Staying active is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. One of the ways to do so while enjoying nature is to go out for a run or to go cycling. In October 2021 a few friends of mine and I decided to beat the examination stress and maintain our physical health by going on regular runs and cycling trips. We decided to go out running and cycling every weekend and steadily increase the difficulty. For running, we set our goal to be 5km in the shortest time possible and for cycling, we decided to increase the distance we cycled steadily over time. Aside from our weekly group sessions I also trained on my own to improve my endurance and perform better the next time we got together. By the end of this, I was able to run a distance of 5 km in almost 35mins and was able to cycle 30kms in one go.

My intention for taking on this activity was to test my own strength and understand how far I could push my own body. Over the weeks of running and cycling, I realized a few key things about me. First of all, I understood that compared to running indoors was able to cover much longer distances when I ran in the open, along with this I was also able to enjoy the activity more and could push myself a bit more. Next, I learned more about my endurance and strength. Even though I thought I might not be able to complete the activity, I was always able to push myself further and further and defy my own expectations.

The most challenging part of completing this activity was to keep my motivation and energy levels up. During the time that I was conducting this activity, I was also training heavily in the gym and for a trek. It was tough for me to wake up at 5 am and go for a run with sore muscles. Although after a week or two my body had adapted to it and I could much more easily complete the designated activities. Along with this, the other challenge was to keep the motivation of my groupmates up. There were several instances where one of us would not want to go on a run but, all of together were able to convince each other to go.

Perseverance and self-motivation were what had kept us going and in the end, we were all able to reach the goals we had set for ourselves. It embedded a habit of self-improvement and health-conscious choices in all of us. By conducting this activity we were able to relieve some of the examination stress, spend more time outdoors and keep our bodies in a good shape.