Day 98, super fit stats splurge

First week of the super-let's-get-fit-and-flexible-achievement-badge-unlocked process is complete.

Some bits of me feel as though they have done more work than they normally would have.  There's a slight ache in various parts of leg. Only the mildest of aches though, possibly due to the nature of the stretching/warming down process, otherwise I expect there would have been more.

Having started at the lowest level of strenuousness and the lightest weights possible (where weights are used - effectively not much more than a couple of tins of beans in each hand) things appear to be progressing well.  This week has been workout A, B, and A again.  That's all the letters there are in this routine, and I reckon it’s enough.

The most difficult, or most painful (well, not really), hardest of the exercises have been the lunges.  And they do feel silly, not quite as silly as the split, incremental, transcontinental squats, or whatever they were called.  I’m pretty sure there's the possibility of knee, ankle, and/or hip injury with this manoeuvre as it is very difficult to remain stable during the action, even though it is almost just like walking…  Generally I have good balance but these things make me out to be some sort of klutz with a middle ear infection and a dose of Norovirus - specifically the elements of Norovirus that cause dizziness, not the bits that cause gross product to be emitted from various orifices.

And there is the necessity to be careful. The ignominy of having something twang and snap like an old guitar string would be immense.

Another factor is weight, I am pretty robust in that regard and have quite a bit of mass.  Since my hamstring popped when running during the summer I have put on an additional 4kg and am now 95kg, I'll let the metric martyrs convert that one themselves.

 Weight increase since hamstring twanged

It would be optimal to shed some of that weight.

The stats from my previous activity show that the most effective way of dropping weight isn't going out for long runs. It appears that interval training, or something akin to it, is the key.

Interval runs from start, longer runs from August

My best weight loss was when doing short runs interspersed with walks and with a few light swimming sessions during the week.  During periods where I was running between 3-5km every day or alternate days, and where the walks were reduced in duration, weight loss wasn't as rapid and at times it plateaued or increased. My thumbnail scientific and medical diagnosis, given my years of experience of never seeing doctors or having any training in this area, suggests that this could be that the body gets used to the more intensive training and so metabolism changes in such a way that fat isn't burnt off so readily.


Here are a list of probably inaccurate and meaningless figures relating to my current state of fitness.

What age?  How many calories?

Two days of rest now, then it's workout B, day off, A, day off, and B again. Let's see what happens as the super-let's-get-fit-and-flexible-achievement-badge-unlocked process is continued.