Starting the year off on a positive note, I thought I’d list the challenges I’m attempting in 2012. I’m doing this in the knowledge that I wasn’t successful with some of those I set myself for 2011, yet managed the cycling challenge I threw in later on. I don’t know whether that makes me more realistic or not, but I intend to have a bigger spread of challenges this year all the same.
Of the ones I did not complete from last year, the Post-a-week WordPress challenge is the first I’ll attempt again. I didn’t give it my best effort and ran out of steam pretty quickly. However, this year I’m doing some interesting (to me) things early on that’ll hopefully keep the ball rolling until spring at least.
Now, at the risk of bending the rules slightly, I still have a week to complete my skateboarding challenges if I take it from the the day I posted my challenges in 2011.
Out of the three tricks I set myself, I can land an Ollie fairly regularly now, so I’m generously marking that one as done. However, the Rock to Fakie (which I mistakenly said was a Rock ‘n’ Roll) is proving a tough nut to crack. I’ve almost done it so many times that I feel like I’ve been on the cusp of rolling away in triumph for most of the year. Unfortunately, I didn’t skate at all from June to October because I needed to focus on my road biking challenge. That break cost me dearly and the last couple of months I feel like I’ve been building up to it again. The 50-50 grind might well have to wait, although there are a couple of shortcuts to doing it that I could explore.
Having yet to complete last year’s skateboarding challenges it seems ambitious to add more, but I really do think that I would have managed them if I hadn’t taken the summer off and I am very close with them. So this year there’ll be no let up and my intention is to skate throughout the summer, even when my attentions turn to the cycling challenges.
So, my skateboarding challenges this year will be cresting the spine of the pool in hall 1 at Unit 23, dropping in from the high ledge of the pool, and perfecting a tail stall. If I can’t manage the Rock to Fakie or the 50-50 grind then those will be roll over challenges.
With cycling, I’m attempting 4 tough events that will mean I really need to raise my level of fitness on the bike.
The events are tiered nicely, as Bealach Beag is a tough 43 miler, whilst Bealach Mor is a twice-as-tough 90 miler, with the Graeme Obree Sportive sitting somewhere in between. I want to shave over an hour and a half off my Pedal for Scotland time to get it under 6 hours, so the increase in difficulty should bring my fitness up to a level that makes that a realistic goal.
However, what I don’t want to do is make road biking so all-consuming in the summer like it was last year. I’d like to do a good number of mountain biking rides, too, so I intend to be mixing it up and joining in with the MTB Glasgow rides again.
Throw in my anti-junk-food challenge and you can see that this should be a very healthy year. The aim of that one is to only eat junk food once each month at the most. Stuff like McDonalds, chip shop fodder, or alcohol induced visits to Mr Kebab will all count towards this. So unless I’m really disciplined it could be a tough one to maintain!
Finally, I have an over all body fitness challenge that’s along the lines of being in the best physical shape of my life by the day of my birthday in July. We’re talking sculpted here – washboard abs, the lot. I got myself into damn good shape in 2007, but let things slide a bit since I moved back to Scotland in 2008 and haven’t been consistent in my workout routine at all.
So that’s the plan, but first I have a week to nail those remaining two skateboarding challenges if I’m to declare last year’s challenges a resounding success. If I’m posting this time next year that I only missed out on a couple of this year’s ones I think I’ll have done pretty well. 🙂
