Nifty, fifty and drinking whiskey

Something strange happened, and I'll tell you when, 'twas the night before Christmas. I was 15 mins away from finishing work, when my buddy Ron phoned and suggested we had a wee drink in our local, the Lark. Sounded like a good plan. Melody felt it was a good plan too and joined me on our meet at the local pub. When we rocked up, Ron was sat their with cousin Ade who was drinking the pint that Ron would have gifted me. Anyways, it was a merry meet and I decided my drink of choice would be whiskey this night. After a short while, my dad rocked up too and the company was great. A few drinks later and time to head home.

Once home the Christmas festivities continued and SJ cooked me a lovely Christmas curry. Friends and family text Christmas greetings and all was good. Then I got a text from one of my besties - Chris Hodge. He sent a link to a coast to coast, Rat Race event with the message 'something to consider while your stuffing your face and getting drunk...'. How did he know what I was doing? '...and pondering new challenges'. '...fancy tackling this one with me... I've wanted to do it for over a decade. 50 next year, maybe it's the year'. Wow, I'm fifty next year and just figured in my current state, this would be a challenge worth doing. My headspace decided I would do this and just short of a pinky promise I informed Hodge of same. Just gotta get a pass from my wife SJ. Nifty, fifty and drinking whiskey!

Christmas day came and amongst the presents I had was a book from the Hodge called 'Bothy'. This reminded me of my plans to adventure to a bothy this year, however, I did not follow these plans through. Hmm, this book has kinda rekindled the interest once again. How weird Hodge spoke about adventure last night and then I open a present following day which shouted out adventure again. Not long after opening presents, Lunar and I went for an adventure in the form of a 5K Christmas ParkRun in our elf hats. This was a great run with 530 like minded folks (including the 'Mitchum 3'), most of which in Christmas attire. I text Hodge and said this run would be good practice for the Rat Race event...

The Rat Race event is a 100 mile coast to coast event across the Scottish Highlands that includes running, cycling and kayaking. I've been running the odd 5k ParkRun throughout the year and occasionally go out with the Crabbs Cross Chasers running club. I love cycling and want to cycle more miles moving forward. Not sure if I've ever been on a kayak? Hmm, this would make the challenge challenging! A quick Google search indicated that I could enjoy 'a 90 minute kayaking session along the canal towards Alvechurch'. It really feels like this challenge is calling my name.

All the thinking above inspired me to resurrect this failed blog. Have always found recording my thoughts and plans quite motivating. Right here, right now, am thinking I should commit to a challenge (Rat Race coast to coast) and write a short bucket list of plans for 2025.

Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year folks. I wonder what's in store for 2022,  - something crazy, something new? It's a shame Covid is still here and I'm sure we are all wanting something better. I do hope this year blows your socks off!

2021 wasn't the best of years on the challenge front and I've still not cycled the TransAlba Race. Hopefully, the TransAlba will be completed this year, Covid or not. 2021 didn't end so great either, however, it wasn't so bad. No Rapha 500 was completed, however, I did complete the Albion/Re-strap Solstice challenge that awards a funky badge for cycling 100 miles. Having a broken foot is my excuse for not performing wonderfully in 2021.

So, what about 2021? What were the scores on the doors? Well, I didn't cycle or run as far as I had planned or hoped. Below is a list of my distances from last year and yesteryears (dating back to 2009). Cycling distances are followed by run distances.

2009 - 5,086 (3,160) LEJOG 2009

2010 - 8,509 (5,287) Paris to Geneva Cycle 2010/LEJOG 2010

2011 - 8,378 (5,207)   PBP 2011

2012 - 6,935 (4,309)

2013 - 12,498 (7,766) LEL 2013

2014 - 9,253 (5,750)

2015 - 5,531 (3,436) and Ran 1,170 (727)

2016 - 6,515 (4,048) and Ran 1,204 (748) Iron Man (Bolton) 2016/TNR 2016

2017 - 8,940 (5,555) and Ran 514 (319)

2018 - 10,958 (6,809) and Ran 417 (259) TransAtlantic Way Race 2018

2019 - 8,034 (4,992) and Ran 484 (301) Bivy-A-Month 2019

2020 - 10,082 (6,265) and Ran 466 (289)

2021 - 9,021 (5,605) and Ran 319 (198)

So, I didn't achieve my cycling distance and running distance goals from last year (10,000k and 500k respectively) - can I blame a broken foot? I didn't complete TransAlba - definitely blaming Covid for that one (race has now been postponed 2 years running). One of my goals was to enter a cyclo-cross event, which I did - never cycled it though as was cancelled due to Covid. My other goals were to cycle a Tron Bike on Zwift which I managed to achieve and to cycle around a velodrome which didn't happen either. So pretty naff, all in all. However, I still had adventure and loved that very much. Cycling the King Alfred Way was particularly awesome and all my wild camping was very much fun too. 

