Study at the LSHTM and tell my company to do one…

After a couple of years getting the kids on track, I’m going to attempt a ride every Saturday. Lakes, dale, wales, peak.

2 stone to loose.

I said for 2016 I’d have a break from riding, I thought I’d miss it, I don’t seem to be.

More surfing then.

Tom – Which course are you doing at LSHTM (London I assume)?
MSc virology for me way back when…

Toss up between Medical Paristology and Medical Microbiology, Control of Infectious Disease is a maybe – due to me not having enough developing world experience. That’s the one I’d really like to do though, as I want to do something that is a bit of a mix up of public health and lab work. Paristology might get me out of the lab a bit as well and doing something fun in the developing world.

If I stay in an industrial lab, I’m going to get depressed and angry. Did you enjoy your time there?

WHW in a day
Caingorms Loop as an ITT
Many bivvies, with a few summit bivvies for good measure
Not knacker my Achilles again
Not participate in any form of formal education lasting more than 1 week

Hoping to complete a 12hr solo mtb race.

Only real aim is to do The Wild Boar Chase better than this year, so proper training.

Colnago Grand Fondo in Italy
Dragon Ride Grand Fondo
LEL
Good few long rides on the way to LEL
5000 miles for the year

scotroutes – Member

Nobeerinthefridge » and some time with Captain Mainwaring around the Cairngorms

See you then?

Absolutely, look forward to it Colin.

Forgot – monthly uplift at Inners through the winter months too, managed Oct and Nov so far, Looks like december has evaded me, so 2 in january if the snow/ice stays reasonable…

Bought an Etrex, so more exploring in The Lakes. Currently self-employed so bimbling currently as I can’t have any time off work (as I don’t get paid), however I fancy another session with Jedi later in the year as the last one was mint. Mainly fitness goals for me as I have let it slip drmatically.

So:
Want a 150kg squat and 200kg deadlift back, then the rest are cycling aims,
Clear the Loughrigg Terrace Climb without walking any of it (apart from getting off for the gates).
Sub 30 minutes up Cragg Vale on the CX (I’m fat, so these times won’t seem quick to lots of people).
Sub 10 minutes on a local bridleway near me (Thornham Old Road).

Hopefully full bore racing with a race outfit, “job interview” and details TBA 🙂

Will be interesting to see how I can juggle the team schedule with work / family to see if I continue or revert to privateer in 2018.

I think for me, it’ll be:

– start cycling to my work again
– lose 1 1/2 stone
– complete the Bealach Mor in under 6 hrs. ( 6hrs 1min is my best to date! )

thats good enough for me.

Tom – yeah it was an awesome course.
The med micro ran closely along side my course and it seemed to be very good.
However parasitology is just fascinating did my thesis in drug resistance in malaria.
Would love to go back and do another one

Lots of exciting things planned for next year, it should be a better year than 2016 at least!

New bike (probably Orbea oiz)
New job
Get on the property ladder (that’s a big scary one!)
More holidays (Bruges in Feb already booked)
Go to more gigs (The XX and Sunn O))) tickets bought)
Do awesome things on bikes

Rovaniemi 300 (in 8 weeks 😯 )
Will probably make another attempt at a SDW Double – OK on an MTB/CX, bit tougher on a fatbike
Might make an attempt at a 100km running – work commitments make it harder to get the bike miles in.
Probably some ITTs and bikepacking….

Backpack my way home from oz with the Australian missus and hopefully reacquaint myself with the motherland for a few years. And make a decision about doing a masters or changing career, my enthusiasm for my current direction oscillates wildly.
Actually sort out my fitness and start riding and walking in some proper hills again. Also having failed to do even attempt this years half marathon maybe one of them. And start climbing again.

More holidays, including a slow photo/bike/ beer bimble round the Tour de Mont Blanc.

SSCXEC, skitouring Norway, BOTB, Lakes 100, SSUK. Bit o bivi’ing.

CX ride home from work next Friday. 😀

Edit: I’ll have a 1987 Raleigh Randonnuer built up shortly (thanks to the extremely generaous teasel off here), with bar end shifters and 2 bits of Carradice luggage, so I really should find some audaxes!

Get down to comfortably under 16 stone and stay there by Easter (currently 16.8)

Get down to 15 stone and stay there by the summer.

Cycle Greenwich Park to Paris in the few days leading up to Easter (arrive Paris good Friday)

I’ve entered the ballot for ride London – doubt i’ll get a place as done it the last 2 years via the ballot.

Might do Dunwich Dynamo if I don’t get a ride London place.

Ride more than 3000 miles. This was my target for 2016, I’m currently at 2800, and have a very busy two weeks ahead of me so don’t think I’m going to make it. 🙁

Audax! 3 start from Elstead on 4th June. Rideable from home.

110, 150, 200km, depending on how I’m feeling nearer the time. 😀

Mountain bike is Ard Moors and an off road tour, probably a coast to coast from Inverness to Ratagan via Glen Affric or possibly a Cairngorms loop. Apart from that try to tick some Scottish classics boxes.

Road bike is a Mull tour and a tour up North taking in a bit of the NC500

Running, I’ve entered the Glencoe marathon, going to try my hand at hill running and probably a half in there too.

The kids are a wee bit older and I have a wee bit more free time on my hands so getting a bit fitter will be the overall aim for the year.

