Archives

All posts by Richard

Schwinn 800IC/IC8

Posted by Richard on 13th August 2023
Posted in: Fitness, Gear, virtual cycling. Tagged: , , , .

I forgot to do much more than mention that I was getting a Schwinn 800IC/IC8 as I started out last summer using a cheapo Amazon special exercise bike along with Apple Fitness+.

I looked at what Apple recommended/were using for their Fitness+ workouts and they were Schwinn bikes.  In the UK they’re supplied by – amongst others, I’m sure – Fitness Superstore and they had an offer on the Schwinn 800IC (formerly the IC8): already listed at half list price, they had an additional 10% off for the Bank Holiday weekend, so I pressed the button on one for delivery in early September 2022.

With the Schwinn’s arrival came physiotherapy, pain consultations and then experiments with Apple Fitness+, the first year’s free subscription to Bowflex’s JRNY app, and a trial of FulGaz.  The latter two are different from Fitness+ in that Apple are offering different duration classes only whereas the other two offer virtual rides using video of the actual routes.

In FulGaz’s case, they are adaptive workouts: speeding up or slowing down the videos to suit your pace/power which the app reads from the Schwinn.  They’re also linked to my Garmin fēnix 7S for my heart rate.

The other benefit of using FulGaz is that after each ride, it emails you a FIT file which you can import into Garmin Connect giving you the full details of the ride.  JRNY does not do this, sadly, but you can manually add further detail to Garmin Connect if you record a ride on JRNY and your Garmin fēnix 7S.

Anyway, here are some photos of the Schwinn, which has now done 2,800km…  I simply use an old iPad Air 2 to run FulGaz of JRNY and then after a workout, plug it back into the Schwinn’s USB port to charge it again.

Schwinn 800IC

Schwinn 800IC

Schwinn 800IC with a Tablet

March 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 31st March 2023
Posted in: Diary, Fitness, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

As noted in last month’s stats, we moved house in early March and it took a few more days to set up the home gym before we headed back out to Corralejo.

In the meantime, we had family come over to stay, bringing with us a nice viral infection that hit Alison first and then me, affecting sleep and hence energy levels. Bloody kids!

March 2023 Stats

March 2023 Stats

Activities: 11 Distance: 185.54 km Time: 6:25:41 Calories: 6,262

In terms of weight, at the end of February I weighed 85.1kg and at the end of March I was down to 83.7kg, down by 1.4kg.

February 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 28th February 2023
Posted in: Diary, Fitness, indoor cycling, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Well February started out with us being out in Corralejo doing road riding. In the second week, we flew back to the UK and after a day’s break due to work commitments it was back into the pain cave and onto the Schwinn for more challenges on FulGaz until the last weeks of February when we had to pack everything up for our impending move down to Surrey.

Normal service was only resumed in mid-March, just before another trip back out to Fuerteventura.

February 2023 Stats

Activities: 26 Distance: 432.90 km Time: 18:52:47 Calories: 16,061

As for weight, it’s down 2.4kg from 87.5kg to 85.1kg at the end of Februa

January 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 31st January 2023
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Weight, YouTube. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Another month flies by! We’ve spent all of January 2023 out in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, which means that all my exercise has been outdoor. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the weather has actually felt really wintry – for Fuerteventura, anyway! – with strong winds, cloudy conditions and the occasional bit of rain, even!

On the days it’s been too windy to cycle, I’ve tried to walk. So here are the stats from Garmin Connect:

January 2023 Stats

January 2023 Stats

Activities: 33; Distance: 346.85 km; Time: 22:41:46; Calories: 15,798.

As for my weight, this morning it’s 87.5kg after a really bad weekend for eating out (and drinking) but at least it’s still down by 0.8kg from the end of December when my weight was 88.3kg.

Here’s a little video of today’s ride. I’m actually wearing a new cycle helmet after I got stopped yesterday by the Guardia Civil for not wearing a helmet on rural roads:

December 2022 Stats and 2022 Summary

Posted by Richard on 31st December 2022
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, LEJOG, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Well most of December 2022 was spent on the Schwinn doing FulGaz challenges but we flew out to Fuerteventura at oh-dark-hundred hours yesterday and today I finished off the year with a real-life 15km road ride on the MTB. So here’s December’s stats showing the 650km overall distance:

December 2022 Stats

December 2022 Stats

That means that 2022’s stats overall are:

Activities: 306; Distance: 2,960.23 km; Time: 194:39:42; Calories: 122,924.

