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.
