Freezing Saddles 2018

[cvcalhoun]

As noted by Amalitza in the sticky:

Usually sometime around Halloween, planning threads pop up on the forum (in the Freezing Saddles subforum, here http://bikearlingtonforum.com/forumd…ng-Competition ), where we argue about things like e-bikes, and whether 10 points per day is the right number and other rules minutia. Past rules are subject to change in the yearly planning process.

So I figure it’s about time for the annual arguments to begin. I’ve put up a draft registration form at this link. Note that there is no “Submit” button on this form, because for the moment, it is only to give people something to discuss. I am reconciled to the fact that at least one person will try to submit in spite of this, but at least the attempt will be unsuccessful. You can respond to this post with any comments on the draft registration form.

Last year, the leaders were:

Hozn: Software/backend. (This year, it will be jrenaut and hozn.)
Amalitza: Sticky. (This year, it will be Henry.)
Sunyata: Team assignments.
CBGAnimal and wheels&wings: Happy hours.
Steve O: Pointless prize organization.
Me: Registration.

Please let me know if you’d like to continue your role this year. If not, we’ll need to find new people for those roles. Edits above show replacements for this year.

Any other suggestions for what we need to argue about?

Topic

[CBGanimal]

I can do happy hour planning as long as Wheels and Wings can help since she was a driving force last year!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sunyata]

I am a glutton for punishment… And will do it again this year.

However, I do have some suggestions to make my job a bit easier…

Regarding forum name: Please specifically name the forum on the registration page. That was a source of issue last year. Feel free to name it as the Bike Arlington/Washington Area Bike Forum.
Please also say that participants must have at least one post on the forum. This will eliminate the issue of people signing up, never making a post, and then their forum name gets kicked off after six months.

Any registrations that are not complete (including a working forum name and Strava account, I will be checking) will be immediately placed in File 13. My job responsibilities have changed this year and I will not have time to track people down.

That being said: You may want to specify that the email address they give will be utilized to contact them in case of an issue with their registration. Any emails not answered within 48 hours will be deemed an incomplete registration and they forfeit their team assignment.

Can you change the ringer question and make it required? I want everyone to answer the question about estimated weekly mileage, even if they participated last year.

Also, can you remove the question about being a slacker? There were SO many people that clicked that box who had never participated before or did not understand what being a slacker meant and I had to shuffle the teams around when people got upset that they were not placed on a team. Those that want to be slackers can just email/PM me. I can coordinate that without registration info.

I think that about sums it up for the registration form. Thanks for doing this Carol!

*********

Thoughts to discuss:
This year, my job duties have changed and I will not have time to shuffle teams around 20 times. I anticipate that we will get 250 registrants relatively quickly this year. There has already been chatter on the Women & Bicycles Facebook page about it. Once we hit 250 registrants (or the deadline), I would love it if we could have the registration page automatically state that anyone who signs up after this point will be labeled an alternate in the case of a no-show. Is there also a way to automatically designate this in the registration data? If there is something manual that needs to happen, I would be happy to do it if Carol does not want the responsibility.

I am not spending time tracking people down this year. If I need something from a participant and have sent a forum PM and an email, I have done my due diligence. I am giving 48 hours and if there is radio silence, I am trashing the registration info and pulling in an alternate. This goes for signing up for your team after the happy hour: 48 hours and you are pulled (unless prior notification has been given for an extenuating circumstance). Is this too harsh? Or should I given an even shorter window? I know the holiday season tends to be busy and filled with travel, but I feel that in our connected society, responding to an email (even if it is a “hey, I hear you, but can not really respond now, I will get back to you on XX day) within 48 hours is not that difficult.

Donations for the tech team? Hozn and company do such an amazing job keeping BAFS up and running. Are there costs involved with this? Can we help offset them (or even pay outright for them)? Can we pay you in beer and cookies for your time? What do YOU guys need to make this a successful and (relatively) stress-free endeavour?

[hozn]

I can offer support for backend, but can’t commit to being primary one responsible this year. Right now work is a bit calm, but I know that will change soon.

[jrenaut]

@hozn 167351 wrote:

I can offer support for backend, but can’t commit to being primary one responsible this year. Right now work is a bit calm, but I know that will change soon.

I can commit to helping again this year, but I’m afraid I’ve never really understood the process of synching from Strava, so it’s tough for me to debug the issues that come up there. Hozn, maybe we should chat in the next few weeks.

[jrenaut]

I think we should institute a participation minimum. Every Monday morning, if you’re not averaging 4 ride days or 3 ride days and at least 25 miles per week, you lose your spot. No warnings, just the rules. Exceptions will be made ONLY if you have notified someone beforehand about extenuating circumstances.

RE: 48 hours – I’d say 24, but I’m willing to allow 48. This is a PARTICIPATION event. If you’re not engaged, bye bye.

I have some thoughts on Slackers that I’ll have to share later as I have to run to a meeting.

