Cycling and Jogging

For my birthday last year, Kelly bought me a Mountain Bike as I have been on about wanting a bike for a while now, so that I could ride into work and back and get fit at the same time. It was a big surprise to find I had a bike for my birthday as they are quite expensive, but Kelly (as always) found a bargain on the Internet!

Here is my bike!

My Mountain Bike

My Mountain Bike

Since my birthday, I have ridden into work on several occasions and feel that is has helped me get a lot fitter than I was! I record my rides using the Strava App so I know how well I am doing (you can find this on the homepage of my site!). I had a few issues with the bike to begin with as I was struggling to know when to change gears but I am getting the hang of it now. I still can’t change gears properly though and did have to take the bike into Halfords to have them checked, but im just not sure whether there is an issue or it is just me not changing gears correctly. I would rather not take it back to Halfords though, as it cost money and they were useless!!! All in all though, I am enjoying using my bike but just need some nice weather now!!

As well as cycling, I am still jogging home from work – usually once a month. The last time I jogged home was in March, and I got a personal best!! I was really pleased with this as I felt that I was going really slow and I also had a pain behind one of my knees, so it came as a huge surprise to find out that I was about 30 seconds faster than my previous PB, and broke the 34 minute barrier as well! My actual time was 34 minutes and 43 seconds which was great! It was also freezing cold so not ideal conditions, so hopefully after another month or so’s cycling, I may be fitter to go even faster!

New PB! New PB!

I have had a couple more jogs around the field since my last blog entry and I am pleased to say that I have secured personal bests in both the jogs!

The first of these 2 new jogs I did in 12 minutes and 26 seconds which was a good 30 seconds faster than my previous best, but my last jog totally eclipsed this! The last jog I did I managed it in 10 minutes and 18 seconds which is over 2 minutes faster than my previous best! I don’t know how I managed this (apart from not stopping and stretching half way around) as I also managed to jog around the whole field in one go without stopping or walking. I was very proud of myself! Looks like i’m starting to get a bit fitter again, which is great!

Here’s to a sub 10 minute run next week! 😉

PB In Jogging Around The Local Play Field

I hadn’t done any jogging for a couple of months so I decided to start up again seeing as it is currently lovely hot weather. I managed to do 2 laps of the field in the picture below in 13 minutes and 4 seconds which is about 5 minutes better than my previous personal best time (not sure how I had been so slow around there before!)  I was very pleased with this which makes me assume that my daily press ups and sit ups are gradually making me fitter. I am hoping to go out again early next week and break the 13 minute barrier, so stay tuned on here and on my Twitter account @strethewey.

Woolwell Field

This is the Football and Rugby field I jog around in Woolwell.