Topic: The Health, Fitness and Exercise Thread

Now the clocks have gone forwards so I have daylight after work again, I am doing my yearly attempt to try and complete Couch to 5k. Maybe this is the year I finish it. Probably not, but I can try.

I found a podcast from the NHS where they talk to you, play music, give you all the timings and stuff so all you gotta worry about is the exercise and they do everything else, definitely makes it easier. Especially like mid way round a session when all you're focused on is not stopping.

Always kinda blows me away how much I struggle with this every time I try, though. I'm definitely not fit and healthy, but I do try and get on the exercise bike or go for walks a couple of times a week, not for any real crazy distances, but I at least try and do something. It isn't like I am completely sedentary and I generally feel pretty comfortable doing indoor bike classes or walking for an hour or two, but then as soon as I need to run, it is like I haven't moved my body at all in about twenty years. 😂

@Pizzamorg Go get it, I am the same with running. I can ride hard for hours and hours but struggle after a few hundred meters when it comes to running I am too injury prone to really try but I do dream of getting better at it as I used to run a lot when I was younger. There is a field near me, I should just get my trainers on and do morning laps this winter.

Just make sure to warm up properly before you get on it.

@Pizzamorg go for it! Couch to 5K is my favourite exercise app and I honestly find it so surprising how easy it is to hit the goal within 2 months.

I think the good thing about it is that it's more about building stamina than speed. So early on while you struggle, you can just jog at the same speed that you'd walk.

Then when you kind of become aware of it, you can start pushing for faster times!

It's the right ratio of app provided guidance/user input in my opinion!

I did it quite a few times without finishing it too though. I didn't actually hit the 5K properly until a couple years ago and I was well proud.

I do need to do it again soon once I've shed some weight by other means. (I'll be too heavy on my feet otherwise)

The race on Saturday went pretty well in the end. Finished at just over 2h30 which was the minimum I wanted but it was really tough and I ended up walking some of the hills towards the end as I was pooped. The Strava gradient graph doesn't do some of them justice!

I feel I could have done better. Maybe I should have gone quicker on the easier bits to give me more time in the bag for later on but maybe I would have finished myself off even sooner. That said, no-one was overtaking me from the halfway point and I was going past people so I probably played it fine. I finished 12/95 too which was pretty pleasing.

The hamstring wasn't too bad either. It was a bit stiff for the first few km while I got going but fine on the hills.

I was still smiling towards the end though

@Thrillho nice, well done! Glad the hamstring didn't give you too much jip.

I love the wooly spectators in your photograph too! 😂

@Thrillho Well done! Feels good when you realise no one has come past you for a while lol. Do you have another lined up yet?

@Thrillho Well done on the race. I've done plenty of running around the coast down in Dorset / Cornwall and it's pretty challenging stuff with the uphills usually being short and sharp.

@ralphdibny I much prefer running through a field of sheep to one with cows! And why do cows always hang around the corner of the field with the gate??

@kyleforrester87 My persistence with wearing my jacket the whole race gained me some places as lots of people stopped to take them off

No more booked up at the moment but I’ve got my eye on a couple. One is an interesting one of a two team relay race around the whole of the South West coast path where you sign up for a 10 mile leg. I have no idea how it would work logistically though seeing as it takes over 5 days to complete.

@render And yes, the mentioned SW coast path is a killer and most of the above race was on it. I do plenty of hill running but normally ones with standard hills. The constant up and down is much more of a killer.

@Thrillho Pah, I don't even stop and get off my bike when I take my rain jacket off!! Logistics of these multi-day and/or point-to-point events almost always seem harder than the event itself, to me. There is a 200 mile "chase the sun" coast to coast event which I would like to do, but how the hell am I meant to get to the start and home again from the finish..?

@kyleforrester87 Most point to point runs normally offer the option of a coach from the car park at the end of the race to the start but that’s certainly harder with a bike. And with the relay one I’m looking at I assume it goes overnight too? And how do you know when you might be expected to do your section??

@Thrillho Yes you'd need bike transfer and obviously the distances can get quite long on a bike so travel time increases. The one I am talking about for example starts at sunrise on the east coast and you aim to arrive before sunset in the west. So I'd need to get to from London to the East coast with my bike and riding gear, cycle across the country and then drive 150 miles back to London, or if I drove to the East coast initially I'd have to drive 200 miles back to the car and then drive 50 miles back on myself to London. They wouldn't run a coach and bike transport back to the start line over that distance at the end, so you'd need to have a method of transport at the other end - then what do you do with THAT once you're either back in London or back to your own car on the East coast. And all of that on no sleep after being awake basically 24 hours and cycling 200 miles, which is just unrealistic so you probably need to have a hotel on either side as well. Oh, and I don't actually have my own car at the moment either.

So a 200 mile loop from your front door is the much more attractive option lol

Does anyone else here fence? I've found it's a great way to keep myself getting consistent exercise and I great alternative to tossing a ball around. I love playing with swords in games (and always loved them as a kid too), so I just went and started doing it in real life too. It's fun to do the real life application of what you do in some games.
It's a great workout.