Let me end this blog post with goals for 2022. They are:

• Cycle 10,000k and run 500k by end of year. (I am not 'allowed' to even start running for a 'couple' of weeks yet due to the aforementioned broken foot menace).
• Complete the TransAlba race. 1,000 miles and about 50,000 metres of climbing. (Better start training, especially as I currently weigh 96.9kg, which is seriously ridiculous).
• Lose weight. My usual weight is around 90kg. All the lack of training/exercising due to broken foot menace has resulted me going up 2'' in my waist size. I'd like to be 88kg or less for TransAlba.
• Cycle a 200k event on my fixed cycle.

Be the best dad/husband/person that I can. Lat year, I wanted to produce 'fruit of the spirit', - I don't think I produced enough. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control (Galatians 5:22-23). I'll give it another go.

November Rain

November started off so well. Took 'B' out for her first off-road ride and cycled the Breadcrumb Trail. Sweet.

Sweetness soon turned sour. Neil (work buddy) was friends with the drummer from 'Bullet'. Neil and I went to see Bullet play at some venue in Cardiff. This was a 'heavy' night, and heavy dancing led to heavy fall, which led to me breaking my foot.

Doo and Neil

Although my foot hurt somewhat, I didn't know it was broken at the time. I hobbled back to work for a couple of days and then partook in a wonderful cycling adventure. My cycling adventure took me to Weston Super Mare and back. 

Not what I expected to see on my way to WSM (reminded me of playing with Baby Ganesh and Melody)

Melody playing with baby Ganesh

'Spoons breakfast is always a winner

Puncture menace!

No chance, I didn't have paper...

Cycled this Strawberry Line only a couple of weeks back

Made it to WSM!

Celebrating with a JD

JD still calling me on return home

It was only after my wife tasking me to walk our dog, and I replying I couldn't walk that I decided to go and get my foot checked out. Horrors - my foot was broken and I was given a 6 week sick note! Sweet November Rain!

October musings

Much happened in the month of October that made me smile. Little did I know that my dog Ernie had the Navajo gene. He really does, he can walk high among the trees!

October's wild camp was another hammock adventure. Both Rob Dog and I took hammocks, however, it was only me who slept on one. Rob Dog preferred to sleep on the ground - not too far away from a big badger hole! As ever, we cooked, ate, slept, awoke and ate some more! Strung up a tarp, not because I needed too, just to make sure I still had the magic. Oh and a certain Bert Warren was buried here. I dubbed this spot 'the burial ground', although Rob Dob said it should be called 'the 2 tomb stones'.

Had a nice trip with my buddy Roger on his tandem. We stopped at Whitlenge tea rooms for breakfast which is always a winner. Cycled to and from Roger's on my wonderful GerTruDe bike.

SJ painted the spare room and converted into an office for me. Strange colour but am not complaining. Check out the 4 screen set up!

My sister, her dogs, daughter and a whole bunch of Iranians rocked up. This turned out to be a rather jolly day. We walked the fields, climbed trees and ate much food at my ma and pa's.

For so long, I had wanted to run 10k. This finally happened on a day during October. Ernie and I, ran from Black Hill car park to the Beacon (Malvern Hills) and back. An almost perfect 10k. It was a real windy, wet and misty day.

October was also the month for a new bike. I've now gotten a MTB at last. This bike is affectionately known as 'B'. This is the first bike with 27.5 wheels and a dropper post that I have ever owned! Debut ride was a quick blast with Ron which ended at the Lark. (We met a guy who was an e-bike MTB fan and he suggested we join him soon for MTB adventure).

October finished with an awesome audax event entitled 'The Ticking Tortoise'. I completed this event with cousin Andy and Ron. So awesome was this adventure, it has it's own blog post!

The Ticking Tortoise / Changing seasons doorstep challenge

The Ticking Tortoise was a brand new audax event for 2021 - A 166km Severn Bridge Series event with around 1300 metres climbing. I completed this adventure with Ron and Andy P. All in all, a great day out.

Taking inspiration from the route Mike Lane rode 'week in week out' on his way to becoming the 6 Times National Audax Champion,  Oliver Iles designed a winter friendly flat route out to the Somerset Levels and back for riders to enjoy.

Starting from Warmley Waiting Rooms Cafe which opened early for us, we rode a section of the Bristol to Bath Cycle path before a low traffic route through Bristol to get us back onto National Cycle Routes to the flat Clevedon Moors.  Next over to the Strawberry Line in Yatton where we cycled the cycle path till Sandford.

Next we headed onto the Somerset Levels, passing the 18C Ashton Windmill for a well earned Coffee break at the Cycle Friendly Sweets Tea Rooms. To be honest, we had no real break as the queue's were menace. I spent a few mins tightening the bolts to my loose bottle cage.

Next we headed towards Glastonbury for fine views of the Tor before heading back over the Somerset Levels ready for a short but tough climb up to Snake Lane maxing out at 20%.
 
More riding on the levels before a final short climb with great views back over the Somerset Levels where we took advantage of the FREE Hot Dog stand that was ready for us. I was champion here and devoured 3 double hot dogs!

Then return home from Bleadon onwards was mostly on the same roads out.

I also used this ride to complete Gravel Union's Changing Seasons Doorstep Challenge. The pictures and the brevet card that I needed to complete are pictured below. My route was added to Komoot and the pictures to Instagram.