Running myself into the ground

In recent weeks I have started a bit of a fitness regime. I have been feeling my age for a few years, and while I didn’t really have to put much effort into staying reasonably ‘fit’ during my youth it turns out that you start feeling tired and energy-less when you hit your forties.

This cannot stand, and so I have restarted running. This has been more difficult than I imagined.

I have never really been able to sustain any self-enforced fitness programme, so I decided to augment my enthusiasm for such a thing by buying a fitness-based smart watch. I can’t afford an Apple Watch, so I decided to buy a Fitbit Blaze. I found that I couldn’t afford that either, so I decided I’d better save up for something. Then Amazon Prime day came along and they had the Garmin Vivoactive for £60 off and I just HAD to get one.

So I did.

I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and for an infrequent runner like me it is perfect. Well, not perfect, but certainly excellent value for money for the amount of functions it provides. The low-quality screen is good enough and doesn’t drain the battery like many other watches of its type – I only really need to recharge every couple of weeks, and I’d have to recharge every night with an Apple Watch. It’s GPS accuracy is great and I’ve found it a great motivational tool to get out and run or walk.

It also provides some useful exercise information which can be shared with friends and used for keeping track of progress. Here’s my latest run.

Note that this is pretty slow, but pretty acceptable for a chap nearing 50. I’ve also linked in my existing RunKeeper and Strava accounts so that they stay in sync.

I don’t know where this is going or how much improvement I can get. I’m feeling good about it at the moment and intend to keep going. I’ve joined the gym at work and I’m starting to add in some strengthening exercises into my week. I’m just trying to keep the decrepitude away for a little bit longer, but I’d also love to just get down to running a 5k in a 5 minute KM pace. I have some way to go for that.

There are posts in this blog from previous (failed) attempts at getting more fit. I’ve already exceeded the number of continuous weeks of exercise from those attempts and I do feel a lot more motivated than in previous years. The new tech is part of that, but also the feeling of impending infirmity. I’m increasingly aware of my age and the fact that I want to enjoy a good few decades with my lovely wife and daughter. I want to live it well, not feeling like crap.

I’m going to keep it going. Yes.