Winter Bike Challenge

[ronwalf]

@rcannon100 37006 wrote:

In other words, the current bikearlington team cannot be a defacto team.

The Endomondo challenge had both individual and team leader boards. I was proposing using the member lists of the BikeArlington club plus the competing teams to create the individual leader board. This lets people compete in the individual leader board even after the start of the challenge.

It doesn’t have to be the BikeArlington Club either – that just seems the easiest, since it seems to already have many of the forum members.

[vvill]

@ronwalf 37013 wrote:

The Endomondo challenge had both individual and team leader boards. I was proposing using the member lists of the BikeArlington club plus the competing teams to create the individual leader board. This lets people compete in the individual leader board even after the start of the challenge.

It doesn’t have to be the BikeArlington Club either – that just seems the easiest, since it seems to already have many of the forum members.

Yep, sounds good to me.

rcannon100: The “current bikearlington team” is not a team, it’s just a club on Strava. All we’re doing really is making leaderboards from data that is going to be uploaded on Strava, and as ronwalf said it’s just a starting point to pull members from.

[rcannon100]

ronwalf: Lead on oh wise one!

(sounds good – I think at some point you might need to do a short write up telling us what to do – some of us – okay me – are STRAVA noobs.)

[Rod Smith]

Since I got my Garmin in May, I’ve ridden an average of 249 miles/week. It will be hard to maintain that in the shorter winter days but I guess that’s my baseline to use in handicapping. Thanks in advance for the work of putting this together, RC100. Should be fun.

If the numbers don’t come out even, such that each team has the same number of riders, you can still keep it balanced by putting more high mileage riders on the smaller teams.

[GuyContinental]

@Dan_ator 37002 wrote:

I am down for this as well. Assuming I can ride every day to work, my total would be around 225 a week. As an aside, I started biking to work a few weeks ago, from Dupont to Reston. Based on what I see, most people commute the opposite. Does anyone go my way?

Yup- I do Clarendon to Sterling via Custis & WOD 3x a week. I’ll PM you- there are two other pretty stout riders and nominal BA lurkers that do Palisades to Sterling and Westover to Reston respectively that I regularly ride with as well.

[Tim Kelley]

@TwoWheelsDC 36889 wrote:

Well, you can’t program a TCX or GPX file into a smartphone…at least not yet. So a smartphone can’t replace cue sheets like a Garmin can. Even the 200 and 500 do breadcrumb trails that, to my knowledge, can’t be done with a phone…which again goes back to the TCX/GPX file issue. You’re right though that the 800 sucks at providing ad hoc directions and I haven’t even bothered attempting to use this feature on my 800.

Garmins also have ANT+ wireless for HRMs, cadence meters, and power meters. There are some iPhone add-ons that can replicate this, but I think if you have Android or WP7/8, you’re outta luck.

Don’t forget: Elevation, Grade, Total Ascent & Descent, Running TSS, IF, Running Normalized Power, Left/Right pedal power %….and then you can break that all down by lap.

[rcannon100]

To get this thing started, I will create a Google Form that pours into a Google spread sheet. The goal is to create teams with no more than 5 members that have relatively equal weight. Those who sign up will provide their STRAVA handle (or close approximation there of), their approximate weekly average miles for November and December, and whether they are willing to be a team captain. We dont need any further information. We dont need any PII.

At the close of sign up, we can see what the average number of miles, and build teams to be roughly equal weight.

I propose opening sign up soon, and having it run through…. Dec. 25? That means during winter break we can run the math. And then the challenge starts on Jan. 1.

Participants need to go to STRAVA and set their accounts up accordingly.

Am I missing anything? RONWALD does this work from your angle?

[ronwalf]

@rcannon100 37082 wrote:

RONWALD does this work from your angle?

That’ll work for me.

[americancyclo]

@TwoWheelsDC 36889 wrote:

Well, you can’t program a TCX or GPX file into a smartphone…at least not yet.

You can if you use the Open Street Maps app (I’ve only used the android version). It sucks up battery like no ones business, but you can load and follow a GPX track and it will announce distances, turns, and street names. I prefer my Edge 705 infinitely more, but it is possible to do.

