A little intro - Rapha Festive 500

The area around December is the worst period of the year. The sun in Warsaw, unlike the window, most of us saw somewhere at the end of October, and the group in Calpe were all still for two months ... at best. This is the time when entries stop discovering the sense of resting from a bike or riding for pleasure. This is the beginning of a more serious gyrating or shifting of iron. The time when bicycle journals forget about the mud road, rovver throws in a post about cycling depression, and the rest of them zaprain Strava with their rides on Zwiftt. And here, in the middle of it all, Rapha enters with his Festive 500. A simple but painful challenge: 500 kilometers in 8 days. Simple of course, if we live in the southern hemisphere, or just have holidays. This is the most uncomfortable 8 days for the average citizen of our country, because between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Let's be honest: 500 kilometers in 8 days is a pimple. I know many people for whom it would be a moderate challenge after limiting the time limit to a day. Only now is winter, frost and darkness. But what, I can not do it? I gave advice last year in the Tatras and by the sea, I managed two years ago in the Tatras and in Mazovia, now I can. I was left with only the combination of sea plus Mazowsze - the worst. Memories, besides the frostbitten parts of the body, I have a good one, so why not. You know, it's like all the most epic or stupidest lyrics (depending on whether the mission was successful) from events like: "bet on five that you can not make it ...".

It was hard this year. The unfavorable arrangement of the calendar makes the sun on the bike visible only on Christmas Eve, the 1st day of Christmas and New Year's Eve. So to appear on a family breakfast, I started thickly before sunrise, and in the week after sunset. Despite the fact that I finish work at 4:00 pm and when I'm on a bike I'm already at 4:02 PM it is already an hour late.

Weather, if in December you can talk in the context of the weather as "good", it was quite good. Outside of the wind. The distance multiplier for the wind should be x2, mainly due to permanent impressions on the psyche. You know - for every 10 covered kilometers, you should get 20, for 20 should be 40 and so on (if you want more examples of numbers multiplied by 2, let me know). The average speed of the driving week did not exceed 25km / h - I think I am ready to be a pannier.

Some history:

As for the number of Poles who graduated from festive at Strava, it looks like this:

2011 - 0 out of 0 taking part ;-)

2012 - 2 out of 6

2013 - 31 out of 91

2014 - 29 out of 200

2015 - 155 at 611

2016 - 130 out of 514 (including 5 girls, 4 of them named Ania)

I would like to analyze it somehow, but I have no idea ...

Some interesting facts:

Festive 500 is great, because people are abnormal. No matter what crazy you did in your life, then analyzing the routes of others, you can quickly come to the conclusion that your passion is quite normal. Just look at the top ten. It is for example German, who made 2,500 km in 6 rides ... riding most of the time in Majorca ... in a circle ... which is 5 kilometers long. Is youwhich has done in 7 rides minimally less ... also driving around. There would be nothing fascinating about it, if not for the fact that its annual course is now almost 100,000km and every day it pats the same route after about 390km, making 10km loops under the house. In addition to the hundreds of Asians who make epic loops somewhere in Japan or Taiwan, there are also pearls closer to us. Guest he went to Barcelona from Masstricht in the Netherlands for 8 days.

And when I look at it, where people ride and what nice adventures they have, I am reminded of my senseless patting of kilometers on the Warsaw - Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki road. I will not hide from the 4th day, when I returned to Central Poland, getting out of the bike lost its charm.

A bit about routes:

I could describe the routes, but I feel sorry for the keyboard. The only really nice was the seaside entry to the top of Rowokół. Well, the entry is strongly said - from my side it was the entrance, because after the passage with the inclination above 15% runs. And of course, the seaside Rowy-Ustka, who is a master. Such a poor and field equivalent of the Ligurian coast (well, it sustained me, but it is also nice).

Then there were already Gassy, ​​Góra Kalwaria, Nowy Dwór, Czosnów. Same raisins.

Where sense, where logic.

Cycling is a unique sport in the sense of honor. (...) Cyclists love to suffer - it's a badge of honor. Frank, Velominati

6:55 am, dark, wet, I sneak out of the apartment with a bicycle. I plan to make breakfast - just like yesterday - on Christmas Eve. I'm going to Piotrek, who is also abnormal. We spend 4 hours rolling on the coastal mud. Maybe it's a bit strange, but there's still some excuse. In the end I'm going with a friend, it will be funny, maybe even nice, because the sea, dunes, forest ... and wind, about which I could write 157 ugly words, if I used them on the blog. If it was not for Festive, I would not go outside on the bank. In retrospect: it would be a mistake - at least when it comes to riding in the north.

In cycling mythology, the wind appears as The Man with the Hammer, who attacks by surprise, banging straight into the face at the least expected moment. Most often, when your legs begin to refuse to obey, and the defeated kilometer begins to be troublesome. At the seaside it is different - here it always blows from every side. Like Forrest's rain in Vietnam - from above, from the side, from below, in the face ... but almost never in the back. Momentary gusts pushing forward are only to intensify the force when the direction is reversed in a moment. This is a known moment when you throw a cycling and promise yourself that tomorrow you stay at home. "Staying at home" stays in your head for about 2-3 hours from the moment when the body temperature returns to around 37 degrees, then the planning of the next day begins.

A few days later, at 17.00, I have been in the dark for an hour between cars, the way I know. There are still 2, some 55 hours. Today is Nowy Dwór, tomorrow Kalwaria and somehow it's been hummed. For what? I do not know. I guess to collect some conclusions that I forget about on the trainer. On the trainer, on which I often think that maybe it is worth going outside. The most important of them are:

Riding a bicycle in the winter, around Warsaw, during the week, after work, there is nothing pleasant about it. Nothing. There is nothing healthy, safe and there is no sense in it. Cars do not expect a cyclist, from the suburban chimney flies carcinogenic smoke, at temperatures below zero even training can not be done too much ... unless driving in oxygen, but where to get it ?! In quotes about suffering during training and being a Real Cyclist, it certainly is not about such a ride.

The development of clothing technology means that the hands and feet do not freeze as they once did, and the body does not sweat. Generally, about 2-3 hours can be driven in total, temperature comfort. For what? I do not know.

Here she is not here for sure

My 8-day 627 kilometers confirmed me in the belief that from Monday to Friday I stay on the trainer. I will limit my visits to the yard to weekends, when I can see the sun. You can talk about overcoming yourself, being hard and stuff, but I'm letting go.

Festive 500 gave me such a nice feeling that I "drummed" and I know that I can go outside, but I prefer home. When the word "drumming" or "driving miles" begins to appear when writing about your hobby, it gets dangerous, because it is just a step away from this famous "burning out". I must relieve it somehow - it will not do without at least 2 visits in the mountains in January. It's cold for me to think about it ...