Topic: The Health, Fitness and Exercise Thread

@render looking back I don’t remember falling once as a kid and I used to skate a lot and get up to some sh*t. However I’m beginning to think I have blocked all the negative memories out and they will come flooding back when I first use them 😂😂

I am just going to take it easy on the first session then I’ll kit up afterwards. I’m thinking knee pads, wrist guards and my cycling helmet. Maybe an American football helmet is going to be more appropriate though lol.

@NedStarksGhost might be worth checking out some clips on YT, it used to be called YRG which are the tapes I watched.

The beer was ok! I prefer an Indian Pale Ale to a Galactic Pale Ale 😅 but they are pretty similar if not the same 🤔😂

@Voltan nice one on cutting out the fizzy drinks! Did you swap to Diet/Zero versions or just cut them out completely?

@kyleforrester87 hope your eye gets better soon and also you are a braver person than I to start rollerblading 😅.

How you doing in general? Apart from the eye thing? I've been meaning to catch up with you for a while!

@ralphdibny Replaced them with just water, I never liked the artificial sweeteners.

@ralphdibny yeah all good, tough year last year - trying to face 2022 with a more positive attitude. I’m an optimist overall but sometimes I get bloody hung up on the small stuff 😂 how about you?

@kyleforrester87 good stuff man. Yeah I know what you mean. Sometimes you need a big project or something to get over the line to get your mind off the micro obsessions. Got any big rides planned?

Yeah I'm all good, had a busy Christmas moving to a new flat. Much harder work than I thought it would be but I'm glad it's mostly done now though! I've probably got another car load of stuff to bring down and another car load to sell/chuck/think about some more even though I don't have the space to store it lol

@ralphdibny I have booked the London to Brighton in September for me and a friend but that’s just to get them motivated to train really - I couldn’t say that myself a few years ago mind you!

I’m probably going to do this:

https://littlelumpy.co.uk/

I did it last year and it was a great route and REALLY good food at the pit stops, it’s all baked by people who live in the area.

Nothing really big planned though bike wise, I have a couple of ideas but doubt it’ll be for 2022.

You moved to London didn’t you? Will have to start calling you neighbour! You planning to be here for a while?

@kyleforrester87 2,500m of climbing? Ouch! Although I guess when you average that out at 25m a mile it doesn't sound too bad (even if it is a bast*rd mix of unit measurements).

I'm still on the verge of signing up for races myself. The first one I have my eye on has about 800m of climbing over half marathon distance which would be more than I've done before but still well within my range I reckon..

@kyleforrester87 ahh sweet. That little lumpy looks quite good with its different difficulty levels. You Gona go the epic route on it or stick to sport or challenge?

I've just sort of moved clockwise around London 😅. I think I'm farther away from central but strangely the train in is actually quicker although it can be like 2-3 times the price 😭. I'm probably not far from where you cycle through sometimes. I have seen a cafe near-ish by with a motley crew of helmet wearers in skin tight high vizs!

But yeah it's nice, the flats nice for the money and when you get all your stuff in, it feels a lot more like home. Super close to the station but there's still loads of residential and visitor parking in my block so good connections too really!

@lolwhatno That sounds insane. I mean it's one thing being able to run that distance but another to guess what time you are going to run it in down to a 2 sec margin. I'm interested in more details about the ping-pong exam though - do you basically just have to be able to play or have you got to beat a semi-pro 😆

In terms of advice about running it might be worth looking into interval training. Rather than running at a set pace for a long period of time you run faster for a period of time followed by running slower for a bit. There's more to it than that but it's great for getting your speed and endurance up. I can't recommend a specific resource as even though I do this as part of my training it's not something I have a set plan for, more I just make things up as I go along. Worth having a search around on the internet though to see what's out there and see if anything fits what your goals are.

@lolwhatno If finishing in time is an issue, training to a slightly longer distance (even 1,000m) will make the shorter distance feel much easier.

Interval training is a good way of building up stamina though; like 100m at a slow jog, 50-100m sprint, repeat or something along those lines.

Sprained my ankle last week. Went for another run yesterday, but I should've waited. The pain is back lol.

On the flip side, the pools are open again, and I've been swimming a lot more the last two weeks.

@lolwhatno Some of it is probably mental to be honest but if you’ve only ever trained to 800m, then the last bit often will feel tough. But if you can do further then it won’t feel so bad.

Whenever I’ve done one of my longer runs the shorter ones always feel like a breeze afterwards.

Heya @zupertramp , you still knocking about? Thought I'd check in with you as I hadn't seen your username pop up lately. Unless we have just not been frequenting the same threads 😅

You all good? How is everything?

@ralphdibny present and accounted for lol.

Yeah I'm good. Thanks for asking. Mostly just popping in to lurk around the site every few days. I think I just go through periods where my misanthropic nature really prevails so I've just been feeling less sociable I suppose. Also busier these days so there's that.

Been jogging fairly consistently though, so that's good. Had to kick myself into gear mostly because I just happened to try out my grandmother's blood pressure monitor one day, like playing around, and turns out my blood pressure was worryingly high. I found this a real shock because I'm not at all overweight, I don't drink or smoke, I'm vegetarian, I'm fairly active and have a really good resting heart rate for my age (40y/o) so after being honestly kind of pissed* about it I decided well, healthcare is out of the question (y'know with me being an American on a budget and all lol) so guess I'll just work on the things I can change. Anyway now I'm eating tons of berries and nuts and have upped my vegetable intake along with more jogging and it's been much better. So that's good.

