[jonfirestar]

Hi

 

It's been quite a while since I really came out of my shell. I was last around in November and at that point my health (due to a chronic illness) simply fell off of a cliff edge and I became extremely ill for an extremely long time.  A few months ago  I was almost hospitalised with Sepsis but that was thwarted thanks to a cocktail of antibiotics. Since then it's been a slow and steady improvement. Over that time I've gained a bunch of weight and while I'm nowhere near my highest weight it's much more than I'm okay with. I suspect that has a lot to do with the extreme level of inactivity, since my diet hadn't really changed for several years. 

 

I've actually been feeling pretty good for the last month or so but I've been fighting with inertia. Over that time however I did a long overdue overhaul of my diet. Eating better is one of the few proactive things I can do to improve my chances of not getting sick but, honestly I only found the will to do so after my appetite started coming back. 

 

It's been a weird and hard few weeks. We lost Mr Wills, who was quite simply one of my best friends, last week I lost another close friend (she wasn't from the forums), and a little before that my brother-in-law had a heart attack and was in the icu for several days (he's doing okay, thankfully). So maybe I'm looking at this a bit of a kick in the backside to stop myself from sequestering myself away and start doing stuff to help myself. 

 

The challenge. Stupid simple. I've started to run again. I've got a rough plan that I'm following to get myself back into it. I've not really run for the last 7 months (I've done less running this entire year than I would have done on a bad week this time last year). 

 

Run every other day. 

By the end of the challenge I should have phased out all of the walking intervals and it also marks a perfect point to start phasing in different workouts. 

[shaar]

JON!  It is good to see you here, friend! ❤️  I'm sorry you've had such a tough time and am glad you are on the up and up.

[Ann of Owlshire]

Welcome back!

[Shello]

Sorry to hear about all the tribulations and loss.   Starting over is a chore but starting anywhere is better than not at all.  

[Cheetah]

I'm sorry for your losses. 

 

I'm happy to see you again!

 

Happy Challenge!

[Salinger]

Jon, its absolutely amazing to see your name pop up here. 

 

I am sorry for your grief, i am always a message away if you need any additional support, or just to chat

 

Your goal is great, and i know you will hit the running days ❤️

 

Loads of love Jon xx

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Grief is hard. Grieving three losses at once is really hard. Here for support. I'm glad you came back to the forums, I missed you.

[jonfirestar]

4 hours ago, shaar said:

JON!  It is good to see you here, friend! ❤️  I'm sorry you've had such a tough time and am glad you are on the up and up.

Hey Shaar! It's good to see you  It's certainly been rough. I'm glad to be feeling better. 

 

4 hours ago, Ann of Owlshire said:

Welcome back!

Thanks, it's good to be back! 

 

3 hours ago, Shello said:

Sorry to hear about all the tribulations and loss.   Starting over is a chore but starting anywhere is better than not at all.  

 

Thanks. And very true and I'm not back at square one.I might have to retread some ground but I know how this whole fitness game works far better so I'm confident that I can get where I want with a little persistence. Right now all I want is to regain some of my lost fitness. 

 

3 hours ago, Cheetah said:

I'm sorry for your losses. 

 

I'm happy to see you again!

 

Happy Challenge!

Hey thanks, it's good to be back. 

 

3 hours ago, Salinger said:

Jon, its absolutely amazing to see your name pop up here. 

 

I am sorry for your grief, i am always a message away if you need any additional support, or just to chat

 

Your goal is great, and i know you will hit the running days ❤️

 

Loads of love Jon xx

Thanks Lizz. I've really not been talking much to anyone and the longer I'm out of action the harder it is to reach out again. I hope you are doing well.  It's been too long   My goal is simple and if I can I'll hit them. I really can't stay indoors in the summer. I'm keeping it slow and conservative. Not exactly c25k but similar enough in structure and I've actually been really enjoying it, which is good. A sad fact of my life these days is that I might have days where I simply can't but recognising that as not a failure is important. 

 

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Grief is hard. Grieving three losses at once is really hard. Here for support. I'm glad you came back to the forums, I missed you.

Thanks, I've missed you too Tank. 

 

 

[jonfirestar]

Update: 

 

Well I did my run  I'm actually really happy with how this is going. I ran a few days in March but otherwise that's all for this year. As mentioned my health just dropped off of a cliff edge towards the end of last year and I simply couldn't run. I could barely walk some days and spent a lot of time sleeping and coming back from that hasn't been quick or easy and it's been only a couple of months since I've been able to get some slow build up of activity. I've been putting off starting to run for the last couple of weeks with many excuses but mainly fighting inertia and out of fear that it wouldn't be at all fun. 

 

So I'm pleasantly surprised to be having fun with it despite having to build up from essentially scratch. I have a decent amount of experience with this running game and I know what I need to do. I'm running short easy intervals that I'm manipulating over time to get more running and less walking. It's not particularly structured  because I find rigid structure to be more of a detriment than helpful in the bigger picture. My overall aim is to just to be able to run my entire four mile loop in one go without forcing anything too much I expect that to take a few weeks but I also don't really have a deadline I'm just reasonably certain that it'll happen within the period of the challenge if I'm consistent. So today's run was actually run 3 and I am happy with the progress so far. 

 

Not much else going on for today. 

[DarK_RaideR]

Hey, you have a challenge thread again!

