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

[ColinJ]

To illustrate the problem, here is a photo that I took on 23rd March 2013! A young man died near Burnley the night before when caught out by the blizzard.

That picture was at 100 metres above sea level. Many of the hill roads go up to 400+ metres round here.

Here is one taken the same day by Cubist ...

Ok, it often isn't as bad as that, but you can see why we sometimes struggle with long winter rides!

We had snow here on 2nd April this year.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Grim down South too, just in largely different ways

 

[ColinJ]

It's grim up North

Nice when the sun shines though ...

 

[cosmicbike]

To illustrate the problem, here is a photo that I took on 23rd March 2013! A young man died near Burnley the night before when caught out by the blizzard.

View attachment 434045

That picture was at 100 metres above sea level. Many of the hill roads go up to 400+ metres round here.

Here is one taken the same day by Cubist ...

View attachment 434046

Ok, it often isn't as bad as that, but you can see why we sometimes struggle with long winter rides!

We had snow here on 2nd April this year.

Studded tyres?

Any challenge that gets people out is good

 

[StuartG]

Any challenge that gets people out is good

The difference between Scott & Shackleton? History says otherwise.

 

[Fiona R]

Brilliant idea. I totally think it should be 13 too to give the Lunacy some justification. I pushed myself end of Jan and did two back to back 100km and then crashed on a utility ride in Feb and blew my 25 month 100km streak. I've dropped down to 50km but kept up 100 since. Count me in!

 

[Spinney]

Grim down South too, just in largely different ways

I'll take the grim oop north version, any day!

I like the Lunatic Challenge. I'll probably continue doing the Half Century challenge, but another to get me doing more than one a month would be good, esp. if I can be more flexible about when.
I've had a couple of minor injuries over the last couple of years (one cycling related, one not) that happened just after I'd done my half-century early in the month, so giving me about 6 weeks recovery time without having to duck out. Next time I'm a prat I may not be so lucky on the timing.

 

[ColinJ]

Ok, well I think that there is enough interest for it to be worth organising. I'll start the ride thread at the end of December.

There is clearly more difficulty in doing a 'full year' challenge and if you think you can manage one of them, then start off in the appropriate thread but feel free to transfer 'down' into this challenge if circumstances conspire against you.

Alternatively, perhaps use this challenge for your first attempt at a given distance and if that goes well move 'up' to the full annual challenge subsequently if you want to. (Or remain here if you are a long distance winter wimp, like me! )

This isn't intended to persuade people to ride less in the winter, more a case of encouraging them to ride more during the rest of the year with an option to continue into the winter if that turns out to be tolerable.

 

[Aravis]

A suggestion: instead of aiming at a fixed number number (50, 100, or whatever), the objective could be to achieve the highest possible number over the whole year. Your thirteen longest rides, regardless of when they're ridden, would be your qualifying rides; the thirteenth longest would determine your score.

This would mean that the challenge remains alive throughout the year for all participants. It would also have a flavour quite distinct from the existing challenges, so all forum members could take part regardless of what other challenges they're involved in, and it wouldn't risk looking like a watered-down version of what's already there.

With this challenge, personal rivalries and actual competition could develop. I'm not sure if that's desirable, but it would certainly be a new dimension.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Interesing idea, @Aravis, though I share @Dogtrousers mild confusion as to exactly what that would mean and how it would work in practice. I think I /do/ see what you're getting at but it might run the risk of being perpetually confusing and needing to be regularly explained. i.e. it's perhaps not simple enough in concept. Can you describe what the 'rules' would be, succinctly, and how it would be reported?

 

[Sea of vapours]

OK - that certainly makes sense. But ....

1. Is it sufficiently simple to avoid constant explanations, and probably debates, though? I suspect not. That might well become both tiresome and fractious :-\

2. More to the point, it boils down to 'do lots of stuff; the more the better'. (I'm entirely happy to be dissuaded of that view!) If that's the case then it lacks the pleasing clarity of "I shall do thirteen rides of distance X within a calendar year".

3. Plus, as described - and I think you're right - there will be very large amounts of activity early on in the year, then it'll go somewhat dead, which doesn't seem great for maintaining interest.

 

[Aravis]

I hope @ColinJ doesn't think I was attempting to drag the thread off-course. Quite the reverse.

I understand the argument about activity dying off through the year, but doesn't that apply more forcibly to the "13 rides of at least X within the calendar year" scenario? For many, that could easily be complete in May or June, say, and then it's all over. I thought I was coming up with a scheme that would help maintain interest to the end of the year.

I'd envisaged having one post and editing it, as with the ICAM challenge. Off the top of my head, I think what I'd probably do is list my top 13, with dates, in descending order, with the most recent in bold.

