First half of the year has finally fallen into place. 1st week in April I've entered a 240km gravel based event which is to be completed inside 30 hours, it starts nearby on the Ebro Delta but climbs up into the El Port mountains with 3,000m of ascent. The following week I'm doing a 450km race from Barcelona to Valencia.Although it follows the coast, there's still 4,000m of climb, time limit is 42 hours. I've given myself a target of riding 30km per day for the 100 days until these events and so far I'm keeping to it with 300km in the bank already. This should give me a good base of training for the Spanish Divide at the end of May which is 1,200km and 17,000m climb over 9 days. After that I may have a little lie down before the Cataluña trail in July.

I've just signed up for the Etape Loch Ness, raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support.

Currently pondering the Speyside Triathlon again.

Apparenty i am now doing a road LEJOG and if that was not bad enough its with a triathlete

Im looking forwards to raising a ‘glass’ in toast to the good news re Scotroutes mrs (and preferably in association with a bivvy, seen as I did not do a single one last year...).
Do some bivvys (obvs).
But first get some semblance of fitness back (having spent the previous decade perfecting my hermitness covid permitted me to really shine, esp with wfh...).
I had planned on doing a Camino (del Norte) May/June ‘20 but it never quite came off for some reason. So I’d like to do that. If I don’t do my usual overthinking and put myself off it...
tour the Cairngorm Loop (think I’ll start off with the outer loop as the only bit I’ve not actually ridden is the Glen Tilt - Tromie bit...)

I'm not sure what to do this year, other than actually making it to Wales to ride my bike, so WRT, BB200 and possibly just a weekend on my own to ride some of these trails I had down for this weekend. It sounds like Further East might be on again this year, and as as that starts about 10km from the house, I'd be mad not to at least give it a bash. Other than that, I'm open to suggestions...

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 11:04 am Celebrate my wife defeating cancer.

First "success" of the year seems to be complete. We've just had a conversation with the consultant who told us that the chemo and surgery has been successful. Mim no longer has cancer. There is still radiotherapy and follow-on medication to go but this is a major event.

I'm still accepting donations via a JustGiving page for MacMillan Cancer Support. I'll be riding the Etape Loch Ness (so had best get some training in).

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ccadden

Good news indeed Colin

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 4:08 pm

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 11:04 am Celebrate my wife defeating cancer.

First "success" of the year seems to be complete. We've just had a conversation with the consultant who told us that the chemo and surgery has been successful. Mim no longer has cancer. There is still radiotherapy and follow-on medication to go but this is a major event.

I'm still accepting donations via a JustGiving page for MacMillan Cancer Support. I'll be riding the Etape Loch Ness (so had best get some training in).

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ccadden

Hope that's enough

Best wishes to you and the Mrs, Colin. Hopefully now onwards and upwards for you both. Compliments to you for still spending time with us in This Place during that challenging time.

Great news Colin, hope the remainder of her treatment goes well.

Great news Colin, hope it continues.

I'm planning to throttle back on work and resist the temptation to book more in.
Working a max of three days a week April to mid August should be doable at this point.

Spend more time on / in the water.

Make use of flights booked to Georgia early June and ride a big Tusheti Caucasus loop. Anyone's guess whether things will be settled in that part of the world by then...

Ride Argyll area, never really been. I'd also like to make it to some of the islands I've not visited down that way.

Do more day rides in the summer with very leisurely food and drink stops. I want the scene to resemble those RSF photos with picnic blankets, snoozing, lashings of tea, beer, cake.

Resist the want for a new susser. Really don't need. Maybe.

Excellent news Colin. Really excellent.

F**K cancer and great news for you and the family

That's brilliant news Colin, best wishes to you both!

Great new Colin. May the 'all clears' continue.

