Obviously the year was a write-off / car crash / sh1t show for all of us in oh so many, many ways but.....did you get anywhere near your personal goals for the year (avoiding the word 'resolutions')?????

Here are/ these were my goals for 2020:

1. Weigh less each month than the previous
2. Bivi-a-month
3. Ride at least 50km per week*
4. At least one century ride per month
5. Tuscany Trail
6. NO coke or redbull
7. Lower carbs
8. Much less booze
9. Less automatic meat eating
10. Do core strength exercises

(*achieved if I base it on my year total divided into the number of weeks)

And here are my plans for 2021.....

1. Avoid dying of lurgy/stupidity
2. Lose AT LEAST 1kg per month
3. Almost zero sugary crapola
4. Avoid lifestyle caused injuries/illnesses
5. Ride 100km per week (annual total average)
6. Run frequently
7. A LOT less booze
8. Tuscany Trail
9. Core exercises etc...
10. 5-2 eating plan

So.....what you got in mind and how did you do this year???

Exercise 3 times a week
Run a 10k
Ride a metric century
Increase my year on year cycling mileage
Go on at least two multi-day cycling trips
Get back down and stay under 68kg
Teach one or both kids to ride.
Read 25 books

Well, I achieved one goal and both kids enjoyed Bikeability so I’ll count that as a partial win.

The goals pretty much just roll over into next year

i never really set goals. i have a idea what i want to do and then hopefully do it,

i always try to ride 500 miles per month. i will surpass that target this year.
always wanted to do a load or riding over xmas to get out of the ice, i am 100 miles off the Crikey, how much total.
and for years i have only wanted 1 bike. i have done that too.

so all good.

ton wrote: ↑Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:17 pmi never really set goals. i have a idea what i want to do and then hopefully do it

No goals is good too! Whatever works for you.

I seem to do best if I have things to aim for (targets, events etc...) as without structure (and even with it but usually less so) I slip into bad habits and make (even) dumb(er) decisions.

Totally failed on BAM ..again.

Don't worry Dave, I think I managed to achieve the sum total of FA this year.

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:04 pm Totally failed on BAM ..again.

Can't blame you really.

The garden substitute is wearing pretty thin TBH, as is not being able to kip out with like-minded loons (I really miss that) but since The Bug has messed up so many other things I'm damned if I'm going to let it wreck my BaM. This time it's personal.

Fell off the wagon (well the bike) very early on - broke my collarbone , by the time it had healed and was given free rein it was ten days before lockdown. Didn't really get going again. Not felt enthused with BAM for the last few months.

• Do BaM
• Accumulate all the necessary bivy kit
• Cycle 9000 km over the year
• Take part in some mass participation events - Dirty Reiver and Frontier 300
• Join the Riverbank Club and do loads of open water swimming
• Read 32 books (I've read 17)

I did BaM, even if some of them were in the garden. I bought luggage, cooking kit, a tent, sleeping mat and loads of other bits and bobs; I still need to invest in some quilts though, they're the last missing piece. I honestly didn't think I'm make 9,000 km, but ticked it off at the end of October with my bivy; I'm currently on 10,290 km, with one long ride ~180 km to go. I'm not sure I would ever have made this distance without being furloughed.

Doing some mass participation events, was to be an incentive to train and get out and meet people (*shudder*). Obviously they didn't happen, and who know what'll happen next year.

Not sure why I stopped reading in lockdown, it's not like I went doomscrolling or anything. I was reading Waterlog by Roger Deakin when lockdown happened, so I didn't seem appropriate to drive for half an hour to chuck myself into a river. I really didn't want to read about something I couldn't do, but for some reason, I didn't pick up anything else in stead. I'm currently reading Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, which is doing my head in, the prose is heavy going and it's taking ages to wade through.

Next year...?

