Kicking off 2022

 

Having neglected my blog for most of 2021, too much TikTok, its time to kick start it again! At some point I will have to update the highlights of last year. But meantime I am starting 2022 as I mean to go on:

I headed to Fell Foot park for a 9 am parkrun to start the year right. Then I joined in the official New Year's Day swim (it was a refreshing 5C!). 

No resolutions for me this year I am just challenging myself to do things that will help my physical and mental health:

First up is RED January 2022 to make sure I do something active every day. With my running I am looking at chipping away at the time I set at Fell Foot this morning (coming back from injury). Finally its about time I increased my tally of Wainwrights from a pathetic 5 to get more of the 214 ticked off.

To keep me accountable I have the colour in daily chart, the tick off map and I am using Conqueror challenges (10% off via link!) to reward myself. I will do a monthly update but keep an eye on my Facebook and Instagram to follow more closely.

Being healthy - #R2BC

It was lovely to have so many folks joining in last week, it's great you are finding things that make you smile at this time. Please carry on making others smile by joining in!
What do you have to do? Simple:

1. Link up a post about something that is making you happy or grateful. It can be a list, photos or any way you fancy

2. Add the #R2BC badge (at the end of this post) onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they want to

3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too?

I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on social media too. Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week:

1) Daily exercise

We are very lucky to be living in Kendal with so many options for our daily allowed exercise. Walking up our nearest hill certainly lifted my mood:

2) Healthy food

We are both hitting our 5 a day targets on fruit and veg. The warmer weather is making it salad time for lunch too:

3) Return to fitness

After a couple of week's housebound I've loved being back outside running. My speed is picking up again too. Not sure when I will be doing my marathon but I am loving local runs and this week's rainbow theme with a colour a day:

4) Making people smile

I have been going out in all sorts of costumes this week. Its funny how some people react when presented with something like this:

The running fairy does seem to be the most popular one though:

Now it is over to you...

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

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My 2020 Challenges To Get Fit Before 50 #fitb4fifty

Having achieved my 2019 fitness goals its time to set out my challenges for 2020 so far, especially ones that are for before I turn 50 in October! This year I am dedicating my fundraising to CLIC Sargent and have target of £595 to reach...

I am sure more will be added to this but so far I have three main challenges and a few little ones:

1) RED January

I used RED January last year to help me kick start my fitness year. It used to be all about running every day but now its about doing something that gets you active every day - phew! So I will be running, walking and working out every day this month. I started off with tail-walking parkrun and a brief dip in Windermere on New Year's Day:

Let's see how I can mix it up over the next few weeks!

2) Manchester Marathon 

#FitB4Fifty End of Summer Update

Diet

I have just realised that I haven't done an update on my Fit before 50 campaign since June when I started the Mediterranean diet! Since the school holidays started at the end of July my diet went back to being a lot less healthy and I've been away quite a bit so my weight crept back up so I am trying to get back on the healthier eating again with school starting back tomorrow.

I will be dusting off the Blood Sugar Diet book (affiliate link) again  I've already lost some of the holiday gain so hope that getting more veg and fish in my diet again like this will help:

Manchester Half Training 

Before going to Wales for a fortnight I had managed to increase my long run to 7.5 miles:

#FitB4Fifty A good start

Well I have realised I didn't get a chance to update after the first week of the Mediterranean diet! As with many healthy eating programmes week 1 saw a huge loss in weight of 7 lb - what a great motivation. That sort of loss even shows in my progress photos in just a week:

It made a huge difference to my parkrun time too as I knocked nearly 50 seconds off and I am back to my times from 2017 which was my second best year:

I have to say I have found week 2 a lot harder... Plenty of times when I have been rushing around or unprepared and still eating rubbish. This made for only 1.25 pounds off  (still good) and a new stone number at the front. Going to make a concerted effort for week 3 to stay off the carbs...

#FitB4Fifty Update and Going Mediterranean

So we are nearly half way through the year so its time to evaluate my fit before 50 campaign! I wanted to run more and get into better shape this year. Signing up to the RMR Challenge has given me a lot of focus and I have certainly been running a lot more. 

