Getting in shape

Guess it’s about time to do a post on my fitness journey.

A couple of years ago, in the thick of covid, I flew out to my sons, one of them close to Breckenridge – an awesome network of ski slopes spread over 5 mountains. Due to the circumstances, the site was practically empty and we could get on any lift, go up, come down and do it again with virtually no waiting.

Unfortunately for me, I was carrying extra weight, smoking too much and had spent too long not exercising and I was really dissapointed in myself that I was on the best skiing possible, with my son and I was too out of breath to fully enjoy it.

That was enough of an incentive – I got back home, put on my running shoes and was able to do about 3 km at about 8 minutes per km. But I did it again. and again. and again.

Bit by bit my stamina increased and my speed started creeping up. I stopped smoking because it was really hard to push myself and smoke. I started counting calories. I started to balance my carbs/proteins/fats. I started losing weight.

I was working out at home with body weight exercises and kept that up for a few months until my running got stronger. At some point I invested in a decent pair of running shoes and immediately realized the difference. I started running 5 times a week. I invested in a good pair of ear buds – something I had never done. Up until this point I was running with my phone in my hand and a cable coming out of the phone. Then on my arm. Wireless buds were liberating.

All my runs I was recording on RunKeeper.

Then I got a smart watch – Garmin 245 Music . I could run and listen to music without my phone, and it had a built in trainer that would plan my workouts according to my ability.

I got a bathroom scale that synced to my fitness app, and now everything started getting tracked automatically.

When I started this journey I was around 95 kg and in terrible shape. When I got my watch I was 88 kg. But I was just getting started.

I’m bouncing off of 75 kg now – down about 20kg – that’s 44 pounds.

I’ve got a few half marathons behind me and I’ve started going to the pool 2 or 3 times a week. I dropped half an hour off my half marathon on the same course one year later. I just finished my last one in 1:34:43 – just 3 minutes off my time from 25 years ago…

Meanwhile I have been swimming, and on a whim decided to enter an open water competition – 4.5km in the Mediteranean. Was fun. My first open water swim and the longest distance to date.