La Vuelta Challenge 2012 - The third Grand Tour
Options
Replies
-
Wisdom prevailed. I took the day off.0
-
Wisdom prevailed. I took the day off.
No sweat Tom - some days it just has to be done - as I've said umpteen times before, I'm a big believer in the whole "planned rest days" thing in a long term fitness regime (I know we just say "Oh - i'm not TRAINING, i'm just going for a ride on my bike" but if you think about it, how many of the people you meet in a "regular day" are riding their bike, or exercising in some other way for as many hours a week/month as you are ? - Just because (like me!) you're a big lad, doesn't mean that your not an athlete in training! - I know some of the skinny, fit, triathlon and bike racing people will look aghast at that comment, but it's true.)0 -
:laugh: :drinker:#316 is back in his usual points jersey0 -
it's okay for you - at least you have a chance of a jersey mate... I just bimble around - can't get enough time to do the miles for GC, don't have the hills around here to try for the KoM (and I'm still too fat to try anyway!) and even when I hit the flat-stuff last sunday it was all I could do to hold a 25.4Kph average.0
-
it's okay for you - at least you have a chance of a jersey mate... I just bimble around - can't get enough time to do the miles for GC, don't have the hills around here to try for the KoM (and I'm still too fat to try anyway!) and even when I hit the flat-stuff last sunday it was all I could do to hold a 25.4Kph average.
It'll come mate; the more you lose, the better your power to weight ratio will be etc. etc. etc.0 -
I know - it just comes hard to see an average for the ride of 25.4 come up, think "well, that was a good hard 3.5 hours, I'm finally getting somewhere" and then realise that the Garmin was set to Km's... Especially as I felt pretty much as shattered as I used to after riding a 4 hour 100 mile TT :grumble:0
-
I know - it just comes hard to see an average for the ride of 25.4 come up, think "well, that was a good hard 3.5 hours, I'm finally getting somewhere" and then realise that the Garmin was set to Km's... Especially as I felt pretty much as shattered as I used to after riding a 4 hour 100 mile TT :grumble:
The big difference is, you have had the experience of doing 4 hour, 100 mile TT's. I don't & probably never will. You can only miss what you have once had/experienced...
When I got a bike again in 2011, it was the first time I'd cycled since I was 16. I wish I'd found road cycling at a much younger age so I could've gotten Into it competitively, but alas I guess that wasn't to be. I'm chuffed to bits with the progress I have made so far & I'm striving to improve yet further. When I did my first commute of 13.5 miles & it took me 1h17m, if you'd have told me I will be doing it in 37m less than a year later, I would have laughed in your face!0 -
I'm going to apologize now for my lack of miles. I have really over extended myself and it is finally catching up to me. I have been doing 2 a day work outs all summer long and the legs are toast so I have been cutting back on the miles. Also, I will be off the bike the next weekend for the holiday so no miles for 4 days.0
-
I'm going to apologize now for my lack of miles. I have really over extended myself and it is finally catching up to me. I have been doing 2 a day work outs all summer long and the legs are toast so I have been cutting back on the miles. Also, I will be off the bike the next weekend for the holiday so no miles for 4 days.
It's only a fun challenge - it's not life and death if you don't ride - we've people who've signed up and haven't posted a Km yet. It's no biggie - and both teams are actually in-front of the tour distance despite the occasional no-show. My view is if it gets everyone who signed up to the challenge to go out one day extra where they'd have stayed on the couch - or rode that extra couple of blocks on their route home to grab an extra Km here or there, then my aim has been achieved.
I'm in the lucky situation that I actually CAN ride pretty much any day I want to. I have to admit I generally ride "3 on - 1 off" because it fits my training schedule better, but I'm flexible, either with the weather, or (say) if the challenge has a "rest day" on one of my riding days, I'll move the rides around to fit. For example, someone mentioned that they were only able to get a short ride today, but were hopefully doing either a 60mile or Century tomorrow. I was scheduled for a day off today, but rode today, and I'm gonna put my feet up and rest tomorrow instead, and let my team-mate take the strain for a while - and hopefully get out there on sunday and turn in a Metric Century myself...
BUT - that's me - as I said, I'm lucky - my riding isn't constrained by being my commute, or by being a club run, or by being the "sportif" I entered 4 months ago. It's just me, my bike, and a few km's of tarmac. And maybe, just maybe, a large Coffee and a bit of Cake afterwards!