[Stronkey Kong]

Sorry for your losses and welcome back. 

 

I'm also doing a simple, ime goal running challenge!

[Salinger]

Morning Jon 

 

Great job on the running so far. Excellent. I am starting a walking challenge. Nothing major, I just need to build the habit of moving more.... (sound familiar ugh)

 

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday xx

[jonfirestar]

11 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Hey, you have a challenge thread again!

Yeah mate, a long time coming  

 

8 hours ago, Stronkey Kong said:

Sorry for your losses and welcome back. 

 

I'm also doing a simple, ime goal running challenge!

Thanks  

 

I've been coaching my own running over a number of years and over that time I've figured out simple is better. The big picture is more important than the details and the single most important thing is that you run.  I honestly could talk about programming running for hours and hours lol. I'll be sure to check out your challenge. 

 

3 hours ago, Salinger said:

Morning Jon 

 

Great job on the running so far. Excellent. I am starting a walking challenge. Nothing major, I just need to build the habit of moving more.... (sound familiar ugh)

 

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday xx

 

Thanks Lizz. Nothing wrong with a walking challenge. Indeed if I had turned up a couple of months ago I'd be doing the same. That habit of moving is the single most important thing and I lost it for a little bit this year. 

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

22 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

The challenge. Stupid simple. 

 

Simple is smart!!  Especially after all of the losses you've suffered.  Do one thing and build up the self-care habit.  

 

 

[Jarric]

Dude, welcome back! It's so good to see you here.

[jonfirestar]

10 hours ago, Chris-Tien Jinn said:

 

Simple is smart!!  Especially after all of the losses you've suffered.  Do one thing and build up the self-care habit.  

 

 

Yeah no argument from me, I'm doing it because I think it's the best way to approach it  just a little bit of self consciousness for having something so simple. 

 

10 hours ago, Jarric said:

Dude, welcome back! It's so good to see you here.

Thanks mate. Better late than never  

 

 

Update:

Nothing to declare really. It's been a rough old day with a lot of work stuff happening 

[Marauder]

Happy to see you here and also very sorry for what sounds like an exhausting and emotional year so far!   Way to get back out there. Inertia can be a boss fight sometimes!

[Maigs]

Glad to see you back! And glad to hear that you're feeling better

[Cheetah]

On 6/14/2022 at 6:35 PM, jonfirestar said:

rough old day

 

Rough old days are rough.  You are strong, and you can do hard things.  Keep up the good work!

[Teros]

Grief can put things in perspective.  I'm sorry for what's happened but I'm glad it's created reflection and wanting to put your best foot forward.  Good to see you back.

[Salinger]

How have you been Jon? xx

[shaar]

Hi Jon!

 

Hope you had a great weekend and are doing well today. ❤️  Keep us nerds posted, yes??

[jonfirestar]

On 6/15/2022 at 10:19 PM, Marauder said:

Happy to see you here and also very sorry for what sounds like an exhausting and emotional year so far!   Way to get back out there. Inertia can be a boss fight sometimes!

Hey, yeah chaotic and emotional is certainly one way of putting it. 

 

 

On 6/16/2022 at 12:46 AM, Maigs said:

Glad to see you back! And glad to hear that you're feeling better

Hey Maigs  It's great to see you! 

 

 

On 6/16/2022 at 3:12 PM, Cheetah said:

 

Rough old days are rough.  You are strong, and you can do hard things.  Keep up the good work!

Rough day turned into a rough week but it's going well even if I'm struggling to keep up. 

 

On 6/16/2022 at 8:36 PM, Teros said:

Grief can put things in perspective.  I'm sorry for what's happened but I'm glad it's created reflection and wanting to put your best foot forward.  Good to see you back.

Yeah, it's a thing. I'm choosing to focus it all onto doing something positive. 

 

On 6/18/2022 at 5:53 AM, Salinger said:

How have you been Jon? xx

Hey  I'm doing very well but got crazy busy last week. 

 

5 hours ago, shaar said:

Hi Jon!

 

Hope you had a great weekend and are doing well today. ❤️  Keep us nerds posted, yes??

I had a really good weekend thanks. Posting is happening  I've not gone anywhere. 

[jonfirestar]

Update

 

Well, sorry it took me so long to get back. I found myself extremely busy (mostly work) with little energy left to spend after my day was over. Then there was Saturday, which for some inexplicable reason I was just feeling extremely lazy. I've got theories about the exact whys and wherefores of that but I pretty much just think I needed that rest. 

 

Running update: 

 

To be very honest this is going much better than I expected it to. Mainly because I weigh a heck of a lot more right now than when I last ran and the effects of that are really showing, just not as much as I expected it to. 

 

I had planned to run Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and hit each and every one. Not only am I running I'm finding myself looking forward to doing it, which I really didn't expect for a little while. Over the course of the week I was able to dial back my pace. It's hard learning how to run slower again lol but I was able to dial it into an easy, albeit real slow, pace. So by Sunday I was able to do my run almost entirely in one go.  According to my heart rate that was actually quite a bit easier overall than my stop start runs I was doing, although the extreme heat I ran in on Friday might have had something to do with that elevated heart rate. I'm still being cautious but I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep that going over the next couple of weeks.

[Cheetah]

Good stuff!  Keep up the good work!