Author Topic: Festive 500 2020  (Read 9785 times)

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #75 on: 31 December, 2020, 06:07:27 pm »
I finished it yesterday with 150km on main roads. It was an enjoyable ride. All 500km was outdoors.

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #76 on: 31 December, 2020, 06:55:58 pm »
Finished today (502km) - it wasn't too bad over here in NL, one or two stormy days and lots of drizzle but no ice.
(at least not where I am)

I actually found it tough going, no places open to get a bite or a coffee. So I ended up doing local loops of 30 to 40km and stopping
at home occassionally. Was out every day but never went further than 105km - I prefer Audax to be honest, I think next year I will
enter the "festivefuckall" - hopefully by that time we will have returned to normal and I wont be able (allowed) to waste my time 8 days on the trot.  ::-)

Regards,

Alan

Chris S

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #77 on: 31 December, 2020, 07:37:35 pm »
Best comment I've seen on Zwift this week - "This challenge really ruins Christmas, doesn't it?"

It's a massively intrusive challenge; at a time of year that's supposed to be all about family time. Obviously, it's fine for many folks for whom "family" has different interpretations and that's fine by me.

I was kind of hoping to get at least one or two rides outside, but conditions/energy/inclination never coincided.

FWIW (not much, to be fair) my HRV app, and TrainingPeaks are both having a fit because I've gone from 0km per week to 250ish; apparently a "Form" of -85 is a bad thing.

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #78 on: 31 December, 2020, 08:04:09 pm »
Yep, I’ve done 1931km this month, but only about 300km in the past 8 days. It’s one of the periods I cut right back. I’ve only done the former as with no real holidays this year I’ve taken quite a few days off for rides this month.

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #79 on: 31 December, 2020, 08:13:06 pm »
I wouldn't say it ruins Christmas. Think people need perspective. I have a youngish family and a christmas eve birthday daughter so don't really entertain doing such a thing. Now an Easter mile eater would probably fit better

bairn again

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #80 on: 31 December, 2020, 08:56:21 pm »
I’ll have a go at it.

Christmas Eve is a half day for me so will aim to get maybe up to 100km in.

No riding planned 25th but might sneak a short ride in on the 26th as the rest of the house is unlikely to surface much before noon.   

A 200 on the 27th, a recovery ride of 50km the day after and whatever daily distance is required 29-30-31 to reach 500.  While they are all work days, a long lunch break or early finish is pretty much custom and practice. 

While the 200 will be solo, im hoping that the majority of the rest will be on the tandem.

I managed 85km on Christmas Eve.

Every other day since has featured gale force winds, sub zero daytime temperatures or both.  The latter means ice for sure on most cycle paths and likely on all but the horrid A roads too.

Another time maybe.  Probably not though.   


Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #81 on: 31 December, 2020, 09:11:31 pm »
I’ll have a go at it.

Christmas Eve is a half day for me so will aim to get maybe up to 100km in.

No riding planned 25th but might sneak a short ride in on the 26th as the rest of the house is unlikely to surface much before noon.   

A 200 on the 27th, a recovery ride of 50km the day after and whatever daily distance is required 29-30-31 to reach 500.  While they are all work days, a long lunch break or early finish is pretty much custom and practice. 

While the 200 will be solo, im hoping that the majority of the rest will be on the tandem.

I managed 85km on Christmas Eve.

Every other day since has featured gale force winds, sub zero daytime temperatures or both.  The latter means ice for sure on most cycle paths and likely on all but the horrid A roads too.

Another time maybe.  Probably not though.   

Yes, it was consistently sub-zero here too.
And yes, that meant that only A-roads would work for me, and that meant repeated out-and-backs on the same A-road.

It doesn't need to dominate the festive period: it can be done comfortably as 2 full 160k days, and 2 shorter half-days.

But it's not been totally horrid ( other than the silly traffic ).
Familiarity breeds a certain disinterest, a disregard of your local roads and landscape that many other people would find interesting.

I guess that in these strange times, I'm trying to rediscover the fantastic landscape I have at my disposal, right from my doorstep.
Not just for cycling, but for running, hiking, paddling, mountaineering, climbing and skiing amongst other things.




Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #82 on: 31 December, 2020, 09:38:08 pm »
No troubles here (723km in the end), but as farfetched pointed out the weather in the Netherlands was tolerable (apart from December 27, my rides were dry with temperatures above freezing). Moreover, Christmas is less important compared to the UK, and I have mandatory days off from the 24th to the 31st.

What I did notice: the abscence of a leaderboard made me ride less. Last year I was really pushing hard to get into the top 10 within the Netherlands. Now I rode when I felt like it.

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #83 on: 01 January, 2021, 11:52:58 am »
Well mr fimm decided he fancied having a go so I joined in. Nearly gave up before I even got going by managing to loose 15km or so by running my garmin on indoor cycling mode. However have stuck at it - after a couple of 60km-ish days did 100km yesterday (lovely if cold) and today (colder and frostier) leaving me with 177km to go - just under 60km a day. They've suddenly posted a forecast for overnight snow...
Finished.
After the two 100km days I did a 75km along the East Lothian coast road which I'd ridden the day before for 100km. I got a puncture at the halfway point but got it sorted and got home fine. There was snow in Edinburgh but none in East Lothian.
The following day was icier and I planned some kind of stupid inside the Edinburgh bypass ride. However after 6km my front tyre went flat again, so I walked the bike home and went out on my moutainbike instead. I did a bit of road bashing for distance and then had a lovely ride up into the Pentlands - a mixture of easy off road and some quiet tarmac that I wouldn't have touched with a bargepole if I'd been on the road bike. I did 50km on the MTB and had a much nicer time than I would have had just bashing up and down the main roads of Edinburgh. It was lovely and sunny and snowy up in the Pentlands.
That left me with 42km to do on the 31st so after bashing out another 15km on tarmac I joined up with mr fimm (who had less to do than me) and we did a mountainbike ride together to finish it off. The weather was less good and we were quite cold and damp when we got home.

I'm glad I did it, as it was a good adventure. I'm also glad to have finished, and don't see myself trying again in a hurry. We were pretty fortunate with the weather here.
Those saying it interferes with Christmas - that's the main reason I've never even thought about trying it before, as we normally spend Christmas with one of our families, and that's why we could do it this year, as we were not spending much time with our families!

Geriatricdolan

Re: Festive 500 2020
« Reply #84 on: 01 January, 2021, 02:26:39 pm »
For me the 500 was a good way to avoid piling up a stone over Christmas... ride more and eat less seemed to work a treat in the past. This year I naturally ate less, in fact I think I did eat as normal, so there was no real need to cover 500 km... add to that the lack of a leader board, with its inevitable competitiveness and the lack of a gift for completion (yes, I am a patch sucker), means I started with the idea of taking part, rather than "winning"...