Personally keeping fit during quarantine has been a challenge as I get bored from doing the same things everyday. I have been trying to overcome this by signing up for any exercise based activity that comes my way. So, when I heard about a bike trip organised by Mr. Lockwood and Abby I was eager to join.

We set out at 5 in the morning near school and were planning on going to the other side of the Kelani river (North of Colombo) with the intention of avoiding as many roads as possible. On our trip we cycled through wetlands, plantations and rice paddies that I have never heard of before. We crossed what we call the ‘Maruti’ bridge, a tiny bridge about the width of my wingspan, to get to the other side of the river. Then we stopped for thambili and corn to recover as a ‘half way point’. Finally, we finished our bike ride at Eden Gardens making it a total of 55km and four hours of riding!

During this bike ride I was able to observe so many different unique kinds of Sri Lankan scenery while additionally interacting with my friends. Although I really enjoyed the experience, everyone there could agree that I was somewhat out of my depth in terms of fitness and cycling as I do not regularly cycle and was unfit due to quarantine. Therefore, I was struggling throughout the bike ride to keep up (especially during the uphill sections). Through perseverance, encouragement from my friends and LOTS of breaks I was able to complete all 55km. Overall, I would like to continue doing cycling as a form of exercise but should build up to longer distances by doing 20-30km rides to prepare both strength and endurance.