scales

Another year; another review.

2025 continued my fitness consolidation with a combination of real-world activities when we were on Fuerteventura and virtual activities in the UK (and Thailand where I didn’t venture outside the hotel to exercise), using the home gym equipment in the Pain Cave.

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 helps with the pain and delays my partial knee replacement recommended by my Consultant 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:

2025 Statistics

2025 Statistics

My exercise stats are up from 2024 {in brackets}: 5,268.73km {4,218.76km} on bikes (real and virtual) and another 420km {700km} on two legs, so you can see the running and walking are now significantly down on the advice of the healthcare professionals.

Still not too bad for a 63 year old?

Weight-wise? On the 1st of January 2025 I weighed 88.0kg with a body fat percentage of 24.6% and on 1st January 2026, I weighed 91.8kg with a body fat percentage of 26.7%.  There’s a lot of room for improvement in 2026, especially as my target weight is 83kg.

It’s the 1st of December and it’s the start of a strange week: last Friday, I had a painful injection into my knee to see if that will temporarily help with the everyday crippling pain, rather than moving straight to my recommended knee replacement surgery to sort out my lack of cartilage and arthritis in that knee.  The consultant then told me, “no swimming and no saunas” – due to the infection risk – and “no running at all, ever, no cycling for a week, and drastically reduce my step count”, all for the first week of December.

Bugger!

November started with a ride on ROUVY’s Great World Adventure as well as getting a couple of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz into the bank before our holiday: another two glorious weeks in our home-from-home, Corralejo.

I’d hired the Specialized Allez Elite from Easyriders Bike Centre again, so it was off to do 300km whilst we were out there with pre-breakfast rides along with a bit of a new route.

So, here are November’s stats:

November 2025 Statistics

November 2025 Statistics

Activities: 35 Distance: 568.59 km Time: 27:24:43 Calories: 26,818

Turning to my weight, at the end of October I weighed 90.4kg and at the start of December I weigh 91.3kg, which is up by 0.9kg and indeed up 1kg from last Friday, thanks to one of our family Christmas Dinners.

Body fat percentage was down slightly from 26.2% to 26.0%.

Much later than usual as I forgot to do the stats and only realised when we were on holiday last week, so my apologies.

October was much of the same as September whilst trying to clear the decks at work for our imminent holidays.

So I was doing more virtual rides on ROUVY, and I’ve even enjoyed a Group Ride with Wout van Aert (from the pro cycling Team Visma Lease a Bike).

I’ve been doing my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz as well.

Running is now stopped after some more consultations and an MRI: I need a partial knee replacement but I’ve decided to grin and bear it for a bit and try some injections later this year.

Alos in health issues, I came down with some manflu which stopped my exercising, and the symptoms were very reminiscent of when I had COVID, so that was fun.

So, here are October’s stats:

October 2025 Statistics

October 2025 Statistics

Activities: 25 Distance: 443.62 km Time: 16:05:36 Calories: 15,224

Turning to my weight, at the end of September I weighed 89.4kg and at the end of October I weighed 90.4kg, which is up by 1kg; not good with a holiday coming up.

Body fat percentage was down slightly from 26.8% to 26.2%.

I mentioned earlier this month that I was finally taking the plunge and trying out ROUVY, so I have, and I’ve been enjoying some of the group rides with a group calling themselves the Crazy Catz who are on both FulGaz and ROUVY and Strava as well.

Running though has taken a back seat after some more consultations and an MRI: I need a partial knee replacement but I’ve decided to grin and bear it for a bit and try some injections later this year to out a plaster on it…

I’ve been doing my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz as well – it’s still my platform of choice – but the ROUVY rides aren’t as bad as I feared they would be.

So, here are September’s stats:

September 2025 Statistics

September 2025 Statistics

Activities: 30Distance: 569.27 kmTime: 17:54:35Calories: 18,110

Turning to my weight, at the end of August I weighed 88.9kg and at the end of September I weighed 89.4kg, which is up by 0.5kg, coincidentally the same gain as I had over my last weigh-in a couple of days ago.

