February final
Posted 11 months ago by Chuckles 1) sequential 631.68 n.c.
2) spokenword 333.01 +2
3) NueveFiveOh 332.58 n.c.
4) mathowie 297.74 -2
5) mikepop 272.23 n.c.
6) Chuckles 184.24 +2
7) dlm 177.83 -1
8) genehack 147.40 -1
9) ssg 126.14 +4
10) hydrophonic 101.38 -1
11) notsnot 93.75 n.c.
12) fijiwriter 87.60 -2
13) sbatterman 87.48 -1
14) garth 56.79 --
15) turbodog 48.00 --
16) epersonae 34.10 --
17) popechunk 9.00 --
18) maudlin 6.04 -3
19) timbean 4.56 -5
week 3
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1) sequential 448.97 n.c.
2) mathowie 256.13 n.c.
3) NueveFiveOh 250.58 +1
4) spokenword 229.11 -1
5) mikepop 194.41 n.c.
6) dlm 122.18 n.c.
7) genehack 120.90 n.c.
8) Chuckles 117.13 +1
9) hydrophonic 101.38 -1
10) fijiwriter 87.60 +2
11) notsnot 77.25 -1
12) sbatterman 55.20 -1
13) ssg 39.15 --
14) timbean 4.56 -1
15) maudlin 4.03 -1
week 2
-----------
1) sequential 249.16 --
2) mathowie 186.05 --
3) spokenword 166.20 --
4) NueveFiveOh 141.00 --
5) mikepop 137.89 --
6) dlm 122.18 --
7) genehack 120.90 --
8) hydrophonic 101.38 --
9) Chuckles 92.27 --
10) notsnot 57.62 --
11) sbatterman 41.48 --
12) fijiwriter 34.91 --
13) timbean 4.56 --
14) maudlin 4.03 --
Replies
Okay but I am totally winning in the skiing category.
Aren't you in... Dallas? Water skiing?
Ha! No, took a trip to Utah. It turns out skiing is NOT recession proof. No lift lines anywhere, even on the weekend. Exhausting!
OMG! I'm only 37.35 miles behind sbatterman! I can totally make that up by, um, July. :-)
I think I'm the only one here who made a New Year's resolution to ride less this year.
Yeah, that was um, nuts last year. And this, coming from the guy who did three weeks of swim before work, run at lunch, and ride after work.
Ya, nuts, but I still don't see why you'd aim for less :)
I went through a set of rims in 2007. Not THAT many miles, but a lot of breaking, I guess.
(not right through, but very warn, how do you tell how much life is left at that point?)
The summer challenge will change this year again, but I'm not sure how to fix the problems while still keeping it interesting. To me, the streak didn't work so well because very few people took part. I'd love to hear ideas that would create more participation.
One idea I've been thinking about is to do log(milage) calculated daily and added up. I know people are afraid of math, but I think it would balance streaking with total distance in an effective way.
I'm not at all convinced it would encourage much more participation though....
chuckles -- I think part of the solution is making it easy for folks to stay competitive. In many of these month-long or multi-month long contests, it's easy for a few avid participants to build a hefty lead that would be insurmountable for newcomers.
My suggestion would be to break it up into fortnight challenges, with the scoreboard being reset with each challenge. That way, if someone is having a sick or travel week, they can just wait around until the next challenge comes around.
And , maybe you can host this in the context of a larger, season long challenge that has a separate prize to reward consistency throughout the summer.
Streak challenges are not for everyone. For example, there are a few folks here who are training seriously for races or other events; riding every day for them would be counterproductive. And obviously, there are some people who have work or family obligations that mean they can't ride often. And spokenword is exactly right: by nature, a streak contest means that one day missed pretty much puts you out of the running to win it, especially when a few participants ride everyday, contest or no.
That said, I think there is room here for multiple challenges, and members can pick the ones that work for them. Obviously I wan't going to do well in an icicle challenge! On the other hand, last summer's streak challenge was perfect for me. Normally, I slack off in the summer because it gets hot, and then I have to start over in the fall. Once I set a "no excuses" rule, I found ways to make the rides happen (by going early in the morning, or renting a bike while on vacation), and got into the best shape I've been in for a long time. I would strongly encourage anyone who participates here just for general fitness to join in on the streak challenge, even if you aren't going to win it.
So ways to improve the summer challenge? Spokenword's suggestions are good. Keep the overall streak, but also keep track of a few other stats or shorter challenges. Chuckles, since you're so inclined, maybe a formula that debits for days missed (maybe allowing a few "bye" days), factors in mileage ... and adds an exponential factor for heat!
MORE SUMMER CHALLENGE IDEAS:
Water Balloon Challenge: How many consecutive days can you toss a water balloon from your bike at an unsuspecting person?
Slip 'n' Slide challenge: How far can you ride on the slip 'n' slide before slipping 'n' sliding?
Ice Cream challenge: On a 90F+ day, how much of your ice cream cone can you eat before it melts while biking home from the ice cream shoppe?
BBQ challenge: strap a hibachi to your rack and see how many hot dogs you can cook without them rolling off
Fireworks challenge!
Poison ivy challenge!
Most Severe Bike Tan Challenge!
what about something with teams or brackets or something? give the hard-core folk a challenge while not disheartening us middling-types.
I was going to do most improved last year, but never got around to the script. That might get some of the old timers enthusiastic about it again..
I'm really not sure how you do bracketing effectively -- self interest suggests bracketing based on cost of equipment :P
Teams.. Toronto vs. the rest of the world! (we'd need dobbs back :P)
Maybe prizes should be random (with a minimum standard for consideration).. After all, the winner gets bragging rights, so do they really need booty too?
(edit: maybe we could have prizes based on meeting combined community goals, with awards going to the rider who pushed the community over the top for that goal?)
I sense a certain lack of confidence in the current pool of Toronto cyclists. *sniff*
But the team idea sounds good, although I'm not sure how well bracketing would work.
How about running both an individual challenge and a team challenge? People could join teams based on something like geography, gender, preference for Kirk v Picard, star sign, or anything fairly arbitrary. Each team would probably include people who have ranked all over the place in previous challenges. (If not, we may need some honest self-assessment and shuffling of people into appropriate slots).
Team scores could be based on total or average distance, though average might be more fair if teams are of unequal size.
Mixed teams would mean that middling riders would be motivated to try harder for the team, and more experienced riders would still have individual challenges to aim for in case they got stuck with some especially weak or poorly motivated teammates. Or MVP within a team could get some bragging rights or a prize, too.