My cycling goals for 2013

I've been putting off writing this post. Last year I could develop very clear goals around going further than I'd ever gone before, and trips that we had already planned. This year, things are not so straightforward. I've decided I won't be tackling longer audaxes until at least 2015 (if ever), and although we do have some trips in mind, they're not set in stone yet. Still, it is good to set goals, so here goes:

1. Ride 200km in under 10 hours: I may do a 300 this year, but in general I'll be concentrating on 200s and trying to get my speed up. I regard this as necessary before I start to attempt longer audaxes again. I actually have ridden 200km in 9h55, but this was as part of our 400km audax, and I was so shattered from the effort that the next 200 took us 15 hours. In 2013, I want the 10-hour 200 to become my new normal.

Trans Pennine Trail, May 2012

2. Learn to love the trails: Last year I wanted to get more confident on the mountain bike. It's true I have improved, but not to the level I'd like. I remain pretty timid when it comes to trails, which probably wasn't helped by the amount of times I came off the bike during the Camino. This really needs to change in 2013!

3. Ride more without Alberto: It's not what it sounds like! Alberto got me into cycling and a ride with him is still one of my favourite ways to spend my time. But we are at different levels and he needs to ride with a faster group sometimes in order to acheive his own goals. When that happens, I want to make sure I still get a ride in. At the moment that generally means I head to Regent's Park for some laps, but in 2013 I want to figure out a way to do more than that. 

4. Conquer Iceland: We're hoping to tour for a few weeks in Iceland this summer. It's known for its stunning scenery, but also for its unpredictable and often inhospitable weather. I know it will be a real challenge, and a real adventure. I'm hoping to come out the other side feeling more confident and anything the world can throw at us while we're on a bike. 

Peak District March 2012

5. Spend more nights in the tent: We managed a few cyclo-camping trips and tours last year -- in the Peak District, France and Belgium, and Dartmoor. But we've invested in a fancy new tent (more on that in a future post) so now we need to get out and use it! And this year I'm hoping at least one of our camping trips will actually be in nice weather!

Looking forward to an even fuller 2013

Almost a year ago I wrote my first ever resolution list. Not that I am a big fan of such silly things, but looking back at it now, it feels that it has been a productive one.

In the Chiltern Hills, in a cold January day

In January we did our first audax of the season, and it went quite well. In further months, we clocked up a 200 km ride, then my first 300 (the Dean, with its superb route), and visited the Peak District. Came April, and we went on tour of Belgium and France, where we also watched the infamous Paris Roubaix. I also managed to ride a 200 km in under 9 hours, which it was a big surprise at the time!

In May we headed down South, to Bordeaux, for our Camino. It really was a great trip, and I highly recommend it to everyone. In June, we embarked on our first 400 km ride, which went ok, although Lucy found it a bit much and decided not to do more (ridiculously) long rides.

Riding the Dean 300 audax, in March, on shorts and t-shirt. With Ulfson, my companion for the day

I carried on with the silly aim of become a Super Randonneur, and kept clocking up the km to keep fit. We visited Shropshire, and enjoyed the English countryside at its best, in August.

September was fun. Not only I had a fantastic time touring in the West of Scotland, but also, I managed to ride 600 km all in one go. My thoughts about long rides were mixed by the time I finish though...possibly helped by the fact that I had a very sore butt for nearly the whole ride, and my rear hub was playing up since the very beginning.

Flooded roads in Dartmoor in late October. These days, Lucy and I are very rarely put off by rain, wind or cold. Not too long ago Lucy promised not to ride if the thermometers dropped below 10C!

Dartmoor, in October

October and November were also fairly pleasant, with a couple of long rides thrown in (here and here). I had by then decided to ride at least one 200 km audax per month.

December is a weird month, with the Xmas celebrations and all the stuff, so I did my monthly audax on the first weekend and try and enjoy other things the rest of the month.

Also, I became a Doctor (a PhD doctor!) after nearly four years of continuous efforts and struggle.

So, what about 2013:

- Keep doing my Randonneur Round the Year
- Visit Scotland in Easter, Outer Hebrides this time
- Go to Wales for a few audaxes, which will imply hills. Being Spanish, I have to love hills don't I?
- Ride the infamous Bryan Chapman Memorial audax with its 600 km and 8000 m climb, in May, in Wales
- A tour of Iceland. A long-standing dream of mine. It will possibly be wet, windy and miserable at times, but I am sure we will have a blast
- Fit in a bit more mtb rides, including the South Down Way
- Try and fit in as many tours as possible!!!

Route planning while en route

I still have mixed thoughts about the longer audax rides. This year is LEL (London-Edimburgh-London year), MGM (Madrid-Gijón-Madrid), and a few other long randonnées. None of them are cheap, and all require taking a week of annual leave. I think I would enjoy a week of touring a bit more than those rides.

