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

[Fiona R]

I am keeping my 100 km rides and 50 km rides separate and am attempting to keep my 161 km (100 mile) rides separate too, but realistically it will be more a question of how many I can keep separate. I managed it in March but I doubt that it will be true for all of them!

I'm riding my 50km and 100km separately and then hopefully a 200km lunacy each month that is counting as my imperial as well. Only a lunatic would have all 4 separate surely?

Having just been on holiday and not having ridden my bike at all in April yet the pressure is building just a tad, especially as Easter weekend is pretty much out too!!

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've decided the Imperial century (combined with villages A-Z) and Metric century is more than enough silly challenges. These days I often only ride twice a month - once for each century. That's either a good thing - challenges keep me going, or a bad thing - challenges have taken over. I don't know which.

Oh and I've got a 300k scheduled in July. Some longer rides beforehand might come in handy.

I did start the year with plans for a 400, but reality has bitten. I could only find one 400k that meets my stringently unethical flatness requirements and I've done that one before, and it's on the same day as my 300k.

 

[Dogtrousers]

20 or so metres per kilometre is pretty typical around here, and hill repeats would be more tiring since the point would be to try hard, whereas I was trying as little as possible

You've not seen me doing hill repeats. Try hard? Wash your mouth out.

In the Surrey/Kent areas where I ride you have to actually make an effort to devise a specifically hilly route to get it over 15m/km. If you do it's easy enough to devise a ride with 17 or 18 m/km but beyond that you would have to start doing stupid things like doubling back and it would cease to be a real route and just become a hill hunting exercise. 18 is about the limit without getting silly and artificial.

That said, 100 milers with 15m/km or more wipe me out. I could probably manage 100k at 20+, just about, but not 100 miles. Not that I intend to try.

 

[ColinJ]

In fact, the 75km middle section of that route, starting at about 50km, was the seriously arduous bit, being 2,500 ish metrres in 75km!

That DOES sound hard!

Season of Mists does that amount of climbing in 100 km and that feels tough enough ...

 

[Aravis]

I had been thinking that targeting RRtY in this calendar year makes the lunacy challenge almost redundant. I'll get 12x200km anyway, so I just need one more. But then light dawned - I just need one more.

So there's the target - one extra unAudaxified ride of anything over 200km. This needs to have a touch of lunacy about it, so I'll have to find an appropriate theme. A figurative interpretation of lunacy, though. Not overnight.

Perhaps on May 19th I could ride to Moon's Moat in Worcestershire, and finish the ride as the only blue moon of the year rises over the Cotswolds.

 

[Fiona R]

I had been thinking that targeting RRtY in this calendar year makes the lunacy challenge almost redundant. I'll get 12x200km anyway, so I just need one more. But then light dawned - I just need one more.

So there's the target - one extra unAudaxified ride of anything over 200km. This needs to have a touch of lunacy about it, so I'll have to find an appropriate theme. A figurative interpretation of lunacy, though. Not overnight.

Perhaps on May 19th I could ride to Moon's Moat in Worcestershire, and finish the ride as the only blue moon of the year rises over the Cotswolds.

I'm doing the same but managed a second one in Feb as my calendar one at the end of the month was Gospel Pass and having to do it tempted weather/illness/other Gods. So I did a DIY too. Very resentful as DIY was awful, hideous rain in the dark, also windy BUT now I realise it was worth it as I "only" have to keep up one a month for RRtY and lunacy is done if I keep it up Who am I kidding?

Love the verb (is it a verb?) unAudaxified

Anyone noticed @Sea of vapours totally and utterly bonkers blasting out of the starting blocks and finishing 3 in less than a fortnight.

Utterly bonkers, he'll be done by June.

 

[ColinJ]

I have taken note of what you lot are doing and in response I have cancelled 2 of my long rides!

2 heavy colds in 6 weeks are to blame. Actually, I think it is probably the same cold bug, with my 165 km Garforth ride undertaken before I was fully recovered from cold #1 which then unleashed cold #2. I have learned my lesson and will avoid riding too hard, too soon this time.

 

[steverob]

Second Lunacy ride in the bag and once again I tired at about the 50 mile mark - not good considering my target is 65! However in my defence, I turned into a dead-on headwind at exactly that point, which pretty much lasted all of the next 12 miles, which I think would have killed anyone's momentum. It was supposed to be a crosswind on the way home, but clearly the wind shifted direction while I was out.

On the plus side, my Eddington number has now crept up to 59 and I'm just two rides short of 60.

 

[Fiona R]

I shouldn't really chat here as I failed. I didn't get round (on Saturday) my planned DIY of the LVIS Ballbuster 200km from last weekend that I missed as on holiday. I got fuelling all wrong, was trying to be faster and mainly graze, but didn't graze enough and ran out of water in a cafe lacking area. 3 weeks since 2 x 100km back to back but have done a fair amount of swimming etc. Was it food, water, adjustment back from heat of Dubai (had returned 5 days earlier!) lack of time on the bike, psychological or what? Was riding totally solo, weather was good, bit cold, bit of a stiff wind but far far far better/lighter/easier (elevation and weather) than the 3 x calendar events I've done this year. I hit the wall. Finally found a café in Chew Magna, but wasted a lot of time trying to recover on the verge. Then my ploughmans took 45 mins+ to come so decision made. I was very close to home so enjoyed my late lunch and wandered back up and over Winford home. Trouble is I'm trying to RRtY and I am not free to ride for a week from Thursday so only 1 weekend still free. Pressure is on.

