January - Indoors!

A decent cycling week for January considering the weather, following the NYD ride out with a bit of Zwifting and a club ride, a 40ish mile ride to the Dairy Barn, a new cafe to add to the list. 100+ miles on the board. My aim is to average 90 or so miles a week this year.

Week has dropped in temperature, so planning a couple of indoor Zwift rides and hopefully a 50 on Sunday, give or take.

On the 'business' side of things, brochure for TCS is nearly complete, and the club newsletter is coming along nicely. Will share/update in time.

More excitingly, the Standert Erdgeschoss I ordered in November is in't shop (in Berlin) and should be with me in two-or-so weeks time. Get me on this bike.👆

Mixing it up in January.

By virtue of signing up to ‘compete’ in my first gravel race/event in Sherwood Forest in March, there’s no better time to start getting techy and hitting the off-road gravel-come-mud scene.

There’s not actually all that much gravel in my local area (minus a few trails leading to wind-farms, and a quarry), so public bridleways it was. Created a 20-mile off, 25mile on road route, with the off a mixture of cycle-paths, gravel and public bridleways.

Turns out, public bridleways in this county are a bit of a myth. They either do not exist – in which I ended up on a farmers doorstep or nearly KO'ing into a fence/wall – or they’re not maintained; crumbling and barely useable. Compound that with the sheer amount of rain we’ve had and well – slip, slop, failure.

A few diversions here and there (unfortunately back on road) and it ended up being a pleasant and warm ride, visiting villages new to me such as Irnham, Keisby and Aslackby, with undulating hills, nice sweeping lanes and really beautiful skies.

2023, complete.

An odd but decent on-bike year. Cycled similar mileage to 2022 but can definitely see really good areas of improvement, particularly in my fitness and lifestyle choices -  eating healthily, less drinking, combining to drop me down to a much more natural weight of around 70kg (170cm). 

I also feel far more comfortable on the bike with a combination of improved flexibility (thanks Yoga with Adrienne lol) and better bike-handling. My main struggle of 2023 has been staying healthy - a combination of stress, weather and (from time-to-time) pushing myself too hard and expecting too much (watts, power, speed).

I’ve improved a lot and know I want too much too quickly, so 2024 aim is to be a bit more intentional with my training, get a coach/trainer and just manage my expectations. 

Sadly cycling oversea’s eluded me for another year, but really did enjoy a lot of UK roads and fields, mostly in-and-around Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, as well as a couple of excursions into Yorkshire. Nearly did a bike-packing trip around Cornwall (overnight sleeper), but storm-stopped play, but is back on the list for 2024.