Body fat percentage was up from 25.7% to 26.8%. I put that down to all the banana bread Mrs Me is making just now, that she can’t eat due to her bodybuilding competitions (did I mention Alison is awesome?).

August was back to normal after a busy July being was mainly spent in Bangkok so it was back into the Pain Cave with less running and more cycling. The reduction in running is entirely due to my knee being super-painful having aggravated something in it in Thailand, due to overuse.

So I also made an appointment with a consultant who has now recommended and MRI before deciding what course of treatment it will need, surgical or non-surgical.

And the end of August saw us saying goodbye to my Mum when we scattered her ashes into the sea at Cromer yesterday.

In terms of the cycling, we’ve been watching La Vuelta and I’ve been doing my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges and the FulGaz Vineyards and Valleys Tour 2025 that runs until the end of September, but which I finished today…

Anyway, here are August’s stats:

August 2025 Statistics

August 2025 Statistics

Activities: 33 Distance: 516.11km Time: 22:30:12 Calories:  20,719

Turning to my weight, at the end of July I weighed 88.7kg and at the end of July I weighed 88.9kg, which is up by 0.2kg.

Body fat percentage was down from 26.3% to 25.7%.

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.

As noted in last month’s stats, we moved house in early March and it took a few more days to set up the home gym before we headed back out to Corralejo.

In the meantime, we had family come over to stay, bringing with us a nice viral infection that hit Alison first and then me, affecting sleep and hence energy levels. Bloody kids!

March 2023 Stats

March 2023 Stats

Activities: 11 Distance: 185.54 km Time: 6:25:41 Calories: 6,262

In terms of weight, at the end of February I weighed 85.1kg and at the end of March I was down to 83.7kg, down by 1.4kg.

Well February started out with us being out in Corralejo doing road riding. In the second week, we flew back to the UK and after a day’s break due to work commitments it was back into the pain cave and onto the Schwinn for more challenges on FulGaz until the last weeks of February when we had to pack everything up for our impending move down to Surrey.

Normal service was only resumed in mid-March, just before another trip back out to Fuerteventura.

February 2023 Stats

Activities: 26 Distance: 432.90 km Time: 18:52:47 Calories: 16,061

As for weight, it’s down 2.4kg from 87.5kg to 85.1kg at the end of February.

Another month flies by! We’ve spent all of January 2023 out in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, which means that all my exercise has been outdoor. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the weather has actually felt really wintry – for Fuerteventura, anyway! – with strong winds, cloudy conditions and the occasional bit of rain, even!

On the days it’s been too windy to cycle, I’ve tried to walk. So here are the stats from Garmin Connect:

January 2023 Stats

January 2023 Stats

Activities: 33; Distance: 346.85 km; Time: 22:41:46; Calories: 15,798.

As for my weight, this morning it’s 87.5kg after a really bad weekend for eating out (and drinking) but at least it’s still down by 0.8kg from the end of December when my weight was 88.3kg.

Here’s a little video of today’s ride. I’m actually wearing a new cycle helmet after I got stopped yesterday by the Guardia Civil for not wearing a helmet on rural roads:

Well thanks to that utter shitshow that is Brexit, we had to fly back to the UK mid-November so as not to outstay our welcome in the EU.

This meant that there was a switch from the longer real-world rides I was doing on a relatively heavy mountain bike back to indoor cycling on the Schwinn, so it was back to using FulGaz again.  I’ve mentioned I decided – very rashly – to do their “LEJOG Challenge“, so the mileage (and time in our gym) has risen a tad…

This month’s total therefore is up to 554.59km.

My weight at the start of the month was 91kg and at the end it had surpassed my first goal and stood at 88.9kg.  This is down from 98.2kg as recently as mid-August (1 stone 4lbs weight loss).