Well, we’re into the second week already! How is it going for you? There have been so many fabulous Quests and I loved reading each and every one. Hopefully you’ve been able to tick off a few goals and a dazzling December is already well under way.
You could say that the weather here is a tad unpredictable at the minute. I ran on one day when the sky was blue and the sun was out. Although it was cool it was absolutely glorious 🤗 but the next run was cold, wet and windy and very muddy on my country roads. And what about this latest storm?! 😱 Yikes! You never know what to expect from one day to the next but it keeps us on our toes doesn’t it? Perfect weather would be boring 😶
Hopefully the weather hasn’t kept you from your Quest. How are you getting on? Tell us in the comments.
For anyone who hasn’t yet joined the Quest don’t forget you can join at any time, we’d love to see you here. Here is the first week’s post so you can see what your VRBs are doing.
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.
The Quest takes one calendar month. You can join at any point during that time.
We ask that you are a C25K graduate before joining the Quest. The reason for this is that pre-graduation your weeks are pretty much structured according to the C25K programme, and we wouldn’t want the Quest to interfere with that.
Some popular goals are:
★ To run three times a week
★ To slowly increase distance
★ To train for a specific race
★ To add Stretch and Strength exercises to your weekly routine
This is a personal challenge, so it's completely up to you! If you want to join, all you have to do is COMMENT BELOW with something like:
I would like to join the Quest, or, count me in! I want to ..............
Every week I will put up a new post and we can all chat about how we are doing.
Let’s keep going. To everyone working on their Quests, keep at it! We’re heading to the half way point! ✨✨💫💫🌟🌟
Written by
Irishprincess
Graduate10
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I’ve had two glorious runs at 5.30am this week! Today, I decided to run later as it was the last day of school for our boys. Well, that was a huge mistake as it was all ready in the high 30’s by 9am 😳
80.90km to run to reach my next town on my run down under journey which is my quest this month! Think it’s back to 5am running else I might not make it🤣.
Just remind people that you are in Australia, I went a midweek 5K run this morning UK time, the temperature was also in the high 30's, but Fahrenheit, not Centigrade. 😊 🏃🏾
It looks gorgeous but we had an easterly which means a very hot wind! I had to resort to run/walk as it was pushing 40 degrees Celsius by the end of my run 🥵
The extremely bad weather and people making demands on my time are conspiring to upset my schedule.
Fortunately, I’ve already made the final week of the training plan with just two scheduled workouts left to do. I cancelled one of them yesterday due to Barra and today’s due to an urgent errand. My arbitrary “race day” is scheduled for Saturday but the weather looks better for Friday; I’ll aim for Friday, to see whether the training has done its job.
33 prescribed workouts! I feel a great sense of achievement in doing just that, any PB in the run will be a bonus.
The rest of the month will be more leisurely as I really need new shoes and will wait on the January sales. 🙂
Well at least last week went when, not so sure how this week will be as I should be running today but the torrential rain really does nothing to entice me out🌧️💨But back to last week, 2 runs done one wearing my Xmas leggings and the second spotting Xmas trees 🎄🎅🎁 and physio exercises completed on 5 days.
My treadmill quest has to wait for a couple of weeks until my son has time over the Xmas holidays to give me a treadmill lesson.
That sounds like you had a very good week! And five days of physio exercises! 👍💪
I love the idea of Christmas leggings 🧑🎄 have they got glitter or bells? I was thinking of attaching some bells onto my belt but they would probably get on my nerves after a while 😂
I like the idea of bells. I need to attach some to my manager, I can never find him, but that’s another story. You could run to the beat of jingle bells maybe? 🔔🔔🔔
Oh IP, if only I could report that my quest is going well. It isn’t! 😅 Heck I don’t even know if I have a quest on the go! I’d better set one today. Here goes:
I WILL run at least 3 times per week in December and I WILL stop grizzling about the wind and rain (maybe!). I WILL do a daily yoga practice no matter what time it ends up being.
I’m due to be starting my next HM plan around Christmas week (as are you aren’t you?), but that’s not going to be possible. Hopefully the week after. It doesn’t matter too much, but I love to follow a plan and would prefer to do it to the letter.
You’re in Munks! They sound solid goals but with everything that December typically throws at us, it’s a wonder we can get any running done at all!
