I find the biggest restrictions are time and leaving the house, once I have both of these the rest is easy and straight forward enough.

I often do mini or micro adventures, just single nights either walking or biking. But I have always wanted to do something a little bigger just to test myself, so this year I ended up walking the WHW. I completed it and loved it, now I want to do something similar but on the bike.

I think having dreams and ideas are needed even if you don’t act upon on them all. I fell into the trap that everything has to be big and adventurous, it doesn’t.

But I still continue to squeeze as many in as I can, but getting the foot out the door is still the hardest obstacle to overcome…

I live in Shrewsbury and I am very outdoorsy, Shropshire has plenty to keep you occupied for a week including the Long Mynd, Stiperstones, Eastridge Woods,  Clee Hill and Ludlow.

About an hour away are Pistyll Rhaeadr and The Berwyns etc.  Also the Wyre Forest (my previous back yard) is worth going to for some great mountain biking.

Thanks for the replies, I think I will go with the Lanshan 2.

We have been in the Cairngorms for the last two weeks, I wouldn’t call it a bike park, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

Yeah, it’s a very real issue. Hard to get that balanced between being inspired and getting depressed.

Just been reading up on FOMO whilst waiting for the washing machine to stop rock and roll) fascinating stuff. It sounds like I might want to step back from it all or turn it off. A digital detox! LOL

For the first time in many years I have been off the bike since the end of February with an injury, no riding but I have been able to do flat and steady walks (which is better than doing nothing).

The whole injury has made me feel low in mood. I use Strava to log rides and distances which is useful, but at the same time I have been looking at other peoples rides and activities etc and it really started to make me feel worse.

I know what people will say, ‘well stop looking then’.  So I am thinking of going back to just using Garmin Connect, just for me, if that makes sense.

I have just been reading about FOMO.  I have heard of it, but I didnt really know much about it. What a world we all live in!

I lost 3 family members 3 years in a row, the last person being 16 years ago. The biggest issue for me was I didn’t know what to do, what to say, how to feel about it all, how to make any sense of it all. I either felt numb and nothing or I was full of anxiety.

It created a lot of issues and anxiety for me. I had CBT (which helped) and eventually I paid for counselling as the waiting list was too long, the whole talking and saying it all out loud to someone I didn’t know helped a lot. I didn’t realise how much I had ignored and buried my thoughts and feelings, looking back I spent a lot of the sessions just letting it all out…

During the counselling things got a lot worse before they started to get better, but they did get better. I still have bad times and bad days, just not as often and not as intense.

I started to understand that keeping it all inside was doing nothing good, but talking was doing something a little more positive….talking does help even if you don’t want to say all that much….

All the best.

The last c2c trip I did was Whitehaven to Tynemouth cycle route. We did it over 3 days and I loved it, the weather was good, just the 2 of us.

I remember day 2 being the hardest, but doing it over 3 days for us was enjoyable. Looking back it could have been done over 2 days.

Last year I bought an Edge 530 and I have been very pleased with it, battery life is very good.

I do need to sit down and read the instructions to get the most of it, but the turn by turn navigation is very useful.

I am on my third Moto phone (currently a G8 Power Lite) and now looking for a replacement and I looked at the G22, but I have not read anything good about it.

My G8 PL still holds a really good charge, its just getting a bit slow but I have had it for 2.5 years. I am struggling to find some to replace it. I always buy a sim free phone and I never spend more than £150 on it as I personally think they are a waste of money. I only want something with a really good battery and camera.

Jemima’s Kitchen at Victoria House is also very nice.

I bought a Endura GV500 insulated jacket, very warm and packs down small for cycling. I sometimes take it with me walking if I dont take the Prism.

I’d suggest getting the opinion of a medical professional would be good next step.

I could probably train to become a surgeon in less time than it takes to to get a doctors appointment ;-)

I had an appointment with a chiropractor yesterday, its a bulging disc, so no cycling for a while! :-(

I have to say tho’ if I had two weeks to go anywhere the Cairngorms wouldn’t top my list, unless I was limited to the UK

It would be if you love Scotland….some of the most memorable trips I’ve had over the years, both as a child and an adult have been in Scotland :-)

I upgraded to the alphas on my Colibri last year, so far they have been spot on…

Light, comfortable and I love the loud clicking on the rear hub….

