One week down, 51 to go!

It's 5:30pm on the first Friday of 2016 and I've managed to bumble my way through my first week back to work, so I'm celebrating with a well earned beer in Look Mum No Hands. I had told myself that I'd try to get through the week without an acoholic beverage (in preparation for my upcoming Denbies 10 miler on the 17th) but the week has been grim enough without depriving myself of at least one bit of joy.

It has however been a productive week outside of the office - I've ran twice and played squash for the first time in 6 months (it only hurts when I move!). I've also signed up to the 10km Dash for the Splash run on Wimbledon Common and entered the ballot for the London Surrey 100 bike ride in July so all is looking good on the exercise front at the moment.

What will 2016 entail for me then? After my year of microadventure last year I really appreciate the mentality of making time for things that you enjoy, in fact to me it was a way of embracing life and getting outside of the monotony of the everyday routine. I fully intend to continue that this year but with a different approach. I'm compiling a big list of things that I would like to do or that I've never gotten around to doing and am going to try and complete as many of them this year that I can - let's say it's a 2016 bucket list!

It's a work in progress but here's what I've got so far (in no particular order):

  • SUP (Stand up paddleboarding)
  • Running a half marathon (ideally the Great North Run)
  • Return to climbing
  • Winter mountain skills course (snowholing or something similar)
  • Bushcraft/Survival skills course
  • Mushroom (or other) foraging course
  • Kayaking along the Thames
  • Complete an obstacle course or Tough Mudder style challenge
  • Ride a Boris bike
  • Visit the British Museum
  • Ice climbing
  • Complete my motorbike CBT (compulsory basic training)
  • Go to a rollerskating disco
  • Via ferrata
  • Wild swimming
  • Visit as many London breweries and microbreweries as I can
  • A horse ride somewhere in the countryside
  • Riding the South Downs Way in a day on a mountain bike (when I get a new bike!)
  • Buy a new mountain bike
  • Try Parkour
  • Go packrafting
  • Shooting
  • Fishing

Quite a lot there already, think it's going to be a busy year ahead! :-)