Its the time of year when family commitments/avoidance can have a big impact on our training output. Additionally, this year, it looks like the weather gave slightly fewer excuses than normal.
An 8-day challenge to move (unassisted) as far as possible with the 500k mark being the ultimate target. Vince’s annual Swanage ride was available to make up 1/3rd of the total (given the 20% bonus for outdoor miles).
Rob Gale wasn’t able to track a weather event that he could get the benefit of for the full 500k in NZ. Like Mark J and Nick H he had family hikes as his main contribution. Innes W did 8 events over 6 hours of activity but joined the hikers in avoiding any points by choosing swimming and running.
At the opposite end of the scale, 4 managed the full 500k (other Wheelers also managed the full Rapha 500). Vince had some swimming in there whilst the others were fundamentally biking. Shawn Gray blasted everyone away with 805k (mostly indoors), whilst James L (all indoors) and Michael S (all outdoors) were both comfortably in the midd-600s. Henry H (all outdoors) and Mark H (mostly indoors) put in some big bike shifts too to score well. All very impressive.
Chris Giles did over 20 hours of activity but fell into the trap of doing the right sort of training for his season but not the Winter Challenge – even slipping in an open water swim. Rich W did more running that biking and Melanie Birch also mixed it up with running and biking to get on the scorecard.
In the Open category, Shawn and Michael are locked at the top. With a 40k time trial to come in the week commencing 6 January its going to be interesting and all to play for.
(Please could I ask you to indicate on your email of your results what time (or distance in other weeks) you are claiming. It is far quicker to check than have to calculate)
Full results can be found here (from row 55) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xObuEB3punf3SXStfRJ0YH_nUdgBMlL6CGpRbg90qIY/edit?usp=sharing
Its not too late to give it a go. Good luck
