Hi Dave,
Just got back back in Swords at last.
I did around 100 km of the Tara. I passed Duleek but I decided to turn back as not fun any more with the hail storm and headed back to the B&B to warm myself up and get some dry clothes on. Only so much a cyclist can take. Sorry for tonight but too much for me to cycle back to Ashbourne and buses too slow. I let u know whenever I am back in the area and I hope we will meet one day.
Frédéric. Regards
No problem Frederic, fair play to you doing 100km today it was a pretty nasty day.
Get in touch the next time you are in Ireland and I will buy you that pint.
Enjoy the rest of your stay and stay safe.
Regards
Dave
Looking forward to that.
Thanks Dave.
So I was not ready for my 300km qualifier in March and too busy this month so it’s straight to 400k this saturday on the Brevet Cymru then hopefully 300k the following weekend. That’s the last 300k qualifier weekend in the UK so if I skip that I’ll be looking at riding an extra 400k or worse 600k.
Weather forecast currently looks fine if a bit cold. I’ll take that over wet and windy like we just had this weekend.
Sweden here. I managed to get in a few 200’s and did my second 300 a couple of days ago, about 200 km of it was in rain. Not terribly cold, but definitely not warm.
If you do your 400, you’ll have no problem with that 300, of course. I myself find 400’s the most difficult of all. Probably because I just want to get it over with and don’t stop for a rest.
Good luck! Ride safe!
Maybe see you on the Brevet Cymru at the weekend, was checking forecast too, all depends on where that high pressure sits!.. hopefully over the Northsea/Norway and maybe get some southerly winds to raise temperature 
Did/attempted my first Audax last month, “Its a kind of Teifi Traveller”, that was cold, had a mechanical so ended up binning it at 215km. Hoping for a bit of better luck this time.
It’s been quite variable over the years I’ve done this ride: 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 DNF, 2014, 2015.
The DNF was on the tandem, stoker had a knee problem so we stopped at 200km.
I have started this ride in 2 deg C and finished in the rain at the same temperature. Have ridden the final 100km overnight in heavy rain and wind. Cold but dry I’ll take.
Fastest was 2011, 21h. Slowest 2007, 25h45.
24h would be ok this time around.
My target is to finish and then within the time allowed. You’ve got a lot of experience in there, best of luck.
You’ll maybe spot me, I’ll be the slow and steady one in front of the virtual broom van 
I’ll be on my one and only bike, a titanium MTB, set up for comfort on the open road. It’ll be good to get it off the trainer again!
I have all but the 600 done. The 200k and 400k were survivalfests, I had 15 minutes left combined. 300k was much better. I expect to take all the time allowed on the 600k, it’s a really difficult and slow course, particularly the second day.
I’m going to take a chance and leave the mudguards off tomorrow. It’s Wales, what could go wrong!
It was nice to meet you FatherDamo2. How’d it go in the end? I found the cold tough overnight, it was close to zero if not below. Main thing was, got it done.
Good to meet you too… at the West End Cafe, 300km, I changed into a new merino top, balaclava and my Alpine Microlight Down Event jacket. Threw some hand hotties into gloves too! It all kept the core warm as I’d made the mistake of short bibs! Didn’t plan to use coat other than if I got stuck somewhere, so glad I took it. Anyway I rolled in at the end around 3:30am, real happy to complete it, well done to you too and best of luck with next weeks 300km.
Old Roads 300km yesterday. That was a much tougher route with lots of steep climbs in North Deveon particularly. Still managed some Strava PRs near the end.
For the 400k last weekend I got TSS 841; I got the same TSS for this ride - shows how much tougher it was.
Just 600k to do now and I’m qualified.
Good to see you on the ride @sproven. It was well below zero much of the night (ride report here).
From a training perspective, I rode this consciously well within myself (finished with a couple of hours to spare). I recorded my NP for each stage and got:
Stage 1 - 164
Stage 2 - 135
Stage 3 - 117
Stage 4 - 121
Stage 5 - 115
Stage 6 - 111
Stage 7 - 111
Since my FTP is around 225W this is interesting as it tends to confirm the rule of thumb that one settles into an endurance pace which is approx 50% FTP. Suddenly that 4W dynamo drag or under-inflated tyre seems much more significant in this context!
Would seem to suggest for the holy grail of endurance cycling - increased low-effort cruising speed - there’s merit simply (ha!) training to raise ftp …
I have FTP set at 230W at the moment and NP for the 400k was 152W with 176W for the first stage and 133W for the final stage.
For the 300k I had to work a lot harder. 164W NP for the whole ride with 180W NP for the first stage and 166W for the last.
600k done so qualification for my 4th Paris-Brest-Paris is in the bag.
I would agree with that Alex, but sometimes it depends on the ride as well
Just bagged my 600km qualifier and that was IF 0.6 but some sections were certainly more (without bringing the hills in to the equation.)
Prev 400kms was 0.67IF, 0.64IF, 0.59IF, 300km 0.7IF
I think as FTP improves with training there is an impact on how the same performance is delivered but with less effort so agree with your training to increase FTP bringing benefit.
My 600k was 0.65; however I have not tested recently and my FTP might be a touch low.
So TP tells me it’s 10 weeks till “That French Ride”… what’s everyone’s plans?
I’ve got a few local 300/400k rides planned (I think I will give FF 600k a miss). Before LEL I just did some weekends of fast 50, fast 100 and then a 200 all back to back days which seemed to work to some extent but given I’ve not really done any structured TR stuff this year I think I’d like to at least get some TR workouts in between now and then…
So what’s ya plans??
I’m going to do a Raid Pyrénéen (randonneur) at the end of the month. Planning to ECE Hereward the Wake to 400km in early July (as a ride-through-the-night and equipment test). Then will probably do a good block of sweetspot-heavy turbo sessions combined with some longer gentle outdoor stuff.
Big lesson leaned for LEL I think is to pay attention to sleep and make sure I don’t go into the event with a sleep debt. So lots of early nights (and, relatedly, a watchful eye on booze intake).