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

[Fiona R]

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?

Brilliant effort Colin, and survival is the only must do. We're at the 5th anniversary of S surviving emergency extensive surgery age 49 and he chugs out 100km when the weather is nicer and it's enjoyable. Live every day to enjoy it and not beat yourself up over some silly challenge that some nutter thought up.

I'm not doing another lunacy tomorrow, just enough to finish Festive500 hopefully, in daylight. Plus a separate metric century for this month.

There's next year, as you say. I live in warmer flatter southern climes so much easier, I can avoid the hills if need be. Thanks for the chat and inspiration this year and raise a glass of something to next year's antics!

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks!

I had a shower then a nap for a couple of hours and then finally felt back in the land of the living. Naturally, when I looked out of the window soon after waking from my nap, the troublesome chilly morning mist/fog had lifted and the skies were much brighter than when I had been riding...

I'll have a few days off the bike, try to catch up on my sleep, and then get started again early in the NY.

 

[ColinJ]

If someone else doesn't beat me to it, I will start the 2020 Lunacy Challenge ride thread on Tuesday evening.

I'm going to stick to my 'metric' imperial century distance - 161 kms. That is challenging enough for me. (Obviously, since I failed this time - ha ha! )

I'll do my best to get ahead next time so I don't have the same battle at the end of next year. I will see if I can do most/all of my 161+ km rides separately from my metric centuries. I will aim to do a mix (roughly 50-50) of lumpy routes on my best bike (with its trusty triple chainset) and flatter routes on my singlespeed bike.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Sorry to read that you had to abort the thirteenth ride, Colin :-\ Still, the point of these challenges is motivation, rather than necessarily completing them, so congratulations on both creating the challenge and pursuing its completion very much to the end of the year!

 

[Sea of vapours]

Will this be on again in 2020?

Yes; Colin's planning on starting the thread later today.

 

[Pale Rider]

Sorry to hear you fell at the final hurdle, @ColinJ.

Thirty-seven pages of this thread demonstrates your effort in setting up and maintaining the challenge is well appreciated by CC members.

 

[ColinJ]

I think the challenge went well in 2019 and is well worth continuing with, so thanks for the support everyone, and let's enjoy a good challenge in 2020!

I have just started a new thread in which you should post your 2020 ride updates. As usual, chat about your rides or the challenge itself in this thread.

As mentioned above, I only managed to complete 12/13 of my 161 km challenge rides but I am not disheartened - it shows that I chose my distance well. 12 rides of that distance plus numerous 100 km rides is more long rides than I normally do, so I did pretty well.

What scuppered me was catching 3 heavy colds this year, which cost me about 2 months of riding in total. Still, if I had been better organised I could probably have extended one of my 100 km rides at some point in the year.

Post below if you intend to become (or continue as) a Lunatic in 2020, and tell us what your target distance is, and why you chose it.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I'm dropping my 2020 target distance from 200km to 100 miles; but this time I am not going to double count rides with the imperial century challenge. Therefore to complete both I'll need to do 25 centuries over the year.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm dropping my 2020 target distance from 200km to 100 miles; but this time I am not going to double count rides with the imperial century challenge. Therefore to complete both I'll need to do 25 centuries over the year.

'And then there were two...'!

That's quite a challenge, but I'm sure that you will have a good go at it.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Getting ready to attempt my first ride tomorrow. The plan is to start fairly early and ride south to Tübingen, then back along the valley. I know the route well so I feel happy starting in the dark. The advantage is that it's downhill for a lot of the way back when my legs will be feeling more tired.

The problem is when I reach Tübingen I know it's not that far to Rottenburg, which I may try, but then I'll be very much aware that it is only 20 easy kilometres to the turning point for an imperial century...

 

[aferris2]

I'm in for the challenge again. I'm going to drop my target down to 60 km (from 100) though. This is more because I'm either in the middle of nowhere so the only option is to ride on the main road, or the temperature is pushing north of 40C. 60 also means that I can't get away with just scraping past the finish line for the 50 challenge. Good luck everyone!

 

[Tribansman]

Newbie here. Am joining this challenge as an additional motivator to keep me on target to achieve an Eddington number of 100 by my 40th birthday) based on data that started in Feb 2017 when I joined Strava and started riding pretty regularly - have done loads of rides over the years including several small tours and an end to end but never kept a record).

Am currently 37 and am on 35 centuries+ so need to average roughly 2 per month over the next 3 years.

So, my target distance is 100 miles and aiming to do at least 24 of them, including some double centuries just for good measure!

 

[steverob]

Also in for a second attempt, although still in two minds over the distance to pick. Last year I chose 65 miles and came up laughably short, although I was hampered by setting aside two months for running, then getting injured doing that, then by the time I was fit enough again, the decent weather riding season was essentially over (and lets face it, that's what this particular challenge was meant to be all about).

So do I stick to 65, or do I reduce it slightly to give me more chances of achieving my target? My 13th longest ride this year ended up being almost 51 miles, so I could always set a halfway point of 58 between the two as a compromise.

I think a lot depends on whether I enter the Metric Century challenge or not (last year I didn't). If I do, I don't want to pick a distance that's virtually the same on both as it makes this challenge almost automatic if I manage to get the other one done. The reason I picked 65 in the first place was to attempt to up my Eddington number past 62, as it reaches a bit of a cliff-face there and that fact hasn't changed (much).

 

[lane]

Undecided about this challenge although it has been great this year. I have "entered" the 100km each month challenge and I wouldn't really want to enter this challenge above 100km because it won't really fit in with the cycling I am planning on doing. So I think I will wait but in the (quite likely) event I fail on the monthly challenge I will come here and enter at 100km. Hope that's OK and good luck everyone.

 

[aferris2]

Right, first ride done. I revised my target down to 60km this year because so far I haven't found anywhere that I can do longer rides without having to mix with road trains and the like. We found a campsite at the last minute and lo and behold, there is a cycle path right next door. Just under 40km each way so it seemed a shame not to take advantage. Lots of other cyclists using the same route, so lots of "Happy New Years" all round. Very windy for the return, but that possibly makes up for the flatness. Only 325m up/down.