Yesterday, after a disastrous weekend (food and activity wise) I decided it was time to get back on my bike and cycle in to work.  The trip to work on the bike is 28.7 km, which is a substantial amount of pedalling.  I started to cycle to work last year in May, mostly because I wanted to do something to make me feel good about myself in the wake of a very painful relationship demise (and also because I still had hope then of getting back together with the greatest love of my life, and wanted to impress her.  If I am honest with myself, a big motivation for this whole Milford Track thing is her.  My very last conversation with her was about wanting to get fit enough to do this walk with her.  I wanted to keep that promise, even if she never knows it – but enough of that sob story, I could descend into writing pages and pages on my feelings for and about her.  But nobody wants to read that!).  So I set myself a challenge in May 2014 to cycle every day of that month to work.  I would catch the train home, and cycle the last 5.5 km from the station to the car, for total cycle of 33 km a day.  And I accomplished that, then carried on cycling as much as possible, up to December 2014 where I stopped because my ankle had to be carved up to get rid of some melanoma.  I have never really got back into it since.

When I started walking I had less inclination to cycle.  It would have been too difficult to both cycle and increase my walking time and distances.  But now I think I am getting to a fitness level where I can do that.

So I trialled it yesterday.

My butt is not cycle fit.  Only 10 min into the eventual 1 hr 20 min cycle my backside was sore!  I had hoped dropping so much weight would make it easier.  It hadn’t.  The ride itself wasn’t that difficult.  It was a good clear morning to do it.  But my original assessment that introducing cycling would be at the detriment of walk looks to be accurate.  So I will assess it, and see if it is something I want to proceed with.

Effort wise I think I get more bang for my hour out of walking, but if cycling can introduce more activity to my day, without compromise to my walking time, I will definitely do it.

It is obvious that routine is my friend.  The past week and definitely the weekend has been very counter-routine, and as such my activity and my eating has suffered.  I have to plan and stick to my meals if I am going to conquer the fat-man within.  Winging it, or just trying to adapt to events and circumstances only results in failure.  Routine is the key here I think.  And with two overseas trips / holidays in the upcoming months that routine is going to be difficult to achieve.