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

[Dogtrousers]

This thread set me thinking yesterday evening about how I would go about a 300km. As I said upthread most 300s are too early in the season for me so would probably do a GPS DIY. Then might as well do it from home and pick a nice day for it as well. Make it as easy as possible. Not too many hills. Skegness and back would fit the bill quite nicely. Maybe a day with a westerly wind that is going to moderate in the evening - or I could start at night with a forecast Easterly for the next day. Worth thinking about anyway. I already have some routes.

I did something like this in 2016. I did a "Godwin" (204 miles). As you say, the key things are flat route, super early start, nice weather.

Get any necessary hilly bits over as efficiently as possible and pack the distance into the flat areas by adding loops where necessary. Be ruthless and obsessive in de-hilling during your route planning. Don't try anything new, except for the distance. Have emergency bail out plans. Keep eating and drinking and don't stop for longer than absolutely necessary when riding.

 

[Dogtrousers]

In case anyone's interested, for example anyone trying to combine AAA with a 100 mile lunacy target or ICaM, the required climb for a ride of length 160.934 km (100 miles) to be considered for AAA is 2315.95 m (that's 91,179 and 17/128ths inches)

I'm assuming you could do this. You'd be credited with a 100k audax but due to the total climb you'd be credited with some AAA points and you'd get to use your ride in the appropriate imperial based CC challenge ?????

Some of my 100 milers have exceeded this threshold. But none of these did I finish with a smile on my face.

I'm thinking about this https://sites.google.com/site/grimpeursdusud/

 

[Aravis]

When I rode my one and only 400k the ride HQ village hall was a control 130k from the end. Some of the faster riders were catching a bit of sleep there, but I knew that if I lay down and shut my eyes that would be the end of my ride. There would be no way that I'd start again.

I was forced to stop later on for 15 mins shuteye in the morning sunshine at the roadside but that was so uncomfortable that there was no danger of extending it.

I know I couldn't've done it that way. Chapeau!

The attractiveness of the "home control" approach must depend quite a bit on how accessible your home is. I'm pretty lucky there, with routes in several directions which are flat and usually pretty stress free. All my experience tells me that when riding on consecutive days, the mental horizon finishes at the end of the current day.

So a 400km DiY boils down to the equivalent of two 200s on consecutive days. For a total distance of exactly 400km the time limit is a smidge under 28 hours, so if each 200 can be done in 10½ hours elapsed there are 7 hours available for an overnight. Shorten that a bit to provide a buffer, and it looks like something I should be able to do without unusual preparation.

In case anyone's interested, for example anyone trying to combine AAA with a 100 mile lunacy target or ICaM, the required climb for a ride of length 160.934 km (100 miles) to be considered for AAA is 2315.95 m

The one day I really went for it, targeting a succession of big climbs in the Forest of Dean, I ended up with about 2400 metres in 117 miles. It's not looking good, is it?

 

[lane]

When stepping up a distance or just doing a longer distance than normal it is certainly a mental as well as physical challenge. Therefore I have found controlling variables such as weather and staying on known familiar routes can certainly help the mental side of things. This then helps starting off in the right frame of mind with the confidence that you will be able to complete the ride which in turn means you probably will complete it.

 

[lane]

I've just been looking at doing this (DIY by GPS) - and to Skegness. The route cycle.travel came up with for me is 313km and would take about 20 hours. I have no idea if I'm capable of this as the furthest I've ever ridden is 100km! It'd be nice to do when the weather turns warmer in the Spring.

First step, I think, is to get a couple of 200km under my belt.

Not sure where you are but from just outside Derby I reckon I can get it to bang on 300km. I cycled there a few times by various routes and back as well but not on the same day. In think I would be fairly full value so would probably involve some night riding. Not sure what time would be best to start a 300 if I started very early would be a bit sleep deprived from the start.

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

Not sure where you are but from just outside Derby I reckon I can get it to bang on 300km. I cycled there a few times by various routes and back as well but not on the same day. In think I would be fairly full value so would probably involve some night riding. Not sure what time would be best to start a 300 if I started very early would be a bit sleep deprived from the start.

I'm about 40 minutes (by car) north of you. cycle.travel estimates for me that it'd take a little under 20 hours, but I'm not a machine and I'm not sure (being new to all this) what AUK would say the time limit is (had a quick search, but couldn't find anything on the website - could be my lack of search skills!). Starting very early would be a definite and if I wanted to return home for 0200 I'd have to start at 0400 to give me time for breaks, etc. And that's probably underestimating it.

