Weekly Biking Routine - Bring some Health to SteemIt Community

Those who follow my posts know that even though the majority of them are photos, my main hobby is cycling. I use to be a competitor in road cycling and as years went by, I become a passionate commuter, MTB rider and weekend explorer - all with a little help of my bike.
Or better to say - with a collection of bikes I have.

Lately, I started to test Actifit - activity tracking application based on Steem blockchain, and that boosted my interest in other health and recreation-related posts. One of the first I found is @healthsquared series of fitness challenges, and it seemed appropriate to support it.

You can find more about this fine project at this link. This week moto is "Getting outside!", and since that's something I do daily, the only choice was to participate. I will give you a short overview of my usual working and busy week.

As a single father of two teenagers, employed in IT industry with a lot of daily responsibilities and currently preoccupied with the process of buying real estate, there is not even close to enough of free time for all biking and walking my heart desire. But I do my best to find at least some time for my passion.

Sunday

Ride to the hills day. I went for a coffee with friends. Our usual gathering point is a hill above Belgrade named Kosutnjak. Home of some nice singletracks, hilly and green, it is also a favorite riding place when we have enough time. Today was not that day... I just climbed the hill, had coffee and went back home. However - I pushed really hard, so this 16km ride was a nice change from the everyday routine. I spent 15% of the time in Z5 of my Training Heart Rate and 22% in Z4... If every ride is pushing like this, I would be much fitter than I am ;)
With Aerobic TE(training effect) of 4.3 and Anaerobic TE of 2.4, it was a very nice activity.

Monday

Usual commuting day. I went to work and back on my city bike. In total, 6.5 km of an easy ride and some moderate fitness score. It was a very hot day, so I didn't push too hard. This is a perfect example of my lazy day.
Aerobic TE of 2.1 and Anaerobic TE of 0.8 are confirming laziness of Monday.

Tuesday

Somme additional obligation boosted my commuting routine for this day. In total somewhere around 11 km of commuting on very hot and humid day. I had to hurry since I was late, and as a result, this day had the usual Aerobic TE of 2.2, and unusual Anaerobic TE of 1.5.

Wednesday

No commuting today. I had to take my car to the annual service and plus the weather decided to go berzerk. I was tempted to bring my bike to car service shop and ride from there to work and back, but the guy who maintains my car is really cool, so I decided to spend one and half hour in his shop talking about cars. However, the middle of the week is the time to finally push a little, so I went for a ride. This time I decided to ride long singletrack around Kosutnjak with the total of two climbs to the highest point and some cooling downhill afterward. Unfortunately, I didn't check the weather forecast. At the highest (and furthest) point of my ride, I heard first thunders. Nice... Rain start suddenly while I was at downhill part of the track. Let's call it 'rain'. You have a video to judge that.

Anyway, completely soaked and dirty as the only cyclist can be, I managed to complete 26+ km and very nice 216 meters of total climb. Aerobic TE of 3.5 and Anaerobic TE of 2.5 means that I pushed hard, but not on the limit as I planned. Next time...

Thursday

The weather was unfriendly for cyclists today, so I didn't commute. Rest of the day was running to find a present for daughters birthday, so no time for cycling at all. However, the 8600 steps are at least something.

Friday

Some Fridays should be forbidden. Period!
I was commuting to the work. After a whole day of finishing the unfinished tasks of others, I had to find a way to please my bank, a seller, lawyers and lady in Tax Administration regarding apartment that I am buying. Hey, do not pay attention to my feelings, I am only paying for the damn thing! I went home angry and tired. After finding that my girlfriend has a girls nights out, I decided to climb my MTB once again and visit the forest.
A nice ride of 23 km, with a pause to refresh with some nice lemonade, and I am a completely new man - smiling and no bad feelings. The amazing power of cycling my friends... trust me!
It is hard to calculate combining TE for today, but what counts is Aerobic TE of 4.2 (I told you that I was mad) and Anaerobic TE of 2.6.

---

That was my week, and I must admit it was a good one. I commute to the work almost all days and had three nice little rides in nature. If I can manage this every week, my fitness will improve significantly. Unfortunately, I know that next week will be so busy that I will hardly ride at all. But, let see. I will continue to keep records of my fitness activities as a motivation to push harder.

In the end, big thanks to @healthsquared and @sweetsssj for the organization and the sponsoring of this challenge! Good luck to all participants and keep pedaling!

See you next week!

---

All images and text published in this post are my original work.

If you are interested, all photos are for sale for Steem at very affordable price.
You can order photos as full resolution digital copies, as fine prints in photo paper or as framed paintings.
For all available options contact me in comments or via discord.