Thoughts on the Rapha Festive 500

For those of you not in the cycling world, you can be excused for not knowing about the Rapha Festive 500. The event, organized by cycling clothing manufacturer Rapha, is a challenge whereby riders aim to ride 500km between December 24th and the 31st. Rides can be done indoor, outdoor, or a combination of the two. This is my second year participating in the Festive 500. And just like last year, I would be completing the festive 500 on the indoor trainer and on Zwift.

Lucky for me, Zwift was hosting Rapha festive 500 group rides every hour and every half hour. The rides taking place on the hour were 50km in length, the rides taking place on the half hour were 25km in length. So there was plenty of opportunity to get the 500km in before the year-end deadline. The real question is, would I have the leg strength to complete the full 500k in the allotted eight days?

I will spare you from reading any further if you choose. The answer is yes. I made the 500k, finish in the morning of December 31st.

How did the riding go?

The riding was tough. More so mentally than physically. Around the 400km mark I could feel the exhaustion settling in, most prominently in the pool as I continued to swim throughout the event. In the pool, I had no energy to give. All of my energy was spent just trying to meet the pace times on the coach had given us. And no matter how much I 'dug deep', as the saying goes, there was nothing for me to dig for. The tank was empty.

Anyway. Back to the riding. Like most events sponsored by Zwift when I participated in the very first organized Zwift Rapha festive 500 event, the group went out like a shot. I, of course, decided to stick with the lead group. This was a bad idea. While I managed to stay with the lead group, by the end of the 50km I quickly realized that I would not be able to ride all of the Zwift Rapha events with the same gusto. I wisely decided to dial back and focus on doing zone two rides for the festive 500. Otherwise I would not make the 500k goal.

This was a wise decision. Although even though I did my best to hang with the crew doing zone two rides in my weight per KG section, the group would inevitably push bigger watts on climbs or on sprint segments. Nothing like keeping the rides a little spicy to keep them interesting!

Anyway. Eight days and 500+ km, later, the Rapha 500 is in the books. Will I participate in the Rapha festive 500 next year? More than likely. While the event is a challenge, it is also good motivation to stay active over the holidays and balance out much of the caloric intake during the break. Plus who doesn't like receiving a discount code from Rapha for completing the event and a chance at wining some Rapha clothing? There are certainly worse ways to spend the holidays.