The 2025 Half Century (50km or 50 mile) Challenge Chatzone.

[sevenfourate]

I 'broke free' during the Covid pandemic and haven't really fully got my longer rides mojo back since! It is good to enjoy shorter rides as well though.

Has your bike got an accurate power meter on it, or is your power data estimated by an app?

I ask because your displayed power is about 30% higher than what I typically manage. I can quite believe that you are more powerful than me (you are younger and bigger than me, and I am not superfit) but...

... if I could generate that much power I would be going even faster than 15.4 mph on roads with far more elevation gain. For example, on a ride with over 1,500 ft of elevation gain I averaged around 14 mph but I only averaged 182 W (measured to within +/- 2%).

Obviously, the distances and speeds displayed in your posts would be very accurate, so I am wondering if the power value is 'guesstimated' in software?

Just whatever Strava spews out with my bike weights (This one is pretty heavy !), my weight (Nearly 16 stone), height etc entered in - and kept updated.

I’ve done nothing to modify, look into, check those against anything else or otherwise…..

 

[ColinJ]

I would trust that power value if you did that speed on a hilly route where your weight would definitely be a significant factor, but extra weight doesn't make much difference to average speed on flatter routes.

I am not knocking your efforts; I was just curious to see where the numbers came from!

Could someone here with experience of riding with a power meter tell us how the real data compares with what Strava comes up with? (Or does Strava only guess the power when power measurements are not available?)

 

[sevenfourate]

I would trust that power value if you did that speed on a hilly route where your weight would definitely be a significant factor, but extra weight doesn't make much difference to average speed on flatter routes.

I am not knocking your efforts; I was just curious to see where the numbers came from!

Could someone here with experience of riding with a power meter tell us how the real data compares with what Strava comes up with? (Or does Strava only guess the power when power measurements are not available?)

My plethora of pictures tells you why I ride 😁 Speed, calories, watts or anything else are extremely secondary…

In saying that - my power output does often seem to be high compared to others doing similar speeds / distances. *I never really pay much attention to elevation. Certainly in cross referencing. It’s not something I can remotely control or change. Not sure why this power stat appears to be so ‘different’ 🤷‍♂️ as I have all data Strava asks for: entered correctly.

Just as well I’m not basing anything on those hey…….. 👍

 

[13 rider]

An early monthly update due to how the last weekend falls . We have 17 riders fully posted up leaving 3 riders yet to declare so an early nudge for @bruce1530,@Donger and @Spartak

 

[Spartak]

October 50 km ... ✅

Ride down to Wellow from NE Bristol, 99.0 % of the way on cycle paths ... 👍

Firstly the Bristol to Bath section then onto The Two Tunnels section and finally The Colliers Way to Wellow.

Great route, with lots of cyclists enjoying today's weather.

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@13 rider ... 😁
see October 2nd ... 👍

 

[13 rider]

@13 rider ... 😁
see October 2nd ... 👍

Apologies my high tech paper tick list must have a bug in the system ,I will recode it later 😁

 

[bruce1530]

I'm in - probably second last. Been "one of those months..." - weather was dry today here in the west of Scotland, but cold and windy - first outing for the longs and the winter boots.

headed north from home, into the wind. When I got to the edge of town, away from the shelter of houses, the cold wind just made it an unpleasant ride along the coast. So turned and did a loop along the shore (with tailwind), much of it on cycle paths, then back homewards through town. A 16k loop, went round 3 times with slight variations to take it over the 50.

 

[teeonethousand]

Out today after 2 weeks of hols and the usual over indulgence . Bloomin cold into the wind and got back with just 1mile short so had to loop a bit .....damm that 50k-itus😂

 

[C R]

I haven't been on the bike since mid August, and boy, am I unfit. The last 10k were a real struggle.

The distanceometer was showing 51.98km as I was approaching the garage door, so went round to get the extra 20m, to spare @13 rider an OCR crisis.

 

[13 rider]

I haven't been on the bike since mid August, and boy, am I unfit. The last 10k were a real struggle.

The distanceometer was showing 51.98km as I was approaching the garage door, so went round to get the extra 20m, to spare @13 rider an OCR crisis.

Glad your back out riding ,training for next year's challenge ? . I would have let you had that one as it was over 50km but I would never end a ride on .9 of any mile 😂

 

[steverob]

As I look out my window at the dry conditions outside, compared to the almost constant drizzle of yesterday (plus one brief downpour) that I subjected myself to riding in, having believed the weather forecast that it was going to be Sunday that was the rainy day and not Saturday, I still feel rather happy.

Why? I've finally beaten the 93 point mark in the Half Century Challenge that I got in 2018 and now all I have to do is to complete one ride in both November and December to officially set it as my new record points haul. Of course I'll be trying to go for more than that - hoping to get into three figures before the end of the year with any luck. And this also marks a new high for outdoor miles cycled in a year - yesterday's ride took me to 3,007 compared to my previous record of 3,003 back in 2017, with two whole months still to go!

 

[C R]

Glad your back out riding ,training for next year's challenge ? . I would have you have that one as it was over 50km but I would never end a ride on .9 of any mile 😂

I rode quite a bit during the summer, but had a lot of family stuff going on and ended up not riding since mid August. I now have to get my legs back into shape again.

 

[FrothNinja]

Did 100km+ in just over 5 hours today - one of my longest rides this year.
For some reason I now feel tired and my left knee is sore...
...and my neck and shoulders gave me gip for the last 60sh km, but are only stiff now - which is quite the result for me.
Started drizzling about 10km from home - in spite of being forecast dry all day - and continued with moderate breeziness until I got to Ashton under Lyne.
Windier on the way back, but there were times when there was a lull...which gave the rain a chance to shine - literally.
Had planned on stopping at a butty van en route to warm up and refuel, but it ain't there no more. Didn't fancy stopping at the ice cream van near Gordon Rigg for a soggy cone so I got my head down, stuck to the valley bottoms and got home mid-arvo.
Definitely type 2 fun.

 

[13 rider]

An earlish monthly round up having just seen a post from last Sunday which I seem to have missed ,not sure all notifications are working .
We have all 20 riders fully posted up for October ,10 down 2 to go ,Well done everyone

 

[steverob]

An earlish monthly round up having just seen a post from last Sunday which I seem to have missed ,not sure all notifications are working .
We have all 20 riders fully posted up for October ,10 down 2 to go ,Well done everyone

Yes, there have been problems with the Notifications function recently. Solution seems to be to log out of the site and back in.