Venture - adventure

Had a few longer bike rides this year, so after an 83-kilometre-long trip beyond Puszcza Kampinoska and back (with a stopover at my friend’s), I decided to seize the opportunity to try out whether I was fit enough for a two-day cycling trip.

The planning was quite simple. While driving through Puszcza Bolimowska in business some two weeks earlier, I had discovered how picturesque the place was and it had occurred to me the place would have been a nice destination of a cycling trip. Next steps were finding an affordable accommodation for an overnight stay and marking out a route.

Setting off from Piaseczno, we cycled through Nadarzyn, then to Żyrardów and onwards through forests to Bolimów where lodgings was booked. Total distance cycled: 95 kilometres. The next day we headed towards Sochaczew, rode through Kampinos, then on the edges of Puszcza Kampinowska to reach the finish line at Stare Bielany underground station. Total distance cycled (including a ride from W-wa Jeziorki station to NI): 82 kilometres. So in total, 177 kilometres in two days. Looks impressive as you read, in fact no big deal.

According to a popular belief, to be able to boast about such distance cycled you need to be damn fit and have professional equipment. I would argue both the former and the latter are gross overstatements.

If you ride a bike recreationally and cover no more than 20 kilometres a day, a two-day over 150-kilometre trip is a wild goose chase, but after a few rides longer than 50 kilometres each, the task in entirely doable. The only piece of advice to be given is to set yourself a moderate pace not to overstrain yourself and to spread out powers evenly.

I have a no-frill bike from Decathlon with few upgrades, I do not possess cycling outfit (saddle gel pad makes up for civil clothes), I only wore a helmet. A supermarket bike would to be advisable equipment, but plain equipment, as long as properly maintained and prepared is absolutely sufficient.

When talking about distance cycled, do bear in mind 50 kilometres do not equal 50 kilometres in terms of effort put into covering such distance. On plain asphalt 50 kilometres is a two-hour ride, while when ascents are on your way, each kilometre adds up to an even bigger challenge. If you cycle through a forest, especially in bumpy or sandy terrain, each kilometres wears you down more and more, hence 100 kilometres on asphalt might be taken in one’s stride, while 30 kilometres in a sandy forest could be far more tiresome.

Lastly, good to know how to fend for oneself during long-distance cycling, as your body will not be indifferent to such physical strain.

Firstly, drink a lot, I would argue one litre per twenty kilometres is a bare minimum.

Secondly, do stopovers every twenty kilometres or so

Thirdly, eat to bring your body calories you would burn.

Fourthly, enjoy the endorphins your body will produce!

Dance class

September. Nagging heatwaves have gone by for good. Nights are drawing in. Time to break out of the lethargy in which I plunged just after the exam and in which I lingered over nearly the entire summer. Time to focus on less mundane stuff than floating between home and work with some occasional only entertainment.

Nearly three years of swotting up for three levels of the examinations have worn me down and put off learning for a while. My idea to refresh my command of German, lost on account of not using it (I was reminded of it specifically painfully last year while holidaying in Germany), has been given up. Firstly, I did not feel like taking up another course, doing homeworks, etc. Secondly, signing up for a language course would require attending classes twice a week either early in the morning or in the evening, which for work-related reasons (the New Factory requires more and more flexibility in terms of business trips and staying overtime) could not be viable, or on Saturday mornings, which in turn does not come into play for family-related reasons.

A new pastime activity was meant to involve some sort of physical exercise, so eventually I have plumped for dance classes. So far I have had two lessons and absolutely do not regret my decision!

Definitely it is never too late to learn something new and useful. While attending parties and weddings I was never chair-ridden, but I danced as good as I could (just as many people do). But why dance as you can, while it is better to “can dance” (pun intended, yet sounds silly, unlike the Polish lepiej umieć tańczyć, niż tańczyć jak się umie). My selection was the party dance course (taniec użytkowy) – not complicated, yet most coming in handy on social occasions.

