2020 was a funny old year

Now that we’re almost two weeks into 2021 I thought it would be a good idea to have a look back at 2020, definitely a very different year. Race wise I managed two, one in early March before the lockdown and the other a very small ultra run in October. Both of them were highly enjoyable. However, there were numerous cancelled races that me and my lovely wife had entered; the Oldham Way Ultra, Castle to Coast Triathlon and two open water swims later in the year. Another large struggle for the year was not being able to travel as we would have liked. Our annual bicycle touring week was cancelled and we’ve hardly been out of the county, so most of our mini-adventures have been closer to home.

Distance wise 2020 was the second lowest for me since I joined Strava, although I ran more than any other year. However, I only managed 30 swims over the whole year. Less than 10 parkruns as well.

It’s not all been doom and gloom. Me and my lovely wife had had some really great days out, but at the moment we’re both feeling a bit locked in. We definitely need a week away somewhere. Hopefully 2021 will be better. Anyway, at least I’ve not been banned from Twitter 🙂

Year in Review – 2017

It’s that time of the year when everyone posts about what they did in the previous year. 2018 for me was a quiet year with no major races. I did manage 19 races/events, which was made up of a couple of swims (here and here), a couple of sportives (here and here), one triathlon (here) and the rest were parkruns, reaching the milestone of 25 (here).

In last year’s review (here) I stated that I wanted to increase my Veloviewer explorer score, and my max explorer square. Job done on both of them as you can see in the images below. The top one is from the end of 2016, and the bottom one from the end of 2017.

I also stated that I intended to do Ironman UK. For various reasons that didn’t happen (here), although I wasn’t too disappointed. I also wanted to reach 300 Strava challenges, which I managed (here and here), and by the end of 2018 I was up to 368, so it won’t be too long before I hit 400. I also intended to blog at least once a week, and last year I blogged over 80 times, so another box ticked.

Distance wise, apart from swimming 100 miles, I wasn’t too worried about how far, although the excellent infographic from Veloviewer shows that I still did a few miles, and notched up something everyday.

Other highlights of the year included a weekend away touring with my wife at Easter (here, here and here) and eight days cycling around the highlands of Scotland. I’ve not blogged about that because I’m aiming to release it as a free ebook, once I’ve finished writing it up. The touring with Helen is probably one of the reasons why the roster from Strava labs (here) indicates that in 2017 I completed 59 activities over a total of 6 days. Second was my old friend Professor Badass at 1.5 days and 10 activities.

I don’t really have specific targets for 2018, except more touring with my wife, and increasing my Veloviewer cluster. I might even enter the Salford Triathlon.

Here’s wishing you all a great 2018, and keep on keeping on.

2016 – End of year review

December

Before I give you run down on 2016, a quick re-cap on December. I completed another 9 Strava challenges, taking my total to 272. I also added 67 more explorer tiles, 140 new segments and completed the Lancaster parkrun once.

2016

So what did I do in 2016. I managed 17 races/events, which surprised me, and it did include a continuous triple ironman (blog entry coming soon), 4 sportives and 11 parkruns.

Distance wise, VeloViewer once again comes up trumps.

It wasn’t the highest total for cycling, but it was for running, even with hardly running in the last couple of months. Over the year I also rode 8 different bikes:

• Brompton (borrowed) 126km
• Fuji 164km
• Trek Cobia (sold) 227km
• Colnago (given away) 501km
• Trek 920 645km
• Principia 763km
• Forme 2618km
• Scott 11149km

Most of my miles have been done on my Scott, which is in for a much needed service next week at The Edge Cycleworks in Lancaster. Next year I vow to ride my Fuji and Principia more. I have new tri bars for the fuji and will attempt to set it up more comfortably.

One measure that I love is the explorer score, which shows new places that I’ve been, and has gradually increased over the year.

Some more interesting cumulative stats from my years on Strava:

• Kudos; 2012 – 61, 2013 – 1591, 2014 – 5234, 2015 – 15150, 2016 – 40273.
• Explorer; 2012 – 1402, 2013 – 2624, 2014 – 3938, 2015 – 5096, 2016 – 5932.
• Maximum explorer square; 2012 – 6×6, 2013 – 9×9, 2014 – 9×9, 2015 – 12×12, 2016 – 14×14.

Plans for 2017:

• Increase my explorer score, and take my max square to 15×15 or more.
• Ironman UK. Not sure how that happened.
• More photos, stopping more often to look at the views.
• Make the most of every day.
• Support my beautiful wife as she attempts to swim 50 miles and run 500 miles in 2017.
• Achieve 300 Strava challenges.
• Blog once a week, and maybe even blog about last years triple 🙂

Here’s wishing you all a great 2017. Keep on keeping on.