It's that time of year again. As the days slowly lengthen and 2013 peeks it's head around the corner, it's time to begin base training in earnest and the Rapha Festive 500 is just the incentive I need to get off the couch and ride, ride, ride.
This morning, I set an alarm and suited up while enjoying a hot cup of coffee and rolled out just as the sun was rising over the Hudson River for my first Festive 500 ride of the season. Let me tell you, I was wearing at least one layer too few this morning. 20F is COLD! But as they say, if it were easy, it wouldn't be a challenge, now would it?
Last year was a hoot. One of ten final contestants in the final Facebook vote for a new Trek Madone, it was thrilling to the final end. Needless to say, I did not wind up with the Trek, but it was exciting nonetheless. This year, the Festive 500 has over 12,000 starters. It will be interesting to see how many make it to the finish.
Participants log rides on Strava, which is a bit more complex for me than I'd like since my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx is not one of the supported devices and I need to upload my tracks to ridewithgps before uploading them to Strava. Despite the added steps, it's actually pretty fun to follow the thousands of other riders from around the world enjoying this "festive" challenge.
It was a modest start with only 67km logged on day one. Too much going on today for a longer ride. The local forecast has a likely snow storm making it's way into the Hudson Valley by Thursday, so this could be interesting. It's not too late to sign on. Complete rules can be found here.
Today's ride: 67km.
Festive 500 total: 67km.
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