Yet another cat-astrophe by the useless tories!!!

Very sad, I was just reading another report of a man and his dog found in Glen Coe :-(

I enjoyed it, just finished watching a re-run of both series to get ready for series 3.

A sad story but the relevance is?

+1

Yes it is a very sad story, but I am guessing it was meant to be added to another post…

I am an experienced walker and biker.

Cheers guys for those bits of info, I will look them up on the os map.

It looks like I have been voted out, we are staying in Aviemore for the first week, then moving south to the Tay Forest area for the second week.

I have a guide book and various maps ready to to looked at but any suggestions for (mostly) walking and mtb rides would be appreciated.

So far I have the Burma Road Loop mtb, and Ben Macdui for walking…

Can anyone point me in the direction of some good exercises to start with please?

I have been looking but there is so much out there I dont know what is good or bad…

This was my very first audio book, I really enjoyed it…

Where There’s A Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent by Emily Chappell.

@Mounty_73 if your friend had been looking at Bromptons online then FB would serve you those ads due to your connection.

She has never been on Faceache, she popped into her local bike shop to have a look at the bikes.

Whilst on holiday one of the group started asking me about Bromptom bikes and what I knew about them, so we spent a good half an hour or so talking about Bromptoms etc. The following day and further I was hit with adverts and posts about Bromptom bikes (no internet searching was carried out, only verbal conversation).

This type of event has happened a few times over the past…………..coincidence??

I have used them a few times over the years, never had any issues, but I am going to resist looking at the site as I always end up buying stuff from these PSA’s that I only want but dont really need! lol

The cyst got infected and it came up the size of a golf ball, half under the skin.

Out of the whole experience the only thing that frightened me, was the needle for the anaesthetic, crazy stuff!

I have had 3 removed, one on the back of the neck, no issues. Second one very close to the jugular on the neck.

And the third back in 2019 (the largest one) which really unsettled me and caused issues as it was in my throat and causing problems with my voice.

One gravel and now one mtb, one of each is enough for me (at the moment)

Back on MTB.

I have given up on watching it, got to ep 3.

I ended up watching the footage on the news yesterday, I am often thick skinned when it comes to most things as I know humanity can be very low and very cruel, but watching that really got to me, absolutely chuffin horrible!

I bought a subscription during black Friday (I think). I have not used the app yet, but the website has been pretty good so far.

I have a very old version of Memory Maps, so the online OS provides more up to date stuff.

How is the beading of water on your Paclite Plus mounty?

I have to say (touch wood) the beading has been very good so far. When I used it for the first time, the weather was bad and I was a bit apprehensive so I stayed local and not too high, it worked.

Its been used quite a lot recently and it will be used again this weekend, so far I am impressed and I have had a lot of jackets over the years, both cheap and expensive. Some of the cheaper ones have outdone the expensive ones, but only on waterproofness.

Breathability for me is an issue as my body tends to run and work on the warm side. I paid £120 from sportsshoes.com

I use two hard drives numbered 1 and 2, these are used to back up once a week, alternating between the two.

Then once a month I upload the important stuff to online storage, if its not stored offsite somewhere, then its not backed up IMO.

Hopefully the OP has got their jacket by now, considering how wet it’s been lately.

What did you get and how’s it working Mounty?

Just spotted the post. I bought a Montane Pac Plus GORE-TEX Jacket and its been superb so far and its been used a lot recently! lol

Is it worth sticking with?

I’m on episode 3 and my gut feeling about the series is that its going to be crap?

More here over on Wiggle

Just bought a pair, these PSA’s are costing me a fortune…….no more purchases, no more purchases…..lol

Have a look at the loop from Bala to vyrnwy and back. Lovely quiet roads compared to the Snowdon loop and feels really remote.

+1

I have recently done this route, I loved it.