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

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steverob

Guru
Location
Buckinghamshire
Slightly disapointed that we only have one page (and a bit) of chats this year. Where is everyone? Weather seems to be finally making a turn for the better (at least here in the south) and with lockdowns/restrictions almost gone, there aren't many more excuses left to not get out ^_^
Yeah, it's a shame that this challenge isn't as busy as it was in previous years, but I think when Covid blew a gigantic hole through most people's ability to complete this last year, it may have put people off from signing up again. I'll admit that had I managed a 100km ride in January this year (I tried, but the weather didn't want to co-operate), I probably wouldn't be here and would be doing the Monthly 100k thread instead (plus the 50k one I'm already doing).

Maybe we need to get visible on the other challenge threads to remind people that if they don't manage the Monthly challenge they've signed up to, this is still one they can enter, even now.

Anyway, as you'll have probably seen on the main thread, I'm now also up to my 6th Lunacy ride, with 4 of them meeting my stretch goal already.
 
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Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
Slightly disapointed that we only have one page (and a bit) of chats this year. Where is everyone? Weather seems to be finally making a turn for the better (at least here in the south) and with lockdowns/restrictions almost gone, there aren't many more excuses left to not get out ^_^

Ride No. 6 done today. This is the 3rd 80km ride so looking like the longer distance might be possible if we get a proper summer. Nice sunny weather for the ride to Maldon, but a bit breezy and cold on the coast so disn't stay too long. Lots of lunch venues (pubs) closed on the way back so ended up having lunch at 4pm when I got home.
All being well I shall start contributing to the thread soon. What with lockdowns, bad weather and various demands on my time I haven't managed to make a start yet and am currrently struggling to get in more than a couple of rides a week which hasn't helped with fitness.

i'm going to have a go at a metric century Lunacy Challenge this time and aim to build back up to the imperial centuries as I go along.
 

steverob

Guru
Location
Buckinghamshire
I'm hoping that once I finally do my first qualifying ride, my current mental block will disappear and let me get back to normal!

I'm currently struggling for motivation to do rides which I used to think were almost too short and easy to be worth bothering with... :wacko:
Don't worry Colin, that is eminently do-able. Last year I did the whole of my Lunacy between mid-June and mid-November with 8 of those rides coming in a 9 week period from September onwards (yes, there was also one ride in March, but that was added retrospectively when I went back through my numbers and realised it achieved my new target).

I have every confidence that once you're up and running (or rather, cycling), we won't be able to stop you posting!
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I'm currently struggling for motivation to do rides which I used to think were almost too short and easy to be worth bothering with... :wacko:
Sorry to hear that. Especially as your climbing challenge has been my top motivator this year.

I had a load of trouble getting back on the road after my crash last year. It was just when lockdown was lifting for the first time and there were loads of reports of how many riders were out there, and I was still turbo-bound. Luckily for me a few easy rides in the sunshine helped a lot. Hope you can get over it too.
 

aferris2

Guru
Location
Up over
I'm hoping that once I finally do my first qualifying ride, my current mental block will disappear and let me get back to normal!

I'm currently struggling for motivation to do rides which I used to think were almost too short and easy to be worth bothering with... :wacko:
My way out of the (lack of) motivation trap was to set a date to ride. Choose a day where the forecast is showing favourable conditions (temperature, Wind etc.) then, providing nothing changes too much, you don't have much excuse not to ride.
Choose a circular route if you think you might want to cut the ride short, or just do a straight out and back ride. The mojo usually returns after being in the saddle for a few miles - or it does for me.
Monday looks fairly good to me...
 

steverob

Guru
Location
Buckinghamshire
Start of a week off work, but nowhere (specific) to go, so thought I might as well add to my Lunacy total. With any luck the weather will stay good and I'll get to do another towards the end of the week. Wary though that I'm starting to use up my bank of pre-planned routes - going to have to think about creating some more before that happens!

Fancied doing another trip down to the Thames and chose to cross it at Cookham and then again at Marlow on the return leg. To get there, I had to do two early short steep climbs up past Chequers, but after that I tried to keep the climbing to a minimum, which isn't always easy when you're going through High Wycombe. The main drag through there is the very busy A40, but it's set in a valley, so if you try and avoid it you immediately find yourself going uphill, and usually very steeply so! However with some practice I have now found a route of back streets and cyclepaths that stays away from the worst excesses of both traffic and climbing and follow the contour lines round past Loudwater, Wooburn Green and Bourne End back to the flatter parts of Buckinghamshire.

After passing through the never-ending traffic jam that is Marlow's High Street, I took myself on to some country lanes I hadn't done before, all of them quite undulate-y, but trending in an upwards direction. Thankfully traffic was virtually non-existant, possibly because it was Monday lunchtime, but mainly I think because these roads were closed further up and there were diversion signs all over the place (I was turning off long before reaching that closure). Eventually hit a lovely long downhill that went under the M40 and that took me back to familiar terrain, whereupon it was quite a simple route back home. The only decision I had to make then was whether I should add on an extra mile around town or so to take this ride past the 65 mile stretch goal or not (answer - I did).
 
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Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
I'm finally off the mark with a metric century to the west and the north of Shrewsbury back on Monday. The ride write up is here for anyone who hasn't seen it: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today.173254/post-6441484

I'm glad to have lowered the target distance for this year as I think it would have been a big ask to go straight back to imperial centuries after the lack of recent riding.
 

steverob

Guru
Location
Buckinghamshire
Have missed some very good opportunities this month to further increase my Lunacy total, mainly due to laziness and procrastination, but made up for it (a little) today by adding my eighth ride to the list.

Originally it was planned to only be just over 55 miles on a very undulating route (e.g. a reasonable whack of elevation, but no actual climbs of note), but when I got to Milton Keynes, I kept on getting lost in housing estates and on Redways and ended up having to add on more and more miles to get myself back on track. Once closer to home I decided to do a further optional loop that I'd already identified as a possibility before starting and this pushed me up to nearer 60 miles, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to go on to my 100km target from there.

Even then I still didn't quite calculate it correctly, hitting 62.11 miles as I passed my front door, so I had to ride to the end of the close and back to get that final 0.03 I needed! Which guarantees that this will be the first ride to drop off the bottom of the table if I choose to push for my stretch goal eventually.
 
OP
OP
ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I opted for singlespeed overkill yesterday... Considering how little preparation I have done over the past 18 months, I am pleased to have coped with a lumpy 106 km in Devon, and yesterday's 162 km flat one.

A combination of residual fitness, and riding within my limits I suppose? I was riding the return leg yesterday at 24 - 26 km/hr. I kept thinking that it was a bit slow but I knew that I would crack if I tried to up the pace for long so I just plodded on and got back to the station just in time for my train back to Leeds.
 
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