Description
I had not been very active due to the sudden lockdown due to the pandemic, and this worried me about my health and fitness, and so I was looking for ways to keep up my fitness in a safe and healthy manner. Thus, I came upon cycling, and decided to take up cycling more seriously as a way to keep active. Hence, my goal was to keep active by cycling at least 60 kilometres per month.
Learning Outcomes
LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
I identified my strengths and weaknesses in cycling, and these weaknesses have made me more mindful and cognisant of my actual level of skills in cycling. This makes me feel aware and determined to improve my skills in cycling (viz. speed, manoeuvrability, et cetera).
Therefore, learning and being aware of your strengths and weaknesses is of utmost importance to make significant progress in the field; you must know your areas of improvement thoroughly in order to improve them, and you must know about your strengths in order to avoid wasting time on topics you already have a certain degree of expertise in.
I would like to work on my weaknesses in cycling. I can do this by cycling for longer times and at greater speeds regularly, and by taking part in cyclothons and other such events. This can help me in real life, since it will give me greater freedom and independence, since if I improve, I can travel around the city without a vehicle and without somebody to drive me, while maintaining my fitness as well in an eco-friendly way.
LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
There were many challenges and difficulties along the way. In the start, I could not achieve good speeds and often had to take breaks due to lack of stamina. I also suffered a few injuries, which prevented me from cycling for days. All of these challenges were due to the fact that even though I used to cycle before the experience, it was not regular or serious, and I lacked the fitness and stamina to cycle for longer distances and longer periods of time.
I overcame this challenge by challenging and motivating myself to slowly increase my speed and time each time I cycled, which helped me build up stamina and speed, and made it easier to complete the 60 kilometres.
I feel empowered and proud over the fact that I successfully undertook and completed this challenge, as challenges help you to develop and practise not only new skills, but develop as a human as well, as it increases your grasping power and will power, and makes it easier to learn new skills in the future. For example, through this challenge, I gained new skills in cycling, which will help me in routine life by allowing me to travel around the city without a vehicle in an eco-friendly way.
Learning new skills is important not only in education/profession, but in life as well, as it helps you gain new and knowledge-based perspectives on various things, and increases your grasping power, allowing you to learn skills even faster.
LO4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
As stated above, this activity required physical skills like stamina and speed, which required a lot of commitment and perseverance to develop and maintain, since this required me to keep cycling for longer periods of time without many breaks, which was very difficult for me, but became easier with practice and perseverance.
The activity required me to commit to increasing the distance and time of cycling, as well as not taking a break of too many days. Hence, it required a commitment of time and energy. This was a little difficult for me, as I am not usually motivated to keep myself fit and exercise during the pandemic, and hence, this experience has taught me the value of persistence and perseverance in the face of challenges, as that will lead to personal growth.
Therefore, perseverance and commitment are very valuable, as they are required for high-quality performance in all fields of life, and are also essential in learning and research.
Final Takeaways
I have demonstrated various Learner Profile Attributes during this experience:
- Principled – I was principled by sticking to a regular schedule of cycling, and not adding fake entries in the sports tracker app.
- Risk-Takers – I took risks by trying to achieve greater speeds and cycling for longer periods of time.
- Reflective – I reflected on my performance after each cycle by going through the details (average speed, instantaneous speed, total distance, total time, et cetera) and comparing to my previous cycles.
I enjoyed this activity thoroughly, and completed it successfully. This gives me a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment. Though this experience wasn’t linked to any of my academic subjects, it had real-life implications like helping me improve my fitness and becoming active.
Though this experience has not led to significant changes in perspective, I learnt about values, such as the value of perseverance, and its impact on life, and also learnt about one way to stay active and its benefits.
If I were to do this activity again, I would challenge myself further by trying to cycle for longer distances (ie at least 80 to 100 km)
This activity has many real-life implications for me, since it allows me to keep active, maintain my fitness, travel around the city independently, and take care of the environment.
This has also demonstrated that CAS experiences allow us to take physical risks in a supportive environment, since this activity took place primarily in my society, which is a supportive environment where I have quick access to first aid in case of any injuries, and this gave me the opportunity to take risks by increasing my speed and distance without much fear of any permanent physical harm.
Saumya Shah,
Grade 11 Versatility,
7th October 2020