Bit of a thread resurrection but I'd set myself a goal of riding 3,000km of gravel/rough roads by the end of March. A 165km ride on Sunday and 50km today has meant I've pushed this to 3,200km or a round 2,000 miles. Unlike the UK's sunny weather, March has been quite wet here following lovely weather in January and February so a sunny forecast for Sunday was welcome. MrsPB was competing in a 5km run so I went to the start with her and rode from there, a 40km uphill from sea level to1,200m got me going then along a forest road which features on Day1 of the Spanish Divide. Saw a herd of deer, a flock of goats and a lad on an enduro bike who passed me in mid air to both our surprise. A long off road descent led to the village of Vallibona (pic below) where a huge bacon and cheese roll was wolfed down. I turned for home and followed a poorly surfaced road following the valley bottom, in and out of stream that had been swollen by the recent rain. 100km of fairly level trails through olive plantations and home for tea,, a grand day out.
Racing starts this Sunday with a 42km cross country event which is part of a 5 round series, 2 weeks later is the 450km gravel event from Barcelona to Valencia then the SD at the end of May. Pretty happy that I've got the miles in without major injury, a few knee twinges and wrist pain following carpal tunnel surgery last year.

More than a plan, it's reality.
About one fifth ot the way round my lap and loving it so far.
Just have to survive the madness of the jubilee 4 days in possibly the busiest area
There's a tracker thing, seems to work OK.
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/165b-22f ... &showAll=1#

numplumz wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 6:15 am More than a plan, it's reality.
About one fifth ot the way round my lap and loving it so far.
Just have to survive the madness of the jubilee 4 days in possibly the busiest area
There's a tracker thing, seems to work OK.
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/165b-22f ... &showAll=1#

Now that looks like a proper trip! Crack on!!

numplumz wrote: ↑Wed Jun 01, 2022 6:15 am More than a plan, it's reality.
About one fifth ot the way round my lap and loving it so far.
Just have to survive the madness of the jubilee 4 days in possibly the busiest area
There's a tracker thing, seems to work OK.
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/165b-22f ... &showAll=1#

Amazing.

Let's see some bike set-up pics!

This is no boner trip, its full on touring. Think of a bike with stuff strapped to every possible part you get the picture.
Bit of a practice for maybe living on a bike for a year.

Follow me on Insta search for Numplumz and you'll get the idea, doing daily picture dumps there

I think a lot of us are still tourers at heart tbh

Boab wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:46 pm It sounds like Further East might be on again this year, and as as that starts about 10km from the house, I'd be mad not to at least give it a bash.

Off to ride last years route (ish). Starting tomorrow, after I've rebuilt my rear derailleur, which is currently in bits...

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Wed Dec 15, 2021 2:07 pm

barney wrote: ↑Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:14 am My main plan is not to make any plans... for the past couple of years irrespective of Covid I've made plans for everything including completing Bikepacking events, walking and cycling challenges on my Garmin app, BAM and even losing weight etc.

Next year I'm going to have a different approach of just doing things at my own pace. I can always remember a few years ago after 10 BAM in a row I didn't do November because the weather was crap. It felt such a relief making the decision that meant I bivvy'd because I wanted to and not to "tick a box"

Appreciate i may be in the minority but I'm fine with that.

Pretty much with Barney, I’ll have a couple of ideas and we’ll see what happens.

Can’t be arsed planning anything with Covid to them go and spoil it.

How did everyone’s plans turn out?

Looks like I passed mine, seems setting targets extremely low is key to my success

Not to ruin the year with a crash* that left me missing the entire summer pretty much and still not back to full fitness ... I had to ride a child's bike and could only do 15 ish miles once a week if I was lucky

Please just let me be fit to ride in 2022

* Very bad luck not even my fault./ Unavoidable

Made a full , if slow, recovery and spent this first half of the year just riding road bikes ending with a self supported LEJOG so achieved the fitness and not crashed, but the year is not over.
About September i finally had enough arm shoulder strength and movement to not be a passenger on a bike and remembered what MTB was all about . Satisfied with the year but wont get to 5000 miles but will get to 400 hours

Bivvy a month - done
AAA Super Randonneur series - done
Highland Fling 1000km Audax - done
Sub 24 YD300 (just)
Sub 24(23) BB300
Dorset Divide -
Calder Divide -
Randonneur around the Year - December still to do
Commute by bike - probably 90% of journeys

Quite a big goal was to not spend so much time away from home to ride my bike. Most riding has involved very little additional travel so I've spent much more time doing other things, while still clicking around 8,000 miles.

Also built a shed/cabin out of mostly recycled/upcycled materials. It's something I've wanted to do for a while and is now habitable. It's taken 6 months and I'll be spending Christmas in it

Not a bad year to be fair