Cumbrian parkrun

The first part of my challenge was to Run every Cumbrian parkrun. So far I have managed Barrow, Millom, Penrith, Ford Park (Ulverston), Fell Foot, and Keswick. This leaves me with the four from the North and West of the county: Whinlatter, Workington, Cockermouth, Carlisle. My times are definitely improving (Fell Foot winter course is the hilliest one I have done which increased my times briefly). Millom lived up to its muddy reputation and of course came after I'd already run Barrow:

Lakeland Trails

The second tier of my challenge is the Lakeland Trails 10 km series. I am half way there after a muddy Cartmel and a 12.7 km Hawkshead with coffin trail. I've also taken part in the Grasmere Gallop 10 km. My next two races in the series are October as I don't race in the heat of summer (if it ever gets hot this year!). Hopefully I can carry on building on my fitness this year to keep those times falling:

#RMRChallenge parkrun 4: Ford Park, Ulverston

After my 3rd Cumbrian parkrun a fortnight ago I only managed to get to my 4th parkrun this morning. Having checked the map I knew that the nearest one I hadn't been to was Ford Park in Ulverston (it also happened to be on my way to visit my daughter in Barrow!):

The parkrun is set in Ford Park which has the Hoad Monument for a backdrop:

The course is currently a winter route so we were going to be facing 4 laps! The RD warned us about the slippery sections where we would be crossing the grass (she was right...). Then 77 of us lined up to undertake the 5km route. It starts with a longish ascent right up to the foot of the hill before tackling the Lady's Walk along the top of the park:

#RMRChallenge Run Report 5-1-19 Penrith parkrun #loveparkrun

As we all know when you have an annual challenge like the RMR Challenge, if you don't start as you mean to go on and get the miles or events under your belt early doors its easy to get behind and fail... With that in mind I realised that I could manage to do parkrun number 3/10 this weekend at Penrith whilst en route to my son's cross country. This did entail leaving at 8 o'clock in the morning which caused a few issues:

1. I hadn't preprogrammed the sat nav before leaving the house which meant
2. My 12 year old had to programme the sat nav and as he wasn't very awake and I couldn't look we put in the postcode and not the venue which meant
3. We were taken to a housing estate in the middle of Penrith and not to the football club which meant
4. I had to park quite a way from the start and had a quick jog across the field to arrive after the briefing had started - but I did make it!

The course is very different from the ones I have done before. It is 2 laps of all the sports fields and twiddly bits at Penrith FC. The whole route is on pretty well maintained paths or in the car park:

Having run the first little stretch with Ron (the Run Director from Fell Foot - a nice surprise) I realised I had run my first kilometre under 7 minutes which is a bit too fast for me at the minute! So I slipped back into my intervals mode. Not having any hills and not knowing the course made it hard to decide where to do this, but there where some obvious turns that I used:

#RMRChallenge Run Report 2: MIllom parkun 1-1-19

So after completing Barrow parkrun I undertook a 40 minute drive in convoy to Millom for my first visit to the parkrun which has the reputation for being the slowest in the UK! It is located on the playing fields of Millom School and didn't look as muddy as reputation would suggest:

We were warned at the briefing to double knot or trainers tightly and to please use the hose at the end!! It didn't take long to discover that the green was hiding plenty of mud!

With multiple laps you soon get to learn where the boggiest bits are follow the regulars:

#RMRChallenge Run Report 1: Barrow parkun 1-1-19

I was determined to kick off my RMR Challenge in good style! So I had a sensible New Year's Eve so that I could get up at 6:45 on New Year's Day to drive over to Barrow for parkrun at 9 am. It was a lovely quiet drive along the peninsular with the sun rising. At the park I met a few familiar faces and then took my place at the back of the crowd for our run. I hadn't been to the parkrun for 2 years so it was lovely to see the views:

I knew this was only my first parkrun of 2 so I was content to take it easy and grab photos and walk up some of the many hills:

It is a multi-lap route so I got to know when the tough parts were coming and also the best views such as the cenotaph:

Run Mummy Run Challenge 2019 #RMRChallenge #FitB4Fifty

In 2018 my running dropped off due a combination of factors:

• Plantar Fasciitis which needed insoles to improve so I could get running again
• The heatwave... I really don't like temperatures above 25 C so running was definitely off the cards!
• Work - it was great getting an almost full time temporary contract but fitting in running has been hard!
• No challenges - I had only signed up for one race (which I missed due to a holiday!) so had no incentive to get out the door...

