Next year already

I am always planning something. Whether it's my training and racing schedule for the coming season, months, weeks and days or looking further ahead to next year and family holidays or weekend works rides.

My training and racing plans are pretty much done and laid out for the next 4 months, with goals and objectives defined, training periods building to specific races, and sessions set out progressively to take me through the season.

So now my thoughts wander to next year. Holidays are already booked or penciled for Easter and the Summer.

I have some personal cycling goals/challenges that have been on my "to-do" list for a long time. These included; The Raid Pyrenean, Hell of the North Cotswolds, The Pennine Bridleway (in particular the Mary Townley Loop as I used to walk parts of it when I was a boy), The Trans Cambrian Way, The Fred Whitton, Alpe d'Huez Triathlon, go and sample the experience of a World Cup CX race. There are are others that I have done and know I could do some what better, like The Helvellyn Triathlon, The 3 Peaks Cyclocross and The Tour of the Corn Fields.

So what can I choose to knock off the list next year? HoNC is possible as I should be available that weekend. The Raid and The Alpe are out due to other holiday commitments. The Mary Townley Loop or the Trans-Cambrian Way could be built into a works cycling weekend in July if I can get enough interest and enough time off family duties. Probably top on the agenda at the moment is the 3 Peaks Cyclocross but it will mean a lot of planning and dedication as I will only be retuning from touring Europe with the family 3 weeks before the race and I would need to make sure that it doesn't clash with one of my wife's races again.

But at the moment I need to focus on the CX season ahead. I will now be racing every weekend in October and then if I put myself into a National Trophy race in November that'll be 3 weekends out of 4 - or put another way, one weekend off for bonfire night between now and December! So this afternoon is lactate tolerance reps, in the rain by the looks of things - so bring it on!