4th and final week of February and it is a lot milder out there, still a lot of rain here but looking a lot more like Spring is in the air. Birds are busy building their nests and Daffodils are starting to shoot up out of the ground. New life, and new hope. I even managed to get my back lawn mowed. Time to treat it and get rid of that pesky moss next.
My quest for February is to get out there, get out that door at least 3 times per week. Work on improving my 5K pace and lose a little bit of weight.
I know many of you will have taken part in the Quest before, but for those who are newly arrived on the Bridge Forum, the next bit is just for you....!
What is the Quest?
The aim of the Quest is to help you find a focus or goal that you would like to achieve by the end of the Quest period.
This Quest will run all the way through February.
You can join at any point during that time.
Some popular goals are:
• To run three times a week
• To slowly increase distance - maybe you are following ju-ju-'s Magic Plan?
• To add Stretch and Strength exercises to your weekly routine
• To improve pace
• To try out some new running routes
It's completely up to you - set yourself an achievable goal and have fun with it!
I went for a run today after work. It was raining, but I got out there and had a running buddy. My parkrun running buddy Oisin (11 year old Son) joined me for the first time in months. It was lovely having the company. Oisin pushed me along and we did it in 32:03. He would have done sub 30 mins no problem. He enjoyed it and will be joining me more often I hope. I've shed a few pounds too. Belt is in a notch.
The Quest has worked well for me this month and got me out of bed sometimes, so thank you for running it Damien. With just a few days to go there's only been one day, Valentine's Day, when I didn't do anything towards fitness (well, it was a lovely day so it was great for psychological wellbeing...) Mostly walks and very little yoga for some reason. Still finding new places to walk locally, so much to enjoy... and also I've got things in the post more promptly as the one at the end of our road has a last collection of 9am, the need to get at least a walk in means I've been taking things down the hill to catch the 6pm collection instead... and that means cardio on the way back up!
Everything going to plan so far this month. I've had two trips and tumbles, the most recent of which gifted me with some scrapes and scratches, but each time I was able to dust myself off and continue the run.
The distance continues to crank up at the weekends. 10km twice, then 12km, and a possible 13km this Saturday. And I'm feeling strong on the shorter runs.
My weight is holding static but the belt might be in a second notch! Keeping middle age spread at bay is definitely a good thing.
Well done damien and thank you for leading this month's quest.
It really helps me to feel accountable, and keep up a fitness regime.Happy with the Strength and Conditioning I've been doing regularly, and the daily Yoga with Adriene.
Not fitting in very much running, just enough to keep things ticking over, but I did run a full 5k this week.
Pleased that I have stuck with dry February without missing it.
The spring flowers are definately bringing some brightness and lifting our spirits.
Hi there, Bluebirdrunner. Well done on your questing. +Just to say a big thank you for encouraging me early on in my journey with nasal breathing. I think it’s working out for me, so I’m very pleased. Bit of a challenge to be learning in cold weather, but maybe that itself has contributed to the training effect! I think the key is to stay relaxed, physically and mentally, not to get into any harsh sucking in of air or harsh mental approach towards the practice. This means initially taking it slow and dropping back to walk intervals. And not being afraid of the occasional oral breaths (as though they are inherently wrong).
Hi Damien, it's so good to see things start to grow and to get the odd spring like day🌷🌱I've managed two runs during the week following my adapted plan to get me to 10k for Easter. They've been hard work but I'm really pleased that my times don't seem to have changed much even though I'm now ruin /walking which just seems weird to me 🤣 Plus my knee seems to be be holding up to it.
I have let my daily Yoga slip partly as I've a suspicion that some of the postures aggrevate my knee. To make up for it I've added more Pilates aimed at knee and glutes strength.
My daily push op practice is on going but not really improving though 😕
But the best thing was finally finishing LeJoG on Friday that I started in October. I used my daily steps to get me there, aiming for 15500 a day which several times saw me walking round the living room in the evening. It was a joint effort with my dog Alfie who is now having a good rest 👍🐾😂
Thank you for for running the quest. I love reading everyone’s reports.
I hit my target of 100km today with a run that left me at 103.5km with 3 days still to go! I’ve loved my running this month and it has felt less of a slog than January. I’m still continuing on with the low heart training in the week but am trying to run a faster 5k on Saturdays. I’m running Park Run on Saturday in honour of all my UK VRB’s running their 50th not ParkRun to finish off my month ❤️🏃♀️
HI there, this Quest has been brilliant for running away from that miserable month of January! Glad to see you're out there running too.The shorter afterwork 2 km-2.5km runs on my "non- run" days are such a lovely way to separate work life from home life when working from home. I would never have even thought about trying this without the focus of The Quest, so thankyou for the motivation to try new things..
Only a few days to go now and barring accident/injury I will achieve RED February!
Hope you are all well. I think I might have missed some posts, so here’s my monthly round up:
I have run 3x pw; kept up my running drills in nasal breathing, cadence, body scanning and arm work, focusing on practising relaxed form and mindfulness; done online classes (yoga, Pilates, qigong) a few times a week; and maintained a short daily meditation practice. So I have done what (if I remember) I said I would. Pleased with that (and the accountability here has been a great motivator).😁🤞🙏 Am just loving my running and adore the methods I’m using.
Except, I did not run at all in The Week of Snow and Ice (London version)... Sounds a negative, but it wasn’t. I quickly decided actively to restrategise. This meant I did not feel guilty or stressed by ‘not running’ (although I did miss it). Instead, I saw it as a planned periodic rest. (I did extra online classes instead.) In fact, this proved to be a unexpectedly good decision: With the thaw, I came back to my runs so much stronger. My exercises with relaxed nasal breathing seemed to have ‘consolidated’ over the break and were paying dividends. Everything was done with much more ease. My pace improved without even trying. My distances naturally increased. Amazing really, and I’m still a bit gobsmacked at the transition.
I also signed up for a course in qigong. I’ve really enjoyed using these approaches to my warmups (introduced to me in the running workshops I did in January). I thought it’d be nice to get to know more about the principles. Absolutely loved my first class. Between classes, I’ll have weekly ‘homework’, which I’ll be building into my routines in the coming month if we quest again.
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March Quest!🌸It's the Marvellous Mojo Machine!!! 😍
May The Quest be with you - Week 1
