About working from home

Working from home has sunk me. I started this blog in January 2020, as a way of tracking my training and bike development from then until I did LEJOG in September 2020. Except things didn't quite work out, with COVID scuppering that plan. LEJOG got deferred for a year and whilst this had benefits in theory (longer to train, longer to fundraise) the reality is that my cycling has tanked.

Here's an ugly graph to illustrate what I mean:

It's miles up the y-axis. The week numbers along the x-axis correspond to the week numbers I've used on this blog to report my metrics; as I type, we're in week 58, so everything else counts back from there. I've gone back to when I first started commuting to work by bike, week -81 (i.e. two years and eight months ago, near as damn it). So what does the graph tell us? Well, that prior to the enforced introduction of working from home (WFH), I was averaging 50 to 60 miles a week, without really trying, often hitting 80 miles a week, and with the occasional gran fondo spike thrown in to boot (see if you can guess when I rode 142 miles in one day). And that since WFH, I've progressively cycled less and less. Sure, the weather in this latest lockdown hasn't helped, and neither has home-schooling - when I'm not working, I want to be parenting - and that doesn't leave much cycling time. Oh, and let's not forget what this graph doesn't show: that I was cycling at least five days a week, and usually six or seven, every week prior to lockdown. I was conditioned to cycle. Right now I'm conditioned to sit on the sofa until the early hours of the morning, eating biscuits.

Anyway, the bottom line is ... well, it's the dotted red trend line. I'm cycling less and less, 20-25 miles per week currently. Clearly I need to get in shape, because I seem to be ignoring the fact that LEJOG is 980 miles in nine consecutive days. In current shape, I can't do that. And I have just 213 days to turn this around...