[cvcalhoun]

@jrenaut 167354 wrote:

I think we should institute a participation minimum. Every Monday morning, if you’re not averaging 4 ride days or 3 ride days and at least 25 miles per week, you lose your spot. No warnings, just the rules. Exceptions will be made ONLY if you have notified someone beforehand about extenuating circumstances.

RE: 48 hours – I’d say 24, but I’m willing to allow 48. This is a PARTICIPATION event. If you’re not engaged, bye bye.

The big issue I see with this is that it vastly complicates Sunyata’s job. Every week, she would have to see who hadn’t met the requirements. As a practical matter, she’d probably want to check out the circumstances, because she wouldn’t want to kick off the guy who got hit by a bus on Sunday, and failed to notify anyone in advance that this was going to happen. Then she would have to figure out who would be an appropriate person to replace that person on the team. (We don’t want a team to win by chasing off their lowest performers, and replacing them with guys doing centuries every weekend.)

I can see the point in theory, but I don’t think it is practical.

[jrenaut]

Maybe some of Sunyata’s work can be automated? Sunyata, you and I should grab a beer and discuss your process and maybe I can build it into the website or at least automate it somehow so it’s not a huge lift for you. Also, I am more than happy to take over kicking people off for not participating. It would make my Monday morning. Replacing could be just a matter of taking the next person off the wait list, in order of sign up date.

And cvcalhoun, I agree that we shouldn’t punish those with extreme unexpected extenuating circumstances, but I also don’t think we need to design the game to take all possibilities into account, even those that are highly unlikely. And I also hear you about chasing people off who aren’t riding, but do we really have people here who would do that?

[ian74]

NO e-bikes! There. That should start things off right.

[jrenaut]

ian74;167358 wrote:

no discussion of e-bikes! There. That should start things off right.

ftfy

[jrenaut]

RE: Slackers – Replace the button with a choice: “I want to compete” or “I want to participate without competing”. Then, and I guess I have to volunteer to code this, we replace the Slackers team with a Friends of BAFS “leaderboard” page. Anyone not assigned to a team but desiring to participate can get their rides tracked here, go to the events, and generally hang around. Registrants after 250 can go here and get assigned to teams later if spots are available. If you register late and click “I want to compete”, you’re on the wait list for a team spot. If you click “I want to participate without competing” then you show up on the Friends page but will never be placed on a team.

Importantly, riders on this page DO NOT GET tech support. That takes some of the pressure off the website people.

Also, riders on this page DO NOT SHOW ON LEADERBOARDS.

Don’t @ me.

[AFHokie]

@jrenaut 167354 wrote:

Iif you’re not averaging 4 ride days or 3 ride days and at least 25 miles per week

Do you mean days and mileage or days or milage?

As stated, this requirement would kick out almost every sleeze rider and weekend century rider

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

[jrenaut]

@AFHokie 167364 wrote:

Do you mean days and mileage or days or milage?

As stated, this requirement would kick out almost every sleeze rider and weekend century rider

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

4 days, or 3 days AND 25 miles.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[DrP]

@jrenaut 167365 wrote:

4 days, or 3 days AND 25 miles.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

The problem with this is that sometimes people have trips to take during the nearly three months of freezing saddles. The year I did it, about a week in, I suddenly needed to travel for work 1-5 days a week for 7 of the weeks. I could not bike on travel (no time and no bike), but I biked as much as I could during the time I was in town – I was frequently at or near the top of my team, with well over 25 miles per week (usually over 100) – at least until the weather warmed up and everyone rode constantly. I managed to be in town for at least the weekends. If someone is gone for a full week, then they cannot meet the 25 or 3-4 days at all. I did warn my team when I found out and I upped my riding to try to counter the time not riding.

Also, illness. While injury can mean someone is completely out, and then being off the team may be appropriate, a cold or the flu may take you out for a few days, but you can be back to riding the following week.

Perhaps there is a way for someone to send notice that s/he is out of town that week or ill and not be kicked off.

[jrenaut]

As I said in my original post:

Quote:

Exceptions will be made ONLY if you have notified someone beforehand about extenuating circumstances

[lordofthemark]

I agree with a participation requirement in principle.

I would point out that had the requirement been 4 days or 3 days plus 25 miles when I first did FS, I would probably not have bothered with it. I realize there are more people who want to do it now than there were then, and the total numbers cap means not everyone can do it, so it makes more sense to limit it to active participants. I would still be inclined to a more lenient participation rule, (1 day a week? 10 miles?) to see how it works out.

Also if we do have a participation rule like that, and expect others to be slackers, we need a different attitude towards slackers. In the past I was told that slackers was for experienced FS participants, not for newbies – that newbies should dive in head first, so that team pressure would get them riding more. With a participation rule like this, we should expect many newbies to choose to become slackers, and enable that.

[Author]

Replies