I'm hesitant about setting out ambitions for 2014 during the first month of the year. As they say, 'If you want to give God a laugh, tell him your plans'.
However, I've learnt training is most effective focused on specific goals, and you only fully commit when you tell people. So in the coming year, we have two objectives.
Firstly, Liz has decided she'd like us to cycle LeJog - Lands End to John O'Groats - for which I blame Cameron McNeish.
Liz came along when we were shooting a Wild Walk for the Adventure Show, and Cameron enthused about his LeJog so much, she was hooked.
Coming from our long distance backpacking heritage, Liz of course doesn't want to do a fast-paced supported trip. We will aim to travel light, carry all we need and stay at B&Bs, booking as we go.
We have the CTC route mapped already. (experienced LeJog-ers please add comments & suggestions!)
We have the CTC route mapped already. (experienced LeJog-ers please add comments & suggestions!)
To this end Liz's Christmas gift from me was a Specialized Dolce Sport bike, the aluminium version of her beloved carbon Specialized Ruby Elite. She would ride on the Dolce and I would ride my old aluminium Trek 1.3.
Last week I did something exceptionally stupid. I drove under a car park height restrictor in Glen Nevis with my Trek and Liz's beloved Ruby on the roof rack. I can still hear the God-awful crunch! The result is major repairs to the car and both bikes written off.
We're still currently working out what bikes we're going to use to ride LeJog. Liz is OK with her Dolce but I'll probably have to use my carbon Roubaix onto which I've just put Hope carbon wheels - they'll be coming off!
Our other goal is to (finally) kayak Shetland. We've aimed to do this for the last four years and each time there's been a reason why we had to switch plans. This summer, with no DVD to shoot and me having decided against riding l'Etape du Tour, there's a good chance we'll make it.
That is, provided I can shake off a hip / leg injury I've had since September.
Things are slowly improving but it has been taking a while. I've lost a lot of power and endurance from my cycling, but I have rediscovered running, which hurts my leg less.
Tucked away in the back of my mind I have a few other ambitions but, mainly due to the injury, I doubt I'll achieve them this year.
So cycling LeJog and kayaking Shetland are our two main goals. Provided I don't drive into something with the kayaks on the roof!
Things are slowly improving but it has been taking a while. I've lost a lot of power and endurance from my cycling, but I have rediscovered running, which hurts my leg less.
Tucked away in the back of my mind I have a few other ambitions but, mainly due to the injury, I doubt I'll achieve them this year.
So cycling LeJog and kayaking Shetland are our two main goals. Provided I don't drive into something with the kayaks on the roof!