But really I should just celebrate in the 100km and 50km chat threads, as a result my separate 100 is done and I went out on a gentle club ride yesterday and did another 60km, turned into a bit of a time trial for me but that's 50km done too.

I'm not very good at failure and very cross with myself.

 

[ColinJ]

I shouldn't really chat here as I failed. I didn't get round (on Saturday) my planned DIY of the LVIS Ballbuster 200km from last weekend that I missed as on holiday. I got fuelling all wrong, was trying to be faster and mainly graze, but didn't graze enough and ran out of water in a cafe lacking area. 3 weeks since 2 x 100km back to back but have done a fair amount of swimming etc. Was it food, water, adjustment back from heat of Dubai (had returned 5 days earlier!) lack of time on the bike, psychological or what? Was riding totally solo, weather was good, bit cold, bit of a stiff wind but far far far better/lighter/easier (elevation and weather) than the 3 x calendar events I've done this year. I hit the wall. Finally found a café in Chew Magna, but wasted a lot of time trying to recover on the verge. Then my ploughmans took 45 mins+ to come so decision made. I was very close to home so enjoyed my late lunch and wandered back up and over Winford home. Trouble is I'm trying to RRtY and I am not free to ride for a week from Thursday so only 1 weekend still free. Pressure is on.

But really I should just celebrate in the 100km and 50km chat threads, as a result my separate 100 is done and I went out on a gentle club ride yesterday and did another 60km, turned into a bit of a time trial for me but that's 50km done too.

I'm not very good at failure and very cross with myself.

I didn't 'Like' you not doing the 200, but I did like the fact that you did the 100 and the 59!

Frustrations are, er, very frustrating... I have lost 2 good rides to a poxy cold. What's worse is that the sun has been shining a lot while I have been off the bike. What's the betting that the weather turns nasty by the time that I am ready to ride again?

 

[Fiona R]

I didn't 'Like' you not doing the 200, but I did like the fact that you did the 100 and the 59!

Frustrations are, er, very frustrating... I have lost 2 good rides to a poxy cold. What's worse is that the sun has been shining a lot while I have been off the bike. What's the betting that the weather turns nasty by the time that I am ready to ride again?

Yeah I know, 59 not 60 i'd mind less if I'd been ill etc, but there was no reason for me to be such a flaker.

Frustrated as weather forecast superb for Easter and my parents are descending for the whole week. Yes we will get out, but no selfish long rides. What a cow I am.

 

[ColinJ]

Yeah I know, 59 not 60 i'd mind less if I'd been ill etc, but there was no reason for me to be such a flaker.

Frustrated as weather forecast superb for Easter and my parents are descending for the whole week. Yes we will get out, but no selfish long rides. What a cow I am.

Oh, my finger must have slipped onto the adjacent key!

I've just seen the forecast for the end of the week ... I really must try and get riding again. I'll see how I feel in the morning.

 

[Aravis]

Yeah I know, 59 not 60 i'd mind less if I'd been ill etc, but there was no reason for me to be such a flaker.

Frustrated as weather forecast superb for Easter and my parents are descending for the whole week. Yes we will get out, but no selfish long rides. What a cow I am.

Hmmm. Saturday is looking particularly gorgeous. Surely your family will just want to bask while you slip out for a few hours?

I'll be rooting for you anyway.

 

[ColinJ]

I am proud to announce the winner of the Annual Lunacy Challenge theme music competition. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Mcfadden and Whitehead's Ain't No Stopping Us Now...

Ain't No Stoppin Us Now!
We're on the move!
Ain't No Stoppin Us Now!
We've got the groove!

There's been so many things that's held us down
But now it looks like things are finally comin' around
I know we've got, a long long way to go
And where we'll end up, I don't know...

 

[ColinJ]

Well that was hard. And I've just worked out that I have to do one of those roughly every 2.5 weeks between now and the end of September; mid-October at a push. Whose ^%$£% idea was this anyway @ColinJ ?

NB Roughly one qualifying ride every 2.5 weeks, NOT 2.5 qualifying rides a week!

Target distance: 150km
Qualifying rides: 5

2. April 6th - 156km / 3,370m. (Newby Head, Redmire, Grinton Moor, Marske, Newsham, The Stang, Fleak Moss)
3. April 10th - 155km / 2,550m (Kendal, Kirkstone Pass, Penrith, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Hawes, Helwith Bridge)
4. April 13th - 153km / 3,370m (Ribblehead, Nateby, Lamps Moss, Keld, Oxnop Scar, Kettlewell, Halton Gill, Austwick)
1. March 29th - 152km / 2,860m. (Newby Head, Askrigg, Oxnop Scar, Keld, Lamps Moss, Barbon, Hornby, Keasden)
5. April 17th - 152km / 2,720m (Kendal, Newby Bridge, Silverdale, Quernmore, Oakenclough, Slaidburn, Settle)