Freezing Saddles 2015 ~ At Least Yer Not in Kiev, Comrade

[dplasters]

@jrenaut 101056 wrote:

Exactly – my commute last year was 7 miles round trip and I didn’t get out on many long extra rides but I was a solid contributor to my team because I rode every single day and because I rode the miles I said I was going to ride going in. You only hurt your team if you say you’ll do 150 a week then you do 25. Also RCannon may hunt you down.

Ok this is what I hoped it was structured like but didn’t want to assume.

I’m all for happy hours… that occur at Black Fin on Gallows, the Mosaic District (Fairfax), Sweetwater, Artie’s at Fairfax Circle, Anything downtown Vienna… All you urban people. Everyone knows the real cyclists live in suburbia. Obvi. Bike lanes pft… who needs those?

Sidebar – I would like some bike lanes.

[LeslyJ]

I am attempting to register for my first Freezing Saddles. I have been using Strava for a couple of years (well, I have an account), but I don’t have an athlete number. In my profile, it shows http://www.strava.com/athletes/lesly_j. The Google doc will only take a number. Any idea how I get a number vs my name?

[jrenaut]

@LeslyJ 101068 wrote:

I am attempting to register for my first Freezing Saddles. I have been using Strava for a couple of years (well, I have an account), but I don’t have an athlete number. In my profile, it shows http://www.strava.com/athlete/lesly_j. The Google doc will only take a number. Any idea how I get a number vs my name?

On your profile, hover your mouse over your picture next to one of your rides. In the bottom left of your browser you should see the URL with your number. Unless you have a recent version of IE, in which case you should 1) download Firefox or Chrome 2) right click the picture and select “copy shortcut” then paste that into a text file or something where you can read it.

[dasgeh]

When I click on your link above, and then on the graph, I get an athlete # of 702966 for you.

[Steve O]

@dplasters 101042 wrote:

Am I “playing?” or am I a woosie who “doesn’t show up to play?”.
Also, my commute is like 13 miles round trip. This makes me a slacker I am thinking.

Play! It will be the funnest thing you do all year.

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 101058 wrote:

Maybe “access to forum info” then? I think spouses/partners/very close friends are the exception.

This will be difficult to police.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@dplasters 101042 wrote:

So this is my first freezing saddles. I dug deep into my soul and got a Strava account because I figured the competition would keep me going through the winter. I didn’t pay for a premium one, I’m simply trying to build up the task of logging onto a website.

I commute through most anything (so far…). My weekends however are generally full of house renovation work at the current moment (We’re new home owners… we might as well live at Home Depot). So group rides are very very unlikely at this point. Where does this put me? Am I “playing?” or am I a woosie who “doesn’t show up to play?”.

Also, my commute is like 13 miles round trip. This makes me a slacker I am thinking.

Sidenote – Strava tells me I broke the speed limit on Vaden Drive yesterday always good to confirm going over 30.

You may not be looking at a Top 10 finish, but it sounds like you’ll be a solid team member. I’d say if you put up 75 points a week or so (including the daily riding credit), you’re doing pretty well.

[dasgeh]

@Steve O 101072 wrote:

This will be difficult to police.

It’s not about policing. Right now someone may read rcannon’s note and say “yeah, I’ll come to a happy hour, I’m good”. But we want people on the forum

[jrenaut]

@dasgeh 101070 wrote:

When I click on your link above, and then on the graph, I get an athlete # of 702966 for you.

I got a 404 error. Why are YOU special?

[LeslyJ]

@dasgeh 101070 wrote:

When I click on your link above, and then on the graph, I get an athlete # of 702966 for you.

I got it. I was initially using my iPad and didn’t see the number. Went to my Mac and found it. Thanks!

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 101074 wrote:

It’s not about policing. Right now someone may read rcannon’s note and say “yeah, I’ll come to a happy hour, I’m good”. But we want people on the forum

Correct. What I meant was that it would be difficult to police people who are NOT on the forum. I think being on the forum should be a requirement, without exceptions for BFFs, because that will be difficult to police.
Where is the line drawn? Spouse? Roommate? Sibling? Fiancee? Surreptitious lover? Guy in the elevator?

Even if husband/wife are playing, they are likely to be on different teams, so the secondary spouse may not be privy to communications that are focused on her/his team. Or the primary spouse may not pass along critical information on a side bet in order to give his/her team an advantage. Nefariousness will proliferate. Divorce rates will soar. Just get the SO/BFF to sign up. If DKel and Rockford can do it, why not anyone?

[Mikey]

If this is your first year, don’t worry about letting your team down. You are going to do fine! Everyone gets put on a team. Every team has some great players and some fair-weather cyclists. The great riders motivate some additional miles from the rest of us, but by participating we are already doing much better than everyone stuck in their cars or sitting on the couch. If you are signing up and asking to be put on the slacker team you are just volunteering to be put on the last place team, that’s all. Remember we are all winners!

For me the fun comes from the comraderie, not the competition itself. Sure competition is fun, and in the first few weeks it is great because your decision to ride the long way home that one afternoon produces great movement in the standings. After the first 2 weeks though it doesn’t really matter. Winter is long, and cold, and does it’s best to kill you. Just hanging in there and riding is enough of a challenge for me. The most fun will come from the community. Shared pain and all that stuff. Believe me, when you ride your bike 10 miles out of your way, at lunch, to take a picture of some statue in an obscure corner of the city in 8F/20mph wind and then ride back to your office to post the picture only to find that someone beat you by 10 min. That’s the real fun. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you soon will!

[ShawnoftheDread]

@TwoWheelsDC 101034 wrote:

I may have to join the Slackers this year. My riding has been really erratic since I started school full time, so I don’t want to risk letting team members down if I don’t get to ride as much as I hope to.

You haven’t let that stop you any other year.

[Steve O]

I think the Slackers team should be limited to previous FS participants only. The existence of such a team is causing confusion. Riders who post even 50 points a week, but are out there more than they would have been because of FS are the whole reason we put this whole silly thing together in the first place. They should be on a team.
Newbies cannot be slackers; if they want to slack, they shouldn’t bother joining at all. The Slackers team is a way for previously hard-core players to give themselves a break.

[HR][/HR]Personally, I don’t like the existence of a slackers team. Since much of the placement will be random, it’s kind of moot. If you cannot control your urge to go riding because you are such a highly driven, psychopathic, competitive maniac, that seems to be your problem. We shouldn’t modify the game just for you.

[Steve O]

@Mikey 101080 wrote:

Believe me, when you ride your bike 10 miles out of your way, at lunch, to take a picture of some statue in an obscure corner of the city in 8F/20mph wind and then ride back to your office to post the picture only to find that someone beat you by 10 min. That’s the real fun.

No, it’s not.

[Author]

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