Maybe some chance of superpowers though? I've seen the films... it's usually just a misconfiguration or accident away from awesomeness.

That looks like a valid decamping strategy to me.

Jealous now. lol

I live my life 1/4 mile at a time...

...like, 400 times over. :D

I'm always racing, even when I'm chilling.

Looks like body fat percentage to me.

If Mr Efficiency averages 8kph for those 18hrs then Mjr Faff needs to average 9kph just to keep up which doesn't sound like much but it's a 12.5% increase in speed. Nice. For me, it's about balancing both really. I can still get a little faster, but my biggest weakness is definitely in the camping ...

Nice. I do a fair amount of weight training and I find it hard to get the balance right for cycling. I've just accepted that if I don't want to look like a cyclist, I'll just have to live with going a bit slower... or training a LOT harder.

Where do you get your DEXA scans done?

Just made my outline plan. Feel a little better now that I've got an idea of where I'll stop for food etc.

I quite like the apidura for that. It's heavier, but you know that you're definitely not losing the dry bag inside it.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:I shan't say this again - stuff sacks are Satan's semen, they cause dead space, make packing awkward and can lead to floppy bags

I bet you will. :D

On the subject of changing... assuming it's not raining, is it better to change into your sleeping gear fairly quickly (whilst you're warm)?

So I'm thinking that it's probably much quicker to chuck all your stuff into one drybag rather than mess around getting it into individual stuff sacks... but is it actually harder to get it all to fit that way? All of my sleeping stuff lives in my front roll (sleeping bag, pillow, fresh socks, leggi...

I actually had a thought on that. On many normal rides now I'm carrying bikepacking gear to slow me down / get used to riding with it. I wonder if I should have a go at setting it up / taking it down at the half way point in the ride whilst my riding partner eats his lunch or something.

Still no pictures. >:(

Taylor wrote:Untitled by flatfishrufus, on Flickr

That's lovely, fair play.

Screw nettles. Those things are just wrong. :(

also intermittant fasting - poke that , ive never believed in that. Have done that for years now. Works well for me. Low carb, not so much. Which if you're there during a bikepacking race - you're doing something wrong. Depends on the length. You can recover just fine from a few periods in that zon...

I did low carb with intermittent fasting for about 6 months and it ruined my ability to power up hills. It's fine at moderate heart rates, but really, really not good when you're up at VO2 max.

jameso wrote:

I've been known to drink quad espressos in the morning... and yes, I know I have a problem. lol

GregMay wrote:How much fluid do you take in from a non decaffeinated source per day?

I assume you mean non caffeinated, and usually about two and a half litres.

Unfortunately my coffee intake is more like 10+ cups a day... and yeah, not really sure why I didn't think of pro-plus. It's certainly light enough to carry with no worries. ...and yeah, I'm quite aware it would hold me back. But then so will not being able to train 40 hours a week and have a sports...

Ha, that would be nice... but I'm afraid that's the only vice I have left, and I'm hanging onto it.

Thanks all. This is all very new to me, so I'm learning a lot. For me, fitness is easy to work on, but specifics like this are nigh on impossible to get without talking to people with experience. :) Race related, how do the caffeine addicts here cope when riding? I have caffeine tablets in my water,...

To give a mere mortal's perspective Richard. When I raced last year it was definitely more than fitness, the others around me were better organised and able to go without as much sleep. Each day I rode about the same speed as the pack I was in overall but was badly organised at the start, when stop...

I'll field this in one angle: Pedalling faster is of more benefit - as in being trained and as light+strong physically as you need to be for a route. Sure, if you can get your bivi out and up in 3.2mins and be in it that's great - but if you're not fit enough to pedal your obese wobbling body up a ...

Question on this sort of thing... ...I guess it's pretty damn important to be able to get your sleeping kit out as fast as possible and packed up as fast as possible too. Is that something you multi day people practice? I notice Ian B was tweeting / posting on here whilst eating too. I'm guessing th...

I would have thought most northerners would count that as autumnwear.