Fitness

I guess my autism theory has hit a flaw

I bought a thing. I look at basic data to drive basic standards. I think it does more things but CBA. I will wear it till it's dead.

Talking of Garmin, I've been following one of their 10k training programmes for a few weeks now and it had me doing an 8k-ish run yesterday with some sprint intervals.

I was pleasantly surprised at the time to find I felt reasonably strong during the run but, fuck me, the aches and pains have just kicked in this evening. Lower back and behind my knees for some reason.

I've been slapping on the tiger balm just now and feel very old. Mrs BW thinks it's quite amusing.

I love the aches and soreness from working out, it makes me feel like I actually pushed myself. Nothing more disappointing than doing what you think was a hard session, then waking up the following day feeling completely unimpacted.

I've started a new workout plan with four days lifting, two days cardio and one day rest per week. I just finished the first week and it's really good, but I did the spin bike today as my second cardio and I haven't been on a bike of any kind in years. I'm very sure I'm going to feel it tomorrow.

It's a newer thing for me, so I guess I need to establish fairly quickly if this is just aches and pains or if I've injured myself. Supposed to be doing the next training run later on today.

Huge fan of this. I'm a big fan of the shower after a hard session.

At the moment I'm doing a 5k pretty much everyday, slowly, often Jeffing but mostly to keep me sane. I've just finished this mornings. Work is in one of those cunty investment spells where it should pay but i've got to hold my nerve coupled with we should be moving house next month which is about my least favourite thing to do. Both of which effect my sleep and how I am at home so running is my release, ideally with friends but I'm fine and motivated to go on my own. So at the moment I don't want to get injured (if I do then Madri will probably again become the release) so it makes sense to keep going slowly.

I have a Garmin, I use it to track my speed, record my runs and whittle myself stupid about my blood oxygen levels and VO2max.

I would like to get back to half marathon standard.

Get your warm ups and stretching in to reduce post excercise pain. Also magnesium spray.

I’m not a fan at all of running with others (or running in general to be fair), the last thing I need is someone trying to talk to me when I can barely breathe.

Any running I do is out of the way, in the gym on a treadmill.

I don't mind the odd run with a friend as a social thing, but I'm generally the same with any form of exercise. I don't want to run at someone else's pace, I don't want to stop to wait for someone to retie the lace they should have done properly, I don't want to stop and get a coffee midway through a run, I don't want to spot you, I don't want to have an impromptu 1RM competition. I want to listen to my music or podcast and I want to be left alone.

I'm going for a 5K run with a group of other Dad's this evening. They are all fitter than me so I find it quite hard to keep up. Everyone always talks about 'running at the slowest persons' pace and is very inclusive. Then we start and I am dying after 10 minutes. On the plus side we will probably have a beer at the end.

Surely this is not a thing??

The healthiest thing you can do is quit alcohol. I don't run because of my knees (generally the running is related to playing football) but find hiking up large mountains not a problem. I also have an infra Red sauna in my back garden as well as a cold plunge tub. I also do very heavy weights when i can. The key to health and fitness is to keep moving and to stress the body in ways it responds well to. (hence the heat and cold). As we age the two best things other than weight training are tennis and biking. I work 15 hours a day. I don't have much options time wise. Although I strangely like sprinting with no clothes on in very very cold weather as that doesn't bother my knees too much which is kind of strange.

Anyway carry on.

Chicago: Fashionista.

It can be. Not regularly. But it is. As an example in the summer a mate of mine and me did a kind of 15K bumble around London for the afternoon. We set off from Hampstead, ran to Hyde Park, had a coffee and croissant, then ran another 5K down to near the Oval where we finished with a beer. It's a kind of social occasion with some fitness involved. It was quite nice tbh.

I used to run every other evening after being sat at my desk all day. Was quite comfortable at 10k, enjoyed it and it was great for my mental health. Very much solo runner. I would take my ipod and listen to a couple of albums.
But I have completely fallen off the waggon, havent run for 4 month or so and just have a complete mental block to putting my trainers on. I cant find any motivation to do it even though I know the benefits. Any suggestions as to how to find the spark to run again?

I too am a solitary runner - no interest in jogging with a bunch of other people. For me, it's as much a stress-reliever as it is about the fitness element.

When I run, I want to be left alone to plod along with some music of my choosing thumping through my skull.

I stopped running a few years ago and couldn't get back into the habit no matter how much I tried, and what has finally worked is discovering I love lifting - that got me back in a fitness mindset, which in turn made me want to do cardio, which has got me running again.

So my purely anecdotal advice would be to try a few other different fitness things, see what grabs you, and maybe that will reignite the spark to run.