2023 Consistency Challenge

[Dogtrousers]

I thought about that, but the objective was to encourage participants to get out and ride their bikes, if it was four points then the incentive might be towards doing fewer but longer rides instead. So you still get some recognition for the longer ride but it's weighted towards more frequent shorter rides.

What's to stop me from logging my 160km ride as two 80km rides?

I know, I know. I'll shut up now.

 

[GuyBoden]

Can you miss a month, if it's bad weather or you're not feeling well, or maybe due to an injury?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

What's to stop me from logging my 160km ride as two 80km rides?

I know, I know. I'll shut up now.

You can only log one ride per day.

 

[Alex321]

I may appear to be being deliberately obtuse here (because I am ) but if there's no definition of what would count as complete - then it's not really a challenge. If finishing with 12 points isn't completing it - what is the lower limit? 13?

And most importantly, do I get a star or other badge? And what does it look like

By being so negative and carping on I'm actually trying to be helpful and possibly improve it.

Here's where I'm coming from. Various challenges on here have been tremendously useful motivational tools for me over the years: I simply have to get out on the bike tomorrow or I'll be out of the challenge (whatever it is). The lunacy challenge waters that motivational power down a bit by allowing you to skip months and then catch up, but the overall target of 13 is enough to get you out of bed. I'm not really seeing the same motivational power in this.

Without some kind of lower limit or a pre-declared personal target (like the luncacy challenge has) or something like that it would be easy to cruise round without trying very hard, and with little chance of failing to finish, and pick up the shiny badge at the end.

I have to be honest, I think the OP sees it more as a contest than as that type of challenge.

But we would have to hear back from him as to whether he sees it as something to complete, possibly with a nice shiny badge, or not. And if it is something to complete, then what are the criteria for that.

The aim was stated as being to encourage consistency, so maybe you would need at least 60 points (which averages at 5 per month, needing at least two qualifying rides). But maybe he has other ideas.

 

[Alex321]

Can you miss a month, if it's bad weather or you're not feeling well, or maybe due to an injury?

He said that over the course of the year, you are allowed to "transfer" up to 3 rides into different months than the one you actually rode them in.

 

[si_c]

Quite a lot to unpack here!

Permit me to be pernickety. This may seem like I'm being negative but better to test the rules now than later.

To complete the challenge you just need to do just one ride of 40km/25mi per month. But if you want to complete it with more points you can. Is that right? In fact (because you can transfer rides), you just need to do 12 40k/25m rides over a period of 9 months at the minimum.

4) You may allocate a total of 3 rides to a different month over the course of the year and the points for that ride will contribute to that month's score (this is to allow late starters to catch up). Such an allocation will still be subject to the receiving month's cap.

So you can skip three months of the challenge and still complete it? An extreme case: You can get to September, transfer three rides, one each into Oct, Nov and Dec and put your feet up. Isn't that the opposite of consistency?
Or if you go on tour and have an excess of rides you can spread them around other months. Again, that doesn't encourage consistency, but rewards binging.

Yes, but equally I don't want to discourage people who for whatever reason are unable to complete a month and then feel as though there is no point continuing. You can only move 3 rides and each ride is worth a maximum of 5 points (4000m of climbing in 160km) so it would help people catch up a touch but you wouldn't get the bonus point for riding that month if you skipped it entirely.

3) You must pick a distance measure at the start of the year, no swapping between km/mi.
What's the thinking behind this rule? What would the problem be if someone logged some rides in miles and some in km? Are you concerned that someone might start out on km, then fall a wee bit short on one ride (eg a 99.5 mile ride) and cheat by swapping to km because their failed ride in miles is a success in km?

You're right, I'll change this, it will be either distance will qualify for the point, it makes it easier to tally up as well and they are so close in distance that it doesn't really matter. I'll adjust the rules to reflect this.

40km=24.9 miles; 25 miles=40.2 km (rounded to nearest 0.1)
80km=49.7 miles; 50miles=80.5 km
160km = 99.4 miles; 100 miles = 160.9 km

Surely that's close enough to be equivalent and you don't need this rule? The fewer rules the better. Or am I missing something?
I've no idea why anyone would mix units. Most people stick to their preference. But if someone fancies doing km on even numbered days and miles on odd numbers, what's the harm?

Lastly, There's no mention in the rules that you have to get points in all 12 months at the end of the year to complete the challenge.

No you don't have to get points in all 12 months to complete the challenge but you would get fewer points overall

It actually sounds like it's intended to be competitive which isn't my thing (that's not a criticism btw, each to their own) so I think I'll stick with the vanilla challenges.

It's really not meant to be competitive other than with yourself, but if it's not for you, that's fine. I'm doing it to encourage myself to get out more often, something I've struggled a little with since working from home.

I may appear to be being deliberately obtuse here (because I am ) but if there's no definition of what would count as complete - then it's not really a challenge. If finishing with 12 points isn't completing it - what is the lower limit? 13?

And most importantly, do I get a star or other badge? And what does it look like

I think everyone gets for trying, but yes, there should be some recognition of completion, with the bonuses available (156pts max), I think that you should aim for Bronze (40pts), Silver (80pts) or Gold (120pts) over the year. I've no idea what the indicator would be (I'd like a bronze/silver/gold bicycle) but stars could suffice, but I don't want to confuse them with the other challenges, I'll have to find something, but I have a year to do that.

By being so negative and carping on I'm actually trying to be helpful and possibly improve it.

No, that's fine, I expected feedback, if it makes the challenge more coherent and/or interesting. The other challenges have the advantage of being embedded, but we're the scrappy upstart people's challenge

Here's where I'm coming from. Various challenges on here have been tremendously useful motivational tools for me over the years: I simply have to get out on the bike tomorrow or I'll be out of the challenge (whatever it is). The lunacy challenge waters that motivational power down a bit by allowing you to skip months and then catch up, but the overall target of 13 is enough to get you out of bed. I'm not really seeing the same motivational power in this.

Without some kind of lower limit or a pre-declared personal target (like the luncacy challenge has) or something like that it would be easy to cruise round without trying very hard, and with little chance of failing to finish, and pick up the shiny badge at the end.

That's fair enough, I think adding in the tiered rewards (bronze/silver/gold) will add some incentive, but feel free to make additional suggestions.

 

[bluenotebob]

I'm curious as to why there are no entries yet. Has everyone forgotten about this Challenge?

Are you going to kick the Challenge off @si_c ? .. or are you waiting for someone else to post first?

I have a couple of January rides that I can post - shall I go ahead ? Not sure what format you're expecting .. but perhaps that's not very important..