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A thousand miles from comfort - the road to P-B-P

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  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭Shed.


    Ok, the first qualifying 300 is on this Sunday.

    I had my gallbladder removed on 10th February and rode the King's Mountain 200 on 28th February. It turns out I did have a nice aggregated clump of small gallstones in my gallbladder and despite being mostly symptom free it was probably no harm to have them removed. I'm no longer carrying around a tiny bag of gravel, weight weenies FTW! I have some small scars on my abdomen, I look like someone's stuck a fork in me several times, my bikini days are long over anyway, but no lasting effects from the operation.

    The King's Mountain 200 was my first ever audax in 2013 and it was my third time doing it this year. I like the route, there's usually a head wind on the way out to Loughcrew and a tailwind on the way home. It is also by audax standards "mostly flat". This time the wind was a near gale from the southwest and it made the last 70km back to Dublin very challenging as it formed a strong crosswind with sweeping showers of rain. I rode the first 90km with a nice bunch of strong lads but because of the operation and the fact that I hadn't really done anything on the bike for two weeks I dropped off at Clonmellon and rode on my own to Kells.

    At Kells a small group of us formed that would carry on to Dublin, forming and reforming with people riding up ahead or slowing down as fatigue grew or they felt better. Riding an audax is a bit like the worst and best bits of a club spin, there's all kinds of abilities. Audax is an individual sport and everyone rides to their own pace, there's no obligation to maintain a group and you might have company for the whole spin or be riding on your own with the wind and the birds for company. Using Strava's fly-by option is really interesting on an audax route as you can really see where people lose time and where they catch up again.

    It was my first time on my purpose built audax bike that my husband built for me. He finishes it late the night before and it was my first time on the bike that morning. It's certainly one way to test a bike by taking it for a 200km ride over the rough roads of north-west Meath.I had no problems with the bike, nothing went ping!

    It's a titanium Lynskey frame with dynamo hub and lights, disc brakes, ultegra groupset and a second hand saddle bought on Boards! It weighs about 10.8kg but it has everything an audaxer could wish for, full mudguards, the ability to recharge a Garmin and a pannier rack. For the first time I'm riding a compact, being able to spin up a hill instead of mashing up in 39x25 is nice. My other bike is an aluminium Rose and the difference in comfort is amazing. The new bike absorbs road buzz much better. I used the same saddle, bar tape etc on the Rose and I've ridden the same route before, so objectively I can say that the dead roads of Meath were much more comfortable to ride.

    The Midlands 300 is on Sunday morning I'll be taking it handy. It's going to be a long day in the saddle.

    How quickly were you back on the bike after the Gallbladder removal? Had mine out last week! Also did you have to change your diet long term?


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