2LAP wrote:
> Why does it matter if it was competition orientated?
It doesn't particularly: I'm not saying you're wrong, just warning that the advice seems to come
from someone with a perspective centred on being in a Big Hurry. If the OP's in a Big Hurry too then
it's quite possibly good advice, but if the OP isn't then it's not necessarily that relevant.
> that all commuters ride in inner cities and all audaxers want to go slowly and suffer as much as
> they can for the distance!!!
It assumes nothing of the sort. Many commute cyclists, wherever they're riding, prefer to cycle in
Normal Clothes and not to need a shower when they arrive. That's nothing to do with being in a city
or not. Audax involves a fair pace in many cases, but that is often *very* different from going as
fast as possible.
> What advice would you give? Perhaps you would tell him to have a different position on every bike
> and don't use a position you have been happy with in the past? I'll await your specific advice to
> the post!
My advice was to say that your post shouldn't necessarily be taken as gospel because it came from
certain perspective which the OP *may* not share. That's all I was saying.
> Its really sad that you have never trained for anything, its really great when you acheive new
> performance goals (be that a new PB in a TT, getting up a hill for the first time, finishing your
> first 600 km audax or being fit enough to ride to work two days in a row). You have missed out on
> a whole world of success and enjoyment. (By the way... I have never met any audaxers that don't
> train and know many commuters that have had to build up to (i.e. train) for the distances they
> ride to work!).
I ride for pleasure. My performance goals are things that give me pleasure, and they don't involve
stop watches or particular map measurements. If yours do I don't have a problem with that, but why
do you have a problem believing mine don't? I can get on my bike and lead a local CTC group tour of
100 km over hills from the front just about all the way, but I don't train to be able to do that
beyond just getting about on a bike (I can do it because I do it, not because I set it as a goal and
worked at it), and it wouldn't bother me if it was 20 km and/or I was at the back. My "performance
goals" are being in great places with good people under my own steam. If measuring things bothered
me that much I'd ride faster bikes. Or ski heavier skis down steeper runs, or paddle a faster kayak,
or climb harder grades, or read books on Chess and Go strategy, and so on, but I don't do any of
those either.
Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net
[email protected]
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/