2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I must admit that I’m puzzled by the way it works, I did a 20 minute run last week then it was shorter runs again, this morning two x 10 minutes and next time it’s 25 minutes 😱  I run very, very slowly. However, I am so amazed at what I’ve achieved with this program. You would have to know me in real life to understand just how unlikely I am to be a runner. Overweight, not particularly fit, I am someone who wouldn’t usually run to catch a train. If I can complete the whole nine weeks I’m hoping to keep it up. I swim regularly, but that takes more effort and organisation – running is so easy and quick to do. 

Anyway, time I added up the coupons to see if I’ve got anything left this year.  I doubt if I will be spending anything until the new year begins, if then.

I'm with you, @PollyWollyDoodle.  I was never sporty or a runner, growing up.  I'm a good stone over weight at the best of times and have only ever been truly skinny for a couple of months back in the 1990's.  (There's 14lb in a stone, @TwibbleDee).  I did the Great North Run in 2000 to prove to myself that I could actually achieve a physical fitness target, but I was no where near ready to run it.

TwibbleDee said:

One of my goals for 2021 is a basic foundational level of fitness.  I intentionally set the bar rather low so as not to get discouraged.  By the end of the 2021, I want to be able to walk/run a 5K, do 10 proper pushups and pull-ups, and have been doing my yoga and chiropractic care and such often enough that I'm generally pain free.

Ditto.

One of my biggest motivators for running is a memory of my mum struggling to keep up, when I was a small child. I remember her saying, with a sob in her voice, "I can't run".  She had a heart condition: mitral valve stenosis and atrial fibrilation, but I don't know what came first or when.  My earliest memory is of being on holiday near Merimbula, New South Wales, and mum being treated for "a heart attack" in the cottage hospital attached to the doctor's surgery, which was really just a small set up attached to his home.  I don't know the details, whether it was chest pain due to an arrhythmia or worse.  I really only remember dad showing me the goat that was in the field next door, and sitting on the veranda at the hospital waiting with dad and my older sister.  Looking back, all I can think  is "that poor man.  He must have been worried sick!"

We lived with the possibility of mum dying, throughout my childhood and teenage years.  It was something we just accepted.  That she made it into her 70's was a pleasant surprise.  I've inherited pretty much everything from my mum - the dodgy eyes, the infertility, her looks - but, so far, not her heart condition.  My sister scored that and has lived with it for the last 8 years.  I don't know whether she works out or not, but I know that she doesn't want to turn into mum either.

I am NOT my mother.  I am determined that I will run. I know that being physically fit and strong is the best way of protecting myself from following in her footsteps.   That is what gets me out of bed in the mornings.  

- Pip

Cherryfudge

I am loving the running talk though I had to go to work and didn't have time to reply earlier. I took up C25K when I was 53, nearly 54. I needed to lose weight for some wedding photos and as I have a condition that slows my metabolism, weight is hard to lose. Then I worked out that while you occasionally see a plump runner, they probably don't stay that way. I'd tried jogging a few times but ended up hurt or demotivated.

C25K worked remarkably well for me, partly because of the built-in rest days and partly because, if I'm to stay the course of each run, I have to be very slow on purpose.

Long story short: I've done a couple of 10Ks recently. It's not a race, it's about doing the distance. This lunchtime I ran 6K. I'm still slow but I wouldn't still be running if it didn't make me happy. I'm a bit slimmer, a lot trimmer and, like Pip, doing it for my health... but mostly because it makes me happy. So be encouraged, all you people pounding the pavements of Little Mending. The health benefits can be massive (but warm up first, stretch afterwards, eat protein after... these help the body cope) and it's near-enough free, as well as a way to get out in the fresh air, etc. And it gets easier, because your body gradually learns what's expected of it.

I could wax lyrical for hours but I'll spare you. There's a C25K thread on these boards somewhere if you're interested (I'm not active on it any more so you can relax).

PollyWollyDoodle

Thank you @Cherryfudge, that’s just the sort of inspiration I need!  

