Most of my physical activities like playing sports and exercising took place in my school. However, due to the sudden lockdown, my physical routine hit a bit of a triumph. My screen time increased significantly, eating habits reached peak unhealthy levels and my bodily balance was far from stable. I needed something that’ll bring me back from the slag that I was in, both physically and mentally. This made me start cycling in the morning to become fit and active instead of being a laid back couch potato. I started with a goal of cycling 1 hour every morning for 4 days a week and eventually increased it to 6 days a week for 2 hours.
Learning outcomes
LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
Through cycling, I was able to gain a much deeper understanding of where my strengths and weaknesses lie in terms of physical exercising. I got to know that even though I was able to cycle for longer distances, meaning that I have good stamina, I suffered from muscle pain a lot.
As much as important identifying your weaknesses is, it’s more important to build up on them. Knowing that my muscles are considerably weaker, I got more conscious of my diet and eating habits. This made me include a lot of protein in my diet like eggs and fish which would help strengthen my muscles which not only will help me cycle better but also perform day to day tasks more efficiently.
Furthermore, cycling not only helped me understand my physical weaknesses but also mental. Every time I had to wake up early in the morning, I had this urge to go back to sleep and try waking up tomorrow. This made me think how mentally weak I am that I give up so easily without even trying. I then worked on getting mentally fit by pushing myself to do things that I generally do not. For example, waking up early, stopping procrastinating, cooking, taking my dog for a walk and even cycling more often and for longer periods of time.
Lo2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
As mentioned earlier, a lot of challenges came in the form of weakness. For example, the lack of motivation. As an individual, I find it very difficult to continue something for long as I lose interest very quickly. Especially if it’s something that requires physical exertion. I lost my sense of purpose and found it difficult to wake up every morning and get ready to exercise.
The lack of motivation and interest kept me from cycling for almost a week in between but then I thought of a solution. I asked a few of my friends to join me to cycle. When my friends started coming with me, I found cycling fun and enjoyable rather than just an exercise. Since I enjoyed it so much, I was also highly motivated, so much that I looked forward to every morning.
When I look back now, I feel proud of myself to overcome my challenges and never give up. I feel motivated and empowered in the sense that it has pushed me to try different things in life and to always get back up on your feet no matter how difficult.
LO4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Cycling required both physical and mental perseverance and commitment. It required me to be consistent, motivated and highly vigilant to wake up everyday and challenge myself to complete my goal.
The commitment required was to never miss a day and to not give up halfway. Obviously in the beginning it was difficult to keep up but then I found ways to be on task and show perseverance towards the goal. Even though these were uncertain times,I made sure that I try my best to be committed and extremely focused.
Final takeaways
Cycling has helped me in several ways. It helped me gain my focus in life back by showing me that it’s important to stay active and fit, not just to look physically attractive but also because it gives you a great deal of mental peace.
I developed the following learner profiles through cycling:
Open mindedness:
As I mentioned earlier, fitness wasn’t something that I was keen on keeping. It was something embedded in my schedule, something that I wouldn’t do by going out of my way. Being open to the idea of cycling helped me in several ways. If i wouldn’t have been open minded and accepted the fact that fitness is important, I wouldn’t have gained the experience that I did because of cycling so the whole experience made me more open to new ideas and challenges.
Reflective
Cycling helped me reflect on my strengths and weaknesses in terms of both physical and mental capacities. The self-reflection that I did, unknowingly so, after each session really helped me improve my skills so that it assists me not only in cycling but also in my day to day life.
In a nutshell, this experience helped me identify my own strengths and weaknesses, demonstrate challenges by pushing me to show commitment and perseverance.
