Last day of 2020, 12 days of Christmas #day7, and RED January 2021

It is the last day of 2020... and it would be easy to say good riddance and jump onto the bandwagon of trying to bundle up occurrences of the last 12 months as if the flip of the calendar to 2021 will remove all the bad stuff. Sadly life is not that simplistic, and much of the changes 2020 brought will hang around in one form or another for many more months / years to come. There is way too much that I could write about the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic but I simply don't have the will to commit it all to a blog post, especially on a blog called 'on the move' which is ostensibly about following my efforts to get and stay fit. There has been acres of text written else where about the pandemic and other major world events I couldn't begin to do them justice.

What has 2020 been for me? Firstly a year of little blogging (well lets face it hardly any blogging at all), it has been a year of little running, and it has been a year of hard work at work responding to the changes of working from home. It was a change that I made well, perhaps too well, as I let it remove some of the base (hidden) activity from my day - the commute, the walking for lunch, going to shops on the way home, walking between meeting venues.... most all of that took place within a handful of metres of each other - commute = walk to front room, lunch = walk to the kitchen, shopping = all done once a week or online, moving between meetings = shutting one browser tab and opening another one.

2020 became the year of YouTube, as I found that I watched more than ever - Peter McKinnon, Matti Haapoja, Becki and Chris, Casey Neistat, Rich Roll, the minimalists, Matt D'Avella, Kevin Stratvert, The Body Coach, Yoga with Ness, to name just a few (I am not listing links, just stick these into the search engine if you are curious, though most are hardly niche, and have large followings).... don't worry though I have consumed lots of cinematography, vlogging, and camera skills videos I know my limits and won't be going all 'YouTube' any time soon.

So 2021... for me it has to be about me regaining and moving towards fitness again, a sustainable fitness, a fitness to live my own life relatively well... I have gotten shockingly far away from that this year and need to recover. There is the kind of fit for life stuff of glossy multimedia and then there is just the plain being fit to live your life... and I am solidly aiming for and in need of the latter. I need to be able to move without pain and aches, lift without worry, walk without being winded, run a short distance without difficulty. Yes, this year I got there, to the place of such poor levels of activity that my base / basic fitness all but completely dissipated. 2021 thus has to be about genuinely getting moving. So that is where my walking 5km or more a day started some days back, as that first small step, and today's instalment was as follows (borrowed from my Strava feed)...

The one with all the kilometres - 12 days of Christmas #day7 ("seven swans a swimming" - well no not today, too icy!)

On the seventh day of Christmas my true sent to me... a bunch of stuff we needed from the shop. It was in no no no way a way to sneak a long walk this morning while everyone thought I was simply doing vital shopping.

It was lovely out, if tricky under foot with cheeky black ice in places. Loads of people out again, and sadly too many groups thinking they can out wit the biological fundamentals of viral transmission which was... well anyway let's not get sweary or rant about their selfishness (there's twitter for that, apparently).

Ended up being a magnificent 7km because when I looked at the distance it really did beg to be rounded up again... honest!

... and to keep things moving tomorrow we start RED January... "This January, the RED community will be challenging themselves to get active every day. Whether running, swimming, cycling or choosing a favourite fitness activity, REDers will be going the extra mile to support themselves and others. Their fitness and fundraising efforts combined with your generosity will help Sport in Mind reach and empower people to experience the life-changing benefits of physical activity."

Whatever you are doing have a happy and safe New Year's Eve 🤗

Three things Thursday

1) I have a cold*

2) I have a cold*

3) I have a cold*

I am possibly one of the worlds worst cold sufferers, and I am desperate to do some exercise but I really cautious about driving the thing into my lungs. So, for now I am just wallowing in the self pity and occasionally entertaining thoughts of strange hot lemon drinks as a potential 'cure'.

Image from http://pixabay.com/en/users/steinchen-21981/

* this post has been nominated** for the dullest "Three things Thursday" in internet history. Vote via any channel you like, but know that it'll make no difference except to cheer me up perhaps ;-)

** this post also nominated for biggest stuff of nonsense of 2015***

*** no, sorry I am just rambling, neither of the above is true... medication? Medication!... can I have a lie down?

Very quick three things thursday - without pictures or hyperbole

No pictures - sorry, I am out of picture fodder and need to go around capturing some stuff. It probably stems from an overly busy work schedule of late, but I will try harder.

