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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
I've been struggling hard with motivation.
By now my plan was to be running ~30 km weekly.
I feel like for the last few months I get sick, halt my training while I recover, and then slowly ramp up my runs til I'm back in the 20-30 weekly km range, and then I get sick again, resetting the cycle. I'm constantly working my way back to that place where I'm progressing and feeling good about my training, and then hard reset. So I'm always doing the less fun parts of training it seems, and it's exhausting.
Today I set my alarm for a run, and I woke up exhausted and unmotivated and didn't go. I'm still a bit stuffed up from my latest sickness, so maybe I still need to rest and that's okay, but it feels bad when I don't do my runs. Also, my mental health starts to get affected, when I don't run for long periods, so I'm more stressed and making less healthy sleep and diet choices.
I have been enjoying doing yoga outside on my back porch in the evenings, watching the sunset. That has been helpful for sure.
I’m not a doctor or even an athlete (anymore), but when I was doing cross country running in high school and college there wasn’t an option to stop training if you were sick. I might not get the full miles in or run as fast as expected, but I still had to run 6 days a week.
Again, maybe that’s not actually a good idea, but I think there is a chance that some middle ground might be okay. Rather than ceasing, just scale back the running. I think it’s important that when trying to develop a habit I do the thing, even just partially, during the tough times. Try running a single mile/2km on sick days, or on really bad days getting the shoes on and doing a long walk. I find that when I have a cold a long walk helps clear me up anyway.
Sometimes I struggle to find that middle ground for sure, especially when my non running life gets hectic.
Well, you inspired me to go out and do an easy 3.6k trail run this afternoon. I felt pretty sluggish but it feels good to have done something today for sure, which I can hopefully build on.
One thing that has helped me a ton is heart rate training and committing to being out for a predetermined amount of time. If I can keep my heart rate at 160BPM and run a 10 minute mile that’s fine, but no big deal if my pace is a 14 minute mile at that heart rate.
Unless you are training for a race, making a commitment to hold your heart rate at a certain level for an hour each day is much more sustainable and scales with you as your condition improves or worsens.