Rapha Festive 500 - 2016

This year’s Rapha Festive 500 was always going to be a tough ask.

5 days before Christmas, my wife had an operation on her hip: daddy day care over Christmas would surely rule it out. Or would it?

A last minute plan: do it on Zwift.  Were there rules against that? I couldn't see any. For sure it'd be a mental challenge riding in the kitchen rather than the open road, but kms on Zwift are - lets say - slightly easier to come by than on the road. So an additional challenge would be required to level things up a bit...

My Turbo is set up next to where my son plays Fifa 17 on his Playstation. If I was going to complete the Festive 500 on Zwift, each ride would need to feature at least one game on Fifa whilst riding.

Could I still complete the Festive 500, or was relegation on the cards?

Well, in the end I completed the 500kms on Zwift on Friday 30th with a day to spare. I also managed to sneak out one afternoon for an amazing ride across Manmoel mountain. So in total, I covered 600kms in 7 days.

The rides are in the table below. Theres some notes on each ride here.

Ride #	Date	Kms	NP	TSS		Link
1	24-Dec	106	213	175		https://www.strava.com/activities/809969676
2	24-Dec	10.9	76	4		https://www.strava.com/activities/810486504
3	25-Dec	3.9	50	2		https://www.strava.com/activities/810837085
4	25-Dec	10.9	76	4		https://www.strava.com/activities/810863315
5	25-Dec	5.1	49	2		https://www.strava.com/activities/810884629
6	25-Dec	30	199	49		https://www.strava.com/activities/811187074
7	26-Dec	40.4	225	74		https://www.strava.com/activities/811454155
8	26-Dec	44	260	94		https://www.strava.com/activities/811480891
9	26-Dec	5.6	54	2		https://www.strava.com/activities/812072045
10	27-Dec	70	208	111		https://www.strava.com/activities/812481187
11	27-Dec	12.1	114	8		https://www.strava.com/activities/813244414
12	28-Dec	80.3	218	230		https://www.strava.com/activities/813950636
13	28-Dec	12.1	114	8		https://www.strava.com/activities/814103391
14	29-Dec	70.9	214	119		https://www.strava.com/activities/814498014
15	29-Dec	12.1	130	10		https://www.strava.com/activities/815179958
16	30-Dec	76.1	217	135		https://www.strava.com/activities/815469670

My only outdoor ride was the best.