Hyperbole - reading back my through my blog of late I have notice my predilection for hyperbolic post titles (which at times are let down my the ramblings they lead to), and more than occasional over use of exclamation marks!!!!!!! I hereby promise that neither of things are likely to change, oh okay I will be trying.

Marathon talk - more substantial than any of the above and a great source of material to boast your running IQ.

Running - I seem to have found a new groove, Thursday I rest - tomorrow I Friday Fartlek!

Three Things Thursday

Simple as 1, 2, 3...

1) The joys of calorie tracking apps...

Moving in the right direction over recent days :-)

2) Keeping busy whilst injured...

No running for exercise just now, but plenty to keep me busy up on the allotment!

3) Boy oh boy, had I over shopped for marathon. I was getting über prepared before the injury rudely interrupted...

DNS hangover - I have a bundle of stuff I'd gathered for the marathon that never was :-(
...still I'm all set when training starts again.

Three things Thursday

So here we go...

1) Shredding - yeap, I have begun leaping around my house under the instruction of a loud American woman on a DVD. I think some might recognise the DVD and indeed the presenter in question. This time around I am toying around with doing the whole 30-days of that there 30 day shred. Why? Well I am having a month break from the run mileage I was doing (I know, not that I was doing huge mileage) and addressing all around fitness, aka mixing things up a bit. All of this before launching my marathon training for next spring.

2) Marathoning - today I began the process of trying to register for the 2013 Berlin Marathon. Not having run outside the UK (in a race) I am slightly nervous about the undertaking, but I know Germany and I know Berlin pretty well so I am very motivated to try and get there. It is there 40th edition and I will be in my 39th year, we both began in 1974 so I am taking that as a nice resonance - that and the fact I was living there as a toddler in '74 also.

3) Noise - I am struggling a little at the moment with noise... I know odd thing to say, and perhaps it intimates to some that I am in deed getting older. Suffice it to say that with a busy household, a busy work place and a loud world I am treasuring moments of calm and silence a lot at the moment. Probably part of the reason I get a bit grumpy if I don't get out for my run sessions.

Diary - Weather very very Autumn with a threat of Winter. Grateful for being productive, not so grateful for the changing clocks this coming weekend here in the UK (half the daily commute is thrown into darkness).

Three Things Thursday - in pictures

One:

My fantastic finishers medal from last Sunday's Swansea Bay 10k run

 Two:

The last of my Brooks Beast running shoes?
Top - penultimate pair (now kick about shoes);  Bottom - final pair (maybe) of training shoes before I move over a different prescription shoe for good

 Three:

A family favourite toy reminding me of my other big exercise passion - you are never just a runner ;-)

Three things Thursday

First ever "three things" post, but I've blogged every other day this week (!) so I figure I might as well run this thing out to a whole week of posts...

1) Paralympics 2012 - the opening ceremony was absolutely immense, it made so much more of what (I assume) was a tighter budget than the Olympics. The whole thing was tight, neat, entertaining, thought provoking, and had a fabulous theme running through it that made superb sense with a clear message. I was so moved that at the right moment I even rushed to get an apple to join in the 'big crunch' inspired by Isaac Newtons gravity defining apple moment. 

So moved I joined in, it was a tasty treat at near midnight

Everyone waits to watch the spectacle and drama unfold - good luck to all athletes from all nations.

2) GPS madness struck me last night on my run, I ran a spiral pattern using some of the many trials in the park all the while wondering what it might look like on the computer when I uploaded the route (geek!). The best part of the giddy (though happily not dizzy) madness was I had no clue how long the run would be in the end so I just enjoyed making my silly pattern.

Could have sworn people thought I was lost as I passed some three times

3) So today I continue my quest for a new job / career (the same as I have everyday for the last few weeks, but hey I don't discuss that here), which is just a lame excuse to use another silly picture and make a third thing... hey, I said this was my first one go easy on me :-P

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After yesterdays thunder storms and rain, today looks sunny, warm, with scattered rain clouds.