You’re an experienced runner so you can afford to take a while off completely or reduce your normal mileage.
I’m starting a new HM plan the Christmas week 🙄 I can’t believe the timing but there you go, that’s what the Plan says so I’d better do it 😂
I skipped the first week of my last HM plan for various reasons and it didn’t seem to make a difference so if you have to miss a week or so it’ll still be fine.
Good luck with your Quest Munks and enjoy your yoga 🧘♀️🍀
The Quest continues, with its primary objective being not to get injured, and its secondary objective to keep up the same level of activity.
The mileage has suffered this last week. I had a concern over a minor soreness in the Achilles area which appears to have been caused by a tight hem on some compression tights rubbing above the ankle. I had visions of the tendon starting to fray from having overdone things. I dropped my planned long run at the weekend because of this. (And got sucked into the alternate hell of shopping on a Sunday in December.)
Then the foul weather hit on Monday and I decided an extra rest day would be helpful anyway.
We have the trailing edge of Storm Barra passing through this morning, and I'm finding it difficult to plan to fit in a run between the deluges (and work).
I don't mind running in light rain, or even heavy rain if it's not too cold. However, heavy rain combined with icy gale-force gusts is not my idea of fun.
I have to remember that, contrary to what my body is telling me, I've not actually been idle, and I've still had four runs in the last seven days!
On the positive side, I did a speed challenge run on Friday afternoon and knocked 29 seconds off my 1km PB which I'd set this time last year.
You were wise to ease down at the first sign of a niggle but you nailed that PB! Congratulations, that’s a very impressive reduction. You definitely haven’t been idle. How often are you planning to “test” your 1K time?
My sympathies about the shopping trip 😱 that’s my idea of hell too, even before COVID.
I hope your soreness disappears and you can carry on with your usual routine 🤞
As mentioned, I'm late to the Quest party this month as I have been pondering what goals would serve me best. And that's tricky because fundamentally here we're about physical fitness - even though many of us run to support our mental well being and sometimes we use our goals to reign us back and keep ourselves safe and/or support healing from injury.
Sooo... my overarching goal for December is to be gentle with myself. I shall be happy if I get one run in and one yoga session and one soak in a nice deep bath.
“Be gentle with myself” sounds wonderful.We don’t do enough of that.
I love your goals 🙂especially the nice deep bath. Bubbles or no bubbles?
I did something similar last January and took the whole month off running and just tried to get a lot of pampering in. It was lovely and did me the world of good. I hope the same thing happens to you 😍
Oh definitely bubbles! Every year I have a personal resolution to be like King John who took one bath a month (this was scandalously often at the time I believe)... and this year several months have slipped.
I can’t remember the last time I had a long soak. I use to have one regularly with candles and a glass of something at the side but that was all pre-running and my way of relaxing.
But your post has now got me reaching for the candles again….
Quest going well here. 3 runs and yoga. Found a fit to ski utube and was surprised how much it made me ache, must be reaching muscle groups that running and yoga doesn't. Keep it up fellow questers.💫
A bit late to this week’s quest but I am still showing up! I’ve been thinking about my goals lately, as my latest stints on and off the IC have made me re-assess what my health-sustainable and patience-rich goal should be. It’s my first substantial break in my progress since starting to run. So Re-assessing how I take my body and mind with me in sync is a big one.
And of course this relates to the 3 quests from last week, which were:
1) patience - which I’ve had to be as I gently tried out how to emerge from the IC
2) start rowing - ok, so I got two sessions in, one rather to try out my rowing apps and one proper session. I’m getting there slowly. I’m also waiting for one cable adapter which should 🤞allow me to connect rower to Zwift, which I’m really excited about.
3) yoga, squats and XMas challenge
Managed to do all that, so pretty happy about that.
So what is my more medium term goal? Keeping in mind that at my age it helps to be patient with yourself, the following might be a good goal for me:
GOAL:
By end of 2022 to have worked my way up back to 10k, but this time around have arrived with stronger feet, stronger knees, and a better fitness. That 10k I will run in December 2022 will feel easy and strong!
A great many ticks there CB! That’s brilliant 👍 You’ve done so much in a week!
I do think patience is such a strong virtue for runners and usually one we learn the hard way (or maybe that’s just me 🙄) but when we’re on the IC, we really need to rely on patience big time.
