Another free writing Monday experiment, but done on a Tuesday.
It seems that as I get older my family gets larger. So there seem to be more and more birthdays. I am left wondering how long it will be before there is a birthday in my extended family every day of the year!
I suspect though that I need to wait a few more millennia before the possibility of that happening. And I am not sure whether it would be a blessing or a curse. Not great for the bank balance assuming I was to buy everyone a present. And not great for my productivity if I always wanted to go to the birthday parties.
Anyway that rather long preamble was a precursor to the fact my nephew has just reminded me that in May of next year I will be doing a tough mudder. I have no idea how on earth I managed to allow myself to be persuaded to do something so remarkably silly, but there we go. Something for me to look forward to.
If you don’t know what a Tough Mudder is, it is a 10-12 mile long obstacle race, designed to get you very very muddy indeed, Some people I imagine think this is fun. Maybe you are one of them. Me, I am not so sure. Apart from anything else I have hopeless upper body strength, so the idea of being able to heave myself over walls leaves me somewhat concerned!
So I wanted to take a look at my current fitness regime. And maybe those of you who know a bit about it can give me your thoughts.
Every morning I do a small exercise routine. This includes press ups, Burpees, Situps, a plank and two yoga positions.
I run every week four or five times a week. This is on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday but some weeks I run on Friday as well. This was a plan that I got from Jason Fitzgerald at Strength Runners. It seems pretty reasonable and I think it is a solid base of running.
On top of that I go to the gym on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday. I am doing a routine to help me build my strength.
I also make sure I do 10,000 steps every day. This is pretty easy on my running days. On the days I don’t run I go off on a random meander about the place to get the steps up.
During most of my exercise I listen to podcasts which I enjoy. Some are better than others.
And then the tools I use to help me track the exercise are my Tom Tom Multi Cardio Watch, My Fitbit and then I also have my mobile phone for the podcasts and to show me the exercises I do in the gym. The hope is that it will help me make sure my form is good. Unfortunately I am yet to find an app which has all the exercises I want to do on it.
Still it seems to be working.
As far as my diet I try and do a rough tracking using my fitness pal. I tend not to worry too much about what I eat, but I do like to try to make sure that my calories are less than the ones I burn. However because so many of the dishes I eat are approximations, I suspect I am eating more calories than I think I am. This is why my weight loss is now so slow. To be honest though, I am not so worried about my weight anymore. For me it is more about how I feel fitness wise and about how I look. But I would be lying if I said there wasn’t still room for improvement!
Time writing: 15 minutes
Time editing: 0
Happy with results: 4
