New year, new exercise activities.
And I'm resetting the exercise updates back to #1 for the new year.
It’s been an interesting first week of the year for exercise. After the break I took in December, it was always going to be tough to get going again and to build up motivation.
My first two attempts barely qualified for the minimum 20 minute and ‘sweat out’ guidelines I set for myself but then I decided to join my friends at their running group.
I don’t think I’ve ever run more than 2km at one time without stopping so I surprised myself by keeping up with them for the entire 13km. The last 3km were rather painful; although we were going at a slow pace, I could feel aches in every joint and muscle in my legs, and when I tried to compensate, my lower back started acting up because my form was wrong.
And then on the next day, I had already set a prior appointment with colleagues to train for the zombie run, and so I went for another 5km with them at a very controlled pace despite the pain. I think I managed to hide it well though and my colleagues didn’t notice that I was struggling.
This is how the week looked:
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: M-100s to 10 minutes on the punching bag
- Wednesday: 20 minutes gym
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: Rest
- Saturday: 13km run
- Sunday: 5km run
Just to finish the m-100s on Tuesday and then to push myself on the punching bag was a real test of my willpower – I resisted it every step of the way but at least managed to complete the 20 minutes and came away from the punching bag covered in sweat.
Wednesday was just as tough in the gym. I followed one of my usual routines of push ups, inverted pull ups, squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses and sit ups but this time didn’t do the usual 10 minute warm up on the treadmill. And where I usually do a minimum of 3 sets each, I only managed to reach less than 2 complete rounds of rotation before I had to give up in case I threw up.
But I felt much better with my preliminary attempts at distance running and am rather glad that I managed to run 18km in two days when I did not think I would run more than 5km at the first attempt. I have the aches and strains to show for it but I’m sure my body will adapt in time.
Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum.
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