My son challenged me to run every day in December to get me back on track. It was interesting some days to squeeze a mile in every day and some times I had to do a long run to make up for having to miss a day. In the end I ran over 36 miles in 31 days which was my best month of the year:

So I have decided that I need a challenge to do better in 2019, to this end I committed to the Run Mummy Run Challenge for 2019. This allows us to choose our own targets for the year which we had to share online:

So to see those in a more legible form:

Fit Before 50 #FitB4Fifty

Well I have realised that I have just over 2 years before I hit my next decade and I have still failed to get into a healthy shape! Having battled with my weight for most of my adult life and it feels that for the last 8 years I have lost the same stone repeatedly over and over again... Oops! So now I need to get it right and keep it off so that I am a lot fitter and healthier before I hit my half century. 

Obviously its not going to be a quick fix as I proved in the past that it doesn't work as it doesn't stay off. It needs to be sustained and embedded into my lifestyle to get it off and keep it off for good. This mean that I have to look at both strands of healthy living:

Diet

Exercise

Most of what I have done in the past has concentrated on exercise which works until for whatever reason I stop exercising (this has been through injury, heat, the needs of my children or work pressure). Then I come unstuck as my diet is not up to scratch... Therefore I need to put a lot more effort into that strand...

My son realised yesterday that one reason I don't eat as healthily as I could because of his limited food choices. He struggles to eat things off this list. He has told me that I need to force him once a week to eat one of my more healthy meals! Wish me luck with that one... but it may be that he is mature enough to cope now.

So what do I need to do to improve my diet?

• eat more vegetables and fruit
• eat more whole grains
• reduce fat and sugar intake
• eat more fish and lean meats
• eat less processed foods

Of course I need to carry on exercising and keeping it consistent. This needs to include both cardio and strength exercises. My son is back into cycling now so we can do that together. Running I can do various lengths of run to mix it up a bit. I also need to do core strengthening such as yoga or pilates. At the moment I can't afford classes or gym membership so it will all be done at home or for free.

If anyone has any tips or wants to keep me on track then please shout! I am also up for working with brands as a partnership to get me in shape.

#CountryKids More Parkour in Kendal

My son has been desperate to film more parkour videos but fell racing had taken over! So this week on two occasions that we out and about in Kendal he got some more practice in whilst I filmed in. I have to say he has improved a lot since his first sessions and is getting a lot braver (he has asked for elbow and knee pads for protection!). 

His first session was outside Kendal's County Hall after a dentist appointment. Here he is mid leap:

Then after a Mother's Day lunch out he found loads of places to leap off his 3 course dinner:

I am glad that he chooses to do the parkour in safe enough spots and always checks out whether the height and distance are feasible! I am sure that as he becomes a more confident free runner there will be some bumps and scrapes though... Here is the final video:

#FitnessFriday a wet and muddy week

The one problem with walking everywhere to get fitter is that it reduces the amount of time you have for every thing else! So this post is late as I couldn't fit it all in yesterday... This week I have been experimenting with live videos whilst exercising as part of practising my video skills! So apologies for lots of heavy breathing and sweatiness...

I have had no weight change this week - although at my Well Woman check I weighed 3 lbs less than I do at home! So what has gone well or badly this week?

1) Diet

It has been a bonkers week and my diet always does wrong when I am busy! I had very short notice for a day's supply work and ended up with Peperami and crisps for my lunch as that is what my son likes to eat... I really need to improve on this part of being healthy!

2) Fitness

My foot still is not right so I have been a bit cautious. On Wednesday I had a chance to try it out on the Helm as I wasn't needed to help. It wasn't ideal conditions:

#FitnessFriday A Mixed Bag

My weekly parkrun photo has reached the point where I have been brave and ordered the next size down shirt for my 50th milestone! It will be appearing soon but not for tomorrow's run as not being delivered in time... It has been a mixed bag this week as this morning I had put back on the weight I had lost last week... Not sure how much of that is due to a tummy bug that appeared yesterday... So what did I do right or wrong this week:

1) Diet

Not sure I have done too fabulously this week for various reasons - although I ate none of my home baking on Wednesday! I definitely didn't get anywhere near my 5 day on fruit and vegetables most days. That must be something to work on next week.

