FG Fitness Challenge

Screenshot_20221121-193258.png


Just ordered this. It arrives Saturday.
 
Rowing machine, this one uses a water tank for resistance instead of a fan.
 
Those are pretty handy for the entire body. I used to dislike those but having re-introduced it in to the routine some months back I can see how they are very effective.
 
Haven’t been able to exercise lately because of moving house and then getting a huge cold that wouldn’t go away because we don’t have heating downstairs… anyway, felt good, set up a temporary zwift station, quick and enjoyable z2 spin followed by a bit of a sprint… and safe to say I’m not quite back in there yet 😵‍💫
1671052284573.png
 
Today's short trip to the farmer's market concluded this year, I'm not really motivated to go out again to complete the Festive 500 of which I completed 80% or the (already raised) goal of 12k km...

At least I completed my longest ride yet (208 km) and surpassed last year's distance of 10510 km in total. :happy: Next year I'll try to raise the distance of the longest ride "slightly": a group of people cycle from Berlin to Hamburg (320 km), I already booked the train to Berlin so there's that.

The "least productive" month was January at 828.5 km, the most productive month was June at 1180.3 km, closely followed by August at 1169.7 km.

2022-12-31 Statistik 2022.png
 
All my plans for this year that I made last year got screwed up by us buying a house and spending a bunch of time fixing it up… also being sick and not moving for weeks on end right around our move in November/December…

With the race driver excuses out of the way, the yearly totals aren’t even all that bad… although the elevation is a bit sad.

48284AD5-1DD9-4332-8A8E-A189D32FFF82.png

Edit re festive 500: the timing of this is honestly just so unfortunate! During the holidays I just have even less time to be on the bike (even virtually) than otherwise. Ugh. I know this is part of the whole thing, but still. It’s basically impossible for me to finish this properly unless I do a bunch of late night rides.
 
Last edited:
So this year in total I have lost around 12kg. It started at the end of February, slowed in May, then really picked up in September-December. This follows exactly with where i was in the world and the last bit was due to my old job. On average I was doing about 18,500 steps per work day which is roughly 14.8kms per shift. Never in this time span did I even think about how I ate, and just bought stuff that I normally do and never really went out to eat. So I guess that's an improvement? I don't really track this stuff and only started out of curiosity.

Just in the span of 4 months, that walking average (which routinely was over 19,000 or 20,000 steps) I think is where I lost the most weight. This is good I guess.

December:
1673009932105.png


2022 as a mostly whole:

1673009953563.png


Now I need to buy new pants
 
Must’ve accidentally hit 88 mp/h during my swim today, as Strava seems to think I spent 2 minutes more actually swimming/moving (41) than the actual time elapsed (39) during said swim… 😵‍💫 wtf?
A4916C7B-D24A-4010-8B9A-96954208A8B5.jpeg
 
So this year in total I have lost around 12kg. It started at the end of February, slowed in May, then really picked up in September-December. This follows exactly with where i was in the world and the last bit was due to my old job. On average I was doing about 18,500 steps per work day which is roughly 14.8kms per shift. Never in this time span did I even think about how I ate, and just bought stuff that I normally do and never really went out to eat. So I guess that's an improvement? I don't really track this stuff and only started out of curiosity.

Just in the span of 4 months, that walking average (which routinely was over 19,000 or 20,000 steps) I think is where I lost the most weight. This is good I guess.

December:
View attachment 3568131

2022 as a mostly whole:

View attachment 3568132

Now I need to buy new pants
27AD4490-9811-49C7-A830-ED93924A5EE5.jpeg


Definitely dropped down the average step count, but I haven’t blown up yet so, I guess that’s good.
 