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

I am loving the running talk though I had to go to work and didn't have time to reply earlier. I took up C25K when I was 53, nearly 54. I needed to lose weight for some wedding photos and as I have a condition that slows my metabolism, weight is hard to lose. Then I worked out that while you occasionally see a plump runner, they probably don't stay that way. I'd tried jogging a few times but ended up hurt or demotivated.

C25K worked remarkably well for me, partly because of the built-in rest days and partly because, if I'm to stay the course of each run, I have to be very slow on purpose.

Long story short: I've done a couple of 10Ks recently. It's not a race, it's about doing the distance. This lunchtime I ran 6K. I'm still slow but I wouldn't still be running if it didn't make me happy. I'm a bit slimmer, a lot trimmer and, like Pip, doing it for my health... but mostly because it makes me happy. So be encouraged, all you people pounding the pavements of Little Mending. The health benefits can be massive (but warm up first, stretch afterwards, eat protein after... these help the body cope) and it's near-enough free, as well as a way to get out in the fresh air, etc. And it gets easier, because your body gradually learns what's expected of it.

I could wax lyrical for hours but I'll spare you. There's a C25K thread on these boards somewhere if you're interested (I'm not active on it any more so you can relax).

Wax away, @Cherryfudge. We appreciate with your cheerleading and encouragement. You are hereby appointed Captain of the Much Mending Athletics Club.

My "Run 5K" app tells me that I started running again on 13th July 2020.  (I bought it years before the NHS released their free app.)   It does get easier.  There's a point, every morning, where I'm tempted to turn for home and I just have to run past it.  (I now recognise a physical place on the road where that thought springs up.)  5 minutes later, I'm wondering why I thought I wasn't up to the run.  Sometimes, there's even that lovely feeling of flying effortlessly down the road.

I'm still struggling with a workout for the rest days.  It needs to be short - 15-30 minutes duration - and involve both muscle building and stretching.  While I like Yogastudio, which is a free app, I am sick-to-death of downward dog.  (The thought just occurred to me that I've never tried their 30 minute workouts.  Maybe they won't have so many downward dogs.)  Any suggestions.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

Thanks @PipneyJane - though I now know why the Much Mending Athletics Club has been struggling in recent years. I can only visualise myself as a Linda Snell-type figure (I sincerely hope not, but it's hard to see yourself as others do) bullying everyone to take part.

I also see I erroneously referred to Little Mending but isn't that the hamlet up the road? It would be quite a pleasant run along their village green but it's probably six or seven miles away so if we ever do a village run there we will have to send a car ahead. Then we can all have a lift home after lunching at that lovely little pub at the edge of Little Mending. They do a nice ploughman's lunch and if I remember rightly we don't have to use rations if we eat out, do we?

I've just reread the posts above and there's so much that resonates with me, too much to go into detail but I do admire your taking part in the GNR, Pip. My children and daughter in law have all run it and I'd love to be at that level. We had the oddest experience when DD, DS2 and DDiL ran: DS1 had an app to track them and we were standing at the last stretch to cheer them on. We spotted DDiL and DD running close together and I snapped a photo to send to DD's partner, but none of us could see DS2. Sad that we missed him. Then I had a text in reply to my photo asking how DD was doing and why had I sent a photo of DS2? When we looked, that particular shot had captured him amongst all those thousands of people!

Pip, I wonder if what is happening with you is that some days you are better warmed up than others? There's a point about 30 minutes into exercise where the body reaches a well-warmed-up state. When I get there I certainly get a second wind which is how I've sometimes just gone on running and doubled my run - it does feel like flying. I get considerably faster towards the end of a longer run: I asked DD (she is a running coach: I'm lucky to have some fitness professionals around to beg free advice from) and she said the same happens to her. I've found if I do an energetic warm up first, then the whole run goes better but I'm newly into that so I can't suggest much.

I do see why, with your Mum's history, you are taking care of your health. Sometimes it takes something like that to make us appreciate what we have, and take action. Then we end up as the 'lucky' ones who can still run... but there are lots of people who don't know they are blessed with good health and don't take care of it.

