Fitness

Well February 2024 turned out to be quite the month for events and exercise.

I did a couple of runs on the treadmill, a few outdoor walks up around Virginia Water, but mainly it was more time attached to the Schwinn and FulGaz, first with the completion of their “FulGaz Grand Tour” which started on January 1st.  21 stages in Italy, France and Spain over 6 weeks.

I completed that in mid-February finishing in 12th place overall in 1108 hrs, 27 mins having covered 487.94km.

We then went off for a weekend in Tenerife and La Gomera riding motorcycles with the Bike Shed and Canary Ride.

The following weekend I had planned my next mad event: to take part in the Death Ride Challenge running during February:

“The Death Ride, also known as the Tour of the California Alps, is the toughest ride on FulGaz. It covers 163 kilometres and 3992 metres of ascent, with six epic climbs over Monitor Pass, Ebbetts Pass, and Carson Pass.”

I did that in under 6½ hours, finishing the challenge in 5th place overall.  I’ve very chuffed with that!

Anyway, here are February’s stats:

February 2024 Stats

February 2024 Stats

Activities: 34 Distance: 594.25 kmTime: 30:50:26 Calories: 24,222

Turning to my weight, at the end of January I was 85.9kg, and at the end of February I weighed 84.4kg, so down 1.5kg, which I’m pleased with.

Yes, I know that sounds a wee bit melodramatic, but this is a very challenging 100 mile/163 kilometre ride with six highly categorised climbs.

FulGaz say:

“The Death Ride, also known as the Tour of the California Alps, is the toughest ride on FulGaz. It covers 163 kilometres and 3992 metres of ascent, with six epic climbs over Monitor Pass, Ebbetts Pass, and Carson Pass.

“You’ll experience breathtaking views, thrilling descents, and steep gradients that will push you to your limits. This is not a ride for the faint-hearted. You’ll need to complete as much of the full ride as you can in one single go, with no pausing or saving for later. The clock doesn’t stop, just like in real life. But don’t worry, you can take as many breaks as you need for food, water, or rest. Just keep FulGaz running and enjoy the ride.”

“Enjoy”? What sort of maniacs are they?

So the Challenge was taking place during February 2024.  That coincided with the second half of the FulGaz Grand Tour  (I had finished 12th out of 160 participants) and then a long weekend in Tenerife and La Gomera riding motorbikes with the Bike Shed and Canary Ride.

Which only really left last weekend. The plan was to ride it on the Saturday but some family coming up and iffy weather forecasts meant a leisurely 8.5km walk around Virginia Water instead. But Sunday was free…

I decided to eat some breakfast and then wander out to the Pain Cave. Our WiFi was acting up despite all the repeaters dotted around the house – probably due to the weather and the vast number of devices all trying to connect at the same time – so I ended up having to play music from my iPad rather than the Apple TV and HomePods in there.  That was the same iPad I was running the FulGaz app on, so it was plugged in to the Schwinn to ensure it didn’t suddenly die on me.

A quick Torq Energy Gel – without artificial sweeteners, but more expensive than my usual Science in Sports ones – which was to be the first of many, a few minutes warming up on the Schwinn trying to get my Garmin fēnix 7S and the the 800IC linked up to the iPad/FulGaz, and then I was away.

Fuelling with the gels every 20 minutes and getting through a couple of litres of water and a few espressos and I eventually finished in time for an early dinner with the departing visitors. I’d done it in 6 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds, even quicker than the original actual ride time and an hour ahead of my target time:

 

One thought that kept coming to the fore during the ride was that unlike doing it in real life, you can’t coast down the descents because if you stop pedalling the ride stops too!

At the time of writing, I’m currently 5th of all the finishers and the fastest in the 60-69 year old category.  And I have some significant chafing despite my Giro “Baboon Pants”

So now the only question is “what’s next?”

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.

Well 2023 was a year of consolidation and a combination of real-world activities out in Corralejo, Fuerteventura and virtual activities, especially after we bought a load of gym equipment for use in Alison’s personal training venture.

Since early November 2023, we’re 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:

2023 Stats

2023 Stats

It looks like I need to build on the cardiovascular work with some more weight work to add to the single entry last year and to build some more muscle.

December continued back in the UK on the Schwinn and FulGaz who were now running a four week boot camp to prepare for their “FulGaz Grand Tour” which starts tomorrow on January 1st.

