Hate To Exercise

Total Distance Travelled: 1,041 kms

Days to holiday: supposedly 177

Days in Lockdown / New Weird World : 129

Weight: 88kgs (down from 92kgs)

I started this blog / diary, with a purpose of documenting my training preparation towards a Cycling Holiday to Cambodia in Jan 2021. Out of coincidence and because I truly do not like to exercise, I named the blog url “Hate To Exercise”; and from time to time I’ve used the tag-line for my posts “How not to prepare to a cycling holiday”.

Why am I saying all this. Well, because of the information contained in my training diary and a prep-log, I can honestly say this blog is truly turning out to be a record of How Not To Prepare For A Cycling Holiday. In the last few weeks – or more precisely between June and July combined, I’ve been out for an official cycle session only 6 times, totalling a measly 116kms across the two months; compared with 150kms in May and 258kms in April. To an extent I can excuse the last 3 weeks of June – I had a project going live at work, which has taken up a lot more of my time, claiming my evenings as well as my emotional and physical strength, so the last thing I felt like doing was going out for massive cycling sessions.

I say that with a slight hesitation, because on 15.07 after a particularly shitty day at work, I needed to get out and stop thinking about office matters so badly, that I shut my laptop at 5pm, regardless of the ‘important’ emails coming in. I picked up my helmet, called my friend, and spend the next 3 hours, and 31.38kms meandering through the streets of London. This wasn’t about speed, and I wasn’t aiming for a distance, I just needed to get out; get out of the house, out of work, and out of my head.

That cycling session aside, however, I seemed to have replaced cycling with the 30 Day Shred HIIT sessions. Me and my work team-mates are now heading towards 3rd full month of the HIIT training; and as the progress report at the top bar shows, I’ve lost a few pounds thanks to it, as well as couple of inches off my waist. It’s been a while since I felt this slim – if you can call 88kgs and 90cm waist slim, but each to their own.

As far as I’m concerned, however, I look hot at the moment. Certainly I feel far more confident about myself and my body than I have ever done, even compared to when I was much younger and slimmer. This will also be the result of the work on my mental health, which has over the last couple of years improved incredibly.

Back to exercise. Few months ago I never dreamed of doing exercise this regularly; few months ago the idea of wearing leggings on a street, with tops not quite long enough to completely cover my bum would have been unthinkable. Yet here I am, quite frankly not giving a damn what other people may think, strutting down the streets and into shops in skin tight leggings, short (not quite cropped) t-shirts, and feeling like a million dollars.

That all being said, my cycling endurance training – I might just as well say it, it’s out of the window. I’m not were I planned to be, when I started this at the beginning of the year. I’m certainly not where the fitness plan from Exodus recommends I should be either. So if that holiday does take place – this truly is a How Not to Prepare For a Cycling Holiday blog. Then again, what do you expect from someone who Hates to Exercise.

Oops.

Still doing the 30 Day Shred HIIT session. On the days, when there is no Shred, there’s cycling, just so I keep up with it at least a little bit, as I seem to have replaced cycling with the HIIT session. Whilst that’s great from an exercise perspective, I’m supposed to be preparing for a cycling holiday!!! Ooops.

Let’s do a little recap here – the whole point of me doing cycle training, is because I booked a Cycling holiday to Cambodia for Jan 2021. Except that I booked it at the back end of 2019, way before anyone heard of Covid-19. Now as the days, weeks and as it turns out months have passed, I’m increasingly dubious whether my holiday will actually go ahead. I know it’s still months before the holiday is due to take place, but with so many cancellations being made 2 or 3 months in advance, one just doesn’t know. I’m still being hopeful, but I cannot get rid of that doubtful voice in my head. The virus isn’t going away anytime soon, and everyone keeps talking about second wave.

It’s for that reason, that my cycling has been sporadic and inconsistent. Oh I do use the bike to commute around the city, if there is a need for me to go further than the local high-street, and whenever I do go out for a session I aim for 20kms plus session. But there is a voice in my head that is saying “what’s the point” which is why I haven’t been pushing myself so much. That said, the HIIT sessions are helping with my fitness level, even though it might not be working the same muscles and endurance requirements as I would on a bicycle. At least I’m keeping fit in some way.

Whether or not the holiday goes ahead I will not know until around October/ November time. I cannot remember the precise timelines, but the tour company usually confirms these things around 8 weeks before take-off. The challenge, however, maybe not the virus, but whether or not there are enough brave – or crazy – people like myself out there who are willing to just get on with their lives regardless. That’s the bit I don’t know. If the holiday is confirmed 8 weeks before take off – that will not leave me with great amount of time to increase my cycle training. My only hope is that I don’t give up on the HIIT sessions, and they prove at least partially helpful and beneficial. The HIITs do work on my upper-body strength as well as my leg muscles, but as mentioned above – though I’m not an expert – even I know that the muscles are being worked in different ways, and one cannot completely replace the other. Hmm, as I’m writing this, I’m increasingly thinking I need to stop being a lazy cow and get out on that flipping bike at least twice a week – consistently. Hmmmmm, but I don’t want to. Oh I wish I wasn’t so lazy. As my friend said to me the other day – the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

How Not To – 23.07.2020

Holiday – will it come – 19.07.2020