![]() Into this arena steps a varied cast of characters, from ultra-fit endurance athletes through to regular joe’s with steel bikes and saddlebags. You are on your own, quite literally sometimes. Finally, it’s entirely self-supported – no food stops, mechanical assistance or route markers. The key features of this slightly odd pursuit being the distances involved, from 200km up to 1400km non-stop and that the course is time-limited where you have approx 24 hours to complete each 400km leaving little or no time for sleep. The word is derived from the latin for audacity* – an endeavour that is challenging for mind and body. Audax is the name given to the UK long distance cycling association. Audax? What is that?īut, back to the road. It’s true that my Kung Fu training has suffered as I prepare for, and recover from, endurance events but I also believe I’ve derived a deeper physiological benefit from Kung Fu training and an understanding of how it can be of use to amateur athletes across all disciplines. But over time I’ve realised that these two activities can actually sustain and support each other. For most of that time it’s felt like my cycling and Kung Fu existed in separate orbits, warily circling each other lest one should be dropped in favour of the other. I’ve been participating in these events for 10 years, not quite as long as I’ve been training with the Hammersmith Fujian White Crane Kung Fu Club. Not for the first time I wonder how exactly I ended up here. ![]() I’m 380km into a 630km ‘Audax’ event, a long distance cycling challenge. “It’s 4am as I wheel my bike out in the pre-dawn gloom and set off in the direction I’ve just come from. But here we meet endurance cyclist Pete Kelsey, who takes it even further. Several of our students have written about how their Kung Fu training benefits their cycling. There seems to be a symbiotic relationship between cycling and Kung Fu.
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