Total Distance Travelled: 720kms Days to holiday: supposedly 286
Days in Lockdown: 31
I’m still not cycling 3 days a week – although right now I’m using the lockdown as an excuse not to. It’s too much hassle leaving the house after the day’s work, or we’re not supposed to be out for more than an hour; or I can’t keep my distance close to home as all my friends tell me I should.
At the same time, cycling is the one thing that gets me out of the house and enables me to keep a level of sanity. We’ve been a month into this and there just seem to be more and more restrictions coming in each day. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point we actually deployed military on the streets to keep people in check, like some other, more authoritarian countries have done.
That aside, I have actually managed to get out a couple of times this week. First time (14.04) – well that was a mistake in my timing. I had to get out of the house, so shortly after 6pm once I’ve decided it was cool enough – I was out and in the park, trying to do loops on a circuit.
Somehow or another I’ve managed to clock-up just over 30kms, but it was a painful experience; and for no reasons related to exercise. Looking around Battersea Park, how busy it was and full of children, one would have been forgiven for thinking there was no lockdown. The park was just too busy for me to get any kind of speed into the session, and to cycle safely. Children running on the path, paying no attention to cyclist or other pedestrians, dogs off the leash. Normally I don’t mind it; but I think because of the restrictions, and because like me, many people are now working from home, after 5pm / 6pm is the only time they can get out and get some exercise, or more precisely get some air – which is why the park was so crowded.
I meandered slowly through the crowds, determined to get some distance under my belt, and then go home; having already formed an idea that if I do this again during such nice weather, I’ll be coming later.
And later, I did go – 16.04. 8:30pm to be precise. It was a wise decision. By then most of the parents with small children, took themselves off back home to feed the little darlings, and it was primarily grown-ups who lingered around the park, soaking in the last warm rays of the day’s sun.
I clocked up a respectable 34.39kms on the circuit before heading off. Not much else to report, other than the general observations of passer by. The cafes and venues in the park are closed and the kiddie play-areas are off limits. The children’s zoo is equally silent.
In the calm of an evening, circling around the 2.5kms of the park I keep spotting the same woman. I’ve seen her in the park a number of times, although if anyone asked me what she looked, I couldn’t actually tell you – other than to say, that she wears a hat to go jogging. Big rimmed, summer hat, and pair of sun-glasses. She doesn’t not run fast, instead engages in a sort of ‘oh, I’m just trotting to catch-up with you’ little run. I don’t know who she is or what she does. I like to think of her as an eccentric older lady, a sort of Agatha Christie character, doing what she enjoys, whilst wearing whatever she wants, and the hell with what the world thinks. There’s a lot to be said for that kind of attitude.
Right, that’s me signing off.
Hate To Exercise 