audax: Chipseal 200km DiY

Oh my gosh. Out yesterday on my bike to complete a 200km. I have been doing a least one long ride each month for the past couple of years. Occasionally much longer. I did not enjoy yesterdays ride at all. That is quite unusual. Something felt different not even 50km into the ride. It was more of an effort than normal. At first I thought this was down to not having ridden any miles for ten days. Not so sure about that now. If anything I would have thought having fresh legs would help. It briefly crossed my mind when I selected the route that when I last rode it the going got tough in places. Kind of shrugged that off. I guess because it was a faded memory I minimised the potential of a repeat. Turns out that was a mistake. While the first 50km felt more effort than usual it was the following 100k that was really problematic. I started to feel it between 90 - 100km. Not even half way. The ride had become a slog. An unscheduled stop at that point for water and an energy drink brought it…