• Don't die
• Travel to Scotland and visit the family
• BaM
• Cycle 9,000 km
• Do at least some open water swimming
• Read 32 books
• Start home brewing again
• Appreciate what I have*

* Already started, rather than buying more bike gear for Christmas, I've just bought an ultrasonic record cleaning machine, so I can get all my vinyl back into a playable condition.

K1100T wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:57 am Already started, rather than buying more bike gear for Christmas, I've just bought an ultrasonic record cleaning machine, so I can get all my vinyl back into a playable condition.

Good plan. Did that a couple of years ago. Well I couldn't stretch to an ultrasonic, so went with the fluid-based Disco Antistat. Come to think of it an ultrasonic might have been better as one could clean one's drivetrains at the same time! Anyroad, the Disco is a fluid bath within which you crank a disc around by hand. It's fun to see all the crap lift off and the mindless tedium of in, crank, out, drip dry etc was very satisfying. Only problem was after cranking a couple of hundred LPs and hundreds of singles I then had to spend £100's having my separates system properly refurbished and tweaked as well!

Actually this sort of task is ideally suited to lockdown isn't it. Another similar job I carried out years ago was to scan my thousands of photographic slides to digital. How many times have I looked at them since? Still, I could if I wanted to .

A bit like vinyl v digital, slides were a lot more fun than digital photos. No, I'm not going to give you all that mumbojumbo about 'purity' and better depth etc (albeit true ) but the experience of listening/viewing was/is more of an occasion. I've still got my industrial-strength slide projector and large screen in the loft. It was great getting the slides out, setting everything up and viewing in a darkened room with a few beers. Like vinyl it took a bit of effort but the rewards were there for those who appreciated them.

Just like bikepacking really .

So, 2021? More reading, vinyl and slides for Reg .

Yes!

The slides/vinyl/bikepacking analogies work nicely.*

[*at least for my version/vision of bikepacking - all about quality of experience as opposed to speed etc...]

I get out my cassette collection periodically and really enjoy that too! The opposite of superior sound quality but there are mixes and compilation tapes by friends that evokes so many memories!

RIP wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 11:27 am

K1100T wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:57 am Already started, rather than buying more bike gear for Christmas, I've just bought an ultrasonic record cleaning machine, so I can get all my vinyl back into a playable condition.

Good plan. Did that a couple of years ago. Well I couldn't stretch to an ultrasonic, so went with the fluid-based Disco Antistat. Come to think of it an ultrasonic might have been better as one could clean one's drivetrains at the same time! Anyroad, the Disco is a fluid bath within which you crank a disc around by hand. It's fun to see all the crap lift off and the mindless tedium of in, crank, out, drip dry etc was very satisfying. Only problem was after cranking a couple of hundred LPs and hundreds of singles I then had to spend £100's having my separates system properly refurbished and tweaked as well!

Funnily enough, the original plan was to buy two Disco Antistat baths and a modified clamp; the thought of manually cleaning over 600 slabs of vinyl wasn't overly appealing. Then we had a realisation that I'm going to buy all the cycling paraphernalia anyway, I should really buy something I couldn't normally afford, so I'm getting a Velvet Vortex.

While out on the bike yesterday, I decided not to buy a new bike next year. Instead, I'm going to look into a fancy speaker for our new garden office, and some turntable upgrades. No point in having nice clean vinyl, if I have nothing to listen to it with.

RIP wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 11:27 am Actually this sort of task is ideally suited to lockdown isn't it. Another similar job I carried out years ago was to scan my thousands of photographic slides to digital. How many times have I looked at them since? Still, I could if I wanted to .

Ah yes, the slide collection. Scanned to such a hi-res and stored on such an old NAS, that it takes > 30s to render each photo on your screen. I still need to finish scanning everything, which isn't being helped by not having an OS compatible with the scanner any more...

Achieved the same as Stu this year ,
Next year work needs to be reeled back by quite a bit and get out on the bike , finally get my lad to Thailand for his Thai boxing camp for a few months , open his horizons a bit before working life starts for him