If you've lost your exercise/running mojo, come on in for a Christmas countdown .....

[lechatnoir]

I've not done any significant exercise for the past 9 months, have put on 1.5 stone, taken up smoking again after years away and feel like shit as a result plus add peri-menopausal symptoms Working from home , lack of money and general feeling of negativity everywhere hasn't helped and I'm sure I'm not alone.

In a fit of madness I signed up for a HM for next March but need a kick up the arse and a serious overhaul before I can even start to think about following a running plan. Ive got 7 weeks before I start training but think 8 weeks is more realistic and will also tie in nicely with the festive season (right now I just want to hibernate not party).

So aims are:
Get basic fitness levels up and gently resume running
Build some strength and flexibility
Stop smoking (day 3 and counting)
Include some proper self-care - early nights, hair colouring more regularly, just a bit of pampering occasionally.

Get back in the habit of regular exercise with some sort of weekly timetable.

Anyone want to join me and post for support, encouragement, ideas and give each other a proverbial kick up the arse along way?

I’ve done 12k steps, and lined up Yoga with Adrienne’s 30 day thing on the app ready to start tomorrow.

@christmassyqwerty I'm guessing that you could just run as much of the distance as you could and walk the rest? I'm very frustrated with myself knowing that I used to be able to run 5K and am now back to week 2 of C25K... aaarrrgghhh! But still I plod on, repeating to myself "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"... I feel like as long as I'm doing something, that's better than nothing?

@Judystilldreamsofhorses thank you for the 'healthy for 30' tip! I'm going to try the Body Coach 'Get Back on It' challenge and think of two others. Although I may start my shockwave therapy this week and am not looking forward to it

2 miles of 4:1 Jeffing this morning. That's a very good quote @ScarlettMcCain - I'm also frustrated that I've let summer laziness (to be fair the heatwave this year absolutely poleaxed me) chip away at my fitness, when I was running 3 or 4 miles at a time 3 times a week, but as you say something is better than nothing.

I found a good app for marking off the run-walk intervals if anyone's interested - it's called RunIntervals and you can have it going in the background if you like to listen to music or podcasts etc while running. It cuts in to give you a three second countdown when it's time to change pace, and you can customise the intervals to whatever suits you.

Gym sesh for me today. Graduated myself from dumbbells, which I've been using to even out any strength differences between left and right limbs, to barbells. Didnt lift anything huge but nice to feel like there has been progress. Will run tomorrow after school bus drop off.

I’ve done day one of Yoga With Adriene. Ooft, I am not very bendy! I’ll probably not get 10K steps today because I am WFH but it will even out over the week. Water has been consumed in herbal tea, that counts, right?

Run done ✅ Bloody hard work, a few walk breaks needed but 40 minutes mainly jogging albeit slowly is progress.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses I've done 30 days of yoga a couple of times - you'll be amazed how much stronger and more flexible you are by the end so definitely stick at it.

What the plan for today everyone?

Hope it’s not too late to join? 🙋‍♀️

I am rehabbing an injury so need to be in the gym 2-3 times a week. I also want to try and get back to swimming regularly. I signed up to the virtual marathon swims challenge, so by 30 November I need to have swum 25k. Based on what I typically swim per session, that’s about 10 swims across November, which should be very doable.

Now I just need to fix the diet, so I actually see some ‘results’ from all this activity…

well done @lechatnoir

Did a quick 5k run after dropping the kids off. Was meant to be longer but the weather was not the best- super windy and driving rain. Also if it’s 5k I can get back to the carpark before you have to pay 🤣. I am pretty sore after gym yesterday. Think I might have to do upper body only tomorrow! Will try day 1 of Adrienne later.

welcome @FlySwimmer . 2.5k in one swim session is pretty impressive!

@FlySwimmer 2.5k is impressive. I went to the lido in the local park this morning - it was warmer than last week but still pretty cold. I only managed 1k but as it was windy it was quite choppy so felt a lot longer.

3k walk to and from the pool to get my steps in (and it p'd it down on the way home so I was wetter when I got back than I was in the pool). I picked up a post Halloween very cheap pumpkin in M&S as a refuge from the rain so it will be a healthy meal tonight -- just have to choose between soup, risotto or curry.

Oh Wow another one impressed by 2.5km swims @FlySwimmer 🙌. I used to enjoy a weekly swim and got up to 1km (this was massive for me as I'm not a natural swimmer and struggled with 1 length to start!) but then my local pool put their prices up - £6.30 - and there's only 1 evening of lane swimming so it's completely rammed and not much fun TBC. I'm tempted to look further afield as I really enjoyed it plus NEVER got injured despite running quite a lot back then. Inspired 😁

Enjoy your Yoga @illiterato and well done for braving the elements @londonmummy1966 it is grim out there today.

