What I learnt from my failed 600 attempt

Just to be clear from the off, none of the things that I’m listing in the post are the reason I didn’t complete my recent 600 attempt. The reason I called it was because of the wind. This wasn’t just a bit of a windy day, this was a named storm with 40kmph head/cross winds and 60kmph gusts. That was inland, coastal areas had reported higher consistent winds and much, much stronger gusts! These gusts picked up my front wheel and dumped me into the middle of the road one too many times and I decided that it was too dangerous to keep riding.

However, as this was the first time that I have ever been a DNF on an endurance challenge, I decided to fire out a quick list of all the things that I felt I got wrong to really learn from this experience. This list is in no particular order.

I had planned to ride home from my parents place the day after the 600. I should have had my eye on the challenge that I was really going for and forgotten about the extra 200 I wanted to get afterwards until the first thing was done. What this meant was that I ended up taking some extra gear for the predicted worse weather on that day, which meant I was carrying around more stuff than I really needed. I also ended up wearing my boots which made my feet super hot and annoying sore on the first day. This was completely avoidable.
I didn’t drink enough liquid in the first 100km. I got dehydrated and couldn’t catch up. It was understandable as it turned out significantly hotter than the forecast had predicted but I should have adapted quicker.
It was loads sunnier as well and I hadn’t taken sun cream. 150km in I bought some but it was too late. I was burnt already. This not only makes you feel hotter but also takes energy for your skin to repair, like it does from road rash. Again I should have adapted quicker.
My breaks were too long. This was somewhat linked to the heat, I kept having to cool down before I could eat on my breaks. Maybe I should have eaten more on the bike so that I was “having” to eat less at break times.
The dehydration was making me feel sick at points which made eating hard. It might have also been that I didn’t eat enough while riding to keep my digestion going between “meals”.
Routing through cites is a mistake, Cambridge took too long to get through for no added benefit. Small the medium size towns are always best.
I had seen the weather report at the end of day 1. I should adapted my plan to get out riding again earlier to mitigate the risk of the headwind slowing me down. Would an hour been the difference over the course of 250km with a 40kmph head wind? There’s a good chance not, but it certainty wouldn’t have hurt and on another day adapting the plan might have been the difference.
My one screw up in terms of still routing an off road section could have gone very badly. As it turns out all it did was slow me down a little but I did almost go over the bars on a footpath through a wood in the dark. Its impossible to say of course but I also suspect that this might have been where I picked up the slow puncture that I ended up dealing with the next day.
For some reason I decided at the last minute to use my old gloves and not my new ones. The palm padding is knackered on the old ones (hence why I have new ones!!!) and this affected my comfort. I wouldn’t change kit at the last minute to use new kit so why I decided to suddenly use old kit even though I had kit I was currently happy with is a mystery to me even now.

Couple of things I got right:

I wasn’t going to be able to get a good breakfast in the morning from the hotel as the breakfast bar is currently closed. I think I judged the morning cafe stop just right to get somewhere that had opened but not to far to either run out of energy before eating or get to a state where my stomach wouldn’t allow me to eat much.
Deciding to crack on with a slow puncture and repair it at the cafe while my food was cooking was a great decision. Maximum efficiency!!! Do as much as you can concurrently so you don’t waste time needlessly.
I felt my pacing was very disciplined. The section around 200-250km was the only slower section on the day and this was due to a reasonable headwind. Knowing it was into a headwind and that I was slightly slower tells me that I was still disciplined, outputting a similar effort even though I could see I wasn’t going as quick. It’s really easy to start trying to keep your speed up and burn all your matches. As soon as the wind went away from about 250-350km, I was back doing my averages again.
At the points when I was feeling a bit sick, I bought a pint of milk which really helped settle my stomach.

The video episode for this ride should be out very soon.