Freezing Saddles 2014 Discussion Draft

Our Community Forums Freezing Saddles Winter Riding Competition Freezing Saddles 2014 Discussion Draft

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  • #914414
    rcannon100
    Participant

    Freezing Saddles 2014 Discussion Draft – okay, we learned a lot last year.

    Freezing Saddles is a community driven event generated by the good folk of the BA Bike Forum. It is not run or sponsored by any org. It is the product of many good people doing many good things. It is the ultimate in crowd sourced cycling!

    Since this is a crowd sourced game, its time for the crowd to pontificate on how the game will be played. The goal is to come to consensus on this years version.

    Lessons learned from last year

    * Everyone who signs up must be reachable (dont assume they are watching the forum). I avoided collecting email addresses last year cause I did not want to handle PII. We had a number of people sign up but then never participate. Recommendation: This year we need some way to reach people. If we are able to use STRAVA this year, then everyone who signs up must (a) be a forum member and (b) be on STRAVA.

    * This was really a community event of the forum. What made it fun was the banter in the cold of winter as we slogged our way through that 3 feet of snow last year. Recommendation: focus FS on the forum. Dont market it outside the forum. Assume participants are member participants.

    * This is a crowd sourced game. We need lots of volunteers to handle all the different aspects of the game.

    * This is a crowd sourced game run by volunteers. Please dont make the life of the volunteers more difficult.

    * Late sign ups did not really work. The end result was the creation of an 11th team that never really got off the ground. We can just assign late sign ups to an N+1 team if we want – but I have no expectation that that team will be able to compete.

    * Last year the handicap was based on November and December riding statistics (how much did you ride on average per week during November and December?). That actually seemed like it worked pretty well. What should this years handicap be based on? September perhaps for those who participated in the Natl Bike Challenge??

    * Any other revisions??

    Below is from last year:

    Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge
    Never Give an ELITE Cyclist an Even Break

    NOTE: Excluded activities: If you post an activity to Strava during the competition period which is not an outdoor bike ride, then it should have the string “#NoBAFS” in the activity name.

    Freezing Saddles! The Epic Adventure of a band of ELITE Cyclists, facing the challenges of the wild wild wild bike paths. Confronting the darkest of evenings, the coldest of mornings, and the stupidest of Ninjas – these brave cyclists challenge each other because, if they didnt, they might have to actually do some work during the day.

    The saga runs January 1 until the last day of Winter, March 20. It will conclude with a March Madness Playoff that someone will probably design. There will be a Happy Hour at the end with many pointless trophies.

    Tribes (teams):

    • Composed of ~5 riders or less
    • For riders from the #bikedc, Washington DC Bike Forum general community (Washington DC greater metropolitan area)
    • Volunteer Captains (captains will address any data problems, negotiate or cause confusion, and provide motivational seminars);
    • This is a ten-gallon hat tournament. Riders will be randomly assigned to tribes based on self declared average weekly mileage and days cycled. Tribes will be created so that each tribes’s average weekly point score is roughly equal to everyone else’s. To achieve this, tribes may be composed of differing numbers of riders.
    • No late sign ups.
    • Interested cyclists must sign up by December 25 Midnight – Tribes will be announced within a couple days.

    Scoring: Riders will receive 10 points for each day and 1 point for each mile ridden. Minimum ride is 1 mile. The tribe’s score will be the sum of the tribe members (indoor trainers do not count- you must be freezing in the saddle outside).

    Backend: STRAVA (please sign up for an account, and join the “Bike Arlington” club on STRAVA – you should be able to enter data manually or automatically. Additional information will be posted here on the forum.)

    This is a self organized group activity based on consensus. No one is in charge or running this thing. Participation is voluntary and entirely at your own risk.

    Be Brave. Be Bold. Be…. questful! In the words of Hedley Lamarr:

    Men, you are about to embark on a great crusade to stamp out runaway decency on the bike paths. Now you men will only be risking your lives, whilst I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Viewing 15 replies - 91 through 105 (of 155 total)
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  • #986022
    rcannon100
    Participant

    @GregBain 69263 wrote:

    Without understand our IT problem at all, I was just wondering if not having teams would remove the problem?

    I was on the misfit team last year, so it was really an individual competition for me, which I was perfectly happy with.

    Nah! If its an individual competition, then just send me RodSmith’s address now and I will send him the first place award. We dont even have to have the competition. ;)

    The idea of the hat-tournament is to create multiple teams of relatively the same handicap.

