Walking

All the Gear; No Idea

Posted by Richard on 13th August 2023
Posted in: Diary, Gear, Home Gym, Pain Cave, Running, Walking. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Our home gym here in Ash, Surrey continues to expand: we now have a Schwinn 800IC/IC8 for my virtual cycling with FulGaz and JRNY; we have a ForceUSA G3 All-In-One Gym Set coupled with a BodyMax 145kg Barbell and Weight Set; a ProForm Cardio HIIT L6 Trainer for herself to do her stair stepping; and now we’ve just added a Bowflex BFX56 Treadmill 56/Treadmill 22 (depending upon where in the world you are {metric/imperial}).

The Bowflex BFX56 Treadmill is their top of the range model and features a fabulous 22″/56cm screen for their JRNY app to run on and the deck can have an incline from -5% to +20% gradient and also folds to save a bit of space when not in use.

So yes, there’s no excuse for us not getting fitter and leaner.

Herself – despite being a qualified personal trainer – has also enlisted the help of another personal trainer who specialises in getting bodybuilding athletes ready for competition. Yes, Alison will soon be competing in some Bikini Class bodybuilding contests in 2024. Watch this space!

The plan then will be for her to start offering personal trainer services herself with a focus on women and particularly Mums/mature women who may not feel comfortable in a full-on gym situation.

Bowflex BFX56 Treadmill
Bowflex BFX56 Treadmill – Incline
Bowflex BFX56 Treadmill Folded
Bowflex BFX56 Treadmill Console
ForceUSA G3 All-In-One Trainer
ProForm Cardio HIIT L6 Trainer
Schwinn 800IC Bike
Schwinn 800IC Bike
Schwinn 800IC Bike and iPad

July 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 31st July 2023
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

July started out in Fuerteventura for a few days before I had to head back to the UK to then fly out to Johannesburg for a week and a half of pretty much full-on work that left no time for exercise, sadly. I did manage one workout in the hotel’s very basic gym on the Sunday morning before heading in to the Client’s office, but that was it.

Here are the results which are way down on June’s:

July 2023 Statistics

July 2023 Statistics

Activities: 21 Distance: 257.86 km Time: 16:28:38 Calories: 14,505

Turning to my weight, at the end of June I was 83.5kg, and after an impromptu meal out last night, this morning I weighed 83.9kg, up 0.4kg, but also up 0.9kg from the day before, so nothing to worry about.

 

June 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1st July 2023
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, indoor cycling, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Starting back at home in Ash, it was a lot of virtual cycling with the occasional walk on a ‘rest’ day, then we flew back out to Corralejo the last Monday of June.

Here are the stats:

June 2023 Stats

June 2023 Stats

Activities: 28 Distance: 556.93 km Time: 20:19:17 Calories: 17,855

As for weight stats, at the end of June I was 83.5kg, up 1.4kg from 82.1kg in May. Must. Try. Harder.

May 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1st June 2023
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, indoor cycling, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

We came back from  Corralejo, Fuerteventura, in early May 2023 so this month was a mixture of real-world cycling, virtual cycling and the occasional walk.

These are the stats:

May 2023 Stats

May 2023 Stats

Activities: 29 Distance: 502.23 km Time: 22:12:12 Calories: 18,956

Moving on to weight, at the end of April I weighed 85kg but by the end of May I was down 2.9kg to 82.1kg with a low of 81.8kg.

April 2023 Stats

Posted by Richard on 30th April 2023
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Hiking, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

April 2023 was spent in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, so that meant lots of real-world cycling and the occasional walk or hike during photoshoots/location scouting.

One downside was an ear infection needing a visit to the Centro Salud – which is still not properly sorted – that seemed to be going around friends and family.

Still, these are the stats:

April 2023 Stats

April 2023 Stats

Activities: 28 Distance: 304.14 km Time: 18:27:44 Calories: 12,657

Moving on to weight, at the end of March I weighed 83.7kg but by the end of April I was up 1.3kg to 85kg due to family being out for 2 weeks plus my birthday meals. {sigh}

August 2022 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1st September 2022
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Gear, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

We were still out in Corralejo for the first half of August 2022.

Back in London, it was a case of hammering the cheapo indoor bike, thinking we’d buy a Peloton bike when we move to Surrey and have a bigger garage and separate gym.  The Amazon special was OK, but I couldn’t stand up on it despite the Apple Fitness+ trainers suggesting I could.

And then a couple of things happened: a news article about Peloton’s losses being “an existential threat” made us think about whether a Peloton would be a good idea after all. They’re very expensive and rely on a paid subscription to Peloton if you want to do the guided rides (which I had really enjoyed in Big Sur).  If they went bust, the screen would effectively be useless and the purpose of the really expensive bike would go with them.

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.

Here are the stats for my 266km in August 2022:

August 2022 Stats

June 2022 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1st July 2022
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Gear, Hiking, Running, Walking. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

Back in June 2022, I was walking for fitness but was having a lot of pain in my bad knee, the one that I’d seen a consultant about back in 2012 who said I should stop running … before I ran the Berlin Marathon and a couple of half-marathons.

I had been recommended cycling, so was trying to introduce more of this into my training and then went to the USA in early June to do the Pacific Coast Highway. While we were there, I tried a Peloton fitness bike in a really expensive hotel we stayed at in Big Sur and started looking into buying one, just before seeing my consultant again.

He again recommended some weight loss and half an hour every day on a bicycle, with a recommendation for a cheap static bike.  That got me into finally using Apple Fitness+ and 30 minute rides.

So, here are my stats for June 2022.

June 2022 Stats

First ‘Run’ in 5½ Months

Posted by Richard on 29th March 2022
Posted in: Diary, Running, Walking. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

This morning I went for my first attempt at running since last October.

My Garmin fēnix 7S records or interpolates from the stride data/cadence when you’re running and when you’re walking which is useful.

In other blog news, I’ve long been sharing my Garmin Connect activities with Strava, so in the absence of ‘proper’ integration with Garmin Connect, I’ve added Strava’s activities list over there in the margin and a separate page up there at the top.

An Update and Refocus

Posted by Richard on 9th February 2022
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Hiking, Running, Walking, Weight. Tagged: . 1 comment

I’ve had a quick read of my running blog and I mention – but only in passing – the crash I had back in July 2019 that left me with “life-changing injuries”.

Since that other blog post with most of the details, I’ve had the rest of my little finger amputated (in December 2020) and I’m left with constant pain and a sufficient degree of disability to have qualified for a “blue badge” here in the UK.  Part of the pain management has been for us to move for part of the year out to Corralejo on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco with its low rainfall and warm temperatures all year round, which definitely helps reduce the pain in my hand and pelvis.

It also means that I am more able to go for walks and cycle rides to try to loosen up my joints, lose weight (to lessen the duty on my pelvis/hips) and to work on my ‘wellness’ generally.

The aim is still to try to run but I try to avoid painkillers and running piles that pain on! So it’s a slow and steady race to reduce weight for less strain on my joints – my consultant years ago told me to avoid running because of my knee gradually wearing out – by exercising and eating healthily, especially as I hit 60 years old this year.