walking

All posts tagged walking

2024 continued my fitness consolidation with a combination of real-world activities when we were in the UK and in many parts of Europe (but not the Middle East where I didn’t venture outside the hotel to exercise), using the gym equipment for use in Alison’s personal training venture.

Since early November 2023, we’ve been back full time in the UK – other than holidays, of course – so the Pain Cave is visited pretty much every day first thing before work.

This definitely helps with the pain by building support for the affected areas including my knackered (necrosis-riddled) knee and the pelvis and spine from the motorcycle crash. ‘Helps’ but doesn’t get rid of the constant pain that I have had to come to terms with.

Anyway, moan over, here are the stats:

2024 Statistics

2024 Statistics

That one instance of using the gym? Yes just after Christmas when I decided to get some coaching from Alison as a PT to try and do some upper body work for a change, Must. Try. Harder.

Still, I’m impressed with the stats: 4,218.76km on bikes (real and virtual) with that epic 162.89km “Death Ride” back in February; and another 700km on two legs.

Not bad for a 62 year old?

Weight-wise? On the 1st of January 2024 I weighed 86.2kg with a body fat percentage of 24.5% and on 1st January 2025, I weighed 88.0kg with a body fat percentage of 24.6%.  I can live with that, but there’s still room for improvement.

December 2024 and my usual spike in weight whilst trying to cope with shorter, darker, drearier days and more work, work, work with deadlines to hit.

And did I mention three Christmas Dinners and a Christmas party?

Over on FulGaz, I completed their Around the World in 80 Days challenge and their Ironman Sprint Series as well as doing some more of John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges as usual.

Plus I continued with yet more (painful) treadmill runs with JRNY as well.

Here are Decmber’s stats:

December 2024 Statistics

December 2024 Statistics

Activities: 32 Distance: 384.40 km Time: 20:06:28 Calories:  18,978

Turning to my weight, at the end of November I weighed 85.9kg and at the end of December I weighed 88.1kg, which is up by 2.2kg!  Way too many Christmas Dinners and Mince Pies!

September 2024 saw the end of the holiday theme starting with a few days in Prague and ending with a weird week in Corralejo. Weird? Well the last time we were there it was as residents moving back to the UK full time and this time we were back as bloody tourists staying once more at Bahiazul.

The complex contains the ‘main’ Bahiazul operated villas but also others we’ve used before: Villas Veaco and KATIS Villas. The upside of booking with Bahiazul is two-fold:

  • Breakfast in their restaurant is included so that sets you up nicely for the day; and
  • You have access to the gym which is relatively good, though not as good as our Pain Cave.

As far as I was concerned, I could simply run or walk but my knees and post-crash issues make that uncomfortable to say the least, plus I wanted to ride a bike anyway.  This meant hiring a mountain bike from Easy Riders which was a painless experience and recommended.  As I knew I’d be heading out on the roads past the dunes, I needed to wear a bike helmet and didn’t fancy hiring one, so I bought an alpinestars Vector Pro Atom helmet and some needlessly flash Galibier Campionissimo Luxury gloves. Both were excellent.

The hire bike – a Trek Marlin 7 – had two issues for me:

  1. The gearing was great for climbs and no doubt spot-on for off-road riding, but on the road I was unable to pedal quicker than 31km/h due to the low gearing (104rpm cadence).  My fault for choosing an MTB but the road surfaces can be a tad iffy out there.
  2. The seat post kept descending due to my weight and the bumps, so I was needing to stop to heave it back up again because I didn’t have the necessary Allen key.

Lesson learned and next time I may hire a road bike or choose one with a larger front sprocket.

Anyway, here are September’s stats:

September 2024 Stats

September 2024 Stats

Activities: 41 Distance: 406.47 km Time: 31:12:40 Calories:  20,118

Turning to my weight, at the end of August I weighed 85.4kg and at the end of September I weighed 87.1kg, which is up 1.7kg.  Too many good breakfasts and restaurant dinners!

Welcome to 2024! Another year older; another year more knackered!

Back in the UK full time now so it’s time on the treadmill, a few outdoor walks up on Ash Ranges and popping to the Co-op, but mainly it’s the Schwinn and FulGaz who are now running their “FulGaz Grand Tour” which started on January 1st.  21 stages in Italy, France and Spain over 6 weeks.

Here are January’s stats:

January 2024 Stats

January 2024 Stats

Activities: 38 Distance: 434.25 kmTime: 29:40:18 Calories: 25,381

Turning to my weight, at the end of Deember I was 85.8kg, and at the end of January I weighed 85.9kg, up 0.1kg, so maintaining a fairly constant weight whilst eating healthily and not drinking too much with a few minor changes to my meals.

Not a good year at all: lots of injuries and illnesses plus work getting in the way.

Over the course of the year, that showed by a weight gain of 2.6kg/5.7lbs.

I cycled 119km in May, June and August rather than trying to cycle regularly at the weekends.

My running was limited to just 121km and May’s total came purely from just the MK Half-Marathon.

Walking to and from work with the occasional weekend wandering led to a total of 666km, which wasn’t really “Beasting” it…

Must. Try. Harder.

Lots of niggling little injuries and my duff knee is playing up at the moment, so I decided to bite the bullet and finally swap my very old work shoes for proper running shoes – oh the lack of style! – to try to limit the damage being done: last week I walked 49km apparently. So I’ve deided that for these more organised walks – walking to and from work if it’s not raining – I’d use the Garmin and and some new all black Nike Free RNs so I could record the mileage and monitor the life of the shoes to change them at probably 640km rather than the 480km of my running shoes. I almost certainly won’t bother with ‘full’ updates like these for the walks though!

Black Nike Free RN

Black Nike Free RN