And there goes 2018

Well that was one hell of a year !

We sold the house and are waiting to move.  The conveyancing is taking a little longer than it should thanks to a retaining garden wall at the new house.  Fingers crossed we'll be in by the end of January.

I was awarded a Local Hero award for my work volunteering on my local park and we went to Portugal.

I've taken part in a couple of challenges, both for Challenge the Norm in aid of Mind,

only one cycle sportive this year but the big change is that I started cycling to work during the summer.   I'm hoping to do it more in 2019.

I'm quite pleased with my stats for 2018 compared to 2017 - 20 more rides and over 300km further - an average of just over 11km per ride.   It would be great next year to do some longer weekend rides with Shaun instead of going out on my own.   Could have done with a few more active days but then Strava and Garmin don't count dog walking - which is more or less every day.

We've had some lovely trips in Tribby - my favourite was definitely the Isle of Wight, probably because we had amazing weather and for the first time we took the bikes with us. 

We're currently deciding where we go in 2019

Life is a bit on hold with the house and we've also got a wedding to start paying for.   Danni and Joel have booked their wedding venue for October 2020!

It's our 30th wedding anniversary this year so we're hoping to do something special - watch this space!

I didn't manage to lose much weight this year so it needs some working on in 2019. 

As we go in to the new year I've signed up for RED January and hoping to be active every day.

Had a good reading challenge in 2018 - managed to read 13 books!  I've got all my reading lined up for 2019.

Challenge the Norm is Done !

Hooray November is done and so is my Challenge the Norm cycle challenge in aid of Mind.

My original pledge was 86 miles as I wasn't sure if I could do any rides other than spin class.  It did however go better than I envisaged even though I didn't manage to get to all my planned spin classes.

To complete my miles I've cycled to work, been to spin, gone back to the gym and done the spinathon at work.  You can read about most of it here.

My second November ride to work was lovely - I managed to get my clothing right to keep warm as it's now getting colder but it was dry with a horrible easterly wind - which was good to get into work but not so pleasant on the way home.   It's on days like that you feel glad to be alive and it's always enlightening to see the sun come up!   The last couple of times I've cycled in I've wanted to keep going instead of going to straight into work.  I got in a bit too early to make an appearance at the office so I pushed on to Hove Lagoon.  I was glad I did because I was rewarded with a lovely sunrise

Cycling home was less enjoyable with the easterly wind and it started to rain.   I'm hoping that I'll be able to cycle in during December but I'm not doing it if rain is forecast, or high winds!

I've completed 200 miles over November and I'm now in possession of this beauty.

The best thing about the challenge is that I'm back in the gym and I'm goping to keep it up during December.   I'm already signed up for RED January which is similar to Janathon in that I've got to exercise every day during January.   No idea how successful it will be as Wednesdays are always a sticking point.

The arrival of December also sees the last month of the reading challenge - I'm on my last read of the year which means I should complete the 12 reads of the year.    We're already deciding the categories for 2019 but I might try and push it to 14 reads.