What Have I Been Up To?

Hello Blog readers.

Well, quite a bit since the last blog!  The for a start, I have finished my One Year No Beer challenge!  A challenge I decided to set by myself, for no particular reason other than I thought I could do it, and I wrote a blog about it, which I started just about a week after I started the challenge and added to over the year!

What else, well, I have done some running! Woo Hoo, some actual running rather than just me working out in my sitting room. I have also been meeting up with my PWR buddies to do Fitness In The Park, our usual summer sessions that we do with out club!  Of course it's all been totally different!  For a start, we have had to split everybody over two parks and then have 1 leader per 5 members.  We have had to have a booking system because of numbers, leaders, and spaces in the two parks.  It works, ok, it's not our usual speed and core sessions but it still feels great to be doing club stuff.

What else, hmm!  The only problem about not writing everything down on the day I do things is that I forget what I have done! Oh yes,  I have done maybe one or two solo runs but also a couple of Thursday morning runs with my run buddies at PWR!  Oh my goodness, totally mixed feelings about the running!  For a start, working out in my sitting room and running are two completely different animals!  Before Covid I was fairly active, I had a regular routine of running, moving, walking. After Covid I have had a regular route of doing half hour workout and sitting on my arse for the rest of the day! Well, maybe some housework thrown in, but yeah, mainly not moving much from my front door! My first run on a Thursday was not last Thursday but the Thursday before that, Illustrious Leader was leading group 1, there were 6 of us in a group!  I am sure that most of them have been running solo throughout Covid!  Anyway, I thought I should be ok, I was so looking forward to going through the woods.  Starting off, of course is always hard, when I was at my fittest it took me at least the first 10 to 15 minutes to get into my stride, and the breathing right!  But if you had seen me trying to keep up with Illustrious leader and everyone you would have thought I had never ran before!

When I have been doing my solo running and have been 'Jeffing' all the way, 1 minute run, 1 minute walk, even then I have been struggling!  But Illustrious Leader and all the rest in the group I was running in completely understand my situation because they are all the same......they are just a tad run fitter than me! "Don't worry, Old Girl" says Illustrious Leader "We can wait or we can turn around and run back to you, just go at your own pace"  That's the best thing about our club, we don't leave people to struggle by themselves (even though I had said to her to just carry on and I will take my time as see them back at the rec!) But there were quite a few times they had to run back to me that I began to feel sorry for them, I kept imagining them thinking "Oh blimey back again"  Of course they wasn't, but I still felt like 'Private Pile' from 'Full metal Jacket' 

I kept checking they all had their socks on was they were heading back to me! It's amazing how much I 'beat myself up' something I had learned to stop doing and just enjoy running, but getting back to club running I felt I have to be just as I was, able to keep up, not dragging my ass or getting others to my ass around, but really, everyone is in the same boat as me, we've all struggled through this Covid time and we all need encouragement, we certainly don't need to beat ourselves up that's.  But its funny the things that come into you mind when your struggling!

The second time I went with them, we had run a little further, taking a little bit longer, but I felt I was a little bit quicker than the week before, I was still way behind but definitely not as bad as the week before.

Of course, every weekday I have been working out in my sitting room, going live on Facebook for all to see and working out with Janice! Every day she is working out with me too, even after she has done a 3 miler first thing in the morning!  Having Janice there has really kept my motivation to keep pressing play on Team Body Project you tube videos!

Also I have been working out with the neighbours still, Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings!  That has been fun, but until park run or PWR activities begin again I shall be doing that!  September though, I will have to rethink the Wednesday evening sessions because I shall be back at work!

Today I did a very short run, I had a club meeting to find out what and how things will look for club members when we meet up again soon, I walked there, (only because I didn't want to look completely all hot and sweaty and breathing heavy) and then I ran/walked home!

So that about sums it all up!  The new norm is coming, until they find a vaccine for this damned virus, things will be different but I will be so glad to get back to the (new)routine of club running!

P.s.

I got back on my bike too!  I shall write in my cycling blog about that! Very pleased about that!