Round The Year Randonneurs Log

[tonyh]

Can't think which one it might be!

[Bairdy]

I've just realised that one of my Jan and Feb 200's has AAA points.
Hmmm...I see a pattern forming here.   

And you can ride a 200 for AAAs from close to home. And, as you are becoming fitter, do I sense an AAA-based RRTY coming on?

I think it would be rude not to!   

March is looking busy.
2nd Kennet Valley Run 200
3rd  Mad March Coasts 200 AA2
15th 200k Perm (AA2.75 ?)
23rd The Dean 300 AA4
24th Barry's Bristol Ball Buster
31st Carmarthenshire Snapper 200
 

[L CC]

March is looking busy.
2nd Kennet Valley Run 200
3rd  Mad March Coasts 200 AA2
15th 200k Perm (AA2.75 ?)
23rd The Dean 300 AA4
24th Barry's Bristol Ball Buster
31st Carmarthenshire Snapper 200
 

No Arrow?  Lightweight!

[Bairdy]

March is looking busy.
2nd Kennet Valley Run 200
3rd  Mad March Coasts 200 AA2
15th 200k Perm (AA2.75 ?)
23rd The Dean 300 AA4
24th Barry's Bristol Ball Buster
31st Carmarthenshire Snapper 200
 

No Arrow?  Lightweight!

Arrow? Mmm.....NO!

Bloody smart arse 

[tonyh]

Arrow? Mmm.....NO!

Hmmm. I'll be keeping an eye open for a new thread about the Arrow team that Bairdy has decided to lead...

[Bairdy]

Arrow? Mmm.....NO!

Hmmm. I'll be keeping an eye open for a new thread about the Arrow team that Bairdy has decided to lead...

Stop it!

If I could get back to Bynea in time to ride the Carmarthenshire Snapper I'd consider it. (That's bullshit by the way.) 
You riding the Snapper Mr H?

[tonyh]

 
You riding the Snapper Mr H?

Probably not this time, in spite of its excellence. Planning a bit of a rest between the Ball Busting* and an attempt on the Hardboiled (entry in).

(*A definite possibility, even without undertaking The Dean the day before.)

[Bairdy]

 
You riding the Snapper Mr H?

Probably not this time, in spite of its excellence. Planning a bit of a rest between the Ball Busting* and an attempt on the Hardboiled (entry in).

(*A definite possibility, even without undertaking The Dean the day before.)

Hardboiled. Fair play to you Tony.
I'm only Parboiled this year. Maybe next year I'll be ready for an assault on Wessex.
Besides, it's on the same day as the Buckingham Blinder which I fancy this year.

[Gog yn y De]

Bollox - I was to ride my final month of my RRTY (single speed) but had a DNS due to an injured shoulder - last year's was aborted half way through due to a motorcycle accident. Won't be trying again 

[marcusjb]

Gog yn y De, that must have been so so gutting. Really feel for you.

I've managed to reach the half way point of RRtY year 3. I had wanted to try and keep it all as events for this one, but February is quite sparse for events and I just couldn't make anything work sadly (and, technically, my January ride wasn't an event either as it was a snow-postponed perm). Ah well. Another year.

Oct 2012 - Olympic Hillier ECE'd to 200k
Nov 2012 - UpperThames 200
Dec 2012 - South Bucks Winter Warmer 200
Jan 2013 - Willy Warmer snow perm
Feb 2013 - DIY 300
Mar 2013 - Kennet Valley 100 ECE'd to 200

[Martin]

2006               
2007           
2008         
2009            crashed and burned after 10 months
2010         
2011  X5              
2012 

12.1.13 Whitchurch Winter Wind-down based DIY 200 from home
9.2.13 Whitchurch Winter Wind-down based DIY 200 from home
2.3.13 Double Dutch route check DIY 200

[3peaker]

This RRTY ‘game’ is a true Challenge, as it’s surprising what you do to conquer the monthly fix. I completed my 17th RRTY today with the same 200km Perm I have used since January and again on Trike.

17-9: 28 Jan 13: Cheltenham Olde Folks 200 Perm.
17-10: 19 Feb 13: Cheltenham Olde Folks 200 Perm.
17-11: 20 Mar 13: Cheltenham Olde Folks 200 Perm.
!7-12: 2 Apr 13: Cheltenham Olde Folks 200 Perm.

Garmin recorded over 10hrs moving in a time approaching 13hrs; but then I have less than 50% L leg power and am just grateful I can record RRTY 17, which looked doubtful last December when I broke my L femur on 16 Dec. It is probably worth recording that this RRTY might not have been had it not been for Mikey-Bikey, who shepherded me on my 1-legged January 200 in atrocious weather in 13½hrs; and then together with Bairdy for my 1-legged February 200.

[Manotea]

Bollox - I was to ride my final month of my RRTY (single speed) but had a DNS due to an injured shoulder - last year's was aborted half way through due to a motorcycle accident. Won't be trying again 

If it's any consolation, which it will not be, I've had two 11 month streaks before putting together a 12 month streak. It happens.