@TwoWheelsDC 36889 wrote:

ANT+ wireless for HRMs, cadence meters, and power meters. There are some iPhone add-ons that can replicate this, but I think if you have Android or WP7/8, you’re outta luck.

Sony Ericsson makes a few, but they’re not too popular here in the states. There is also the HTC Rhyme and the Motorola MOTOACTIV

Bottom line is though, Garmin has the corner on the market for advanced data gathering in sport.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@americancyclo 37090 wrote:

You can if you use the Open Street Maps app (I’ve only used the android version). It sucks up battery like no ones business, but you can load and follow a GPX track and it will announce distances, turns, and street names. I prefer my Edge 705 infinitely more, but it is possible to do.

Ooooh, that’s really useful to know. I’ve always wanted to have a way to double check the directions on my TCX files, as I sometimes introduce unnecessary turns by mis-clicking on the map while making the route, particularly on longer and more complicated routes…trying to figure out these types of errors on the road would be much easier on an HD screen with a data connection.

[crysb]

@GuyContinental 37065 wrote:

Yup- I do Clarendon to Sterling via Custis & WOD 3x a week. I’ll PM you- there are two other pretty stout riders and nominal BA lurkers that do Palisades to Sterling and Westover to Reston respectively that I regularly ride with as well.

I’m a DC to Tysons commuter, though not daily. Go go reverse commuters!

[americancyclo]

@TwoWheelsDC 37091 wrote:

Ooooh, that’s really useful to know. I’ve always wanted to have a way to double check the directions on my TCX files, as I sometimes introduce unnecessary turns by mis-clicking on the map while making the route, particularly on longer and more complicated routes…trying to figure out these types of errors on the road would be much easier on an HD screen with a data connection.

I wrote a bit more about using OSMAnd the Android Open Street Maps app here
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?1080-GPS-tracking-tools&p=10751#post10751

It was also really useful navigating around in Bermuda (or anywhere you don’t want to pay for data) since you can download map tiles and not rely on an expensive roaming data connection, but still use the GPS function on your phone.

[rcannon100]

If you have ever done online consensus work before, this is a bit what it looks like. It may look tedious – but it helps to ensure that everyone’s views are incorporated.

TwoWheelsDC: I love your graphic – if you want to finish it we could use it. I dont think it should say “Bike Arlington” – they are not a sponsor and dont want to get them in trouble.

Everyone will be encouraged to repost this or announce it on their twitter or blog or whatever.

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT

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

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 Ninja’s – 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 assigned to tribes based on self declared weekly mileage average (ringers must be separated on separate teams). Tribes will be created so that each tribes’s average weekly mileage is as close as possible; 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.
* No baggage (baggage is a term for signing up for teams with a best friend or a significant other – baggage is uncommon in winter leagues – during the summer natl bike challenge you could sign up with a group of friends)

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.

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)

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.

Register Here for the Freezing Saddles Winter Bike Challenge (LINK TO BE PROVIDED)

Registration Mock Up (please dont register yet)

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.

[video=youtube_share;iLNQv19YpG4]http://youtu.be/iLNQv19YpG4[/video]

[Certifried]

@americancyclo 37090 wrote:

Sony Ericsson makes a few, but they’re not too popular here in the states. There is also the HTC Rhyme and the Motorola MOTOACTIV

Bottom line is though, Garmin has the corner on the market for advanced data gathering in sport.

There are some bluetooth 4 (a.k.a. BLE, BTLE, BTSmart, ad nauseum) compatible devices now, and a lot of new phones support BT4. My Droid Razr MAXX is one of them. … and BT4 accessories

sorry for the thread hi-jack. I just get worked up when someone “corners” a market (looking at you Garmin). They basically own ANT, and if it weren’t for their investment in ANT, I think we’d see a lot better BLE adoption. BLE accessories being available for smart phones will probably kill some Garmin business, and I think they know that.

[DismalScientist]

Do we want to bring back the snow/freezing rain bonus?

Based on unscheduled school closings? Fed closings? Toilet paper shortages in supermarkets?

[Author]

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