Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
I'm going to do this, if we can count our imperial century a month (ICAM) rides them I am going for 200km, if I need to do the lunacy rides over and above the ICAM then I'm going for 100 miles
The Annual Lunacy (aka "I Don't Do Winter") Challenge Chatzone
- Thread starter ColinJ
- Start date
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Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Plenty of time to plan as you don't need to start till March at the earliest
Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
You may start whenever you like though. The guidelines allow the thirteen rides to be whenever you like, and that includes the difficult, wintry months. It's a case of not being obliged to do one each month, rather than of having to do them all between March and October.
And you can definitely count the ICAM rides, or any other monthly challenge rides, as contributors to the Lunacy Challenge.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
That is madness though!
- Location
- Egham
Now there's an idea, the 200km a month challenge.....
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
And that sounds like a gauntlet well and truly thrown down...Done 11 months so far this year
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
You could try doing all your rides on the night of a full moon.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
It has been done for years by some audax riders - RRtY!
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I was doing hilly 200s at 20 km/h in 2006 so I could complete them in 10 hours. These days I doubt that I would get round at the required 15 km/h.
I don't know if the slow-down is due to ageing, damage caused by serious illness in 2012/13, or just inadequate training. (Probably a combination of all 3?)
I'd like to get back up to about that kind of speed so I could complete longer rides in daylight in spring and autumn.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Good luck with that.
If you are concerned about speed then don't hang about too long at the controls. It is much nicer to have time in hand later on and be able to take a longer break when tiring than taking a longer break when fresh and then having to rush when tired!
Fiona R
Formerly known as Cranky Knee Girl
- Location
- N Somerset
You will be fine. Eat regularly and be efficient at controls. Treat it as three 70km rides and do a ride at a time. If I can you can, I stagger round a 200km once a year to prove a point to myself. It's not pretty but very satisfying.
Fiona R
Formerly known as Cranky Knee Girl
- Location
- N Somerset
Eat plenty in that middle bit, it gives you a rest and once you get to the last bit you're so doggedly determined that it will have been a waste of effort not to finish then you will do it. I did Raglan Castle 200 end of July, in winter conditions. Phenomenal rain and wind. Only 2500m of ascent, it was close but I shaved in just in audax time.Problem is that it's three 70km rides with 1,000m climb each.Actually the climbing isn't so evenly distributed. There's a flat bit in the middle and generally downhill at the end.
View attachment 442908
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
It is easy to settle into long steady distance as you get older and as a result your speed will drop away. More intervals and threshold riding will get that speed back. I have the same problem of too many years of steady audax riding has lead to a decay of my average speed.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Okay then, final preparations for the inaugural Lunacy Challenge...
I've looked back and this seems to be the wording decided on (if you have a problem with it - speak up now, or this is what we will use):
Annual Lunacy Challenge (proposed) rules/guidelines to be inserted at the start of each year's Challenge thread:
***************************************************************************
This thread is only for the logging of your qualifying rides.
PLEASE DO NOT POST ANYTHING ELSE BUT QUALIFYING RIDES IN THIS THREAD
1. Choose a target distance, for example 100 miles, but it can be any imperial or metric distance which will be challenging for you to complete thirteen times in a calendar year.
2. The distance is a daily distance, not a 'ride' distance, where a day is defined as 'from getting up to going to bed'. This means that you can add up two or more rides in one day to count towards your target distance and therefore allows, for example, two commuting rides to be added to reach a target. The idea of this is to make achieving longer distances a more realistic proposition for many people who struggle to find enough spare time for individual long rides.
3. Each time you complete a day's riding which meets or exceeds your target distance, post in the challenge thread, stating your target and how many times you've met it at the top and then listing each ride which meets your target below. The post should ideally include details of the rides completed including how far, a list of points on each route, perhaps the elevation gain, and a link to the route(s) if you recorded it/them. The idea of these details is to maintain everyone's interest in where people are riding, as well as their progress towards their goal.
4. Chat about rides, etc. goes in the associated chatzone thread. Please don't post anything other than lists of your rides in the challenge thread.
5. Even once you have completed thirteen qualifying rides, you can keep posting new ones where your 'top 13' has changed. Just post your thirteen longest. At the end of the year, your thirteenth longest ride is your actual achievement for the year. NB If you keep cranking out rides exactly hitting your target, you would struggle to exceed it later in the year. For example if your first 10 rides were exactly 100 miles, you would have to do another 13 rides of 101 miles to increase your lunacy challenge achievement to 101 miles! If you like the idea of trying to beat your target, it is always worth adding at least a few miles/kms to as many of your long rides as possible throughout the year. In that respect, every duplicated ride distance is 'wasted', although each will qualify for the basic challenge that you set yourself.