Before signing up I had some doubts whether I was up to it. My sense of rhythm is below-average, yet my co-ordination of movements of limbs must not be bad if I drive a car at absolute ease, so I hoped I would not bugger up all along.

After two classes the impressions I can share are the following:

- as long as the pace of learning is moderate and an instructor does not try to teach you too much, grasping the dance comes up naturally,

- switching the partners continuously adds much value to the learning, since you do not learn how your partner moves, but develop universal habits and learn how to send and receive impulses to and from your partner,

- dancing not only enhances your daily routine but also helps you forget about the quandaries of the daily grind,

- it is essentially the chance to meet new people and simply have fun!, but

- unlike some of you may think, odds of finding there a life companion are statistically and practically low (in my group those people who do not come with a partner, have been sent by their partners to brush up on their dancing skills).

There was a time people urged to take a dance class to find a girlfriend. When they gave up on urging, I settled for it on my own! The sound approach, I believe, is to go there for any other reason than to find a girlfriend. Otherwise, I would have ended up frustrated!

And once the current course draws to a close, I will sign up for another one, just to have fun!

Outdoor gym

The first outdoor gym I spotted was the set of equipment next to Multikino Ursynów, in mid-2014. The second, which I not only glanced at, but also I tried out was the one in Ursus, on Easter Sunday this year (despite the chill). The third, which I grew fond of, was on a hill in Szczawno-Zdrój (back at times when the area was not famous).

The fourth one, I have been doing my best to use at least once a week, is next to the pond in Mysiadło. Photo by Kurier Południowy.

It has been here for almost a year. Locals were urging a very active councillor from Mysiadło to lobby for some exercising facilities near the pond. The very area, though located in the vicinity of lots of dwelling, has been infamous for being a hangout for local fans of alcoholic beverages, including those under age. With the appearance of some infrastructure, i.e. new benches, rubbish bins, the gym; after cleaning up the pond and tidying up the surrounding area, better days have come for the place. Local drunkards still sometimes hang around there, but the place is now often full of young parents walking or playing with their offspring, local pensioners and anglers.

The cost of the gym has not burnt a hole in gmina Lesznowola’s budget – for mere 25 thousand zlotys a few machines have been installed and to my surprise, they have not been vandalised. The facilities are in fact solid and have been solidly attached to the ground, so it would take months of workout to build up muscles strong enough to wreck or spoil them.

I typically go there each Sunday morning. Saturday mornings are reserved for swimming pool, so Sunday is ideal. I prefer the early hours, i.e. around 8 a.m., since odds of not having to wait until another community member gets off a piece of equipment are lower. Plus in the very hot August as we have experienced this year, 9 a.m. was often the last hour when temperature was bearable. Despite the small hour, however, I usually was not the only one to use it. The  morning-time users are generally older than me (from their 30s up to their approximately 70s), both females and males. Some stop over here during the morning jogging, some get off their bikes, take a few minutes of exercise and continue the ride, some come with their dogs and while a dog runs around, they work out. I don’t know how about later hours, but maybe youngsters also attend it.

Advantages, apart from the most obvious, namely that one works out – proximity, free usage and being in the open air, meaning one can also catch precious sunrays.

Drawbacks – scarcity of equipment (less than ten pieces) and no possibility to set the “heaviness” of the machines – either you strain too little or too much.

The outdoor gyms falls into the general trend of local authorities encouraging residents to keep fit. Cycling paths, sport fields (not only football pitches), swimming pools, outdoor gyms – having all of this around mobilises at least some sofa-ridden layabouts to move their arses and do something about their body. Just like investment in education theoretically should prevent structural unemployment, investments in citizens’ fitness should yield savings on health-care and elderly-care spending. The progress in medicine has already lengthened our lives considerably, now is the time to fend for the comfort of living, or to make it precise, to defer the moment it decreases as a result of ageing.