carbs, an excess of 850 calories. On the before I set off I ate more than I normally would – porridge with milk, bagel with Jam and fried eggs on toast. About 900 calories in total.
During the ride I stopped 3 times, eating about 3000 calories in total. This became increasing harder as I felt less and less like eating as the ride went on. The choice of food wasn’t always great, as is the norm with these types of events. At the last stop I really struggled, only eating a packet of fruit pastels and a bottle of lemon Fanta. I managed to eat a couple of nakd bars on the bike during the event, but not as much as I should. Eating on the go is definitely a weakness for me.
I didn’t use any energy power or hydro tablets in my water. For me drinking energy drinks becomes more difficult the longer you use them in an event. Not using them didn’t seem to have any impact in this event.
In total I ate about 4,400 calories and used 6,000 (according to Garmin). I felt the fuel consumed was enough for the event and loading up the day before and on the morning worked well for me. But I do need to try and eat more on the bike.
Performance
The ride took me 12 hours 15 minutes elapsed time, 10 hours 6 minutes moving time. This was pretty much what I was aiming for. I stopped 3 times at checkpoints and ate, I also stopped to help someone with a puncture late in the event. My average moving speed was 20.8 km/hour, with an average heart rate of 125 bpm. I focused on heart rate throughout the event, trying to keep myself below or around 130 bpm. My average of 125 bpm is bang on my Zone 2 endurance heart rate so I managed this well.
My power was 139 watts average, 160 watts weighted average. I wasn’t looking at my power during the event, but was pleased that my weighted average was in line with my Zone 2 endurance zone and pretty much exactly where I was seeing it in training for an average heart rate of 125 bpm.
I’ve done this event much quicker but this time it was most important for me that I managed my effort. I felt strong throughout the day and could have kept going. This element was definitely a success.
Physical
I had a bike fit a couple of weeks before this event. There were a couple of tweaks to my fit, the main ones being my cleats moving slightly back on my shoes and my saddle moving down. This was the first long ride since the fit. For the first 70km or so everything was fine. But once we hit the hills my knees started to hurt, particularly my left knee, which gets painful when I run sometimes, but is usually fine on the bike. It subsided when I got on the flat, but ached throughout the rest of the event
I also had a bit of tendonitis on the inside of my right elbow, this also isn’t a new injury and was manageable, but I’ll need to keep an eye on it and try to rest it when I can.
The bike fit feels really solid, but I need to raise the seat a bit for my next ride to see if that helps my knee.
Recovery
Recovery was much tougher than I thought it would be. I was really tired after completing the event, I didn’t really feel like eating when I got home and struggled to sleep again.
The following day I was very tired and struggled to focus at work. I ate throughout the day, more than normal but was still really hungry. I also developed a bad stomach in the evening. My left knee was stiff and a little sore. The second day my legs remained stiff, but knee pain was gone.
I did my first training session 4 days after the event, longer than I’d planned but felt I needed it.
Conclusion
This was a good event, I got a lot from it. I was able to control my heart rate and maintain the power and speed expected. I had a decent fueling strategy but could have done better in the event. Physically there were no huge problems but I need to make sure my bike is set up better for future events. Recovery took longer than expected. This was the first event of this distance for me this year and it showed, I need to increase my load week on week to make sure I build up my load so that I can recover better for future events.
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