    #986025
    ShawnoftheDread
    Participant

    @GregBain 69263 wrote:

    Without understand our IT problem at all, I was just wondering if not having teams would remove the problem?

    I was on the misfit team last year, so it was really an individual competition for me, which I was perfectly happy with.

    Misfit? Our top three riders rode 4,000 miles between them. Or were you referring to our personalities?

    #986038
    americancyclo
    Participant

    @ShawnoftheDread 69267 wrote:

    Misfit? Our top three riders rode 4,000 miles between them. Or were you referring to our personalities?

    misfits_81.jpg
    which one are you?

    #986040
    ShawnoftheDread
    Participant

    @americancyclo 69281 wrote:

    misfits_81.jpg
    which one are you?

    Well I’m not Glenn Danzig, I can tell you that right now. Or maybe I am.

    #986044
    vvill
    Participant

    @rcannon100 69228 wrote:

    So…. who has contacted what services? Hozn is signed up to contact RWGps? Any others? I think its an excellent idea (as in someone said it at FCCII this morning). What services can we contact?

    I believe hozn has already contacted Strava (perhaps more than once), and rwgps.
    Garmin Connect and RunKeeper already have accessible APIs, I think, but I think overall we’d rather be able to save people from having to sign up new accounts for this year since everyone is already on Strava.

    #986092
    consularrider
    Participant

    @rcannon100 69265 wrote:

    Nah! If its an individual competition, then just send me RodSmith’s address now and I will send him the first place award. We dont even have to have the competition. ;)

    But he didn’t have the most points last year, did he? ;)

    #986098
    KelOnWheels
    Participant

    @ShawnoftheDread 69283 wrote:

    Well I’m not Glenn Danzig, I can tell you that right now. Or maybe I am.

    Nah, I’ve seen you. You’re taller than Danzig. :D

    #986112
    Rod Smith
    Participant

    @consularrider 69339 wrote:

    But he didn’t have the most points last year, did he? ;)

    That was last year Chris.

    #986114
    consularrider
    Participant

    I’m not planning on spraining my ankle again, so you won’t be starting with a 600 point advantage. ;)

    #986117
    rcannon100
    Participant

    @consularrider 69339 wrote:

    But he didn’t have the most points last year, did he? ;)

    I consulted the NBC scores.

    #986130
    hozn
    Participant

    @vvill 69288 wrote:

    I believe hozn has already contacted Strava (perhaps more than once), and rwgps.
    Garmin Connect and RunKeeper already have accessible APIs, I think, but I think overall we’d rather be able to save people from having to sign up new accounts for this year since everyone is already on Strava.

    Yeah, I got a automated-looking response (actually two of them) from Strava saying that my API request was on a list and that they may grant more keys in coming months.

    I have had a great exchange with Cullen from RWGPS and have a developer key to play with. They have API calls (largely undocumented) to support what we need and have some intriguing features like photo support which could make leaderboards interesting. And they have some competition stuff supported directly by their site, though it sounds like that is a work in progress. I certainly still have questions after looking at the example calls he sent, but this seems like it offers strong potential. Cullen also suggested that we could beta test their Android recorder app that they plan to release in January. I think the challenge is that we’d want to get RWGPS support added to tapiriik. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to work on this, but I will get in touch with the guy behind tapiriik and at least put him in touch Cullen. If I have time, I can maybe help writer the RWGPS connector.

    More to come …

    #986487
    sjclaeys
    Participant

    We will need a new location for the Freezing Saddles awards ceremony: http://www.arlnow.com/2013/11/20/baileys-closes-in-crystal-city/

    #986499
    americancyclo
    Participant

    I won’t miss walking through the smoke in my bike kit.

    #986502
    culimerc
    Participant

    @sjclaeys 69758 wrote:

    We will need a new location for the Freezing Saddles awards ceremony: http://www.arlnow.com/2013/11/20/baileys-closes-in-crystal-city/

    How ’bout the Forest Inn?? :)

    #986510
    PeteD
    Participant
    Strava wrote:
    I do know, however, that we should have self-serve API sign-up very soon – hopefully within a a few days. So your friend should be able to review terms and sign up for API keys shortly. There’s also a developers@strava.com email address set up, but I don’t think the guy running the API here does a great job of responding to emails. :(

    My update from Strava.

    –Pete

Viewing 15 replies - 91 through 105 (of 155 total)
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