The basic concept - my thirteen longest rides this year - is self-explanatory, surely? It's no different to what @ColinJ had outlined, except that the challenge remains alive for all participants until the end of the year.

For me the intriguing thought (and I've no idea if this would happen) is whether it would become competitive. And I'm certainly not arguing this would necessarily be a good thing. It could be entertaining though.

 

[steverob]

Out of interest and to give us some useful data to work with, I thought I'd check what my 13th longest ride was on various dates so far this year.

Because of the bad weather early in the year (and the fact that I was using Zwift on an indoor trainer rather than going out in it), it took me almost to the end of February to even get to 13 outdoor rides. Because of that, my 13th ride by the 28th February would have only been 1.16 miles (a Boris bike ride from the Olympic Velodrome to the Westfield shopping centre as it turns out). By the end of March, it was not much above that at only 3.10 miles, mainly due to the second winter snap we had. After that, a much more normal service resumed:

End of April: 31.16 miles (just over the 50km mark - showing the effect of the half century challenges)
End of May: 31.88 miles (not much increase, because I was on holiday for a large chunk of the month)
End of June: 40.84 miles
End of July: 54.31 miles
End of August: 62.43 miles

After that, it starts slowing down again, mainly because like most others who are in the metric century challenge, I have a huge number of rides that only just go over the 100km mark. September pushes it up to 63.38, while the figure for the end of October is looking likely to be just a tiny bit above at 63.42 miles. Assuming I only do one more 100km ride in November and December, if I did increase my figure at all from there, I doubt it would go much over 64 miles.

However, if I was in a challenge like this, would I increase my mileage in those last few months of the year to push up the figure? Possibly.

I think it would certainly spur me on to do more than just the bare minimum of 62.14, but I can't see that I'd do anything that would get that figure approaching 100 miles - having only ever done one imperial century EVER, that challenge holds no appeal to me. However, 70/75/80 miles, that might be something I'd think about aiming for.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Unlucky for some... yes, let's do that! Apart from giving the challenge a funny name, the extra ride could be a penance for wimping out of the associated full year challenge.

The 'rules' become much simpler:

• State what distance you will be going for - '50' (km/miles, it doesn't matter which; any mix counts), 100 km, 100 miles
• Ride that distance 13+ times by December 31st

Let's say that you can drop into this challenge at any time of the year. That way if a full annual challenge gets wrecked by illness/injury/imprisonment/work pressure/localised flooding/alien invasion/[insert excuse of choice here] you still have this challenge to come to. It also means that people who find about the challenge mid-season could start immediately without having to wait until the following year. (Any rides earlier in the year still count, just list what you did and when.)

If you want to count points - 1 for 50 km, 2 for 50 miles, 3 for 100 km, 4 for 100 miles, 5 for 200 km. If you are riding further than 200 km (do you really need this challenge, you cycling God!), add 1 point for each extra 50 km completed?

Due respect should be given to those doing the full annual challenges, but wear your lunatic badge with pride!

Bearing in mind that simple usually triumphs over complex with these type of challenges; I think the above is there or thereabouts re the rules.

Some thoughts:

To make this appeal to Newbies maybe a 25 mile option too? Not much of a challenge for seasoned old (and not so old I suppose) hands but a long distance if you've never ridden a bike much or not at all. Plus we need to be more inclusive of those new to the forum.

I'd like to enter this at eg the 50k (rehabilitating rider!) level and enter the usual 50k challenge - I don't see why this would be an issue. Is there one that I haven't spotted?

Is there really a need differentiate between the distances re points awarded? One rider's 25k challenge may be as hard (or harder) than another rider's 100 mile challenge. Just 1 point per ride, 13 points means you have achieved the challenge, and 1 point for every ride over 13 can be for personal pride, seems to be neat and tidy to me.

Re previous para'. Maybe in subsequent years successful completers of the previous year's challenge could have their target weighted slightly. Maybe start the previous year's completers with a handicap of their previous years total rides minus thirteen. This number being the number of rides they need to make before they start counting towards the current year's target of 13. Doesn't seem complex to me but maybe it is.

What do we get for achieving it - a little moon symbol?

I'm in whatever is decided - not only am I rehabilitating but I'm pretty lazy too and would be easily knocked off track if I missed a month in the usual challenges. I'd stop trying and get sulky tbh.

Thanks to @ColinJ for proposing this and (presumably) nailing it all down.

 

[Fiona R]

How about the Annualised Deci-Eddington challenge? The Annualised Deci Eddington (ADE) would be defined by the largest distance E that, during the year, you have ridden at least E/10 times. There would, of course be a metric ADE and an imperial ADE. Also there could be the Calendar ADE (CADE), which relates to the current calendar year, and the rolling ADE (RADE) which relates to the preceding 365.25 days.

Only kidding.