I get the impression from your posts that you are very patient and your medium term goal reflects that perfectly 🙂
Hello IP, hope all is well with you! I looked high and low, and lo and behold, down the back of the sofa, I found my mojo again. That has been my quest 🤣. The next quest is to look after it better. Thanks! 😊😊😊
Hi, am running 3 times a week and this week have done a 3.5K and a 5K run so far and tomorrow will hopefully get the 7K under my belt. Having finished Ju Ju’s Magic Plan running for 60 minutes am now working my way up to 10K. Never thought when o started that I would want to run as far. Am doing daily yoga as part of the December challenge as well. Hopefully by end of December I will be well on my way to running 10K😎
Well done! It sounds as though you’ll definitely get to that 10k by the end of the month 😊. Good job on the yoga as well, I did a fair bit during lockdowns but it’s slipped a bit I have to admit. Good luck with your 7k tomorrow! 🏃♀️🏃🏻🏃♀️🏃🏻
Hello @Irishprincess hope you're well. Well I've ground to a halt in my 1st week, I'm afraid.
- Didn't do any runs or cross training. Just felt too tired.
- I've also decided to pull out of both my 10k races this month due to fear of catching covid with the new omicron variant as they are mass events plus the complications from travelling abroad.
- I should however be able to run at least 2 parkruns this month providing I get my energy back.
- And my sleep has been on track - have been getting at least 7+hours a night.
I'm hoping to get back on track in week 2 starting with a lunchtime run tomorrow.
Sometimes life throws us a curved ball and we have to deal with it and move on. But getting good quality sleep is so important and not easy to achieve 😕 so good for you.
Good luck for today 🍀 Your sleep should make a big difference to how you feel.
Hi Irishprincess and fellow questers 👋My quest is to play the Christmas running bingo. I didn’t quite get round to it last week 🤦🏻♀️ then a new card was produced on the marathon forum so I started that instead.
Life gets a bit hectic in school during December as you can imagine so it’s been tough having the time and the energy to get out for a run. Today is my day off so I set off before 8.30 to complete the early bird run. I caught the end of the sunrise and saw a rainbow 🌈 without any rain 🌧 bonus! I dodged the kids from 4 different schools on route. I was too early for 2 schools and a bit late for the other 2 so only had to dodge a few mums with buggies. I was due to have my flu jab today so when I got home I showered and had a quick mince pie for breakfast 😂. (Finish with a festive treat) That’s the great thing about Christmas 🎄. On Monday I ran with Christmas tunes. Everybody needs to run to ‘A Wombling Merry Christmas’ at least once in their life. What can I say? I’m a child of the 70s 😂
Greetings everyone! Hope you’re all doing well. I’m in test-run mode after some odd knee niggles (physio thought it might be caused by a nerve in spine). Good news is that I’ve done a couple of 3k and a 5k and have had no problems at all. 😊 I’d hoped to have tried a 7-8k by now, but I was fitting in my run with very limited time, so 3.4k it was. Still, I’m happy enough, and it’s nice to have some non-demanding runs. I’ve maintained my programme of knee exercises - apart from a couple of days when travelling for work, when my regime was rather sporadic. Now I’ve developed shin splints from my stomping about during that same trip. It’s not the first time this has happened: splints from walking. I guess this will slow down progress as I try to get back to my training plan, but I know the splints will recover in a few days. Drat! Not what I needed. Patience is my quest this week.
It sounds as if you’ve done extremely well with your runs and exercises. Fingers crossed that your knee niggles settle down quickly 🤞Another Quester has just mentioned patience too, always required for us runners 🙂
Walking in flat shoes gives me shin splints but you’re right, they disappear after a few days.
I got slightly scuppered and didn’t run Friday to Monday ( had to do a lot of ferrying about by bike so I still got out and about ). The point I want to note is that I was incredibly angry about something, didn’t sleep for a few days and my emotions , when I don’t feel able to channel them in to a run can sideline me. I am not someone who struggles to get up and out there except for this. I’m sitting with this self knowledge in my favourite park after a delightful run this morning. Breathing deeply and feeling freer
A run can’t cure everything but it can help when emotions overcome us. I once ran when very angry about something and I’ve since read that this is bad for us. I think it’s to do with the spike in blood pressure and stress 🤬
I’m glad you ran and you are feeling a bit better. Deep breathing can be very helpful 🙂
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