Which reminds me, it's far too early for me to post a notice on the village board asking for teams for the three-legged race against neighbouring villages, but do give it some thought, ladies. I know it's just for fun but the honour of Much Mending is at stake and a little training from, say, February onwards, will benefit us enormously. I hear Little Mending have two couples on their list already, so the opposition is well organised.

TwibbleDee

Cherryfudge said:

Which reminds me, it's far too early for me to post a notice on the village board asking for teams for the three-legged race against neighbouring villages, but do give it some thought, ladies. I know it's just for fun but the honour of Much Mending is at stake and a little training from, say, February onwards, will benefit us enormously. I hear Little Mending have two couples on their list already, so the opposition is well organised.

If we're going to be competitive, perhaps we need to start talking about movement more?  I didn't walk today because of the wind - if the sky is brown, it tends to cause breathing problems.  However, there is a lovely park a few miles from the office that I regularly drive to and walk.  I should probably download something like the Couch to 5K app or something and work on moving faster!

PollyWollyDoodle

PipneyJane said:

Wax away, @Cherryfudge. We appreciate with your cheerleading and encouragement. You are hereby appointed Captain of the Much Mending Athletics Club.

My "Run 5K" app tells me that I started running again on 13th July 2020.  (I bought it years before the NHS released their free app.)   It does get easier.  There's a point, every morning, where I'm tempted to turn for home and I just have to run past it.  (I now recognise a physical place on the road where that thought springs up.)  5 minutes later, I'm wondering why I thought I wasn't up to the run.  Sometimes, there's even that lovely feeling of flying effortlessly down the road.

I'm still struggling with a workout for the rest days.  It needs to be short - 15-30 minutes duration - and involve both muscle building and stretching.  While I like Yogastudio, which is a free app, I am sick-to-death of downward dog.  (The thought just occurred to me that I've never tried their 30 minute workouts.  Maybe they won't have so many downward dogs.)  Any suggestions.

- Pip

Pip, did you know that there’s a related app from the NHS called Strength and Flexibility- it’s a five-week plan similar to Couch to 5k and they suggest that it can be used with it. I haven’t tried it, because at the moment I’m swimming on two of my ‘rest’ days. It might be what you’re looking for?  Should be easy to find if you search that name, sorry I can’t do a link at the moment. 

@Cherryfudge, please put me down for the three-legged race, I’d like to be paired with Pipney Jane please, as I think our shared experience of Couch to 5k will give us an edge. 

Cherryfudge

PollyWollyDoodle said:

@Cherryfudge, please put me down for the three-legged race, I’d like to be paired with Pipney Jane please, as I think our shared experience of Couch to 5k will give us an edge. 

I ought to warn you that the next three-legged race will can only be run by competitors who have formed a social bubble and are wearing their gas masks.

(Off to look for the strength and flexibility app before a well-aimed gas mask gets me).

Cherryfudge

TwibbleDee said:

If we're going to be competitive, perhaps we need to start talking about movement more?  I didn't walk today because of the wind - if the sky is brown, it tends to cause breathing problems.  However, there is a lovely park a few miles from the office that I regularly drive to and walk.  I should probably download something like the Couch to 5K app or something and work on moving faster!

I wonder if the American base will put in their own team? If not, then we'd love to have you on ours!

A brown sky is something we just don't get in England, I've never seen it. Mum told me about the green sunsets they had in London before the Clean Air Act (of Parliament), but I never saw those, either.

You may have guessed by now that I recommend C25K to all and sundry, but I do add that it helps to go at a pace you can sustain, however slow that needs to be. If you overdo the pace it's much harder to do the distance. That said, it might just be a matter of time before you're running to your walk in the park.

PollyWollyDoodle

Thanks again @Cherryfudge. When I first started Couch to 5K back in April I signed up to the online forum, and I noticed that it’s one of the most often repeated bits of advice – don’t go too fast. Today my friend and I have just run - really, REALLY slowly - for 25 minutes without stopping. I have to keep repeating this to myself because I can’t believe it’s true! Another three weeks and we will have graduated, and yes we are talking of a Boxing Day run. Those are words which I never thought would leave my lips!