A few weeks ago I hit 100 consecutive weeks of hitting my Exercise Goals with our healthcare provider.
Today it got even better as I hit 104 consecutive weeks or two years of hitting my Exercise Goals.
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The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together -
The Gathering -
Baptisms at The Gathering -
Preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen -
Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 lunch
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
Staying fit as a family -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Showing posts with label unicycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unicycling. Show all posts
Like most government run institutions in South Africa, the health service is very badly broken and on its knees, to the point that it's best avoided at all costs (treasure and fight for the NHS!).
Even trying to get our daughter's wisdom teeth seen to has been a nightmare and not an experience we would be keen to repeat any time soon!
Anyone who knows me knows that one of my great joys and pleasures in life is unicycling.
I regularly ride for at least an hour twice a week and often more if I can squeeze it into my week, and if the weather allows.
So it was a real joy when Carla said she would like to learn to ride the unicycle. She took to it quite quickly and wasted no time in applying some of her ballet techniques to help conquer the balancing side of unicycling. With just a little more practice she'll be riding with no problems.
Things began with serving 140 litres of soup at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen which was another blessed time of serving generously. This time everyone got a cup & a pot to takeaway and some even hung around for seconds.
It got truly spectacular as the rising sun just clipped the top of the moon on its way down making for some stunning views of it all.
Riding along the beachfront promenade is always a pleasant ride, but when there's such an amazing natural spectacle adding to the beauty of the place it takes on a whole different level of spectacular.
When I set out on my health & fitness journey in January 2019 I was seriously in denial about how much I weighed & unhealthy I was, and truth be told I'll never know how quite bad it got. All I can say is that after hitting 105Kgs I simply stopped weighing myself, but I know I put more weight on because I did nothing to change my lifestyle.
It also helps that the scenery is stunning and each ride is different. One never knows what one might see, be it the feral horses roaming freely or the cattle wandering aimlessly around the village grazing on some of the best kept gardens in the Western Cape.
It's certainly never dull here!
There are a number of factors that have limited my time on my unicycles lately (laziness, the wind and a few other excuses...), so I decided it was time to stop making those excuses and just get back on with riding again.
So for the last couple of weeks I've been trying to crack off a couple of 10k rides on my Kris Holm 26er and generally I have managed it.
The joy of riding regularly is that I can feel my core getting a good workout which means that my back is less likely to cause me any grief, added to that the health benefits of regular exercise (as if Boxing 4 times a week wasn't enough!) and it's a win win.
"Is your unicycle on Gumtree yet?"
This seems to be a common question amongst those that I've seen since breaking my arm just over a week ago, and the answer is very simple: "No they are not!" (yes I have seven unicycles) and nor will they be until such time as I'm physically unable to ride, and even then I'd be reluctant to get rid of them.
Someone even gave me a small lecture on extreme sports and how they're not of a very healthy mindset, and how at my age I don't need to prove anything anyway.
The thing is, the question and the mini lecture both miss something crucial, which is why I unicycle and why in the last 18 months I've become a lot more intentional in my unicycling, often taking my 36er out for 2+hour rides.
Firstly, thank you for all your prayers and kind wishes, they're much appreciated!
So there's good news and there's bad news...
The first bit of good news is that the Muni ride (Mountain Unicycling) on Saturday was a lot of fun with a great crowd of people who were also a massive help in sorting me out once I'd broken my arm.
I've been battling to get a small bag to fit on my unicycle for a while now. I used to have one mounted on the handlebar but it broke and they don't make it anymore. So I was pleased to find a thread in the unicyclist.com forum (yes there really is such a thing) on the topic of saddlebags and unicycles.
I've wanted to try Uni-Hockey for a long time so it was cool to finally get a game yesterday with some fellow unicyclists in the Cape Town area.
It was fast, hectic, just a little chaotic and I was rubbish at the hockey part of it, but it was great fun and I really want to do it again!
Massive thanks to Donna at Oddwheel for organizing these monthly unicycling events.
I'm really enjoying my unicycling and loving going for longer rides over 10ks, especially since I've had to stop running due to my back.
Yesterday morning's ride was just over 16ks and I got to enjoy seeing the sunrise reflecting on Table Mountain which is always a treat. It's nice to be riding so early too because it means there are few people out and about so I don't have to dodge so many pedestrians.
Ever since the beginning of lockdown well over a year ago, and then particularly when I herniated a disc in my spine, I've been battling to get back down to my pre-lockdown weight.
During the lockdown I hit a high of 95kgs (15 stone), but I know this was a result of depression connected directly to my back and the fact that I couldn't run or box. It was a deeply frustrating time and one I have no wish to repeat.
In early January 2019 I made a life changing decision to get fit and healthy and had no idea just how timely and beneficial that decision would turn out to be. In fact, without meaning to be melodramatic, I'd go so far as to say that decision saved my life.
I had stopped all forms of exercise several years earlier, I used to cycle a lot and do a few other bits, but for a number of lame excuses gave it all up and became a couch potato piling on the weight. Because I'm quite tall I appeared to carry the weight well and no one ever said anything about my expanding beer gut.
I have three unicycles that I mix between, a 20", a 29" and a 36", each of which are quite different to each other with different purposes.
Eli also has his own 20" unicycle and I keep two other 20" unis in the garage for when folk fancy having a go at learning to ride.
The railing along the wall is part of the kit for teaching others to ride.
I've never previously been fit enough or strong enough to go far on it before, but thanks to all the boxing training riding 5kilometres on my Muni was far easier and more enjoyable than it's ever been
On the strength of this I'm looking forward to speeding up a bit and going further on future rides.
Some of my highlights of being a dad have to be sharing a love of quality rock music with my boys, teaching them to ride their bikes and with Eli, teaching him to ride a unicycle.Today my joy went a bit further with my boyjie as we went unicycling together on the road and then turned off to ride around the disused farm dam near our house.
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