Left field story here but I recently rewatched San Junipero and paid a lot more attention to the background folk so hopefully I've seen you even if I don't know it. How's that going anyway? The extra stuff? Has Covid changed the game on that?

Also how are things for you generally?

*Angry, not drunk

@zupertramp good to hear it! That you are doing well that is, not that you have high blood pressure! I think I am a bit scared of doing those "adult" things, I think I'll have to finally admit that I am an adult when I do lol (31 year old kid here 😅). Also I am a bit scared that I'll probably find out that I have high BP or tons of cholesterol or something. Also getting a GP appointment where I used to live was like getting blood out of stone. I haven't swapped GPs yet so maybe it's better in my new town.

It's good to know the extra changes you've made have actually made a difference to your blood pressure though. Just goes to show that going the extra mile when you are already living a fairly healthy life can make all the difference!

I've still yet to find a decent balance. Working on site every day has destroyed my feet and running for my evening train every night just so I can claw back a few more minutes of my day has already flared up an old knee injury. At least my back is ok for now (I did have a painful evening of doing my tax return on an uncomfortable office chair recently, got a new and comfortable one arriving from IKEA on Saturday hopefully 🤞)

But overall, I'm well enough. Just struggling to find time to tick off chores, tasks, games, even finding opportunities to change my circumstance. I'm sure it will come though. Just settling in to a new apartment still so while I always have something to do, I know I will eventually get more time to throw into more opportunistic things that may not get a pay off (looking for new jobs, exercise etc) rather than the immediate result chores I find myself doing in my free time now (washing clothes, ironing, making lunch, building/modifying furniture etc)

Oh sweet, I was actually trying to remember the name of that episode the other day. I'm pretty sure I found myself in it but it was quite a while ago. I tend to point myself out (to the few colleagues who are interested) in clips from other shows and films that are readily available on YouTube.

I haven't done any extras work in a few years unfortunately. There seems to be a lot going on, especially projects that I'd be quite interested in but I can't afford to take the time off my day job for an empty promise which is kind of what extras work is like. They sort of say "are you free for X amount of days, make sure you keep them free" but they will drop you like a hat if you are not needed and you could end up with no work and no pay to show for it. It's just not economically viable unfortunately!

@ralphdibny addressing the last first... I can see how the extras thing is for younger folks or just people with very little responsibilities. But it's cool that you ever got to partake. You have stories to tell at least and you're memorialized on film.

I'm glad you're well enough overall in spite of some aches and pains from y'know, life lol. I actually lost my grip coming off some steep stairs (basically a ladder) and banged my shoulder into a nearby locker (it's a weird setup) while at work. Was really worried I'd reinjured it but felt fine after a couple days. Very thankful for that but man it's really always something, especially the older you get. So my general unsolicited advice is take care of yourself and never work yourself too hard. It's just not worth it.

Also wishing you the best in terms of improving your circumstances. That's always good. In a rut myself on that front but also trying to see the good in my current situation. Do what you can to make your life better but don't forget to live it up where you can I suppose.

So building/modifying furniture? Lol. What's that about, hobby or money making venture? Or both?

@zupertramp yeah that's true I suppose. It's definitely better as casual work for those who don't need to work as much. You can definitely make a living off it but it would require a lot of out of hours admin to maintain but then all of a sudden you might just stop getting picked for things for no apparent reason.

I was saying something similar to a colleague the other day about how bruises take much longer to heal now 😅. A bruise or even an injury would go away in a day ten years ago, now it can take days or weeks. Nothing more sombering than realising your body is failing on you or at the very least, becoming less efficient.

Cheers bud, same to you!

As for the furniture... Just a mix really, all for personal use. Bought a secondhand IKEA TV unit off eBay, bought some official "inserts" for it (it's a range you kind of buy into), modified the inserts, drilled cable holes in the back with a holesaw. Made new shelf fixings etc.

Bought a display cabinet to use as a charging cabinet so been putting holes and hooks into it for cable management. Just general other stuff too really. Modifying bits and bobs to make them fit into awkward spaces. Gota build a folder shelf that fits into a tiny gap at some point this week.

I did something quite ingenious (I thought at least 😅) last night. I wanted to put some large hooks into a slatted shelf in an airing cupboard to store drying racks when out of use, but we rent the property so can't modify existing fixtures. So I screwed some hooks into a couple of wooden blocks which sit on top of the slats but provide the hooks underneath the slats for some sweet storage goodness 😎

My partner refers to what I make as "Frankenstein furniture"

@Dzhizus am I wrong in assuming you posted just to try and sell us all CBD?

How's everyone's 2023 exercise regime going? Massive commitments all round, I am sure!!

I have been doing okay on the bike so far, but I have really low energy this week.

2023 has been a slow one for me so far. Caught a few bugs / viruses over the past month or so and I've not been able to keep up any consistent running or riding. Out tomorrow for a longish ride on the trails here and then I need to start putting in a few more long runs as there are a few events that I want to try and enter to give myself the impetus to carry on training.

The spring weather should hopefully make things a little easier and if I can get a day here and there without the kids then I can get out into the Peak District for something longer and hillier - that will probably kill me 😅