scales

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).

I’ve been using a Garmin fēnix 3 Sapphire for quite a while now; it’s a big, chunky lump of a fitness watch but then it is feature-packed and suitable for many forms of exercise.  I also have an Apple Watch Series 4 which works really well, but doesn’t measure blood oxygen levels like my wife’s latest one does.

I pair it with a heart rate monitor that clips to a strap you wear around your chest and then shower and dry it after exercising. We bought my wife a Garmin Forerunner 735XT a few years back and that has heart rate measuring built in (like the Apple Watch).

Now that we’re splitting our time between the UK and Fuerteventura I’m having to cart the Garmin back and forth, so I decided to leave it there where I work out more and use the Apple Watch in the UK. That’s not perfect because I then have to manually add each one to Garmin Connect.

So for my 60th birthday, Alison has bought me the new Garmin fēnix 7S, choosing the smaller S model so it’s not as chunky and large, especially as it encourages you to wear it 24/7 to monitor heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, etc.  It’s early days yet but the results are fascinating. I expect over the next few weeks it should get to know me properly and calibrate all its reports around me.

Garmin fēnix 7S