We had lots of Christmas dinners for work and pleasure and we were able to host all of the family over two days – Christmas Day and Boxing Day – with all the food and trimmings, so as usual I was expecting a lot of weight gain.

Here are December’s stats:

December 2023 Statistics

December 2023 Statistics

Activities: 26 Distance: 426.99 kmTime: 23:47:09 Calories: 18,856

Turning to my weight, at the end of November I was 85.5kg, and at the end of December I weighed 85.8kg, up 0.3kg, so maintaining a fairly constant weight whilst eating healthily and not drinking too much despite the Christmas entertaining.

Year on year, I’m down from 88.3kg, a loss of 2.5kg on the year.  During 2023 I’d managed to hit a low weight of 81.4kg back at the start of June. So onwards and hopefully downwards! Here’s to 2024!

November started off with our last flights out of Corralejo as we give up our place out there to allow us to tour the rest of Europe; we were prevented from doing so by Brexit, of course.

So on Fuerteventura, the road cycling ended with the sale of the mountain bike after some 2,465km.

Back in the UK and it was back on the Schwinn and FulGaz who are now running a four week boot camp to prepare for their “Tour de FulGaz” in January.

Here are November’s stats:

November 2023 Stats

November 2023 Stats

Activities: 24 Distance: 356.59 kmTime: 15:31:30 Calories: 13,843

Turning to my weight, at the end of October I was 85.3kg, and at the end of November I weighed 85.5kg, up 0.2kg, so maintaining a fairly constant weight whilst eating healthily and not drinking too much. Oh and loads of time in the Pain Cave.

October started off with our postponed flight out to Corralejo; needlessly postponed, as it had turned out.

Once on Fuerteventura, the road cycling resumed with just a weekend break while I went over to Gran Canaria with friends to tour the island by motorcycle.  Early in the month, my time for the regular 15km and a bit reached its lowest, so that was a good thing.

So here are October’s stats:

October 2023 Stats

October 2023 Stats

Activities: 24 Distance: 322.29 kmTime: 16:50:45 Calories: 15,723

Turning to my weight, at the end of September I was 84.3kg, and at the end of October I weighed 85.3kg, up 1kg, so what’s going on there, God only knows (but I think I’m gaining muscle especially in my thighs).

September started out in Dubai for a week and a bit in a five star, all-inclusive resort which thankfully had a gym but was using Technogym kit and software, sadly.  Once we were home, it was back in the pain cave on the Schwinn and the Bowflex treadmill before I headed off for a day trip to Raleigh, North Carolina.  Yes, what should have been a little over week there in a hearing turned out to be arrive, work, workout, get told about potential settlement, rush to the airport, redeye back to London!

Once back in the pain cave – and I’m really not sure if the iOS/watchOS software updates had anything to do with it – FulGaz started started having issues connecting to the Schwinn which was very frustrating.  It even happened again this morning, until I physically turned off the Bowflex treadmill which seems to somehow steal focus even though it’s not connected to the Schwinn (obviously).

Oh and I have finally upgraded by old Apple Watch Series 4 to a shiny new Apple Watch Ultra 2 which I’m keen to get properly set up and  calibrated properly: that JRNY treadmill run had the treadmill showing one distance, the fēnix showing a slightly shorter distance, and the Ultra 2 showing a significantly longer distance.  I will have to compare an outdoor walk next week when we’re back in Corralejo.

Mrs RHM has also upgraded to an Apple Watch Series 9.

Here are the results which are down from August’s:

September 2023 Stats

September 2023 Stats

Activities: 36 Distance: 370.63 kmTime: 17:49:39 Calories: 16,260

Turning to my weight, at the end of August I was 84.1kg, and at the end of September I weighed 84.3kg, up 0.2kg, but then there was Dubai and Raleigh…

August started out in Fuerteventura for a few days before we headed back to the UK.  It ended with us flying out to Dubai for a week and a bit in a five star, all-inclusive resort which thankfully had a gym but was using Technogym kit and software, sadly.

Here are the results which are up from July’s:

August 2023 Statistics

August 2023 Statistics

Activities: 39 Distance: 476.41 kmTime: 22:39:33 Calories: 20,176

Turning to my weight, at the end of July I was 83.9kg, and at the end of August I weighed 84.1kg, up 0.2kg, but then there was Dubai…

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