New Year Revolutions

We’re at that point in the calendar when we’re collectively encouraged to set goals and challenges that most of us kind of expect to forget about before the last of the turkey leftovers are finally consumed. Until last year I skillfully avoided creating grandiose plans from the comfort of my winter armchair. But by the time Big Ben sounded the first seconds of 2015 I already had the bones of a plan that led to me spending a week of my hard-earned holiday lugging my bike and 17+ stones of me 500 miles from the Dales to and through the Scottish Highlands – a feat few (including me for most of that week) thought was possible.

Two things today have combined and contrived to remind me that I haven’t any such plans for 2016 and given me urge to generate some. First Strava emailed me inviting me to view a film of my 2015 achievements. Anyone with a Strava account has access to their year to date stats at any point, but the animated presentation made me smile.

Second I picked up the story of Kajsa Tylen who is taking on Billie Fleming’s 78 year-old record for number of miles (29,603) cycled by a woman in a calendar year. Guinness World Records have set the mark for the ride to count as a new world record at 50,000 km in the year – getting on for twice the distance (29,000 km) Guinness requires for cycling round the world – supported only by her mum. On her website – ayearinthesaddle.com Kajsa asks adults to “pledge sweat“, so that’s what I’m doing.

I’m not giving myself specific events to complete, places to visit, or routes to follow. I’m simply stating that in 2016 I will do everything I can to double the distance I covered, the height I climbed and the hours I spent in the saddle in 2015. I’ll log my rides here and keep a running total going. If I can work out how to put a counter on the homepage, I will.

So the targets are:

1 – 150,000ft climing

2 - 200 hrs cycling

3 – 3,000 miles covered

Give Kajsa a follow @yearinthesaddle and make your own #SweatPledge