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April 2026 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1 May 2026
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, events, Fitness, FulGaz, Home Gym, indoor cycling, Pain Cave, ROUVY, virtual cycling, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

April was a further continuation of my normal exercise regime with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do in the early summer, if I can get some answers to some queries I’ve raised…

The gaps were due to a long weekend on the R1250RT in Cornwall and a family wedding and yet another grandchild – my 12th – last weekend.

So, here are April’s stats which again needed a significantly increased screen resolution to fit them all in:

April 2026 Statistics

April 2026 Statistics

Activities: 66 Distance: 622.78 km Time: 17:29:45 Calories: 16,211

Turning to my weight, at the end of March I weighed 92.7kg and at the end of April I weighed 92.1kg, which is down by 0.6kg despite the holidays.

Body fat percentage was up from 27.3% to 27.4%, which is less nice.

March 2026 Stats and Selfies

Posted by Richard on 1 April 2026
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, FulGaz, Gear, Home Gym, indoor cycling, Media, Pain Cave, Road Cycling, ROUVY, virtual cycling, Walking, Weight, YouTube. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

So March continued my normal exercise regime with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  I’ve also recently enabled the warm-up and cool-down features on ROUVY to actually record the distance I’m cycling before and after each structured ride.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do in the early summer…

So, here are March’s stats which might look slightly different to usual again as I had to significantly increase screen resolution to fit them all in:

March 2026 Statistics

March 2026 Statistics

Activities: 71 Distance: 730.31 km Time: 27:08:18 Calories: 25,576

Turning to my weight, at the end of February I weighed 91.7kg and at the end of March I weighed 92.7kg, which is up by 1kg. I blame the holiday in Corralejo…

Body fat percentage was down from 27.7% to 27.3%, which is nice.

We had another holiday in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, at the end of March so I again hired a Specialized Allez Elite from Easy Riders Bike Centre and went for a morning ride each day from the villas at Bahiazul along the FV-1 to Tamaragua and/or the FV-104 between the shore and the famous dunes.

In total, I managed 206km whilst we were there (plus some walking/hiking).

I continued doing my little selfie videos to annoy friends on Facebook, so here’s a collection, all shot on my Apple iPhone 17 Pro.

Bahiazul Resort Fuerteventura: https://www.bahiazul.com/en/

Easy Riders Bike Center: https://www.easyriders-bikecenter.com/e/index.php

February 2026 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1 March 2026
Posted in: challenge, Cycling, Diary, events, Fitness, FulGaz, Home Gym, indoor cycling, Pain Cave, polytrauma, ROUVY, virtual cycling, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

After the hideousness of the 40 days of January 2026 things improved with a much quicker February.

I continued my normal exercise regime with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  I’ve also recently enabled the warm-up and cool-down features on ROUVY to actually record the distance I’m cycling before and after each structured ride.

On FulGaz, I also completed their “Tour d’Australia” challenge with a couple of nasty, longer rides thrown into the mix.

I finished February with another consultation about my knee and a recommendation to go ahead with a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do in the early summer…

So, here are February’s stats which might look slightly different to usual again as I had to significantly increase screen resolution to fit them all in:

February 2026 Statistics

February 2026 Statistics

Activities: 63 Distance: 575.65 km Time: 16:34:43 Calories: 17,096

Turning to my weight, at the end of January I weighed 92.1kg and at the end of February I weighed 91.7kg, which is down by 0.4kg.

Body fat percentage was down from 28.2% to 27.7%, which is nice.

2025 Statistics

Posted by Richard on 1 January 2026
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Home Gym, indoor cycling, Pain Cave, Road Cycling, ROUVY, Running, Syndicated, virtual cycling, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Another year; another review.

2025 continued my fitness consolidation with a combination of real-world activities when we were on Fuerteventura and virtual activities in the UK (and Thailand where I didn’t venture outside the hotel to exercise), using the home gym equipment in the Pain Cave.

Since early November 2023, we’ve been back full time in the UK – other than holidays, of course – so the Pain Cave is visited pretty much every day first thing before work.

This helps with the pain and delays my partial knee replacement recommended by my Consultant by building support for the affected areas including my knackered (necrosis-riddled) knee and the pelvis and spine from the motorcycle crash. ‘Helps’ but doesn’t get rid of the constant pain that I have had to come to terms with.

