{"id":55688,"date":"2026-03-17T10:18:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/?p=55688"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:18:51","slug":"on-group-activities-that-challenge-me-physically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/on-group-activities-that-challenge-me-physically\/","title":{"rendered":"On group Activities that Challenge Me Physically"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

Two days in a row I participated in activities that pushed me physically. On sunday it was a 60km ride with 900m of climbing and a 25km\/h wind and the next day it was a 9.4km walk which is pushing my endurance further than usual. I found myself thinking that I should participate in hikes because hikes are easy. I’m used to walking. Walking and hiking were my specialities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By cycling on Sunday, despite the wind, and running on Monday despite the fatigue I pushed myself, and I remained true to my word. I saw on Whatsapp that the group that organises sedentary activities were complaining about no-shows in activities that involve sitting, drinking and talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was one of the “ghosts”. I had to choose between going to an event for extroverts who like to drink in bars and miss the bike ride, or remain fresh ahead of what would be a tremendously demanding bike ride. I will always choose sports over pub crawls for a simple reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extrovert Centric<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Group activities that favour extroverts, like pub crawls, are fun if you want to drink, and if you’re the extrovert getting the attention, but a complete waste of time as an introvert. As an introvert I have been out every night for months, or even seasons, and come home as lonely as if I had not been out at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons I pivoted from hiking groups to cycling groups last year, and running this year, is that I found that hiking groups leave me feeling lonelier, and more solitary than if I had walked alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Daily Walk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No matter how exhausted I am from cycling, and running, recently, I still make the effort to go for a walk. My rest walk is from 6-10km, whether it’s raining, snowing or windy. It never snows so I rarely walk when it is snowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Desire to Vegetate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday I was so knackered I felt a strong desire to get home. It’s rare that I get back from a ride and don’t sit at a computer. Monday I felt knackered too. Today I plan to rest and tomorrow I will go for another group ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

## The Desire Not to Drive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was hiking, enjoying via ferrata and scuba diving I would think nothing of driving two to three hours. Two summers without a car, and several weeks without my scooter taught me to appreciate things locally. I love the local walks, and if it wasn’t for my fear of dogs, and aggressively driven cars, then I would still be enjoying the local walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that I have two cycling groups within six minutes of home by bike, and a running group, within half an hour’s walk from home, enables me to socialise without ever being part of car based traffic. If I’m willing to cycle an hour to join a group then I have many more groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opportunity to Hike<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If I was willing to drive an hour and a half, or catch the train, then I’d have groups to hike with every single weekend, all year long. I finally found groups that are active year round, other than diving. If I could find the desire to drive for two to four hours I could join a group on Sunday in Haute Savoie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of ‘Ghosts’ and Rainy Weather<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It rained on Saturday, which meant that the ride that was meant to take place on that day was cancelled. Another group organised a ride on Sunday so that’s why I signed up for it. If the ride had taken place on Saturday I would not have cycled on Sunday, and if I had not cycled on Sunday then I would have gone for the pub crawl event. It’s because of the weather, and seeing what effect dehydration has on a bike ride that I chose to stay home instead of being social.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the weather that turned me into a ghost. Not laziness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Finally<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every time I say that I walk three kilometres for social drinks, and that I walk the same distance home people are surprised. They prefer to take the bus. When I’m too lazy to go out it’s because I already walked ten kilometres and I don’t feel like walking six more. They take their cars, and their buses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days ago I sat with someone as she waited for her bus, and saw how regularly buses could take me right next to where I live. The excuse that buses are too irregular turned out to be untrue. I learned about that option by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, when I felt tired I made the choice to continue. I could have been lazy and headed home with the group that had a shorter ride. I didn’t. I feel that I’m suffering more now, partily because it’s winter, but also because I chose to ride with the “lazier” group, as I think of it, rather than riding with the people fitter than me. I think that affected my fitness. Of course winter plays a role. These riding conditions are not as easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Finally, tomorrow I will be pushed again on the morning ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Two days in a row I participated in activities that pushed me physically. On sunday it was a 60km ride with 900m of climbing and a 25km\/h wind and the next day it was a 9.4km walk which is pushing my endurance further than usual. I found myself thinking that I should participate in hikes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[255],"tags":[6532,733,6526,1062,349],"class_list":["post-55688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-swiss-walks","tag-activities","tag-cycling","tag-groups","tag-running","tag-walking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55691,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55688\/revisions\/55691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}