Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge (sign up open)

[rcannon100]

Greg is on team 11 now. Team 11 is almost full with people who are active forum users or on STRAVA. Tell Greg not to be confused by the fact that at this minute only two of us have shown up. CptJohn is active on the forum; Sarah Dots is on board; mdevoll just signed up and is on STRAVA. That’s pretty much a full boat so get him on board!

[rcannon100]

@ShawnoftheDread 39774 wrote:

No, but the kids are welcomed to join Team 11.

Does that mean that when I trailer my dog, I can set up a STRAVA account for her and have her join Team 11??

[Steve]

The last day of the first week on the Freezing Saddles competition, and some nice temps to welcome us! I have to say, the challenge so far has been great in terms of motivating me to get out on the bike more, and increase my commutes per week. Thanks again for all the work in setting this up, and congrats to everyone for logging a lot of rides and a lot of miles over this first week (I know today isn’t done yet).

I can’t wait for the mid-June thru mid-September “Blazing Saddles” challenge. 20+ points for riding a horse. 50+ for pulling one in a trailer.

[Mikey]

@rcannon100 39781 wrote:

Does that mean that when I trailer my dog, I can set up a STRAVA account for her and have her join Team 11??

Only if your dog is pedaling.

[consularrider]

@rcannon100 39781 wrote:

Does that mean that when I trailer my dog, I can set up a STRAVA account for her and have her join Team 11??

Maybe team 12 for the non-human team? I see a couple of riders on the W&OD in the area around the Custis Trail intersection who are exercising their dogs with a short leash attachment on the rear of the bike. They go fairly slow. I’m kinda torn about whether or not this a bad thing. I can think of so many things that could go wrong, but then I also am glad to see anyone out on a bike and see the dogs get exercise.

[Certifried]

@Greenbelt 39704 wrote:

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Team Critty Pants is relentless. Note Rod “broken rib” Smith back on the road, the Mark “totally needs a pro-fit” Certifried knocking out the miles today…

You have NO idea how hard 17 miles was on that thing. I should get 10x points!

[vtben]

Apparently no one told mother nature that we were having this contest. 50’s this week and 60’s this weekend?

[ronwalf]

@KelOnWheels 39753 wrote:

Do we need to #NoBAFS runs? I’m guessing not but just wanted to make sure

This just in: No, you don’t need to mark runs! People still need to mark indoor trainer rides as “#NoBAFS”, but running, snowshoeing and the likes don’t need it.

I sent a feature request to Strava, and they responded today:

Product Team, Jan 07 02:27 pm (PST):
Ron,

I love the dialog about the challenge on the bike arlington board! What you guys are doing is fantastic.

The current API is pretty limited. We are getting ready to release an updated API within the next two months that supports all the activity types. I think you can be confident that using the /api/v2/rides end-point that you will ONLY get rides and not any other activity type. For example http://app.strava.com/activities/35240379 is a showshoe outing, but http://app.strava.com/api/v2/rides/35240379 returns an error.

You can sign up for notification about the forthcoming API at http://app.strava.com/developers

[rcannon100]

@benbhsu 39847 wrote:

Apparently no one told mother nature that we were having this contest. 50’s this week and 60’s this weekend?

Yes…. all rides above 45 degrees dont count (kidding – kidding … altho I think we have consensus that any rides in the southern hemisphere where it is summer time are really cheezy…. we’re glaring at YOU vvill!)

[ejwillis62]

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[vvill]

@ronwalf 39851 wrote:

This just in: No, you don’t need to mark runs! People still need to mark indoor trainer rides as “#NoBAFS”, but running, snowshoeing and the likes don’t need it.

I sent a feature request to Strava, and they responded today:

Man, I was totally going to cheat with some snowshoeing trips!

But seriously, that’s excellent. Huge kudos to you for doing all this! Also good news about the Strava API. I keep telling myself one day I’ll look at it – having an updated API might finally motivate me. (Or not.) I last used Haskell in first-year computer science where my program we had to write for our major project was defeated by that of an ex-Israeli army programmer who won the whole contest, shouldn’t have been in an undergraduate class, and happened to be in my lab class (so I was knocked out in the first round). But I digress.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@ejwillis62 39853 wrote:

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Bike commuting explained in two beautiful shots.

[Steve O]

How come we only get four team members?

[jopamora]

@Steve O 39865 wrote:

How come we only get four team members?

Jeff and Justin are in the Top 5. Being on Team 9 with them has helped my motivation.

[rcannon100]

@Steve O 39865 wrote:

How come we only get four team members?

The teams were created based on handicap scores (think money ball for cycling). This was the Nov/Dec miles ridden and days ridden averages that were asked. Based on the averages of the group as a whole, this created an individual team handicap of 570 points. Well, Jeff’s handicap is 260 (200 miles per week, 6 days a week). That’s one person with almost half the team handicap.

There werent enough players at the beginning of the game to put five players on every team. Three teams had only four players and one of those players probably had a really high handicap.

In the end, those three teams, I believe – came charging out of the gate! Team 10, starting with 4, suspiciously has charged to first place and is doing wagon circles around us. I think someone needs to call the sheriff…. or Mongo!

Anyway, with the second round of substitutions things have gotten a little wobbly. Some teams have 6 players. But all teams’ handicap score are now very close to 570. All teams should theoretically be of equal strength.

[Author]

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