I am now running so fast, my watch is giving me noise level warnings because of it! 🚀
A147D3EB-3B2E-42B9-8338-3D5B137C6831.jpeg
… actually it was just fairly windy out today 🙈
 
Sooooo... I need some ideas from you fitness people.
Before we had a kid and moved house and whathaveyou, my wife used to basically go to the gym (free membership because of history of competitive track and field things) every other day for general bodyweight excercises (bad back because of aforementioned T&F days) and airing out her head on the elliptical for an hour or so.
after the move and with the kid it's all too much of a hassle and not really practical in our day to day life, so my idea was to set up our own little basement gym. currently it's all a giant pile of crap with my zwift station in one corner and nothing else. i'll probably put a few mats and a little bench and a few small weights and such, no problem there - but the elliptical turns out to be an issue.
we went to a large shop and the sales guy actually posed a question that we didn't even think of: how high is the ceiling down there? and while, at ~2,20m, it's not bad for a basement room, that height is a serious issue for an elliptical, because usually you can calculate body height + 50 cm in order not to feel you're hitting your head every single step you take on the machine. there are some machines that are comparably low where this can be lowered to 40cm on top, but that'd still be problematic as the wife is 1,78m and that calculation only goes with a 5 cm gap up top - definitely not enough for comfort and that would probably lead to problems with posture (i.e. bending down all the time without realizing it).

So - after all that: any of you have any ideas how to go about this? I'd have argued just try a low-built elliptical and try to get used to the fact that the ceiling is fairly close, but my wife is very hesitant. Also ellipticals are large and heavy, so just ordering one, trying it out and sending it back when it doesn't work out seems to be quite a hassle. A rowing machine isn't really an alternative for her... and I'm not sure I could convince her of an excercise bike either, since she does all her day-to-day mobility on her bicycle anyways.
 
Oooof, that's a tough situation.
That low ceiling would make me nervous just exercising there, let alone in an elliptical machine.
 
Oooof, that's a tough situation.
Another toughy... I once again bungled me training and am suddenly being surprised by the Wings for Life World Run - I've written about it before somewhere around here*. As always, I'm aiming for 25 km total, but won't ever make it that far. Last year I managed 23.5, so close enough, but the last half marathon distance I've done was in bloody September! FFS. Let's see how far my legs take me...
I've done my homework at least in terms of route planning, starting out as high up as seems proper and sticking to pancake-flat-asphalt for most of the way. Then again, weather could screw it up. Temperatures are ok (~18-20°C), but himidity is a bit high (70%) and there's quite a chance of rain (more humidity). Also I don't really have any fuelling station... I'm thinking of bringing a bottle along and ditching it at the side of the road once I'm at a point that I'll be looping, but I'm not quite sure whether I'm too comfortable with that...

* huh, after going back 10 pages, I seem to not have done that after all? Or I didn't find it. It honestly is my favorite run, both because of the format as well as because it's (for me at least) an App-based run that I can just do on my own. I actually hate running in a crowd. I get that some (or even most) people get a motivational kick out of that, but I don't - I'm just annoyed by people not behaving properly (i.e. inexperienced people starting too far in the front of the pack, starting out way too quick, generally being in the way, not getting out of the way if you want to pass, and just behaving unpredictable).
it's an internal red bull sponsored thing with actual large scale runs / events in a bunch of cities across the globe. in addition, there's the app-run that happens at the same time in parallel to all the other runs. they all, worldwide, happen at the same time (today at 1 pm CEST) - so a bunch of people from the other side of the globe will be running at night lol.
now for the fun part, the actual format: there's no set target distance or time limit, but rather you start out running and after half an hour a catcher car will start following you (physical in real world runs, virtual in the app) slowly and continually increasing its speed (starting at 10km/h). once it catches you, your run is over. this translates to my goal of 25 km having to be run at 5:09 min/km pace and a total of 2:08 hrs. last year I managed 23 km at 5:17 min/km - so not too bad. and that was with a few minutes of walking at the end of the run because my legs quit on me, until then I actually managed to go target pace. this year: total toss-up. I fully expect my legs to just leave me somewhere around the 20 km mark.

Edit: alright that actually went better than expected…
IMG_0282.png

edit2: global winner one japanese dude who actually managed to run 69 km in a little more than 4hrs. oof.
 
Last edited:
Today I rode my longest ride up until this date: almost 212 km! :mouse:

That said, that record shouldn't hold too long since I'm planning on participating in a group ride from Berlin to Hamburg in *checks date* two weeks already? :ph34r: Well, when I can ride 212 km solo at 27 kph I certainly can ride 320 km in a group, last year the pace was 24.5 kph. Should be doable...
 
Last edited:
It’s the little things that give me a boost some days.

IMG_4138.jpeg
 
Top