2019 -- 1000-Mile Month & 1000-Kilometre Month Challenges
 

Challenge 1: Ride 1000 miles in at least one month this year ... or as many months as you want ... go for all 12 months if you have the time and energy!!


Challenge 2: Ride 1000 kilometres (~622 miles) in at least one month of the year. Go for all 12 if you can!!


Challenge 3: Pick a number that's a challenge for you and try to ride that at least one month this year. It might be a 2000-mile month or a 500-km month. It's up to you. :)



Ride ... enjoy ... report!!


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Note: I know these challenges won't fit into everyone's training plans, or life plans, and I know these might not interest everyone, so there is absolutely no pressure to participate.

I'm going to try Challenge 2 this year (just 1 month). I came close last July but with better planning I think I can make it happen.

Thanks for setting this up!

I have completed Challenge #2 of at least one 1,000 km month, the first time since April 2016! I rode 1,013 km in April, with one day left in the month.

I don't commute and do very few rides of more than 5 km during weekdays. It's virtually impossible for me to collect 1,000 km in a month without at least one 400 km ride. Last time I did one 400 km brevet and a training ride of similar length, as well as other rides. This month I did a Fleche (366 km in 24 hours, plus the ride home) and three non-brevet centuries with distances of 165-205 km.

The final century was a visit to several waterfalls in the mountains west of Tokyo, my 12th century ride this year (on Strava, with pictures).

I think this is the most I have ridden in any April, 808km + 360-something on the fleche.

I did get in 1,000 miles for April, first time in several months, I think.

1010 km for this month. Highlight was a 600 brevet in fairly brutal winds.

I wish my 600 was done. Not going to have any problem getting to 1k this month

I've never dreaded a ride so much as that 600, but then I've never DNF'd.

I don't remember exactly how many 600's i have DNF'd, 4 maybe? I was sick twice, but the other problem I have is that they have been the first ride of the year in hot weather. And the two rides when I was sick were in particularly hot weather, one was really humid too. But the 600 course I am planning on doing is difficult and slow and that might mean I can't sleep. Not looking forward to that. It would be really nice if we have a couple of weeks of hot weather between now and then. And maybe a cold spell for the 600k. I would rather not wait for an easier 600k, the alternatives that I can ride aren't until June.

bonne chance mon ami

I have DNFed every distance up to 600 km at least once, even one particularly hilly 200 km where I was running low on time and out of water in hot weather.

I have heard people say that once you DNF a brevet, you're more likely to do so again in the future and there may be an element of truth in that.

Even so, DNFing should not be your ultimate fear. I have abandoned two 300 km brevets due to severe weather conditions, one due to a major storm with heavy rain and fierce winds (60 signups => 22 starters => 8 finishers!), the other one due to black ice and snow on the road. Others I have abandoned because I was too sleepy to be on the road. Your survival and safety should always come first, regardless of your DNF record.

I have resolved to always ride back if that's a possibility. One of the 600k's I dnf'd, I made it out 30 miles on the second day and then was cramping so badly it was obvious I wasn't going to finish. Took me 5 hours to ride back the 25 miles to my car.

I was counting up the other day, I think it was 10 or 11 rides I've DNFed. Heat, cramps, lack of fitness, mechanical issues, wrecks, weather, not having fun, or some combination of those factors.
I've seen where other riders posted they had never DNFed (although, I don't know of any local riders that haven't!). But some people are just the wonder-cyclist or racers or whatever, then move into randonneuring. And some of us are fat ol' men that take up bike riding to lose weight, and the results are not always uniform for the two groups. And of course, the more you ride, and the worse the conditions you ride in, the more DNFs are going to catch up with you.

Hah! I DNF'd the pre-ride of an upcoming 200K because of a snowstorm. The weather models were all over the place the night before and even the morning of. So I started the ride with the intention of trying to cover as much of the course as I could. It was an out-and-back and I was able to get to the turnaround before the precipitation started. Then the snow immediately started (instead of a transition from rain to snow like they claimed). It wasn't sticking to the roads, but the wet snow sure was sticking to me and my glasses. It quickly became no fun at all. Fortunately I was on quiet and relatively flat country roads. I knew if I could get back to the control at mile 99, then I could take a train back to the start. I was so glad to get to the train station and find out that I only had to wait 30 minutes for the next train (they run every 2 hours on weekends and mid-day).

I'm going to take another crack at the pre-ride this coming week. So far there is only rain in the forecast, not snow. We had more snow in April than December in northern Illinois!

I'm glad that weather didn't make it to us. Must be nice to have train service nearby, the tracks end pretty far from here and there hasn't been passenger service for many decades

I always try to get as much of the original distance as possible when DNF'ing, often riding much of the original route but outside the time limit.

If the problem is being too sleepy or terrible weather, taking time to sleep or walking through the snow or sitting out the heavy rain in a sheltered space will make it impossible to finish within the time limit, but afterwards one can still ride to the goal or back home. So that's what I tend to do, staying as close as possible to the original intent of the ride and total distance.

time limits in randonneuring are very generous. I am always a little disappointed when people DNF because they are running behind where they think they should be, my philosophy is to keep going. I finished within 5 minutes and 1 minute of the 600k time limit last year. The 5 minute one I teared up with joy at the end because I thought I wasn't going to make it. The other one I had given up hours before, but I kept going. On both of those rides I worked really hard at the end, lots of effort expended and strava segments with personal records.

I have missed not posting in this thread for a while now. Since my nine, 1,000+ months in 2017, travel, weather and some medical issues has brought my monthly mileage down quite a bit. Last year, I had only 3 months of 1,000 miles or more and 5 months of 1,000 km or more. So far this year I haven't had any 1,000 mile months but have three, 1,000 km months. Last month really sucked, mileage wise, and this month isn't looking much better. Hope to be posting some better months in the future if I can stay out of doctors offices.

I finally accomplished a 1000k month in May by riding 3 @ 200k brevets, a 300k, and a 112k permanent. I don’t see that being repeated again in 2019 as it involved 2 out of state trips.

Kudos to those of you who are able to ride these volumes multiple months of the year.

I made it to 1,040 km for May! :D

After a very slow start to the month due to work, this was boosted by taking a self-imposed 'vacation' week last week and riding 382 km.

I'll hopefully have a few more 1,000 km or mile months, as (universe permitting) I'm planning to ride a 225 mile single-day event in August, and need to start getting in a few longer rides along with tempo training.

I managed to ride 1232 km in may. Challenge #2 accomplished. Half of that was a 600 km brevet. I normaly ride about 160 km per week, so without a long brevet my kilometrage will never reach 1000.

1,228 km in June, including two 100 mile rides.

It will be interesting to see what July brings; the month has been off to a hot, humid, and rainy start.

1,847.4 kilometers in June... did two 600K brevets and a 200K along with a bunch of club rides and some casual rides with pals.

I rode 1600km of rando events in June, 1000k and 600k. I just barely made it to 1000 miles. 4500 RUSA km for the year, my fleche finally showed up in my results. Not too far off of a 10k/yr pace at this point. Going to have to start riding more shorter brevets.