2) Fitness

I am not sure what I have done to my leg but I have only managed 2 proper runs since my last post. One was a decent parkrun:

#FitnessFriday Running Further

It has been a good week all round and it has culminated in a 2 and half pound weight loss this week! So I must have done a lot of things right:

1) Diet

I have eaten some healthier things this week and reduced the rubbish to an extent. This week this has included a chicken and avocado salad with damson ketchup for a dressing:

2) Fitness

I am sticking to the quality not quantity of runs to help my body to recover! First up was parkrun on Saturday which was just sub 33:

On Monday I had a chance to have a go at the 5k route to the north of town again whilst my son was at athletics. I was really pleased with being nearly a minute faster and again at around 33 minutes:

#FitnessFriday a day late!

I am running a day late thanks to Torchlight! Which is a shame as its been a good week and I am feeling good:

I am feeling fitter and stronger and I have managed to lose another pound which is a great bonus! So how have I managed it?

1) Diet

Well we ate and drank far too much whilst celebrating my parents' golden wedding anniversary! There must have been something healthier the rest of the week to make up for it...

2) Exercise 

I have managed a variety of runs this week to get myself to only 82 km behind the target which another 9 km improvement. My biggest achievements were my longest run this year of 7 miles and my fastest 10 km since October 2015. 

Today I did my 3rd fastest parkrun of the year without feeling like I was dying so I must have more in the tank if I really tried!

3) September Challenge

I have been managing to keep up with the 30 day abs challenge and I have to say planking for over a minute is ever so hard... However I can see that it is working and my son reckons my boobs are now out further than my tummy! Note to self take photo wearing same bottom half so the waistline stays the same...

#FitnessFriday September Goals

Well its the start of a new month and nearly a new school year so its time I assessed where I have got to in 2017 and what my goals are for this month. This was my progress photo on Saturday and I do look so much better:

The scales are not my friend as I have actually gained a pound this week for a change so far of - 1 stone and 1.5 lbs! So I decided to get the magic tape measure out for the first time since May and see my progress in inches as well as in a photograph:

• Bust -3 inches
• Waist -4 inches
• Hips -2 inches
• Widest part of hips (over tummy!) -3 inches
• Left bicep no change
• Right bicep -1.5 inches (can you tell I am right handed!)
• Left knee -2.5 inches
• Right knee -1.5 inches
• Left thigh -2 inches
• Right thigh -1 inch

A total of 20.5 inches so no wonder I look like I have lost a lot more weight. So let's look at what went right and wrong this week...

1) Diet

Its been an eating out or entertaining friends week so the calorie count has gone up... Meals like the 10 oz burger I ate aren't exactly going to help me with my calorie intake (although I didn't need tea that night!). I have been given some vegetables from my aunt's garden so I will be making a conscious effort to do better this week... There were some good meals like my prawn salad lunch:

2) Exercise

I have been chipping away at my running deficit and I am now only 112 km behind, I now need just under 3.6 km a day of running to make my target:

I am still trying to mix up my runs a bit (check out the links to the right) and even braved one of the tougher routes through town:

#FitnessFriday A Step in the Right Direction

So its time to see how I have done since last Friday when I committed to losing the weight  had put back on and running more! First up how is the 1000 km challenge going:

So that's another 25 km achieved and I am now only 119 km behind instead 122. I can still do this as I had worked out I needed to run 3.67 km a day for the rest of the year so with a few longer runs to make up for missed days I will earn that medal...

What about the rest of my fitness plan?

1) Diet

I have been increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in my diet as I wasn't hitting the 5 day. Have to admit its probably more fruit than veg though... This week I also ate oily fish a few times at lunch with both tuna and smoked salmon as I know I have been missing out on this type of food. A good lunch looked like this:

#FitnessFriday Time for Action

Having had 2 weeks away on holiday after a very stressful half term my weight has been heading in the wrong direction! Not only that but I am slipping further and further behind in my 1,000 km running challenge:

So I need a multi pronged approach to getting back first of all to where I was 2 months ago on the weight front and then to keep up the momentum.

1) Diet

On holiday pretty much anything goes and portion sizes seem irrelevant! Now things are back to normal (if there is such a thing) I need to be more careful. I have started to drink herbal teas in the afternoon instead of caffeinated coffee:

I am making sure that my fruit and vegetable intake is increasing and that portions of protein and carbs are decreasing. Yesterday I even whipped up my own cupcakes so that they were a healthier naughty treat (although my son and his friend ate half of them straight off...):