As for my weight, well it’s too late to measure like for like today because I’ve had coffee, freshly-squeezed orange juice and croissants out in the garden this morning, but yesterday’s weight was 88.3kg.  That’s down by 9.6kg (21.2lbs or 1½ stone) from New Year’s Day 2022 when my weight was 97.9kg. That’ll do, pig!

November 2022 Stats

Posted by Richard on 30th November 2022
Posted in: Diary, Fitness, LEJOG, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Well thanks to that utter shitshow that is Brexit, we had to fly back to the UK mid-November so as not to outstay our welcome in the EU.

This meant that there was a switch from the longer real-world rides I was doing on a relatively heavy mountain bike back to indoor cycling on the Schwinn, so it was back to using FulGaz again.  I’ve mentioned I decided – very rashly – to do their “LEJOG Challenge“, so the mileage (and time in our gym) has risen a tad…

This month’s total therefore is up to 554.59km.

My weight at the start of the month was 91kg and at the end it had surpassed my first goal and stood at 88.9kg.  This is down from 98.2kg as recently as mid-August (1 stone 4lbs weight loss).

FulGaz LEJOG Stage 1: Lands End to St. Ives

Posted by Richard on 22nd November 2022
Posted in: Diary, LEJOG. Tagged: , .

As I mentioned in this post, I’m doing the Land’s End to John O’Groats challenge on FulGaz and this was the first day and first stage:

One small problem: although the 20-stage challenge runs until February 2023, I won’t be near the Schwinn to ride it after Christmas as I’ll be back out in Fuerteventura then. Ah… Looks like it’s going to be a tad intense.

FulGaz LEJOG Challenge

Posted by Richard on 18th November 2022
Posted in: challenge, Diary, events, Fitness, Gear, John O'Groats, Land's End. Tagged: , , , .

If you’ve been checking in on this blog with my monthly workout stats and/or following my latest individual workout activities over here, then you’ll know that while I’m in the UK, I tend to just use our Schwinn 800IC static bike and I’m pretty much settling for FulGaz as my preferred workout program, given its “adaptive” video rides.

I’ve received an update from FulGaz today about the “LEJOG Challenge“: Land’s End to John O’Groats over 500km and 20 stages, most being over an hour and some like Hardknott Pass being a little bit ‘bumpy’ too…

Still, what could possibly go wrong?

Remember Me?

Posted by Richard on 11th July 2022
Posted in: amputations, COVID-19, Diary, polytrauma, RTC. Tagged: , , .

Well a lot has happened since the last update in April 2019, the main things being a crash with life-changing injuries and a global pandemic.

So in chronological order, there was a road traffic collision in July 2019 between a car (knobhead) and a motorcycle (me) which ended up costing me two fingers on my left hand and a lifetime of pain. The main injuries are outlined in this blog post, but it meant that after I left hospital and started walking again, I couldn’t grip a handlebar, so motorbikes and pushbikes weren’t on the agenda for a year or two.

Whilst I was recuperating and working full time, COVID-19 came along and we ended up working from home.  Given the Brompton was intended mainly for my commute, cycling up and down the stairs between my bed and my desk wasn’t really an option, and so it languished in the garage.

We were intending to buy a villa in Corralejo, Fuerteventura and live there for part of the year but that gift that keeps giving – Brexit – got in the way, so we can only spend 90 out of every 180 days (on a rolling basis) in the Schengen Area and we didn’t get residency due to COVID-19 lockdowns – Spanish and British – stopping us from being able to prove residency to the satisfaction of the Spanish Government (what a wonderful Catch 22 situation).

So we are renting the villa on a ‘rent to buy’ basis and I thought the Brompton would be great to nip to the shops on, so bought a padded travel bag to fly it across. We then decided two things: we would actually hire a car for the full duration of our stays; and that we would both need a bike, so a couple of mountain bikes were bought and that’s what I’m using out here at the moment, racking up 208km so far at the time of writing.

The Brompton remains in the garage…

We are buying a house in Surrey now, near to a railway station, so you never know: I might possibly use it when/if I have to go into London for work. If not, then it may be up for sale…