hammond9705

Anyone doing the Strava Festive 500? It's a challenge to ride 500km (310 miles) in the eight days between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.


https://www.strava.com/challenges/ra...stive-500-2018


Today was the first day. I got 40 miles in, which is on track, but I'm going to have trouble completing it. 40 miles a day is ok if you ride everyday, but it's hard to ride 8 straight days this time of year in North Texas. Wednesday looks like it will get rained out. It was 37 when I started but warmed up to close to 50 when I finished.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2033738257

hammond9705

hammond9705

MattTheHat 

I didn't see this challenge. Not sure if I'll get this one or not. I did ride 40 miles this AM. We'll see how the weather holds out for the next week.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2036426642

-Matt

jsigone

DrIsotope

I'mma be watching your Strava to see what sort of shenanigans you get up to to finish this. Another guy on my Strava friends is at 159km so far-- meanwhile, I feel like I'm off pace and I finished today at 406km. And today SUCKED.

hammond9705

jsigone

I really wanted to ride longer today, but the headwinds going back north was soul zapping. I had 90min of light left and had planned to ride the trail heading east for an hour Out n back...whole lots of NOPE since I spent 2+ hours in the head wind.

I tried drafting off a E-bike for a few hilly miles. Than he started to drive off ME...WTF he said my pace was good enough for E-bike to draft. Dude you have the battery, I run off caffeine!!

46miles today

218/500km 3 days left

jsigone

Saturday will be a big day, but overnight low is 32-34* and high of 60. Burr freaking cold start. I really hate these 30* temp swings as the jackets have to be pocketed after 11 or so.

Sunday is the Coureur/Canyon Bikes ride in north San Diego. Gonna be lumpy as all hell. few sections of dirt involved, iduno how my legs will be on those hills or if I need to go back to the coast for another easy day.

https://www.facebook.com/events/262112471122750/

Humpy Course: Roughly 65-miles / 7,500 feet of climbing.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29088740

Humpiest Course: Roughly 75-miles / 8,500 feet of climbing
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29088332

DrIsotope

Awoke to +20mph winds, howling out of the NNE. had no desire to combat such conditions, so I didn't. The wife agreed to pick me up, so I rode in a south-southwest direction until I ran out of continent. The tailwind fell away for maybe 15 minutes out of the whole ride. Took down 75 miles in three hours and ten minutes, averaging 23.7mph.

Five days, 331.7 miles, 18.2 hours, elevation an absolutely glorious 7,042ft. I'll sit out tomorrow (winds are forecast to continue for another 18 hours or so) and will likely head out Sunday morning for 18.3+ miles, to get me above 350 for the week. Y'all are climbing WAYY too much.

jsigone

I wish I had flatter options but San Diego is like 4-5k ft per 100 miles minimum unless doing laps that may cut out a thousand. The coast is as flat as it gets but that wind plays into the game. Yesterday was flipped from today aaaand I didn't look into the wind forecast when picking today's route. Tomorrow is 14-18mph til about 2pm than drops to 8mph (normalish range).

this week

• 135.6mi
• 8h 19m
• 6,781ft

jsigone

hammond9705

jsigone

jsigone

DrIsotope

When I set out to avoid climbing, I can absolutely do it. Climbing for the sake of climbing is simultaneously inexplicable, and woefully overrated.

365.7 miles / 588.5km
6 rides
20h11m
8,424ft^, a delicious 23ft/mi
avg. speed 18.1mph

My longest Festive to date, distance-wise-- 536km (2017,) 527km (2016,) 511km (2015.) I laid this year out better-- flatter overall, got in Xmas Day miles, and the wind-assisted 75 miles on Friday was easily my favorite ride for the entire month of December. Going real fast > slugging up hills. Fact.

jsigone

DrIsotope

Yeah, Monday is my usual off-the-bike-day, and it happens to be NYE, so I have zero issues sitting it out. I averaged 200 miles and 7,800ft per week for the year, so increasing distance by 75% and only bumping elevation by less than 10% for the Festive was nearly as perfectly planned as I could get it. Usually, after the finale ride, I'm ready to just lie down on the floor and sleep until the next year. I feel fine this year post-Festive, for the first time. I finished the Climbing Challenge on the 22nd (so that would be out of my head) and just stuck to the plan of doing laps to knock out the bulk of the miles. Never had to eat out anywhere-- I ate a grand total of one Clif bar on the bike the whole week. Never had to stop for provisions, the only issue I had was the saddle bolts coming loose on Friday and the saddle jangling around. Two minute fix.

Thursday was still awful. I don't think coincidentally, the only day I got anywhere above 2,000ft^. Well, that and the 20mph winds going the wrong way.

jimincalif

hammond9705

hammond9705

I finished today. Was concerned about the rain since it rained most of the night and was about 40 this morning. It was really wet out, but didn't rain and I finished in a little over an hour for 18 miles.

Finished the challenge with 8 rides in the 8 days. Other then today, the shortest ride was 33 miles, and the longest was 51. The challenge would be easier if you could do more longer rides and afford to take a day off, but with the cold weather and the holidays I didn't get any long rides in

313.1 miles / 503km
8 rides
21h44m
9,882ft

jsigone

PDKL45

I'm taking the executive decision to resurrect and enzombiefy this thread instead of starting a new one for 2022.

Anyone else starting to rough out a plan for this challenge, the Rapha Festive 500 2022? I'm in South Korea and starting to put together a rough plan for the week. I'm sure it will be well below freezing, down around -10C (14F) in the mornings, coming up to 0C (32F) or so during the day, but we might get lucky and strike a warm patch, up to around 5C (41F). I'm okay to ride, but there is a common and very strong NW wind like a forced fan in a deep freeze that you need to take into account.

I'm hoping to get in at least 100 kms (60 miles?) on Saturday/Christmas Eve and then do a few extended commutes in the early part of the week to set me up for the end of the week when I have a day or two off work. I'm normally doing 250-300 km weeks (160-200 miles?), so pushing out to 500 kms isn't a big stretch. I have the Han River bike path network, and the tributary paths, mainly the Jungnangcheon coming down from Uijeongbu and the Tancheon coming up from Bundang. Lots of really flat riding, just the possibility of extremely low temperatures and the brutal NW wind.

Anyone else going for the challenge in 2022? Plans? Ideas?

jsigone

I'll be doing it again this yr. bit slower than the stats I posted in 2018's efforts

jsigone

Day 1 of the Festive 500 challenge~ Christmas Eve ride

https://www.strava.com/activities/8287452538

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