(so - In case anyone missed that on team #1 - I'm not riding tomorrow - over to you :laugh:)0 -
I'm hoping to ride tomorrow, so I'll try to make up some distance...0
-
I won't drop the ball tomorrow Yin.0
-
Just a little reminder - I know it's probably a pain to you lot, but can we please all TRY and get the ride declarations in the following format:-
(shamelessly nicked from cloggsy71's last post)
Team #2
18/08/12 - 17.8km - 33m13s - 58m - http://app.strava.com/rides/18887604
19/08/12 - No ride
20/08/12 - 21.9km - 39m39s - 33m - http://app.strava.com/rides/19122203
20/08/12 - 27.9km - 51m16s - 65m - http://app.strava.com/rides/19146709
21/08/12 - 30.5km - 57m29s - 59m - http://app.strava.com/rides/19255641
22/08/12 - No Ride
23/08/12 - 22.7km - 42m15s - 23m - http://app.strava.com/rides/19447743
23/08/12 - 37.1km - 1h08m04s - 51m - http://app.strava.com/rides/19472607
so - for each day theres a
Date,
Distance (in KM's - not miles - all the distances in the continental tours are in KM's and I'm buggered if I'm going to recalculate everyones declarations. From here on in, if you put a distance in miles, your getting that distance IN KM's)
Time Ridden (moving time if you're using a Garmin/Garmin Connect - so you need to give the ride time without any pauses, coffee breaks, time spent at work etc!)
Altitude Gained (again in Metres. - anything not in metres get's a null. No declaration even if it's in the GPS file, it gets a null)
Link to the GPS track for verification. If you haven't got a GPS file for the ride, fair enough, it'll count for the Overall distance, but it will NOT count for the Jerseys, 2 non GPS rides and you are out of the jersey competitions alltogether.
Sorry if I'm being a bit of a RULES NAZI, but tbh, there's an awful lot of number crunching in keeping this challenge up to date, and frankly hunting down half the missing data as well begins to wear a little thin. Throw me a bone, people... It's a free challenge, I'm not doing this for anything other than the fun of it - please help me to keep it fun for everyone...
Cheers.
Okay - grumpy bit over... anyone noticed the rather spiffy team-tickers I've created for us yet ?? :laugh: I'll try and keep 'em updated - as soon as I've filled in the declared rides in my spreadsheet, I'll add the Km's into the ticker. Thought it might be a neat way to keep a running total of where we are... I'm sure it's not beyond your internet-fu to suss out how to drop them into your own posts - it's just an embedded image file after all... I'd suggest just showing your own team though, rather than both if you do that... I've dropped both in because... well - because I'm trying to remind myself to update the actual code behind the tickers TBH :laugh:
0 -
Lovin' the tickers TBY
We (team #2) appear to be a little behind :sad:0 -
Lovin' the tickers TBY
We (team #2) appear to be a little behind :sad:
You're still in front of the actual target of overall Km's though - at least up to yesterday (and now 25.3km closer!) 0 -
Hi folks,
I'm really sorry, my good lady wife has booked us a last-minute break; so I'm away until next Sunday (bikeless)
I'll be back with a vengeance then!
Keep the KM's up for me team #20 -
25 Aug 2012
39.6 Km.
26.1 kph.
138 Avg. H.R.
744 meters climbing
0 -
All right, I get the rule nazi bit, but I have a question. I have a 200k (Ohio Gran Fondo) ride next weekend with over 8000 ft of climb and there is no way my phone battery will make it (much like last weekend, but worse). Is there a way for me to get "credit" for it if I post the ride details (http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1561289) along with time stamp from my node or should I just not bother for the long rides?0
-
All right, I get the rule nazi bit, but I have a question. I have a 200k (Ohio Gran Fondo) ride next weekend with over 8000 ft of climb and there is no way my phone battery will make it (much like last weekend, but worse). Is there a way for me to get "credit" for it if I post the ride details (http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1561289) along with time stamp from my node or should I just not bother for the long rides?
To be honest, I don't really have a problem with just posting it as you said - I believe some people use external battery packs for longer rides on the smartphone app's - I actually tried using one on yesterdays ride out of academic interest and my phone battery went into spasm after about 3 hours. It's not something I'd actually thought about TBH, as the Garmin 705 would track for around 12-15 hours between charges... Perhaps If anyone has any suggestions for external battery packs ??0 -
What about a dynamo USB charger? No personal experience but I know they do exist.0
-
Just a quick reminder people - Today (27th) us a rest day on La Vuelta - so, while you're welcome to ride all the Km's you wish, they won't count towards the challenge, so no need to book anything in today
Of course, if you're feeling "pro" you can always go out for 2-3 hours, just for a leg-loosener like the real racers do... personally, I'm taking a real easy day - The odd Nap, with periods of intensive Snoozing to punctuate them :laugh:
--- 0
