Always faffing - how can I stop?

[Valerio]

The title pretty much says it all!

As much as I could work on becoming a better rider, I reckon it would be easier (or it should be!) to become a more efficient rider.
I'm not racing to win, but my stoppage time is always insanely high.

I've looked at the recent Atlas Mountain Race, completed in 152hr total time. The riding time was "just' 91hrs.
I slept (i.e. time in bed, actually sleeping) for 20.5hrs in total.

Say I generously allowed for 3hrs/day for resupplying, eating, maintenance (18hrs over 6 days)

152-
91-
20.5-
18=
_____
22.5hrs I can't really account for.
Not that I care about the final ranking, but that's the difference between top 70 and top 30.
Even saving a few hours might have taken me up to top50 which has a nice ring to it!

I swear I didn't even stop to take many videos or photos

I tried to multi-task (e.g. change layers while waiting for food, make a single order for hot food and any takeaway, try to come up with a list of tasks before arriving at the shop) but clearly it didn't work, and i definitely wasn't on top of it especially on the final days.

There's loads of experienced riders here, how do people keep their stoppage timing under control?

[jameso]

It's true that minimising stoppage time is as important as fitness. I don't have much race experience but I've always been a low faffer and enjoyed being efficient on time. Unplug the airmat as soon as I wake up as a motivation to get up and pack up, that kind of thing (in a race or time-focussed trip). Supply stops are grab-n-go, I may stop to eat and have a break but I'm not in shops long and while eating you can often sort any stuff that's been bugging you.
I think the main point is that you lose momentum every time you stop to adjust a layer or something on the bike. It takes more energy to regain that speed again too. Think of riding with someone who didn't stop, how much effort wold you need to cath them up after each stop? Suddenly 2 mins re-packing a bag after taking a jacket off seems important.
Packing for reduced faff helps - e.g. layers in the bar roll not the seat pack because then you can get them out faster without getting off the bike. Multi-tool, saddle/sun cream or lip balm in side/map pockets where they're easy to grab. Being able to ride no-hands is useful as many things can be done while rolling along. Another similar point is saving energy and gaining momentum by tucking on every descent. Over 5-20 days on the bike, how many descents a day, how much does that add up? Maybe not that much but it's part of the mentality to get into - 'if I can gain time here, or there, I won't waste it now either'.

Do you ride with elapsed and moving times on your GPS display? That's a good way to see how much time is lost to faff or how much the average speed differs between the two.

The flip side is why I like relaxed touring. As much as I've enjoyed riding with a race/audax mentality just for the personal challenge of covering ground and getting more riding done, I like a ride with plenty of 'postive faff' and appreciate getting away from the race atmosphere of many events.

[Hyppy]

Following on what James says, I've got way better at this over the past 18 months or so by following this one simple rule (as the clickbait ads would say): Don't stop unless you're stopping.

Preplan your stops, say for food/drink, and try not to deviate from that plan. Then, when you are stopped look to get all your non-riding stuff sorted, whether that be layering up or down, minor mechanical tweaks, loo break, phoning home, the socials, etc. More than that though, I'll no longer stop if there's no solid reason. Riding round here I know I'm going to have to stop to open gates, so again, if I've stuff to sort I'll do it then. No stopping just to take in the view, taking photos, to catch your breath, put your arm warmers on, etc. That can all be done at the next gate.

Of course this only matters if you're in 'race mode', but even on regular rides it does lead to getting further faster.