6. Since the only rules are to state a target distance and complete it thirteen times, anyone can join at any point during the year where there are sufficient days left to complete. It also means that an unavoidable break for illness, injury, childbirth, pressure of work, mojo-loss, freak weather conditions, [insert applicable excuse/reason here] would not bring your challenge to an abrupt finish, unless that happened to be so late in the year that you would not have time to complete the challenge once you started riding again.
7. The following year, everyone who met their stated target can display the crescent moon 'Lunacy Challenge' icon in their signature -> View attachment 437253 <-
8. There are many ways of ‘gaming’ this challenge if all you want is a shiny, crescent moon in your signature. (Picking an easy target is the most obvious of those. Seeing how you’ve done in October and entering the challenge then by posting all your best rides is another.) The spirit of the Lunacy Challenge, however, is to stretch yourself beyond whichever every-month-of-the-year challenge you can manage, so your target should really be a distance which you are genuinely unlikely to complete in some or all of the winter months. This should be treated as an opportunity to choose a genuinely challenging target, avoid the hazards of winter, and enjoy a bit of support with it along the way.
***************************************************************************
If this is accepted, then I will insert it in my opening post of the Challenge thread which I will create soon, ready for year #1.
NB We need to decide is whether to roll the chatzone thread over from year to year as is done for the imperial and metric century challenges, or to create a new chatzone each year as we do for the half century challenge?
I've looked back and this seems to be the wording decided on (if you have a problem with it - speak up now, or this is what we will use):
Annual Lunacy Challenge (proposed) rules/guidelines to be inserted at the start of each year's Challenge thread:
***************************************************************************
This thread is only for the logging of your qualifying rides.
PLEASE DO NOT POST ANYTHING ELSE BUT QUALIFYING RIDES IN THIS THREAD
1. Choose a target distance, for example 100 miles, but it can be any imperial or metric distance which will be challenging for you to complete thirteen times in a calendar year.
2. The distance is a daily distance, not a 'ride' distance, where a day is defined as 'from getting up to going to bed'. This means that you can add up two or more rides in one day to count towards your target distance and therefore allows, for example, two commuting rides to be added to reach a target. The idea of this is to make achieving longer distances a more realistic proposition for many people who struggle to find enough spare time for individual long rides.
3. Each time you complete a day's riding which meets or exceeds your target distance, post in the challenge thread, stating your target and how many times you've met it at the top and then listing each ride which meets your target below. The post should ideally include details of the rides completed including how far, a list of points on each route, perhaps the elevation gain, and a link to the route(s) if you recorded it/them. The idea of these details is to maintain everyone's interest in where people are riding, as well as their progress towards their goal.
4. Chat about rides, etc. goes in the associated chatzone thread. Please don't post anything other than lists of your rides in the challenge thread.
5. Even once you have completed thirteen qualifying rides, you can keep posting new ones where your 'top 13' has changed. Just post your thirteen longest. At the end of the year, your thirteenth longest ride is your actual achievement for the year. NB If you keep cranking out rides exactly hitting your target, you would struggle to exceed it later in the year. For example if your first 10 rides were exactly 100 miles, you would have to do another 13 rides of 101 miles to increase your lunacy challenge achievement to 101 miles! If you like the idea of trying to beat your target, it is always worth adding at least a few miles/kms to as many of your long rides as possible throughout the year. In that respect, every duplicated ride distance is 'wasted', although each will qualify for the basic challenge that you set yourself.
6. Since the only rules are to state a target distance and complete it thirteen times, anyone can join at any point during the year where there are sufficient days left to complete. It also means that an unavoidable break for illness, injury, childbirth, pressure of work, mojo-loss, freak weather conditions, [insert applicable excuse/reason here] would not bring your challenge to an abrupt finish, unless that happened to be so late in the year that you would not have time to complete the challenge once you started riding again.
7. The following year, everyone who met their stated target can display the crescent moon 'Lunacy Challenge' icon in their signature -> View attachment 437253 <-
8. There are many ways of ‘gaming’ this challenge if all you want is a shiny, crescent moon in your signature. (Picking an easy target is the most obvious of those. Seeing how you’ve done in October and entering the challenge then by posting all your best rides is another.) The spirit of the Lunacy Challenge, however, is to stretch yourself beyond whichever every-month-of-the-year challenge you can manage, so your target should really be a distance which you are genuinely unlikely to complete in some or all of the winter months. This should be treated as an opportunity to choose a genuinely challenging target, avoid the hazards of winter, and enjoy a bit of support with it along the way.
***************************************************************************
If this is accepted, then I will insert it in my opening post of the Challenge thread which I will create soon, ready for year #1.
NB We need to decide is whether to roll the chatzone thread over from year to year as is done for the imperial and metric century challenges, or to create a new chatzone each year as we do for the half century challenge?
Last edited:
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