Trying to work it out at the moment but depending on whether I have to have an operation on my ankles:

Dyfi Antifreeze
Jennride
Home to sea over a weekend
Snowdonia big offroad loop linking Penmachno, Marin, Antur and CyB.
A couple of uplift days.
A fortnight in BSM (and try to get back to Pila).

I’ve managed to wangle a weeks paid biking next year, the only drawback being it’s in the gravity enduro discipline! Sites being visited include Revolution Bike Park

I’ve never competed before and probably the most down-oriented biking I’ve done is the blues at BPW.

Objective : Try not to die.
Plan : Train fitness, lose weight, ride more challenging stuff.

Firstly 50 in Jan so off to Seville for a few days. Then plan on getting the all clear from the hospital….got camera down my old man into my bladder to look forward to!!!. Then some riding…Mayhem 24hour solo already booked. Hopefully all or some of…. Scott Marathon series. Possibly Manx 100, Kielder 101, Wales and Scotland trips definitely this year. Basque country in motorhome again with a trip to Orbea factory and maybe hook up with Basque Mtb in Hondarribia, then if time allows on to Zona Zero for some quality riding. Busy busy busy.

Even with the rides I’ve not Strava’d I’m struggling to hit 700 miles this year which is utterly crap (even more so since nearly 250 of that is a 2 mile ride to the station and back whenever I feel like it). Going to aim for a thousand proper off-road miles next year and ride to the station every day.

Events wise I’m doing the Ard Rock. Can’t be faffed with anything else at the minute. The PMBAs seem to have got a little serious for my liking from what they were like a few years back when I first started doing them.

I’d quite like to organise a local, completely low key ‘enduro’ using Strava to time segments etc if I find time.

More trail building.

Give myself a big kick up the arse to motivate riding to work at least twice a week (27-odd miles there and back).

Generally improve my fitness, strength and flexibility by getting back into regular swimming, rock-wall climbing and yoga.

Thin down my collection of assorted bicycle odds and sods, sell off my half-finished and in some cases unstarted projects to find some breathing room.

Spend more time on a **** bike than looking at pictures of cycle-related shiny stuff/fantasising about what components my dream bike would consist of.

Get more involved in local trail building/maintenance.

Maintain a Strava-free cycling life.

Generally take more time out to smell the roses…

@Scotroutes

Working on my VeloViewer Explorer Square (currently 12×12)

This sounds interesting, what does it mean?

I have yet to finalise any plans for 2017. I cannot decide whether to aim for 5000 or 6000 miles, although 5000 is a bit of a cop out.
Have yet to decide on our main holiday, but at the moment am considering (wife and I) cycling from Belfast to Dublin to Cardiff – people’s thoughts ??
However, I would like to be a bit more adventurous this year. Following the bimble thread, the ‘lonely’ threads and the bivi/wild camping threads, I am considering suggesting an STW beginners, bimble, bivi/wildcamp weekend trip somewhere in central Scotland. However, I’m no planner and rather shy.

Busy one next year…
BPW in Jan hopefully have the Banshee built by then
Lakes for some big stuff & Swanage for Singlespeed by the sea in May
Italy with Ridgeline again for some even bigger stuff in June
Ard Rock
Secret Garden Party (non bike related face pulling festival fun)
Trans Savoie – doesn’t get much bigger than that….

In between working very hard to pay for it all…

Just the BC bike race with bullandbladder up there ^

And RideLondon for Crohns and Colitis UK.
Tour of Ben Nevis.
A few road trips hopefully to The Lakes and Scotland.
A few big days put on the road bike ticking off some of the routes out of 40 Great British Bike Rides.
And maybe pop my bike packing cherry.

@gauss1777: The Veloviewer Explorer Square is the biggest number of contiguous NxN OS map squares you have ridden in, so 2×2, 3×3, etc. Veloviewer get their data from Strava so you need to log your rides there.

@whitestone: thanks, I even learnt a new word ‘contiguous’ 🙂

Lakes Easter
Cairngorms Summer
If fit enough Viking Challenge in October.
Hit my mileage target next year missed it this year due to new job and a couple of injuries.
Loss a stone in weight.
Save some money for a new ride in 2018.
have a lot of fun.

For the 5th year in a row I plan to do the west highland way. You never know, might actually happen.

Mostly just going to keep doing the same stuff I always do, because it’s ace.

Ahem not that I stupidly started a duplicate thread because I didn’t do a search! (Hoping it disappears off pg1 soon)

My aims are

1) Race a 12hr solo (twentyfour12)
2) Do some bikepacking including some wild camping
3) Ride the SDW which may include goal 2 as I am very slow!

Carry on with Bivi a Month
The Bear Bones Winter Event
Dirty Riever 200
Bear Bones Welsh Ride Thing
#JennRide
A week in Iceland Fat Biking cherry picking the best spots
Growing a pair and doing the Bear Bones 200

Help mates get into Bike Packing

Get my weekly mileage back above 150.
Outlive my last 2 dogs.

Got my first gravel race of the year in February, in Australia. Might also try to ride across Tassie on the same trip or do a route like the Goldfields Track.
We did consider riding Paris-Roubaix again because it’s an awesome ride but will probably do a long weekend in Mallorca instead.
We’ve Twentyfour/12 in the diary too. But most importantly I want to do more bikepacking in 2017, just weekends away on the Grade or MTB. Looking forward to 2017, from a riding pov…

Don’t feel bad bout using strava et al, do whatever you want chuck…