[jameso]

Aidan Harding wrote something about bike riding being a test of mindfulness and this comes back to me often. There's immense reward to me in hints of the ability to be in the moment and smell the flowers as well as staying aware of all the things you and your bike need to keep moving on unimpeded but moving between the two at the right time can't be assumed. The only minor mistakes I made on this trip were from a wandering mind or a lack of attention to the moment.

https://torino-nice.weebly.com/uploads/ ... b_post.pdf

- something I wrote in a post-TNR mail out a few years ago. I can't find Aidan Harding's blog post now but it's generally the case that a wandering mid is a good thing as well as the source of faff or the reason for a lack of focus. I lost my lip balm on that trip as I was looking at the view while doing my self-care routine early one morning.. left it on the saddle probably and let it fall as I moved off. Then had to go buy another one, faff.. Balancing up the needs of efficient riding and the experience of being outdoors for days on end is a wonderful thing to juggle with.

[whitestone]

+1 for the moving/overall time fields, some units offer average/overall speed as well.

Things like gates can eat up time if you aren’t careful: work out which side they open and whether towards or away from you. Postman’s dismount and remount. That can save 30s per gate. On a route like the YD300 there’s a hundred gates so that’s 50mins “gained” for little effort.

Know what you want to pick up in any shop (really helps if you’ve been to the shop before and know the layout ) don’t browse. Similarly in cafes figure out what is quickest for them to prepare.

Mechanicals are best avoided by pre ride maintenance but if things happen then it’s really just experience in fixing that particular issue. Ongoing maintenance like lubing the chain can be done while cooking your evening meal at bivy/camp.

Hate to use the phrase but “marginal gains”

[JackT]

Agree with others on having an overall average speed (defined as distance / elapsed time) showing on your GPS. For my unit this required turning off the 'auto pause' setting. It's painful to see how a stop puts a dent in your average speed and how hard it is to make it up again. This is probably most useful for giving some discipline over shorter stops while riding, rather than how much time you are stopped overnight if riding a multi day event. But if you reset every new day, that's probably sufficient.

Other tips are mentally building a checklist of things to do at the next stop, and try to do as many things as possible in a single stop, rather than a stop for each and every little thing. Set yourself a time limit for each stop. Have something to eat about 20 minutes before stopping, esp if the stop is for a food shop, so you don't get that hunger vagueness which can leave you wandering the aisles and staring gormlessly at the fridge display as the minutes tick by. Get used to doing stuff like adjusting clothing, eating, applying suncream, stretching, while on the bike. Be careful about stopping with other people you're riding with as you risk their faffing adding to your faffing. If you're ready to go before your riding companions are, don't worry too much about saying, I'm making a move now, but I'll ride steady and probably see you up the road / trail.

It's all supremely pointless for leisure riding, and takes a big chunk of the joy out of cycling. But the way I saw it in the context of a timed event is that being disciplined on stops while riding was how I built up a margin to stop for a proper sleep or a sit down meal and for unexpected things that go wrong and might risk my chances of finishing within the time limit.

[voodoo_simon]

Haven’t done much racing but when I have, I’m still slow

It’s a balance, if you’re there to race, then stop with the videos, don’t talk to the locals etc etc

If you’re there to test yourself and see how well you can do, then it’s a balance as agree tone has said.

I never planned the stops* (the races I’ve done don’t allow outside amenities), but when I did stop, take the photo, don’t look at your emails or social media when you get that phone out, go the loo and dig out your next snack, sort your layers out too.

I kept my warmest jacket accessible from everything else. So when I did stop, it was easy to put on and off (and it certainly wasn’t packed into its pocket either, just pressed into the seat pack).

Food on the go too if possible

One thing I tried whilst training was to stop for two minutes as a faff break but I let Mrs Voodoo carry on. Then I tried to catch her up, really puts into prospective how much distance is lost during a quick break (that’s probably not needed)

One thing I would say though, does it really matter?** I assume the Atlas Mountains race was a once in a life time trip, or at least one you won’t go back to for a while, so why not stop and faff. Talk to the locals and other racers, it’s all part of the experience. Stop and take as many photos as you want to, you’ll kick yourself more for not doing so when you’re home

* Took a wrong turn once in a race but it made me travel
North instead of south, so saw a brief Northern Lights display whilst out. The team behind caught us up due to the navigation error, it certainly meant more seeing the Aurora than the three people catching me up