Anyway, moan over, here are the stats:

2025 Statistics

2025 Statistics

My exercise stats are up from 2024 {in brackets}: 5,268.73km {4,218.76km} on bikes (real and virtual) and another 420km {700km} on two legs, so you can see the running and walking are now significantly down on the advice of the healthcare professionals.

Still not too bad for a 63 year old?

Weight-wise? On the 1st of January 2025 I weighed 88.0kg with a body fat percentage of 24.6% and on 1st January 2026, I weighed 91.8kg with a body fat percentage of 26.7%.  There’s a lot of room for improvement in 2026, especially as my target weight is 83kg.

December 2025 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1 January 2026
Posted in: Diary, Fitness, FulGaz, Home Gym, indoor cycling, Pain Cave, ROUVY, Syndicated, virtual cycling, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!

It’s the 1st of January 2026, but here are December 2025’s statistics, starting with a week with no real exercise, after I had the steroid injection into my knee to see if that will temporarily help with the everyday crippling pain, rather than moving straight to my recommended knee replacement surgery to sort out my lack of cartilage and arthritis in that knee.  The consultant then told me, “no swimming and no saunas” – due to the infection risk – and “no running at all, ever, no cycling for a week, and drastically reduce my step count”, all for the first week of December.

After that enforced layoff, it was back into a combination of rides on ROUVY’s Great World Adventure as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  I’ve also recently enabled the warm-up and cool-down features on ROUVY to actually record the distance I’m cycling before and after each structured ride.

So, here are December’s stats:

December 2025 Statistics

December 2025 Statistics

Activities: 48 Distance: 540.04 km Time: 20:21:30 Calories: 18,518

Turning to my weight, at the end of November I weighed 91.3kg and at the end of December I weighed 91.9kg, which is up by 0.6kg thanks to Christmas Dinners, mince pies and alllllllll the chocolate.

Body fat percentage was up from 26.0% to 27.3%, which is understandable.

November 2025 Stats

Posted by Richard on 1 December 2025
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, FulGaz, ROUVY, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

It’s the 1st of December and it’s the start of a strange week: last Friday, I had a painful injection into my knee to see if that will temporarily help with the everyday crippling pain, rather than moving straight to my recommended knee replacement surgery to sort out my lack of cartilage and arthritis in that knee.  The consultant then told me, “no swimming and no saunas” – due to the infection risk – and “no running at all, ever, no cycling for a week, and drastically reduce my step count”, all for the first week of December.

Bugger!

November started with a ride on ROUVY’s Great World Adventure as well as getting a couple of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz into the bank before our holiday: another two glorious weeks in our home-from-home, Corralejo.

I’d hired the Specialized Allez Elite from Easyriders Bike Centre again, so it was off to do 300km whilst we were out there with pre-breakfast rides along with a bit of a new route.

So, here are November’s stats:

November 2025 Statistics

November 2025 Statistics

Activities: 35 Distance: 568.59 km Time: 27:24:43 Calories: 26,818

Turning to my weight, at the end of October I weighed 90.4kg and at the start of December I weigh 91.3kg, which is up by 0.9kg and indeed up 1kg from last Friday, thanks to one of our family Christmas Dinners.

Body fat percentage was down slightly from 26.2% to 26.0%.

October 2025 Stats

Posted by Richard on 20 November 2025
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, FulGaz, Home Gym, ROUVY, virtual cycling, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Much later than usual as I forgot to do the stats and only realised when we were on holiday last week, so my apologies.

October was much of the same as September whilst trying to clear the decks at work for our imminent holidays.

So I was doing more virtual rides on ROUVY, and I’ve even enjoyed a Group Ride with Wout van Aert (from the pro cycling Team Visma Lease a Bike).

I’ve been doing my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz as well.

Running is now stopped after some more consultations and an MRI: I need a partial knee replacement but I’ve decided to grin and bear it for a bit and try some injections later this year.

Alos in health issues, I came down with some manflu which stopped my exercising, and the symptoms were very reminiscent of when I had COVID, so that was fun.

So, here are October’s stats:

October 2025 Statistics

October 2025 Statistics

Activities: 25 Distance: 443.62 km Time: 16:05:36 Calories: 15,224

Turning to my weight, at the end of September I weighed 89.4kg and at the end of October I weighed 90.4kg, which is up by 1kg; not good with a holiday coming up.

