Monday Morning Debrief 51 -what are your plans for 2014?

Here’s mine:

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/monday-morning-debrief-51/

What are your riding plans?

mine’s simple- just ride a hell of a lot more, get a hell of a lot fitter and enjoy the adventures wherever they take me.

West Highland Way, an Alps trip (?) and just generally less trail centre riding and more real mountain riding

Just waiting for a proper sleeping bag then I will be hitting the hills locally (Lakes)and further a field into Scotland for some overnight adventures.
Several Enduro rides hopefully! and at least one cycling holiday to Spain!

Torridon.
Few weeks in France (and Italy) with family in van.
Work less / ride more.

<11 hour Ironman, otherwise, just have fun, maybe do a tour.

Also 3 hour marathon.

In the process of planning an Alps trip. Getting excited already !

Ride the MTB more than in 2013 (about 7/8 times)
Go to the new Wales Bike Park
Do the BHF South Downs Way 100 miler
Do the Fred Whitton
Do Stage 2 of the 2014 tour (already done stage 1)
Get my boy a balance bike and get him riding before he’s 2, ready for the summer
Do the London Brighton off road again
Do a 24 hr team race
Do the Ride London 100 again
Do the Dunwich Dynamo on a fixed

I realised the other week that although I’ve ridden in Wales a few times this year, I’ve not been to Scotland for 5 years now, so I’m planning to rectify this in 2014.

Ride more.
Make a short tour as practice for something longer, say a 1 or 2-nighter as rehearsal for a 1-week trip.

And sell some of the spare frames & bits hanging around the spare room!

I think my main one is ride a million times more than 2013 which was a horrible year for a number of reasons. Been thinking for the last few months I’ve never felt so unfit.

So to help me on my way I’ve come up with a bit of a plan:
#1 ride every Sunday morning as much as is humanly possible. Missus and kids have an appt every Sunday morning in Hebden which should give me a couple of hours on the bike every Sunday either to get in a short ride, simply bimble home along the tops or use it as a start of a bigger ride.

#2 get a turbo. Yes, evil. But watching the Guy Martin thing last night, the missus actually said “why don’t you get one of those in the bedroom?”. “Our bedroom?” “Yes”. I think I’ll get one and shove it in the cellar but a few hours here and there on a turbo will help. Thinking back she was probably meaning a Guy Martin in the bedroom… B!tch 😉

#3 Entering some comps. Brownbacks Lee Quarry stuff is local so may have to look into that. Also going to be entering SSUK and have my name in the hat for the London100.

#4 Try and ride from work now and then. Despite working in the centre of Bradford where you risk your life being in a car, I’m going to try and find a creative way to ride home to Halifax avoiding major roads and taking in some of the off-road stuff inbetween like Judy Woods etc.

Basically riding as much as I can which should be helped by the fact that mini-DBW#1 is now on a CNOC14…

Booking something that is a challenge and costs money is the best motivation for me to ride!

Same list as last year, just hope I can have a better attempt than last year, which was pathetic 🙁

Mountain Bike
Long Mynd.
Fort William and Laggan.
High Street.
Mountain Mayhem.
Drum Mountain.
Kirroughtree.
Glentress.
Torridon.
DH Uplift days. (Ae, Inners and Blaenau Ffestiniog )
Kinlochleven.
Doethie Valley.
Mary Townley Loop.
Capel Curig.
Macclesfield Forest
Sleepless in the Saddle.
At least one Manchester Madness. – did 4 in 2013
A couple of 12hr or 8hr races – did Enduro 6 in 2013
A bivvy.

Roadbike
A Sportive. did 2 in 2013
Tour of Anglesey.
Some nice all day rides round the Valley of Snowdonia, Yorkshire and the Lakes – got 3 of these in

Visit BPW, Alps in the summer and start Enduro racing….

There ‘n Back
Wildcat Grr-avel 100
Welsh Ride Thing
Bear Bones 200
Ride from home (Shropshire) to the coast off road (as much as feasible)
Do some proper riding in the Lakes or Scotland like I used to do
Put a pair of Rebas on my Fargo
Double the mileage I did this year (measly 1600km this year)
Build up proper bikes for my wife and son
Get a new full-suspension bike

Dyfi winter warmer.
Cannock winter classic.
Proper Dyfi – want to improve on 3 1/2hrs from last year.
Mountain Mayhem – again improved team performance, 16th last year.
Some more long distance CX events like the Lakes Monster & Mills Hills.
Pennine X
Mary Townley Challenge.
Cannock Spring enduring thingy again
Welsh C2C event.

Generally long distance stuff, although I might throw in a few MMWM events again.

Ride more long distance routes – road and mountain bike, got two 100+ mile rides planned before March then planning doing the Coast to Coast and Hadrians Wall long distance routes back to back. May be getting a CX bike to suit the mixed road/offroad type riding i’m planning

Do a lot more of mud biking (I’m Dutch..), at least twice a week
Winterberg in Spring and Dolomites in Summer

Leave work
Drive to the Alps
Spend most of the summer camping and doing more Hut-to-Hut type-stuff via singletrack.

Ride as much as possible really.

Bike Park Wales is booked for May (can’t wait).

Want to go back to Hopton again and do Eastridge at the same time. I’d love to go back to the Alps but can’t see that happening so will have to settle for Wales and Scotland (loved Glentress so would oh back there and would like to do Inners). Also quite fancy a mini Enduro or two.

I also want to ride from my house in Tamworth to family in Chipping Norton, don’t know why, it just seems like something to do!

I fancy trying bike packing/bivi-ing. I am thinking maybe on a week night set out, camp out then finish by riding to work. Not sure what my other half will make of that!

Take my eldest son cycle camping in Holland or France for a few days.

Ride more, just generally but particularly regular club evening rides, family rides and summer commuting.

This year was all about the weightlifting goals, hit two out of the three I was working towards. 2014 is going to be cycling goals. I want to do Snowdon, Antur again but faster, Gisburn without having to push any of the climbs, Cragg Vale without stopping on the roadie – not massive things to others but I was 24 stone a few years back and am still 18 stone now, so decent targets for me.

Much,much more riding for me in 2014! More local, more commuting and more weekends away – Lakes,Scotland,Peaks,S Wales etc and planning on entering as many of the UK gravity enduros as I can afford!

To ride more than the five times I did this year due to work, kids, house move and work.

I plan to do some cycle touring with my little boy on a tandem this year.
I’ve got plans for us to plenty of camping under the stars, as my work takes me away for more than 300 days a year, so I am wanting some really good quality time with him.