fitness

November 2025 Ride Selfies

| Richard Morris

We had another fortnight’s holiday in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, 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 300km 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 from November 2025, 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

November 2025 Stats

| Richard

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%.

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?).

Groovy ROUVY

| Richard

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 f?nix 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.

All The Gear…

| Richard

Nearly all of my riding is virtual: the UK’s roads aren’t up to road riding and the UK drivers even less so, seemingly filled with frothing, enraged gammon motorists hating all those “woke” cyclists, blah, blah.

So the only time I actually ride on the road is when I’m away on holiday in Fuerteventura, when I hire a road bike from the guys at Easy Riders Bike Centre.

I tend to wear just regular gym/running tops in the pain cave, but I do wear my ‘monkey pants’: a couple of pairs of Giro padded cycling shorts (Giro Chrono Sports Shorts).

Giro Chrono Sports Shorts

Giro Chrono Sports Shorts

At least that way I can have a modicum of comfort in the saddle.

But I’ve had a change of heart and decided that when I am out on the roads in Fuerteventura, I could probably use some actual cycling gear, so I’ve gone out and used a load of those promotional links you get from completing various challenges on Strava and bought some gear.

Specifically, these: a Le Col club bib and jersey from their club essentials range with some cycling socks and a Castelli jersey in Soudal Quick Step colours.

Le Col CC Pro Jersey Le Col CC Pro Bib Shorts Castelli Soudal Quick Step Aero Race 8S Jersey

 

August 2025 Stats

| Richard

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 July I weighed 88.9kg, which is up by 0.2kg.

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

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.