Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Wasting Time

I've been looking through some brevets and permanents I've done this summer and calculating the percentage of the total time spent riding. My percentage ranged from 76% to 87% meaning, of course, that I spent from 13% to 24% of the time off the bike. Now the 24% ride was due to a couple flats and an extended rest to cool off (100 deg+ heat) so that's understandable. But what percentage non-riding time do others have?

My gut feel is that I should set a goal of less than 15% non-riding time for the typical long ride (>100 miles). Not that I'm trying to set any speed records, but reducing ones time at controls or convenence stores certainly eats into one's time budget. I know that I'm not the most disciplined rider at controls and perhaps I should work on this.

Any thoughts? What's your percentage of non-riding time?

I'll have to dig out the info from this season's series - I know on the 600k I was spending more time than usual!

I was setting my watch to beep every 15 min. for a food / drink reminder.
(I usually end up riding alone - so this doesn't annoy anyone)
It's also a good guage when I'm in a control - if I hear it beep once I know I've gotten out in under 30 minutes. If it goes twice I know I'm dragging!
I try to keep my stops to 15 min or less. This seemed (from memory) to work on the 2,3, and most of the 400k.

Any thoughts? What's your percentage of non-riding time?

I've been taking a lot more/longer breaks this year... about an hour total per 100 miles... seems that every stop at a grocery/convenience store takes about 15-20 minutes... 3 or 4 of those and I'm up to an hour off-bike time... but then again the only time limit I've had on my rides this year is the impendinding darkness... I've had to do a couple 30 mile 'sprints' for home when I realized sunset was sneaking up :eek:

Any mechanical problems always screw up anykind of schedule. Hot weather changes the frequency for water stops and in some cases -- real "heat stress" break time.

Typically, all rides are started early in the day, so I've always figured it's more realistic to set a "sliding scale" ride/rest ratio goal. If I can maintain a 10-to-1 ratio for the first half of a ride, I don't mind going to a 7 or 8-to-1 for the second half.

The only thing I hate, is getting in situations where you get off to a slow start with unplanned stops.