A couple of weeks before Christmas a friend in New Zealand suggested we do the Strava challenge the Rapha Festive500, 500km on your bike outside between the 24th and the 31st of December. I think you probably will have a much more pleasant time doing this in summer time in Auckland then the middle of winter in Dublin, but I agreed it would be a good challenge and keep me motivated while I was taking a week off from sailing! A bit over 60km a day would be enough to complete it!
Day 1 (24th Dec- 107km)
As the 24th came closer the forecast looked surprisingly good for the week, relatively warm, no rain, not too windy! So on Monday morning at 7:30am I headed out the front door in the dark with my lights on and a
group of friends to meet in Sutton Cross at 8:30. I got to see a beautiful sunrise as I cycled along the Clontarf bike path and then once meeting the others announced my route plan which involved no coffee stops as I had to get back for a family lunch! We headed out along the coast to Portmarnock, Malahide, Swords, Skerries, Balbriggan then across to Naul up the hill out towards Ballyboughal and back into Swords and into town along the Malahide road. A good first day with 107km ticked off!
Day 2 (25th Dec- 78km)
I was pretty tired waking up on Christmas day but headed out to meet a couple of friends at the Silver 
Tassie Pub on the N11, it was a nice sunny morning when we started but once we got to Kilternan it got pretty misty and wet! We didn’t go up too may hills and I got back to Sandycove in time to see my family recovering from their sea swim, I decided against jumping in the sea as I spend enough time in it anyway! Day 2 down with 78km done and ready for a serious Christmas dinner.
Day 3 (26th Dec- 85km)
St Stephen’s Day I went out with my brother and a couple of his friends we decided to head out North again to get in some flat miles so it was out to Sutton again, a stop in Donnybrook fair in Malahide for a quick coffee then a loop of Ballyboughal and Oldtown before coming back home! Another good day done with 85km which meant I was over half way with 4 days still to go.
Day 4 (27th Dec- 50km)
I was feeling a bit cycled out on the 27th plus going out the night before probably didn’t help… so I did a
quick spin up Cruagh road to Viewpoint in the morning with my brother and then I commuted around town meeting friends in the afternoon which got in 50km
Day 5 (28th Dec-111km)
On Friday I was planning to go out for a spin for a couple of hours with my friend Bryan Keane, but I got a message from Donie one of my physio friends from Sports Med Ireland where I do S&C saying that Conor 
and Kevin Dooney were also doing the festive500 if I wanted some extra company for the day. So I sent them a message and we all met in Enniskerry at 12:30. It ended up being a great day out and time flew along as we shared stories of our different sports. A coffee and cake stop in Laragh and then me making us take a wrong turn in Rathdrum turned it into a pretty big day out, luckily we all had lights as it was starting to get dark by the time I was getting home. 111km meant I only had 68km to go!
Day 6 (29th Dec-54km)
Starting to feel the effects of five days of cycling on the trot and having run out of friends to drag me 
around I had to head out on my own on Saturday which didn’t happen until nearly 12:30 as motivation wasn’t high! I went out to Islandbridge and did a lap of Phoenix park, then I went out to Sutton along the bike path, once I got to Sutton I was ready to go home so headed back and arrived in with 13.5km to go. I was hoping it would all be finished but I guess I had one final spin on the Sunday.
Day 7 (30th Dec-45Km)
Sunday the 30th I woke up to a sunny and warm day so I risked wearing shorts and no shoe covers as how often can you cycle in shorts at the end of December in Ireland?! I went up my usual route from home up 
Cruagh Road to Viewpoint and kept going a bit longer onto the Featherbeds before turning around and freewheeling all the way home! My toes were a bit cold but the shorts hadn’t been a bad call! I was done, 511km in 7 days and I think I had managed to be pretty sociable and not too tired from all the cycling! The addition of a mudguard to my Look bike made a big difference as I stopped getting quite so muddy!
Reflection
Having finished the challenge I would have quite happily stayed in bed all day on New Years Eve but Bryan sent me a text to see if I wanted to go for a short cycle. I actually felt strange not getting out on my bike at this stage so we headed out and went up to the top of Kippure, as I am pretty sure last year it was covered in snow so cool to get up there on the last day of the year. The Festive 500 was not as bad as I thought it would be but that might have been because of the lack of rain and fairly warm conditions we had plus all of the chats I got to have with friends, my Cycle Superstore Look 785 bike made a big difference and I really noticed how having a bike been properly fitted for me made such a difference when I started doing multiple days of cycling!
