It’s only a lot of work until you are good at swimming. Then you’ll yearn for how free you feel in the water.
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I loved swimming. For a while in college I was exercising a lot, running and swimming on alternating days. I loved running - it was usually on fire trails in the hills and it was great being out there, but the endorphins were definitely a notch or two higher swimming.
I think he might mean having to get there etc.
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I am listening to spotify and this song just came on:
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Oh I see now. TY.
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There is a lot of info out there on programming for a particular race. The Couch25k site seems to be paid now. I’ve been using runcoach.com for 7 months, and have been pretty happy with it. It can sync with a smart watch for outdoor runs, or you can enter your time and mileage in the app or web page. The best feature is that you can set a goal or a race, say run 10k in 60 minutes, enter your day off, cross training days, and long run day. It will calculate a schedule for you, including various run types for speed, maintenance, and increasing aerobic capacity. It also includes periodization, with I think 3-week cycles, with a taper as your race approaches. I find it suggests runs that are way too long sometimes – 10-11 miles when training for a 5k race seems excessive – so I just shorten the distance sometimes.
If we get a fitness or running thread going, I’ll try to participate. My current goal is to improve my 5k time to 23:15. I have a race in about 10 days, so I’ll either set a new goal or train harder after that.
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I don’t like to have resolutions or habits that start in January. I figure if I use the excuse of Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s to delay starting, then I have no chance of maintaining during any difficult or busy time. Here’s what I’ve been working on, and will continue to work on this year:
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no drinking - this is the biggest one, and is important for my long-term health and relationships. Recommended books: This Naked Mind and Alcohol Explained.
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low sodium diet - goes along with no drinking to reduce my blood pressure and prevent heart disease. Various DASH diet resources as well as the Dr. Gourmet website have been helpful. Dr. Gourmet has lots of dishes for various health issues, not just low sodium.
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fitness - continue 4x/week running and increase from 2x to 3x/week strength training, now that I have my new squat rack. I physically put $2 per workout into my fitness fund, which can be used for stuff like squat racks, smart watches, ear buds, cold weather running clothes, etc. Again, the goal is long-term health and strength. Too many people my age (54) or younger are dead, in bad health, or can’t catch themselves if they trip and fall. Recommended book: Younger Next Year (have to ignore the sexism, though)
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learn Spanish - I’m going to Peru this summer, and will be at an extended family event. I would like to be able to communicate well. I started taking classes in 2019, and will continue in 2020. However, classes are not enough, so I’m going to try out the Ultralearning approach on Spanish. I’m currently reading Ultralearning by Scott Young after hearing about it on the Mad Fientist podcast.
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learn other stuff - assuming the Ultralearning works, I’ll be using it on some work-related stuff, as well as mogul and powder skiing, piano playing, and music composition. After that, likely in 2021, I would like to get back to advanced math and study some economics. I don’t yet have any resources on these topics, as I’m still reading the book and working on Spanish.
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finances - I’m rapidly approaching retirement, so I’m working on a detailed plan for the run-up to retirement, the transition period, and then some more general plans for the full retirement time frame. My wife is finally punching in, and is actively participating. It’s not easy, but it has to be done. I’m not staying in this massive, empty house, wasting money on taxes and maintenance. Recommended resources: Mr. Money Mustache, Mad Fientist as starting points.
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We have a fitness thread.
By 5k you mean 5 miles or 5 km?
5 km :-) so like a 7:30 per mile pace.
To leave a job I hate early this year (as soon as the mortgage is paid off); a place where the norm is to have stayed there at least 15 years (for the pension) which has skewed people’s behaviour towards the awful.
To get off my arse and do something more in line with my first, and most enjoyable/useful, job 30+ years ago when I worked in the health service, with fewer middle class deporables.
To make new friends I can drink with to replace the after work drinks from the above. This is especially important in helping to block out the more egregious aspects of modern life, replacing anxiety with laughter.
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Damn, I am really addicted to browsing the internet. I feel like the engineers have really figured out how to keep humans online.
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Yeesh…yeah that seems right.
mind = blown
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My number one thing for this year is to eat less sugar, primarily keeping less sweet stuff at home because I don’t think I’ll be able to skip homemade cookies when they’re brought to work. I’ve been catching up on threads today and I read ChrisV’s post on the gene that influences people’s preferences for sweet/savory and I am definitely someone who gets that “cocaine rush” from sweets. I’ve been loathe to change my diet significantly these last couple of years outside of cutting back on some of the bad stuff but I’m still overweight and have high blood pressure so I need to do something other than hope I get more time to exercise. I read some of the research (well summaries of it) about intermittent fasting and am trying to incorporate that into my lifestyle, though it’s not easy with my 10 hr work days and having a toddler at home. Getting my weight below 200 lbs seems doable.
Making sure I am kind and thoughtful towards my wife is another good one, thanks to OP for mentioning it. I’d also like to be less lazy but not sure that’s going to happen. At the least I should dedicate some time to helping Dems win the election.
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So how many are still following their resolutions? I am still doing the regularly sport stuff but a lot of the other resolutions more or less failed. I started with language learning and watching the RYE vids but once I had to fill in for my colleague for the first time this year which resulted in more or less double shifts all that “good stuff” got cut. It was mostly gaming after work. I really should just quit WoW by now. Recently I discovered AOE 2 again and I watch a lot of this on twitch. Bad time management overall again.:(
And I eat to much sweets at work again. This stuff lays around everywhere. Hell once you order office stuff you got a box of “Snickers, Mars, M&M, twix and bounty”. So our accountant ordered twice.
Failed so far though I have been better with flat cleaning
*yoga everyday no probably once a week atm
*1600 calorie limit per day **no but I am logging everyday **
*lose 30 kg
*grow 70 % of my own vegies (excluding potato) Probably at about 50% but am involved with some community gardens so getting 10- 20% from them
*start a blog no
*go to bed with the kitchen clean EVERY night no
*plant 6 fruit trees not the right time yet
*be kinder to people (including myself)- the exception is in the walrus! **I think I am being but not perfect **
*spend more time with friends no
*visit 12 places I have never been before no
*get my blood pressure and cholesterol into normal ranges blood pressure is, haven’t tested cholesterol yet
*only eat beef/lamb/pork once per week. Not one serve of each just one serve for the week im at twice a week which is still an improvement
*keep working on ways to reduce my plastic waste yes
*start swimming weekly again no
Thanks for the reminder Habs. I need to print this out and put it somewhere prominent.
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I wasn’t doing anything, then a few weeks back I had a regular checkup and my blood pressure was pretty elevated and I decided I’d better actually start trying, so I cut back on sugar and started intermittent fasting to try and lose weight (basically the version where you eat within a small window everyday, it’s supposed to be 6 hours but I’m probably more at 7-8 and not every single day but most days I don’t eat breakfast or anything after dinner). Weighed myself at the gym 2.5 weeks after I started and I was down 7-8 lbs from the doctor’s scale, so probably like 4-5 lbs IRL. My modest starting goal was getting under 200 lbs so I’m already close to that, didn’t eat so great this weekend but overall feeling good and motivated to continue.
Could still be better towards my wife though.
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Welp.
So one other resolution I had was to get my shit together and write for one of my favorite entertainment outlets. Well I put some feelers out and someone contacted me about a month ago and asked for a writing sample, and I’m embarrassed to say it but I straight up chickened out and didn’t even send anything.
I’ve been beating myself up so hard that I still hadn’t responded, but I figured today well, either the opportunity is gone or it’s still there, so I reached back out and am 
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