Tag: fitness

Do nowt, get fit

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Back to a bit of a run today, after a minor disaster a couple of weeks ago involving a slippy shoe which left me with an ugly bruised foot and a swollen knee.

And things went quite well, thanks for asking.

In fact, upon reviewing the stats on my watch/phone, it seems that I have progressed a level in my fitness, not be getting fitter per se, but by getting older. Yep, as you add a year to your age, the thresholds and targets that you are measured against become lower. So simply because you are actually only a few days older than you used to be before (and despite what the number of years might suggest), your level of fitness – at least as measured by stats and apps – improves.

Of course, the tough thing to do now is to improve it even more, given that the thresholds and targets drop for a good reason. It’s definitely harder to get fit and keep fit as you get older.
Harder still when you’re quite lazy and you like stuff like beer and burgers.

But I’ll keep going for the moment. Maybe just slightly slower than I used to.

Top Tip: After playing football

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SAVE TIME on telling people which specific bits of you are hurting after playing football by hurting all over, and thus simply using the word “everything”.

I really enjoyed our win on Tuesday evening, and I ran around all over the place doing my best headless chicken impersonation. (3.2km, max HR 179, avg HR 149, max speed 19.7kph). But I am paying for it a little now.

It’s no big deal. The fact that it’s taken 36 hours to manifest just shows that I need a bit more fitness before I can start to recover more quickly. And that’s always on the way, so I’m not concerned. But a bit of a rest day seems like a good idea today. It wasn’t like I felt like running in the rain anyway.

Back to it tomorrow though, with the plan to not feel quite as broken this time next week.

Terms and conditions apply.

Deadline

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I am SOOOOO ready to get back to playing football again. Tuesday nights are a bit of a nightmare Chez 6000, so while I’m not playing, I’m doing my level best to help out with taking kids to various places. That way, when I can play once again, and I can’t take kids to places, we can at least look back over the year and note that I did take some of the kids to some places at least some of the time.

The only thing holding me back now is this bloody calf, which sadly, I do need to chat to a Physio about. Medical expenses can like to be absolutely ridiculous this year. Not quite one hour at the cardiologist cost over R4000, but as was pointed out, that’s a tiny fraction of what an actual cardio incident might cost, and that’s a reassuring way to look at it.

The calf is a weird one. I can do everything except run. I can walk up huge hills at 6kph. I can walk for 10km around the neighbourhood. I can use a stepping machine. I can do a cardio session. No issue.
But 20 seconds into a gentle jog (ok, it was a bit longer here, but…) and we’re back to square one. And downhills are worse than uphills, which makes me wonder if the calf actually knows what it’s doing.

I read this article which told me I was getting old, but did have an interesting link to L5/S1 lower back trouble (which I’ve had since I was 16) in elite athletes (which I’ve been all my life). Just weird that it’s never manifested itself in my calf until now, but I guess that’s where the age bit comes in. If “the science” is to be believed, that is. [rolleyes emoji]

But it needs to get sorted and it needs to get sorted before 19th July, which is the last Tuesday before the anniversary of my Covid infection. And I am determined not to let this keep me out for over a year. Whatever it takes to be on that pitch, I will be there.

Because like I say, everything else is ready to go: I haven’t been this fit since… well… just before I got Covid. Whether I can ever get back to that level, I don’t know, but there’s no harm in trying and hoping.

So I’m very ready to get this one little thing mended now and get going again.

Snap’n’Ping

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The calf has been tested by walking a lot. And that includes Forest Drive (the posh one in Bishopscourt, not the crappy one in Pinelands) which is 100m of going upwards in 650m of going forwards (mainly upwards and forwards).

So today a gentle jog around the neighbourhood seemed in order. And off I went.
Bit of uphill – lovely. Bit of flat stuff – lovely. Bit of downhill – lovely. Finally!

But still taking things slowly because I’m older and wiser than I used to be.

And then I jogged down Oak Avenue (the one with the dead cat) and just as I got to the bottom there was a twangy poppy snappy ping and some pretty nasty pain from my left leg, and now I had a couple of kilometres and the best part of 100m to climb before I was home – with a mashed calf.

It probably didn’t help.

And so ice packs and drugs have been the order for the afternoon (plus some Deep Heat, because who doesn’t want to smell like a Frenchman’s groin?).

I think I need to chat to my physio next week.

Back to it

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I hurt my back at the end of November and – because I’m old now – it’s taken a long time to get right. As a measure of just how long, I don’t think it’s quite there yet. But nearly.

Still, with that as a reason, and my Dad’s visit as a handy excuse, I’ve managed to avoid most forms of strenuous exercise for almost 8 weeks now. Add to that all the calamari, beer and burgers I’ve been enjoying during his stay, and well… there’s some work to do.

I have a couple of inches to lose and a couple of kilos that they can take with them.

This morning (with my Dad still only over Algeria), I went for a slow, hot run. The speed was simply because I couldn’t go any faster, the heat was because it was a hot day.

It didn’t break any records, save for perhaps being the most overdue run in recent history. The back seems to have held up and there have been no immediate after-effects save for quite a lot of tiredness.

Watch this space for more updates as the weight comes off and the fitness increases. Or not, if I decide not to exercise or not to blog about it.