Following this thread with interest, I'm another one who has spent the year about to start exercising next week. I've started running twice but my knee blows up each time so I need to take it slower and increase core fitness alongside I think.

Question for those jeffing (never heard of this term but it sounds helpful) - how do you time the run/walk bits? Do you run with a stopwatch?

I’ve a bit of an advantage in that I used to swim competitively, so I’ve got the technique down and I think if you’ve decent technique, there’s a base level speed you can work at. I don’t do 100 lengths in one go though, I generally break it up into some arms-only, kicking, and swimming. Helps with boredom!

In turn I’m so impressed with all the runners 🙌 I did C25K and just about made it to 5k, so people who do more than that regularly as incredible to me. We’ve got this 💪

@WishIWasACavewoman - I use a Gymboss interval timer as I don't like running with my phone. If you carry it then there are lots of apps that you can download (think gymboss may have one). THere's also a great facebook group called Girls That Jeff who can answer pretty well any question you have about Jeffing. I found them really helpful when I started.

Thanks Londonmummy! I feel I need to prove commitment, even only to myself, before i can justify buying more gadgets- but will get reading up on jeffing in case it's the magic solution I've been missing...

@WishIWasACavewoman a good introductory article to Jeffing here. I am a convert as it is amazing I can run longer distances and faster times than when I ran from start to finish

runnerslab.com/galloway-method-walk-training-plan/

Ooh, thank you. I like the emphasis in the article on reduced injury. Anything that helps me avoid a knee like a football within 2 weeks of starting would be worth the cost of a gadget (caving already)

Good work today, everyone!

Day two of Yoga With Adriene ✅. The cat was being an absolute furry menace trying to get in on the act. I’ve done 14k steps today so am well over the 20K for Monday and Tuesday combined.

I didn’t know jeffing was a thing but was doing it before PF kicked my arse. I used the Runkeeper app and also enjoyed that it produced a little map of where you had been.

Got to the gym today for strength training. Running tomorrow- weather is going to be absolutely foul so committing to5k and not one step more :-)

I use an interval timer app that feeds sound effects into my headphones alongside my music.

I've done a long trail run today. Jeffing doesn't work so well when there's stiles/ gates/ livestock/ mud/ hills in the way 😂
I still put it on though as it prompts me to run when I've slowed up which helps.

My focus at the moment is time on legs to get my body back into it.

It's very autumnal out there! Breezy which can be hard going but my route was mostly sheltered. I stayed dry too.

I managed to get out for a "short" run today. I thought I was quite slow so kept trying to get myself to speed up only to discover that I'd mismeasured my loop and it was 4k per loop not 3 so I ran 12k not 9k so my pace was actually the fastest I've run for ages. Very happy with that.

I plan on swimming tomorrow, but may go for an indoor pool given the weather at the moment...

Good idea OP.

I'm joining for accountability, but won't be running.

Nothing earth-shattering here, just aiming to get back into some good habits I've somehow fallen out of, tone up and lose a bit of weight. So, my plan is:

Yoga with Adriene
1 7-minute LWR
10 minutes meditation
Walk to work instead of taking the bus
Healthy packed lunch
Drink more water
Cut down on carbs and sugar
More books, less phone/Netflix
Earlier to bed (so that I can get up earlier to fit the exercise in)

Hoping to see results by the end of the year.

Good luck, everyone!

YWA day three and 10k steps, done. It is WILD weather-wise here today so I hit 10k by emptying the dishwasher there, but it all counts, right?

👋 @apalershadeoflight welcome and getting back into good habits is very much part of it for lots of us I think. A deep stretch session is on my plan tomorrow which given the weather I'm very happy. As part of my 'move more' efforts I've committed to not driving anywhere under a mile and I need the post office tomorrow so will have a wet walk or cycle at some point. 1 mile is nothing really especially on a bike and I should probably extend that to 3 miles but baby steps...

Weather actually a bit better than forecast, at least for the 30 mins I was trotting around the park. Was admittedly quite easy so I’ll aim to increase my runs to 7k. I normally go to the gym on Fridays but tomorrow I’m in London for work so I plan to run around Hyde park in the morning as weather looks like it’ll be quite nice for a change.

well done everyone. Let’s ingrain those good habits!!

It's brightened up nicely here.
My body was not enthused this morning, but I took my fitness class gently as recovery exercise and feel better for it.