** this is coming from someone who has never won a race since leaving high school My family motto is “who cares who wins”, hence why I’m happy to be at the back of the field getting my money worth in the hours per £££

[Hyppy]

One thing I would say though, does it really matter?* I assume the Atlas Mountains race was a once in a life time trip, or at least one you won’t go back to for a while, so why not stop and faff. Talk to the locals and other racers, it’s all part of the experience. Stop and take as many photos as you want to, you’ll kick yourself more for not doing so when you’re home

*this is coming from someone who has never won a race since leaving high school My family motto is “who cares who wins”, hence why I’m happy to be at the back of the field getting my money worth in the hours per £££

This. My first big 'race' was the inaugural Race Around Rwanda. In my mind I was gonna find previously hidden endurance racing skillz and smash it but very early on, perhaps forced by the 12 hours of equatorial darkness, I realised that if I rode though the nights I wasn't gonna see anything of a country I'd never visited so quickly amended my plans to properly stop at each checkpoint and leave again shortly before dawn. I was still challenging myself, and looking to better those riders around me, but I don't think I'd have forgiven myself for missing all I took in by slowing down to look around.

[Dave Barter]

Learn how to eat like pistonbroke .. you can save hours in a day

[fatbikephil]

Pace is a big influence on how much you stop - I used to ride quite hard but then stop for ages recovering (and eating) The 2018 YD200 was the first time I made a concerted effort to slow down, but not stop and I did a good time and never felt to knackered at any point. I see a lot of people wasting loads of time removing or adding layers. Work out clothes that you just leave on, un-zipping / re-zipping as you cool down, warm up. Aiden Harding also has a good tip for this - don't stop to take a layer off, slow down until you cool off naturally - it loses less time. Wearing a bit too much then also helps keep your pace down. Obviously if it starts to rain you have to get a jacket on so make sure it is handy.

Make sure your bike is sorted so no adjusting seat height, bar position etc. etc. Punctures = faff so practice until you can do it quick. If sealant is spraying everywhere, immediately stop and plug it, don't think the sealant will suddenly magically work. You then avoid having to faff adding more sealant...

Plan your shopping trip on the hoof so you know what you want to eat and what to take with you. One of the reasons I'm a Co-op start customer is that I know exactly what is where and what I want to eat.

Eating on the hoof saves time but beware of the chances of this leading to trying to cram a pie down whilst riding one handed down a big hill.

But.... time spent faffing is time spent resting and recovering. Me and Bob bemoaned stopping in the Oykle Bridge hotel at 7.30pm, on the Monday of HT550 2017, not wanting to push on into a wet evening. Had we done this we would have both knocked 3 or 4 hours off our times. Except I'd have missed Ullapool tescos so ran out of food, blown up, etc. etc.

[Valerio]

Thanks all! Some great tips there!

I'll definitely add the moving time/Elapsed time screen to the Garmin. I think i lost focus after the first couple of days in Morocco (partially due to mechanicals and wrong routing) and that should help with it.

I think AMR was a bit unique as temperatures ranged from -5 to +40 and i recognise that a lot of my faff was down to changing layers. I did try to do it while at a food stops but timing didn't always work out.
Resupplying was also not efficient as all the food was very much exotic to me and I didn't really know what type of snacks I was buying. A lot of sit down meals too.
I avoided all of that in a previous race and ran out of gas after 3 days....so perhaps i was overly conservative at AMR.

Another thing that adds faff is using a hydration pack on my back as I had to take it on and off to get changed. Not a big deal but with 2-3 changes of clothes each day that didnt help.

I'll look at my packing, I'm only using my frame bag for clothes so everything is usually a zip away.

Interactions with locals and enjoying the views it's a tough one... my take is that I either sign up to a race and ride like I'm racing, or I go on a tour and stop to take all the photos I want. I find that compromising mostly leads to poorly taken photos and wasted time.....but it's a tricky balance to get and not something I've nailed.
I definitely stopped for some views in Morocco, and don't regret it.

