The Annual Lunacy (aka "I Don't Do Winter") Challenge Chatzone

[PaulSB]

Thanks @bluenotebob after some consideration my Lunacy climbing target will be 13 x 4000+ feet. I had six rides at this level in 2025, not a huge challenge as individual rides but doing enough of them will be. 4000+ is about 65 miles round here so they're a decent distance as well. I'll sign up for the various challenges in the threads when they appear. This will all help towards the final goal of 5000 and 200,000 feet. It sounds a lot but should be achievable. This year I rode 3159 and 114,693 = 35 feet for every mile. 200,000 feet is only 40 feet per mile, a 15% increase. It's about achievable targets and managing the risk of failure...........failing is a big deal for me, it's only personal and no competition from others.

Excuse all this chat to myself..................I'm talking myself in to achieving these targets.............

 

[geocycle]

Like others I’m working out my challenges for 2026. I’ve settled on:
1. 50 miles/50 km each month
2. 100 km each month
3. 13 x 1300m of climbing as per lunacy climbing challenge.

I’m most concerned about doing both the 50s and the 100 km again at the ends of the year, simply because I’ll need enough weekends free from other activities or weather. It was really quite a stretch this year. Adding the lunacy climbing should give me an alternative target if I have to drop out of one of the distances. Thanks to all the organisers!

 

[Andy in Germany]

I'm pretty sure I made my own challenge: my goal of 40k was the distance to work and back, and with that, shopping in Tübingen, and going on bike rides, I reckon I managed 13 rides; I just forgot to count them; as usual.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Today's Lunacy ride is definitely my last for 2025. That one only happened since the Met Office assured me that it would be a relatively toasty 4C at ten this morning, rising to 7-8C by early afternoon. Combined with a drop in the wind speed and no rain, that sounded good. It wasn't quite that warm though: it was minus 1C soon after I set off, peaked at 5C, briefly, and dropped to minus 1C again about 13km from home. Still, good to have got out for another imperial century, making eighteen for the year. I suppose I could thank the Met Office for their 'misleading' forecast, and hence my bonus ride, though I probably won't :-)

Next year I intend to stick to my previous pattern of declaring 150km but actually aiming for 161km, or 100 miles, in practice.

 

[steverob]

Since doing my 17th Lunacy ride of this year back in October, I have done one more qualifying ride, but I didn't bother logging it as it didn't make a difference to my final total. There's an outside chance I might do one more, but given I'm recovering from a cold over Christmas, even if I do it'd be a bare minimum ride, which would therefore end up featuring outside my top 13 distances.