Feeling lethargic and a little of shape after an indulgent extended holiday period, YouTuber Sven Vee feels like he needs a physical challenge to help him properly kickstart his 2021. So he dusts off his 15-year-old stationary bike, and sets himself the task of cycling for 2 hours every single day for an entire month, aiming to hit 2,000 km by the end of the challenge (roughly the distance from New York City to Miami).

He keeps his diet the same throughout the month (a macro split of approximately 40 percent protein, 30 percent carbs and 30 percent fats), in order to be certain that any physical results he achieves are due solely to the cycling routine.

“I ended up doing 100 km on that second day, which was a mistake,” says Vee. “I wasn’t used to doing any cycling whatsoever before this challenge, so something I hadn’t accounted for was just sitting on a saddle for that long. My butt hurt. My muscles were also fatigued pretty easily after those first 100 km… I took it a little easier for two days after that, and from then on, I gradually started increasing the distance again.”

He manages to keep up a level of consistency in his daily cycling sessions, and on days when he overdoes it, he allows himself an “easier” ride the next day.

“I’m struggling quite a bit right now with motivation,” he says on Day 19 of the challenge. “My legs are just super tired, I don’t know why. This is the first time since the first couple of days that I really feel like they need a little bit more rest because I’ve been going every day.”

Vee pushes extra hard in the final couple of days of the challenge, and finishes on Day 30 having cycled a total distance of 2,500 km across 65 hours. He has increased his pace on the bike from around 32 kph to 45 kph, and has also shed 2 percent bodyfat.

“I lost about 3 kgs, which is not a lot, but that is mainly because I didn’t pay attention to changing my diet to something healthier,” he says. “It shows that just exercising and maintaining your diet does have quite a big influence on your results.”

“The most important part for me aren’t the metrics either,” he continues. “It’s more that I consistently put the work in and completed a 30-day challenge without skipping a day. It just builds you up, and it kind of proves to yourself that you can stick to something when you have discipline, and it feels good.”

His one piece of advice to anyone thinking about trying out this challenge for themselves? Buy padded shorts. Your butt, he says, will thank you.

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