[jameso]

Sounds like you might benefit from more easily adapted layers? .. he says, without knowing what you do use! : )
Things like white arm warmers can be great for warmth in the mornings as well as cooling in the sun, roll up or down as needed. Same with leg warmers. Gilets with insulation that can be opened up fully. That kind of thing? I remember realising what a faff bibs were during long events, only made that mistake once.

my take is that I either sign up to a race and ride like I'm racing, or I go on a tour and stop to take all the photos I want.

With you on that, 100%. I've always taken a camera on bike trips of any kind but if it's a race then photos are mostly taken when I'm stopping for other reasons. I think when I'm old and looking back I'll be glad I added those few moments to my elasped time.

[Valerio]

Sounds like you might benefit from more easily adapted layers? .. he says, without knowing what you do use! : )
Things like white arm warmers can be great for warmth in the mornings as well as cooling in the sun, roll up or down as needed. Same with leg warmers. Gilets with insulation that can be opened up fully. That kind of thing? I remember realising what a faff bibs were during long events, only made that mistake once.

my take is that I either sign up to a race and ride like I'm racing, or I go on a tour and stop to take all the photos I want.

With you on that, 100%. I've always taken a camera on bike trips of any kind but if it's a race then photos are mostly taken when I'm stopping for other reasons. I think when I'm old and looking back I'll be glad I added those few moments to my elasped time.

All great advice! Again, I think AMR was a bit tricky with the extremes, but i did use white arm warmers during the day (covered by merino arm warmers at night) and leg warmers.
I also - and this was potentially a bit of a nice to have - used warm socks at night, and ultralight socks during the day.
I use a gilet 99% of the time during the year, it's such an essential layer to have.

I was also swapping base layer between a merino (warm) and a synthetic (cool) one.
Basically I was wearing winter kit at night and summer kit during the day.

I've seen someone taking their hydration pack off and changing layers all while riding....I just dont have those skills, especially on rocky doubletrack! It seems like a pretty risky thing to do to save a couple of min (vs breaking a hand/elbow/knee) but i guess that's a way to hitting those marginal gains.

[voodoo_simon]

Can your layers not fit over the hydration pack?

So, wear the base layer, the pack then layers on top of that? I’ve done it running, my waterproof jacket can fit on the outside of the bag (also saves on wear and tear)

[Valerio]

Can your layers not fit over the hydration pack?

So, wear the base layer, the pack then layers on top of that? I’ve done it running, my waterproof jacket can fit on the outside of the bag (also saves on wear and tear)

It really depends on how full the pack is, but in theory yes.
I've got a XXL gilet which fits on top of it, and I think my waterproof could also fit over.

It's layers like a merino baselayer that eventually need to come off(or on!) depending on temperatures. Hence the pack also needs removing. Not a big deal, but adds to the faff.

[Hyppy]

Can your layers not fit over the hydration pack?

So, wear the base layer, the pack then layers on top of that? I’ve done it running, my waterproof jacket can fit on the outside of the bag (also saves on wear and tear)

I was worried that my recently purchased (and seemingly obligatory) Columbia Outdry was too large for me, but it's actually spot on for putting on over the hydration pack and, as you allude to, wearing jackets under one just knackers them. My OH has running jackets with expandable back sections especially for this purpose and reason.

[pistonbroke]

Learn how to eat like pistonbroke .. you can save hours in a day

How dare you
I'm starting a 500km event tomorrow morning so have put in quite a lot of training despite the unseasonably wet weather this spring. Last Sunday I arrived at the halfway point of an 80km recce and popped into a bar for an obligatory giant omelette sandwich. The whole process was completed in 15 minutes including coffee, when I went up to pay the barman looked at the empty plate, then at me and burst out laughing.