Hate To Exercise

Distance travelled: 33.3kms Total Distance: 391.53kms Days to holiday: 304

It’s only been 3 days, but our team already has been told we won’t be back in the office at least till the end of the month. So I’m having to find a new way to keep up the disciple of cycling. As I’m not working from home, I promised myself to get ready in the morning. After all working from the sofa, there is no need to get suited and booted for the office, and who can tell that I’m working dressed in leggings and cycling shirt.

I kept my promise. I got up, got dressed in my training gear for the day, worked, and at 5pm once I was done with last work call I was out of the door and on a bike.

I headed towards my current favourite cycling spot, Battersea Park and engaged in in some frustrated exercise. I’m feeling the pressures of the Social Distancing already and the prospect that in days to come we may be stopped from going out almost completely; this spurred me towards cycling, cycling and cycling.

It was easy. For the first time this year cycling was psychologically easy. I can’t say I didn’t break out in a sweat – I did. It is after all work-out; but for the first time this year 33.3kms just flew by. No emotional barriers, no psychological stoppers.

Plus I finished the at the large Tesco store near Earls Court, which meant extra few kilometres I didn’t even have to think about. People have been panic buying food and supplies for the last few days, so I had to travel a little further afield to pick up some basics.

That’s it. That’s about all there is there to report at the moment.

“…,he seemed not to know what fatigue and sickness meant”, War and Peace. L. Tolstoy

So, of course – I mean, of course – just as I’m getting this cycling malarkey in my stride, some bloody virus decides to rear its round, spiky, miniscule little head and impact my plans.

Yesterday, I went to work ready to cycle home after. Gloves, glasses, helmet and all. Only for Boris to make an announcement that we should all try to work from home, and for our office to be effectively shut down with immediate effect. I was literally packing my belongings for the day, when the announcement came and our boss told us to take our laptops and not come back for the rest of the week.

I work – for a fairly big company – and about 50% of our workforce is office based. So for us it’s easier to work from home. For the other 50% of staff – not so much. However, I can see the argument – that if you take out 50% of population out of the equation – the other 50% has more room to manoeuvre, i.e. has more space to keep distance from each-other, thus reduce the risk of catching/spreading the virus.

There is another argument to our team being sent home. Our office has some core people, who are keeping vital systems running. If that team gets impacted and has to take time out, there will be significant impact not just on our company, but on the public at large. So we have a duty of care, to protect that team, and if that means the rest of us is to keep away from the office, so be it. The bug has been in the news over the last few weeks, but nobody has been paying much attention to it, initially. As it started to spread from Asia towards Europe and then UK, the news picked up, until – well now you see, we’ve been sent home for the rest of the week.

But this is my diary about my cycling, not a blog about a Virus. So – yes – we were sent home yesterday. Today – I worked from home. Today – I did no cycling. My mind, as already known, looks for any excuse not to do the training. Having to suddenly switch from the routine I was developing, of leaving the office and grabbing a bike, to leaving a comfy, warm, food filled home to go cycling – that was never gonna happen. It was all I could do, to force myself to go for a walk to a supermarket – purely out of curiosity, as I knew there would be nothing there to buy, because ever since the news of the virus getting closer began to circulate last week, people have been panic buying stuff in shops like crazy. Madness, all absolute madness.

Now I have to develop a new routine, for at least the next 2 or 3 weeks of this new regime, so I don’t fall out fo cycling completely. I took one decision today: tomorrow, when I get up, I will dress from the get-go in my cycling gear. That way, when 5pm comes I’ll have no excuses. I’ll be ready, dressed, drink in my bottle and I can just go – go and get some air, cycling and freedom. I’m lucky – currently Covid-19 (they named the bastard virus) free, and fingers crossed that remains. So getting some exercise is a good idea, and cycling doesn’t require close contact with others – we’ve been told on the news to keep distance from people. I keep the recommended 2 metres, and then some, away from others.

But I repeat – Bastard Virus!