Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
Surely your probable near misses illustrate the different difficulties and approaches in each of those challenges?
The monthly challenges are difficult since they absolutely require a ride each month. It doesn't matter which distance you're doing; the weather, or other factors, can wreck completion. The challenges thus encourage getting a qualifying ride in as early as possible in any given month; yet a bad month, whether it's weather, health or availability, can still end the challenge attempt.
The Lunacy was conceived as addressing those slightly arbitrary, sometimes external, difficulties. it's not critical to do a ride in the winter months. Indeed, as discussed above, we considered a rule that you could not count rides outside some rule-defined 'winter period' since, originally, that was the whole point, to 'not do winter'. That's too fiddly to define, what with hemispheres and different climates and such. it's still the case, however, that the Lunacy is difficult since it forces, or rather encourages, getting the thirteen rides done before it's 'too late', which tends to imply 'before November' at northern European latitudes. The challenge is about when to start, how densely to do the rides, and the distance achievable. Given the longer timescale, external factors should be less of an issue.
In both cases, the point is to help impose some kind of personal discipline, but with different priorities. Essentially, the monthly challenges are just that: a new challenge each month. The Lunacy is properly annual and only incidentally overlaps with the monthly ones. Anyway, as you said:
a) it's great that the two challenges presumably contributed to that happening by providing motivation;
b) everyone can constrain themselves as they see fit (I have a minimum climb rate for example) and it doesn't really matter who 'claims' which 'awards', in that it's all notional and on trust in any case.
The monthly challenges are difficult since they absolutely require a ride each month. It doesn't matter which distance you're doing; the weather, or other factors, can wreck completion. The challenges thus encourage getting a qualifying ride in as early as possible in any given month; yet a bad month, whether it's weather, health or availability, can still end the challenge attempt.
The Lunacy was conceived as addressing those slightly arbitrary, sometimes external, difficulties. it's not critical to do a ride in the winter months. Indeed, as discussed above, we considered a rule that you could not count rides outside some rule-defined 'winter period' since, originally, that was the whole point, to 'not do winter'. That's too fiddly to define, what with hemispheres and different climates and such. it's still the case, however, that the Lunacy is difficult since it forces, or rather encourages, getting the thirteen rides done before it's 'too late', which tends to imply 'before November' at northern European latitudes. The challenge is about when to start, how densely to do the rides, and the distance achievable. Given the longer timescale, external factors should be less of an issue.
In both cases, the point is to help impose some kind of personal discipline, but with different priorities. Essentially, the monthly challenges are just that: a new challenge each month. The Lunacy is properly annual and only incidentally overlaps with the monthly ones. Anyway, as you said:
Great stuff ! That's exactly right, so:
a) it's great that the two challenges presumably contributed to that happening by providing motivation;
b) everyone can constrain themselves as they see fit (I have a minimum climb rate for example) and it doesn't really matter who 'claims' which 'awards', in that it's all notional and on trust in any case.
Slow and blooming hard work in the cold air but at least I know I can still manage an imperial century in winter.