Body fat percentage was down slightly from 26.8% to 26.2%.

September 2025 Stats

Posted by Richard on 30 September 2025
Posted in: Cycling, Diary, Fitness, FulGaz, Home Gym, JRNY, Pain Cave, polytrauma, ROUVY, Running, Syndicated, virtual cycling, Walking, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

I mentioned earlier this month that I was finally taking the plunge and trying out ROUVY, so I have, and I’ve been enjoying some of the group rides with a group calling themselves the Crazy Catz who are on both FulGaz and ROUVY and Strava as well.

Running though has taken a back seat after some more consultations and an MRI: I need a partial knee replacement but I’ve decided to grin and bear it for a bit and try some injections later this year to out a plaster on it…

I’ve been doing my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz as well – it’s still my platform of choice – but the ROUVY rides aren’t as bad as I feared they would be.

So, here are September’s stats:

September 2025 Statistics

September 2025 Statistics

Activities: 30Distance: 569.27 kmTime: 17:54:35Calories: 18,110

Turning to my weight, at the end of August I weighed 88.9kg and at the end of September I weighed 89.4kg, which is up by 0.5kg, coincidentally the same gain as I had over my last weigh-in a couple of days ago.

Body fat percentage was up from 25.7% to 26.8%. I put that down to all the banana bread Mrs Me is making just now, that she can’t eat due to her bodybuilding competitions (did I mention Alison is awesome?).

Groovy ROUVY

Posted by Richard on 9 September 2025
Posted in: Cycling, FulGaz, Gear, Home Gym, indoor cycling, JRNY, ROUVY, virtual cycling. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Well I’ve taken the plunge and paid for a year’s subscription to ROUVY (£160 for the year) to run alongside my existing FulGaz (£86) and JRNY (£135) subscriptions. Yes, September’s going to be expensive with both ROUVY and JRNY renewals, the former for virtual cycling and the latter for the Bowflex T56 Treadmill (and indeed JRNY do virtual rides as well).

My favourite remains FulGaz for its real-life simulation and the way the rides cover road, path and gravel tracks, all filmed from bikes.  It’s also excellent value for money with my individual subscription having a free companion subscription that my wife uses. It integrates with Strava and it emails you a FIT file after each ride, but Garmin Connect integration is still over the horizon but promised.

JRNY is expensive and has no other app integration, so I record my treadmill runs on my Apple Watch Ultra 2 (for Strava) and at the same time on my Garmin fēnix 7S (for Garmin Connect).  But it is needed to have the big screen on the treadmill up and running (ho-ho) with either the structured workouts we don’t use, or the Explore The World runs which we do use, or the integration with Netflix so Alison can keep up with series that we don’t watch together.  The one subscription covers all the family.

ROUVY – owned by the same people as FulGaz – offers videoed rides from a vehicle and superimposes an avatar of you plus those for others on a group ride or ‘ghost’ riders, so it’s not as game-like as Zwift, and it does integrate with both Strava and Garmin Connect.

If you want to try it, here’s an affiliate link which will get me a £7 credit and get you 50% off your first two months.

August 2025 Stats

Posted by Richard on 31 August 2025
Posted in: challenge, Cycling, Diary, Fitness, Home Gym, Pain Cave, Running, virtual cycling, Weight. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

August was back to normal after a busy July being was mainly spent in Bangkok so it was back into the Pain Cave with less running and more cycling. The reduction in running is entirely due to my knee being super-painful having aggravated something in it in Thailand, due to overuse.

So I also made an appointment with a consultant who has now recommended and MRI before deciding what course of treatment it will need, surgical or non-surgical.

And the end of August saw us saying goodbye to my Mum when we scattered her ashes into the sea at Cromer yesterday.

In terms of the cycling, we’ve been watching La Vuelta and I’ve been doing my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges and the FulGaz Vineyards and Valleys Tour 2025 that runs until the end of September, but which I finished today…

Anyway, here are August’s stats:

August 2025 Statistics

August 2025 Statistics

Activities: 33 Distance: 516.11km Time: 22:30:12 Calories:  20,719

Turning to my weight, at the end of July I weighed 88.7kg and at the end of August I weighed 88.9kg, which is up by 0.2kg.

Body fat percentage was down from 26.3% to 25.7%.