fat bastard

Longest Ride

| Richard

Many people – OK, nobody, actually – ask me what my longest ride was, either in real life or virtually.

The answer is 162.89km virtually, and I rode this back on 25 February 2024 on FulGaz.  They say:

“Are you up for the challenge? Located in the stunning California Alps, the “Tour of the California Alps – Death Ride®” course crosses three Sierra Nevada mountain passes, for a total of six highly categorized climbs. Included are both sides of Monitor Pass, both sides of Ebbetts Pass, and both sides of the Pacific Grade. For the first time ever, FulGaz is excited to have the complete 2024 route available to ride.”

The main difference between riding it virtually with my setup and riding it in real life is coasting. On my trainer, if I stop pedalling, I stop. Completely. So unlike real life you have to pedal up hills and then pedal down the other side, which makes it really hard work.

But at least I could stay in the Pain Cave all day avoiding family who’d come to stay.

So the stats: 162.89km, 3,973m of climbing, an average speed of 25.1km/h, taking 6 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds, and burning 5,880 calories.  Garmin Connect thought I was overreaching…

FulGaz/adidas/Strava Graphic
FulGaz/adidas/Strava Graphic

October 2025 Stats

| Richard

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

| Richard

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?).

July 2025 Stats

| Richard

July was mainly spent in Bangkok and my hotel apartment although great overall was a disappointment in terms of the gym: both the treadmills and the cycling machines were previous generation: no Bluetooth connectivity, just the little LED dots on the screen.

This meant that my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges and the FulGaz French Tour 2025 that I started couldn’t be completed in time.  Running on the treadmill also exacerbated my existing knee problem (necrosis and no cartilage) meaning I stopped exercising at all, only starting again when I got home.

So here are July’s stats:

July 2025 Statistics

July 2025 Statistics

Activities: 18 Distance: 230.32km Time: 10:07:13 Calories:  10,766

Turning to my weight, at the end of June I weighed 87.9kg and at the end of July I weighed 88.7kg, which is up by 0.8kg; all those beers and Thai food! Body fat percentage was up from 25.6% to 26.3% no doubt due to all those meals.

So August needs to step things up and I need to knuckle down.

June 2025 Stats

| Richard

June was busy, busy, busy but we managed to get away for a few days in the champagne region of France, staying in a couple of fabulous hotels, and visiting some of our favourite champagne houses.

Most of my time other than that was spent in the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges, but also the FulGaz Winter Escape Tour 2025, which they put out for the riders in the Southern Hemisphere (remember that FulGaz was started in Australia).

I also managed to cram both mountain bikes into the ST and take them to Windsor Great Park for some real life cycling too!

Anyway, here are June’s stats:

June 2025 Statistics

June 2025 Statistics

Activities: 30 Distance: 368.75km Time: 19:36:58 Calories:  17,971

Turning to my weight, at the end of May I weighed 87.0kg and at the end of June I weighed 87.9kg, which is up by 0.9kg; all those croissants and champagne! Body fat percentage was up from 24.8% to 25.6% which wasn’t bad considering the fine dining.

I’m not sure what July is going to be like, as I’m off to Thailand for three works on business.

May 2025 Stats

| Richard Morris

May began with me looking forward to a long weekend in Cornwall on the BMW R1250RT and that didn’t disappoint, even if it – meaning Cornish Pasties, cream teas, and pub meals – led to a few days off from the Pain Cave.

Most of my time other than that was spent in the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges, but also the FulGaz Winter Escape Tour 2025, which they put out for the riders in the Southern Hemisphere (remember that FulGaz was started in Australia).

Anyway, here are May’s stats:

May 2025 Statistics

May 2025 Statistics

Activities: 27 Distance: 444.96km Time: 17:47:57 Calories:  18,569

Turning to my weight, at the end of April I weighed 86.8kg and at the end of May I weighed 87.0kg, which is up by 0.2kg. Body fat percentage was down from 25.6% to 24.8% which wasn’t bad considering the pasties.

April 2025 Stats

| Richard

April was me coming down to Earth with a bump after a really enjoyable March.

Most of my time was spent in the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges, but during April (and May, although I finished it in April!), the FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour.

Anyway, here are April’s stats:

April 2025 Statistics

April 2025 Statistics

Activities: 23 Distance: 359.88km Time: 14:29:04 Calories:  14,823

Turning to my weight, at the end of March I weighed 86.1kg and at the end of April I weighed 86.8kg, which is up by 0.7kg. Body fat percentage was up from 22.6% to 25.6% which I think is more realistic.

March 2025 Stats

| Richard

March started with that work visit to New Delhi for a Hearing.  The hotel had a pool and allegedly a fitness centre; the former I didn’t really get to use because we ended up working well over 70 hours that week, including the weekend, and the latter was better than it looked on their website.  The treadmill also linked properly to my Apple Watch Ultra and launched an Apple Fitness+ run which appeared to show video on the main screen and the photos that were mentioned came up on the Watch.  I only managed to get it to work like this once, though.

Once back, it was off to the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges.

But that was only short term as we were off to Fuerteventura for a combination of remote working and holiday: I’d already booked a villa for a week but still had two days’ holiday to take and had looked at the cost of a city break before deciding that I could move our Business Class flights a week earlier and book another week (albeit in a different villa in the same complex) for less.  So I also amended my bike hire with Easy Riders Bike Centre in Corralejo to ensure I could do some road riding whilst I was there … and that I did: something like 324km on their Specialized Allez Elite.

Here are March’s stats:

March 2025 Statistics

March 2025 Statistics

Activities: 36 Distance: 503.97 km Time: 28:49:39 Calories:  25,850

Turning to my weight, at the end of February I weighed 87.4kg and at the end of March I weighed 86.1kg, which is down by 1.3kg. Body fat percentage was down from 25.0% to 22.6% which I think was a minor blip.

February 2025 Stats

| Richard

February started with some new work coming onto the horizon that was soon confirmed with a week’s visit to New Delhi for a Hearing.  The hotel had a pool and allegedly a fitness centre; the former I didn’t really get to use because we ended up working well over 70 hours that week, including the weekend, and the latter was better than it looked on their website.  The treadmill also linked properly to my Apple Watch Ultra and launched an Apple Fitness+ run which appeared to show video on the main screen and the photos that were mentioned came up on the Watch.  I only managed to get it to work like this once, though.

In the Pain Cave it was a combination of running on the treadmill with JRNY adaptive workouts, and FulGaz, with a continuation and eventual completion of their Grand Tour 2025, as well as my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges.

And there was the good news that ROUVY had decided to keep FulGaz going as a standalone app, providing they could maintain the user base at its current level.  Fingers crossed!

Here are February’s stats:

February 2025 Statistics

February 2025 Statistics

Activities: 22 Distance: 401.09 km Time: 16:08:36 Calories:  17,545

Turning to my weight, at the end of January I weighed 86.8kg and at the end of February I weighed 87.4kg, which is up by 0.6kg, sadly. Body fat percentage was down from 25.5% to 25.0% though.