[mmmmartin]

Sept 2012 - El Supremo Hailsham-Folkestone 200k perm.
Oct 2012   - El Supremo Hailsham-Folkestone 200k perm.
Nov  2012 - El Supremo Hailsham-Folkestone 200k perm.
Dec 2012 -  ECE by 100k El Supremo's Hailsham-Rye 100k.
Jan 2013 - El Supremo Hailsham-Folkstone 200k perm
Feb 2013 - El Supremo Hailsham-Folkestone 200k perm
March 2013 - El Supremo Hailsham-Folkestone 200k perm

The last three have been particularly difficult in the cold/rain/wind. I think I'll find it easier as the weather improves from now on, and think once I have this particular badge, I won't do it again because it is such a treadmill. Each time I get the ride done it is like a weight coming off my shoulders. Also, I am hoping that redundancy will mean I shall be out of the country on tours a lot more, so won't have the chance to ride a 200k audax as easily as I do now.

[L CC]

mmmmmmmmmartin, that looks like a winter of tedium. No wonder you're leaving the country.


(Am I the only person who gets bored of the same roads??)

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Nope, I hate wearing a groove in the roads. New roads make for an interesting ride IMHO but some folk seem to try to make a longitudinal trench 3' deep in their local blacktop.

[marcusjb]

I think I have only repeated a ride twice in an RRtY year (post Mille Alba, the mojo was lost and I used the Ditchling Devil Perm in July and August 2012). 

Part of the appeal of cycling for me, full-stop, is finding new roads and new areas to ride.

But, everyone's different.

[Manotea]

This is the boring jobs conundrum. All jobs are boring in their own way, whether it's transplanting hearts or mowing lawns. Same with bike rides, they are all the same and at the same time all different, because I'm a different person, and I see, feel and remember different things each time I ride.

Lots of diyers have their own routes they ride each month for their RRTY.  Its not necessarily about the route, the pleasure of being out for a days relaxed riding can be enough. I rode the Ditchling Devil six times in 2011, purely on a 'wake up, nice day, go' basis and it remains my 'go to' route.

What I rebel against is the turning of the seasons, the calendar which would dictate what and when I ride and makes me yearn for pastures new. I suspect that's the real complaint.

[Andrew Br]

I doubt that I'll jinx my attempt by posting my progress so here goes:-

Oct 2012- Venetian Nights
Nov 2012- Eureka 200
Dec 2012- Winter Solstice
Jan 2013- A Mere 200
Feb 2013- Newport
Mar 2013- When I'm 64

I've sent off to enter the Ironbridge 207 (not had it confirmed yet) and I'm already entered on the World's End.
The Knockerdown seems like a good ride for July except that it clashes with the Tan Hill forum ride  so I'll see what else is available and I fancy the Two Loops in September.
That just leaves June and August to sort out.
I also intend doing the Venetian Nights for a second time to make it a baker's dozen but there's no way that I'm even attempting RRTY again; it just takes too much planning and I'm missing a lot of alternatives rides.

[mmmmartin]

mmmmartin, that looks like a winter of tedium.

Amusingly put, but I find it different each time (and I often vary the route a little bit anyway) and it's nice to see Rita and Ray in the Light Railway cafe at Hythe, they seem to recognise me now, and I do vary to "clockwise" or "anticlockwise" nature of it depending on the strength of the headind across Romney Marsh. There is very little main road bashing on it and some delightful tiny villages.

So really, I don't think of it as the same ride at all.

For instance, November had a terrible headwind, January had two hours of torrential rain at the start and February was so cold I could hardly think straight. March was just very tiring. And cold. So, you see, the pain is not always the same. And it is a stressfree navigation session, as I know the area.

When/if the sun ever comes back, I might have another go at Dave Winslade's Weald of Kent, which goes through some really nice countryside. Flat, to boot!

[mattc]

November had a terrible headwind, January had two hours of torrential rain at the start and February was so cold I could hardly think straight. March was just very tiring. And cold.

Sold!

[slohill]

It took me 24X200ks before I finally got the sequence---guess it depends on how much you want to do it and how adversity can get you even more bloody minded to do it. I just had to promise my wife that once achieved, I would never be "daft" enough to try it again.

[Ray 6701]

Hopefully back on the wagon for 2013/14.

April: Horncastle 200k Perm (stv)

[Marmitegeoff]

once achieved, I would never be "daft" enough to try it again.

I have had to make a similar promise that " I will not obsess about this again, if it is blown it is blown"

Geoff

[wilkyboy]

I'm halfway to my first RRTY! 

• November: Boudicca's Revenge 200 perm (my first audax)
• December: Norfolk Nips 2 100 +ECE100
• January: LEL by DIY 200 (starting just after midnight!)
• February: Prestayn-Holyhead-Prestatyn 200 perm
• March: The Old Squit 200
• April: (Not the) Stevenage Start of Summertime Specials 200 (+ECE100 – my first 300)

Just the spring and summer months to go now