@Jaz007 I have never fenced or considered trying to be honest. It looks really fun, but I honestly have not ever seen anywhere I could take it up. Obviously there must be places but it doesn’t seem very common. I’d also assume it’s quite an expensive hobby to get into?

@kyleforrester87 I think it’s often within a good distance (I imagine this would be especially so in the UK, given everything is closer over there), but if it’s line mine, you have to intentionally look for it as opposed to stumbling across it. It’s not necessarily common (not like Karate places at least), but I don’t think it’s rare either.
I’m sure you’d find one if you searched in google maps.
As for expensive to get into, I think that depends on the club. The club I’m in has gear for students to use, so it doesn’t require you to buy anything, just to pay for the lessons. Mine starts at about $75 a month.
If you get into enough and want own gear it doesn’t cost some money though.
A starter set costs with everything costs about $400-$500, then extra board and whatnot would add more to it. I as fencing for at least half a year I think before I got my own set of gear.

I do get a bit scared if I'm ever in a field with cattle actually 😂

@Jaz007 I actually did fencing in primary school actually. It wasn't a posh primary school or anything, I think one of the teachers randomly had an interest in it and had all the gear to run a club there.

I can't say I've taken it back up as an adult though!

@Jaz007 I have some friends who were really into fencing at one point. I can't remember why they stopped but it did sound like a really interesting. I'd probably be terrible at it as my reactions aren't great. That's the same thing that lets me down at gaming really.

On a general note I'm really hooked back on mountain biking. The kids have been doing skills sessions for over a year now and they've come such a long way. It's been great being able to take them out on the graded routes near here and letting them show me what they've learnt. We've even swapped a few skills as there's a few things I never really learnt to do when I first started such as scooting and track stands which they've shown me, and I've managed to guide them over a few rocky features that they weren't confident with. I'm hoping that this will all carry over into something they will do for life, or at least use it as a way to see that exercise can be fun and that it doesn't have to always be connected with sport but can also be a way to challenge and push yourself a bit.

@render What bike do you have?

@ralphdibny I was passing through a field last summer on my bike, went through a gate into a field, turned around to get back on my bike and was face to face with a cow - we had a bit of a moment, I think I have spent too long in the city haha.

Here she is, actually!

@kyleforrester87 It's a bike I built myself over 10 years ago based on a Rocky Mountain full sus frame. It was a pretty good spec when I built it with RockShox Reba fork, Fox Float rear suspension, Shimano XT brakes and gears and various Hope bits like headset, wheels, BB etc. Everything has moved on to 27.5" and 29" wheels now though with single chain ring up front and 12 speed on the rear where as I'm still riding 26", a triple and 9 speed cassette. I can see how much better the newer bikes are so really would love to get an upgrade.

I've really started to notice how prevalent e-bikes are these days though. I'm not interested in one myself but think they are great for getting people out riding that might not ordinarily do so. They aren't without their problems though as they've had a really big impact on the trails. Because of the sheer weight compared to a manual bike they really rip into the ground but the other thing is that people that ride them seem to be happy tearing new lines through the trails in order to get round people or avoid switchbacks. The other thing I think I dislike them for is that it feels like it takes away from the purity of the discipline a little. I liked the fact that cycling was about using our own power to get places and that pretty much everything on the bike could be fixed at the road / trail side, as well as having greater obsolescence now due to the tech moving along so quickly.

Do you ever ride off-road? I think you've mentioned before you've done some gravel riding?

@render That's interesting regarding e-bikes, my take on them has been similar to yours in that I like to think of myself as a bit of a purist but I have been coming round to the idea more. I didn't really consider the impact they had on trails so that's a good point.

Yeah I have a Saracen gravel bike, it's my commuter bike so spends most of its time with road tyres and mud guards on, it takes a real year round hammering frankly, but I did 3 days back to back offroad on it. I found it wasn't bad at all actually - it's fairly lightweight, good hydraulic brakes and wide bars. Plus it has wicked lighting bolts on the forks, yeehaw. I have a compact chainring and decided to put a 32 cassette so plenty of range for climbing, I was out the saddle in my easiest gears spinning for my life up a rocky incline a couple of times, so made the right choice on gearing as I was on a 28 and only went 32 a few weeks before taking it off-road. I'd have been off walking a bit more regularly if I had kept the 28. The main problem is the widest tyres I can get on the back are 35mm, and even then I actually had to trim a little off the top of each of the knobs to stop it rubbing on the frame. On the front I can probably get 45mm's. I don't know why they bothered giving me the clearance up front but not the back..?* And 35mm is really stingy. Upshot is a struggle big time on sand. Wondering if there is any value riding wider up front just because I can - I should look into it. Wider on the rear makes more sense to me since that's where the power goes, but front I don't know.

I'd love to have tried the same route on a mountain bike though!

*I guess some clearance helps with mud build up, didn't think about that until now - was very dry when I was out on it!