Wish you all a good 2013 with plenty of scenic miles

Frosty bike computer. Bring on the kms in 2013! 

2012 in pictures

Inspired by one of the blogs we follow, we thought it would be nice to have a look at our 2012 year in a series of pictures, one per calendar month. Here we go!

January 2012: Lucy taking a break on a 100 km ride in the Chiltern Hills

February 2012: on my way to the London fish market, 4:30 am in an empty Holborn (Central London)

March 2012: our first 200 audax of the season (Up the Uts, picture by a ploddingpedro from YACF)

April 2012: Lucy blends in with the locals on the Paris Roubaix pavé

May 2012: climbing in the Peak District as a part of the Transpeninne Trail

June 2012: Lucy, Miguel and myself followed the Camino de Santiago, and made it to Santiago de Compostela after 1200 km from Bordeaux

July 2012: having a snooze at Dulwich beach, after 200 km ride from Central London on the 20th edition of the Dunwich Dynamo. This was the second time for us on this very fine ride

August 2012: the Shropshire countryside on the Kidderminster Killer 200 Audax

September 2012: Locharron, on my tour of the Western Isles of Scotland

October 2012: riding out of a thunderstorm on the Poor Student 200 DIY audax

November 2012: quick snack stop on the New Forest 200 audax

December 2012: route checking on a 50 km loop around Sevenoaks

Lucy's 2012 Year in Review

2012 has been a great year for my cycling. It's still hard to believe it was only my first full year  as an audaxer and that this time last year I had never been on a bike "tour" longer than two days. Looking back at my goals for the year, I have accomplished them all, though some to a greater degree than others. The one that will be remaining on my 2013 list of goals will be to improve my MTB skills - despite 1200km of Camino I'm still pretty skittish on the MTB.

MTBing 

We have been fortunate to take a few different cycling trips this year. Without a doubt cycling the Camino de Santiago is the highlight of the year, but our four-day tour of France and Belgium was lovely as well.

In the audax world, I didn't have any explicit goals apart from at least managing a 300. I accomplished that, and a 400, although I've since decided to concentrate on 200s and very special 300s for the time being. I did also acheive a Randonneur 1,000 award which felt good!

I'd have to say my favorite audax of the year was actually From Clee to Heaven, despite it not earning any points at 100km. I felt really strong on the hills and can still remember the feeling of not wanting the ride to end as we were approaching the last control. 

In April I participated in #30daysofbiking which turned out to be pretty miserable given that it literally rained every day in the month of April this year -- but it really helped me get into the habit of daily commuting and I have been commuting much more frequently ever since.

After a wet April ride!

I've also enjoyed more solo rides this year. I still have a long way to go, as I'm pretty wary of riding outside of London on my own, but it's been great sometimes to head to Regents Park for some laps on my own. 

I'll leave my goals for next year to a future blog post - suffice to say 2012 has been so enjoyable that it will be hard to beat!

A loop in the December Sunshine

The start of December was pretty miserable but last weekend the forecast suddently turned. A positively tropical 9 C (48 F) and supposedly sunny skies drew us out on the bikes on Saturday. I hadn't been on a long ride in several weeks, and we wanted to sleep in a bit, so we needed a shorter route than usual.

Fortunately, Alberto had just been sent some rides to test as part of a forthcoming book of cycle routes, so we were able to select a 48km loop out of Sevenoaks which seemed to fit the bill.

We got a late start but  after a train from Charing Cross, we were on the road in Sevenoaks by 11am. We regretted our lie-in when we saw how busy the road out of Sevenoaks was, but soon we were on quiet country lanes and all was well.

Wintry lanes out of Sevenoak

We had to stop at every junction to note the instruction for the book - which slowed us down a bit but was fun in that it provided us with a sense of mission. Until it started raining at about km 15 -- that did take some of the fun out of it.

Infamous Yorks Hill (going downhill, the easy way!)

Weather turned a bit nasty...yet still warm

Surprisely though, with the warm temperatures, we were not too miserable. It felt like a Spring shower rather than a winter storm. It helped to know that we were on a relatively short ride, so there was no chance that we'd have to cope with several more hours of rain, which is usually the case.

Another advantage of a short ride is that we didn't really need to stop for food - some chocolate on the bikes was all we needed to hold us over.

The route was fantastic - mainly quiet country lanes but passing through some interesting small towns as well. Had we not been worried about daylight we could have had a really lovely day out sampling the various cafes on the road. There were enough hills to keep it interesting, but none that gave any real trouble, despite the fact that I was out of shape.

Quick stop to shelter from the rain 

Rain sheltering

I don't think there are too many more days like that in our immediate future so it was great to enjoy it while we could!

Deserted lanes

Taking notes on the route