— bikes and things

No, not a post about the election or Iran etc, just a post about trying to get a bit fitter and trying to change a few bad habits I’ve picked up over the years.

During my year out (2002 time) I got incredibly fit by basically doing lots and lots of exercise. I was riding 12 miles each way to work – home up Box Hill – swimming at lunchtimes, running in the evenings (before cycling home) and climbing or mountainbiking at the weekends. I was pretty healthy on this lot and was having a great time. However I was only half way through my Architectural training. So this all kind of stopped pretty abruptly when I went back to studying in Portsmouth. Late nights, curry, beer and not much exercise. An ERASMUS trip to Vienna sorted that little blip out with another 5 months of exercise – mainly lots of cycling each day. The trouble is I came back and settled into the same old thing of curry, beer etc.

After graduating from Diploma things kind of got worse, I spent 2 hours minimum commuting to work in Winchester from Portsmouth each day and working late nights and eating junk. Riding at the weekends didn’t really make much difference really. After a year or so of this I moved to London and was riding to work again but still not doing that much exercise.

The long and short of it? I sit on my arse all day clicking a mouse, drinking coffee and eating nice sandwiches for lunch. I’ve developed an incredibly sedentary lifestyle which isn’t exactly what I wanted. The cycle commute doesn’t really count as that much exercise. The net result – I was getting fatter and fatter and not really feeling great about myself.

Anyway, time for a change. Hey I’ve recently hit 30 so why not? After talking about it for years I’ve joined a gym. Never thought I’d say that either but I have. Bizzarely I actually enjoy it too. I’ve got a mixture of cardio and weights to do in my hours session as well as a load of stretches. I’m managing to go 3 times a week at the moment which isn’t as hard as I thought. I’ve also had the benefit of a proper consultation session which has really helped. I had 3 aims:

1. Not be so fat
2. Sort my back out
3. Strengthen my knees

It’s actually working on all 3 counts. I’m definitely not as fat – I’ve lost quite a bit of weight and my back and knees are a lot better. Combining this exercise with less beer, not eating so late and less crap. I feel miles better and even have a resting heart rate of 50 bpm. Hopefully this is here to stay. More weight to lose but got to set the right habits now for later life I guess.