I started on new year’s day. With the first quarter of 2024 done, I’m now four pounds lighter & have knocked half an inch off the waist. Modest improvements. Yes. But I now have some data I can build targets with.
Swimming progress
The swimming and running fitness tests have given me a good idea of the level I’m at. When I did the first swimming test and did 800 metres in half an hour, I quickly started thinking about hitting 1 kilometre in the same time. I’m pleased to have gone up by six lengths since then. There are so many possibilites of goals I could set for swimming which makes things interesting for me. I’d like to be able to swim more lengths without stopping and to learn how to do the flip turn. I might start doing some lessons. I’m only doing freestyle at the minute but would be good to learn the other styles too (and I could track my times for these too).
Running progress
Of all the metrics I’m looking at, the running aerobic test is probably the most significant to me. I’m hoping to see steady progress with this. Looking back on the first quarter, it’s interesting how to see how easily time can be lost.
I went to London in January (5 days no runs).
Played non-contact rugby and sore legs after – no warm up was the issue probably (4 days no runs).
Got the dreaded covid (9 days out).
While 4 or 5 days here or there may not seem like much, these 3 things alone meant for around 20 percent of the time over the first three months I wasn’t doing any running. Look, I’m not aiming to qualify for the Olympics here, but I think it’s just an interesting observation for future reference. If I decide to ramp things up I will need to be mindful of how other things in life can affect goals. I did find it quite funny though, that on my first run back after getting covid, one of the first songs ringing out through my earphones was by the Coronas. I was thinking I should have celebrated that run with a bottle of Corona afterwards!
I currently do things on a whim. Perhaps I could start setting monthly running distance goals and then break things down to weekly goals. I have the Southampton marathon this Sunday, the 7th of April. I didn’t really do a structured training plan leading up to this so will just be happy enough to get it completed. I did get a half marathon distance training run done last week. I feel like I was really labouring towards the end. It is a reality check. I will need to start incorporating long runs into my plans going forward if I want to see progress in endurance running.
What else
I might start doing some strength and conditioning exercises and try to learn more about things I can do to recover better so I could start to increase the distances I’m doing. I feel like I should really start being more deliberate and structured with my diet too.