 

[lane]

For a DIY limit is 14.33 kph so for 313km should be slightly under 22 hours.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I'll tentatively sign up for 100km x 13. I've no idea what is coming up this year, or indeed where I'll be living by December 2020, but it's probably good to have an incentive. At some point I wanted to get up to 200k anyway. Will that count as 2 x 100k rides here?

And I'll need to get a better saddle.

 

[ColinJ]

I'll tentatively sign up for 100km x 13. I've no idea what is coming up this year, or indeed where I'll be living by December 2020, but it's probably good to have an incentive. At some point I wanted to get up to 200k anyway. Will that count as 2 x 100k rides here?

That should be counted as ONE day's worth of riding. The idea is to do a minimum of 13 'days' of at least your target distance. If you manage to do 13 days in which you ride more than that total, well done, you exceeded your target. One qualifying ride may actually be made up of several shorter rides, but shorter rides can't be artificially manufactured from longer ones!

PS Oh, and welcome to the challenge!

 

[lazybloke]

Can't see me doing any more qualifying rides this year, so I've set my signature. Final stats are 17 qualifying rides of at least 50km.
Not confident of finding more "bike time" in 2020, so am keeping my target low; 13 rides of at least 60km.

 

[Fiona R]

I have this silly idea of doing another 200 on Monday to hack off most of the rest of Festive 500. OH at work, I'm not at work and best day weather wise. Or I can just do 100s most days Sat-Tues to complete Festive 500. 🤔

 

[Aravis]

I have this silly idea of doing another 200 on Monday to hack off most of the rest of Festive 500. OH at work, I'm not at work and best day weather wise. Or I can just do 100s most days Sat-Tues to complete Festive 500. 🤔

I was only tempted by the Festive 500 for a fleeting nanosecond. It would mean comfortably the most intense week of cycling of the year, and I'd rather do that in the spring when I'm building towards something. But I do have something lined up for January 1st.

Just in case you haven't noticed, are you aware you need to ask to get yourself added the RRtY roll of honour? You can do this once your results are posted, even if still shown as provisional.

 

[Fiona R]

Just in case you haven't noticed, are you aware you need to ask to get yourself added the RRtY roll of honour? You can do this once your results are posted, even if still shown as provisional.

I did know about having to get RRtY confirmed, but thought results had to be final. Haven’t checked for a week, will do so over the weekend. Thanks!

 

[ColinJ]

3 hours sleep... (mutter)... damn Lunacy Challenge... (groan)... lack of daylight hours (sniffle)... 29th December... (hmph)...

Well, I can't sit around here all day, just moaning - catch you later!

 

[ColinJ]

Oh well, I tried... But (evidently! ) failed.

Things were not going well today so I decided to do the sensible thing and abandon after just 1 of my 3 horrid A-road laps.

I have had backache for a couple of days and it got worse with every km ridden. It meant I was riding even more slowly than usual and would probably have needed to complete my ride in the dark, though I suspect that the back problem would have become a show-stopper before then anyway.

I had also underestimated the wind conditions which led to me getting very chilled due to underdressing for the conditions. I can confirm that calling in at a warm home when struggling on a long ride and with 2/3 of it still to go is not good for motivation! As soon as I walked in the door, my plan to quickly change into warmer kit just evaporated.

I haven't been sleeping well this year. I can generally get away with it but it is starting to catch up with me. I didn't feel fully alert out on the bike and the roads had more traffic than expected so I needed to have my wits about me. That was demonstrated early on when a dozy driver pulled out of a side road as I was getting to it and I was doing about 40 km/hr at the time. Fortunately, I was still paying attention then and managed to swerve out of his way. "It's not my fault - I didn't see you" isn't really a proper defence, is it! As time went on though, my concentration was going. I wasn't actually falling asleep on the bike, but was 25% of the way there and it was only going to get worse.

I have made a few jokes about having to try to finish my Lunacy Challenge late in December, but I really did mean what I posted when setting up the challenge - I really do not enjoy doing long rides in the UK winter. If I were faster, or lived in a warmer, flatter part of the country then it might not be such an issue.

I could have another go tomorrow but I would rather not. Sunshine is forecast but it will still be chilly. I don't fancy the local valley roads or messing about on early trains. That's me done for this year!

I made a decent stab at this challenge and the metric a month, but fell just short in both this year. Never mind - I will try to be better organised in 2020 and get fitter too so that long rides don't feel quite so hard.

I am not going to beat myself about these failures - 7 years ago I was close to death, and thought that even if I survived I would possibly never be able to ride my bike again. Whatever I do now is a HUGE bonus!

I enjoy riding with you lot and following what you get up to. More of the same in 2020, eh?