That's an encouraging read, @TopNotch! Especially the concluding:

You are a runner. How cool is that?
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I think I've been running for about three months now and indeed the continuous 30 minutes of running is getting gradually easier, I think. Less and less aching leg muscles too, now that I think of it. Progress is slow, but I think it is there...

(@Lady Celerity: I plod along too!)

:yas:
 
Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 17
:v: Fit December Day 11

Challenges:
:v: First Thing Water Day 23
:v: Daily Pushups Day 23
:v: Easy Core Day 23
:v: Easy Abs Day 23
:v: Calves of Steel Day 23
:v: 30 Days of Running Day 26
:v: Step-Up Day 11

Last year, I did the gingerbread man for the tree and I think that was push-ups, so I'll do something different this year and go bananas!

If you want to make sure that you get something you want for Christmas (and it seems all the hints you dropped over the past year were completely ignored!), you've got to buy it yourself, so I got myself a new puzzle for someone to put under the tree for me, but I couldn't help but get another one to do in the meantime... I began it yesterday. I love the perspective of this one - it's from the Ravensburger Lost Places collection. I noticed more shine on this than on the Turkish puzzle I did last time. I was a little surprised that I did it so quickly, considering everything else I've done the last couple of days. Must really have got into the zone.
20221211_214523.jpg
That shining isn't gleam from my lights but from the puzzle itself. It was almost blinding! I really must stop doing these puzzles so quickly - prolong the pleasure, I tell my children when they get sweets. :LOL:
 
Ah, @OJJJEM The problem with living in a recently-settled country is that we have no old buildings. Not really old ones, I mean. When I see pictures like this, I just want to buy the place and fix it up. That staircase is absolutely beautiful!
@NancyTree It was actually two days. :) But thanks.

Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 18
:v: Fit December Day 12

Challenges:
:v: First Thing Water Day 24
:v: Daily Pushups Day 24
:v: Easy Core Day 24
:v: Easy Abs Day 24
:v: Calves of Steel Day 24
:v: 30 Days of Running Day 27
:v: Step-Up Day 12

:v: ZR 5K Training. W3D1. I had got to bed a little later than I intended. An impressive thunderstorm had me awake from 1:45 - 2:15. I woke again for absolutely no reason at 3. So I hadn't had a great sleep but at least these intrusions were external rather than internal. Didn't put me in a good headspace for the running though... Today was 5min walk, 5min run, followed by 1min run, 1min walk, 10 knee lifts x 5, then 8min run, 2min stretching and 8min run again. By the time I got to that second 8min run, I had had enough. Sorry, simply couldn't complete it. I was tanking out at the 6min mark. But - only two minutes to go after that. Surely I could do two minute? My legs could but the rest of me was fighting the whole way. The whole way to 8 minutes! It was hard today, but I still managed an overall pace of 9'22".
:v: Marathon Handbook Couch to 5K W2D1. Really considered giving this one a miss today. I had a bit of a longer break between the two and then I made myself do it. Today was very much a 'rely on discipline' sort of day! This training was 1'30" run, 2' walk for 20 minutes. All today's runs were at 5m/8k, and my pace was 9'23".

Now, why did I choose bananas? :facepalm: Better go and do another 100 or so...
 
@Montserrat and @Lady Celerity Some days certainly are harder than others, but the knowledge that you pushed through kind of keeps you going.

Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 19
:v: Fit December Day 13

Challenges:
:v: First Thing Water Day 25
:v: Daily Pushups Day 25
:v: Easy Core Day 25
:v: Easy Abs Day 25
:v: Calves of Steel Day 25
:v: 30 Days of Running Day 28
:v: Step-Up Day 13

Still got a few jacks to do. Probably polish them off tomorrow. Ate a mango today - can that count? The bananas have gone too spotty - in my view, only good for baking or smoothies.
 
Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 20
:v: Fit December Day 14

Challenges:
:v: First Thing Water Day 26
:v: Daily Pushups Day 26
:v: Easy Core Day 26
:v: Easy Abs Day 26
:v: Calves of Steel Day 26
:v: 30 Days of Running Day 29
:v: Step-Up Day 14

:v: ZR 5K Training. W3D2. Hard again. Possibly because of how hard I found it on Monday. Got through it though, with an average pace of 9'24" so not too bad. My legs felt sore today, though (too many jumping jacks? :LOL: ) so I decided not to do the other running workout. Sometimes, you just got to rest. Thinking I might repeat this week.

:v: 2,000 jumping jacks for the Tree.
Banana GIF
 
@Fremen @Froud @NancyTree @Anek @lofivelcro @Lady Celerity :love:
@SlothEnergy I had to chose something I wouldn't normally do - other than burpees because - well, burpees! Didn't think about the cardio aspect. Probably ought to have!

Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 21
:v: Fit December Day 15 - though I think I've done enough "hall passes" to see me through to the end of the programme. And probably next year's too!

Challenges:
:v: First Thing Water Day 27
:v: Daily Pushups Day 27
:v: Easy Core Day 27
:v: Easy Abs Day 27
:v: Calves of Steel Day 27
:x: 30 Days of Running Day 30 Saving this one for Saturday so the last one is a longer one.
:v: Step-Up Day 15

The Lad's last day of school today. The girls finished last week. Now it's holidays until the end of January. :worried:
 
Nevetharine said:
Both 😁 congrats! Are they open for reading? 🤓

Edit to add - a trilogy is a series of three books.

If the books are more than three, well that's a series.
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No, they are drafts! Loads of work left before I even go to beta readers.
I know about trilogies, etc. Just by the way things are going, I don't know if this darned thing is going to stop or keep rolling like some runaway snowball! Frankly, the idea of a series is attractive. If there's already a full-fleshed MC (and mine's got a great backstory) then everything else is a lot easier. I'll see when I get to the end of this one. But when I do, it's probably time to go back and do a second draft of bk1. :)
 
TopNotch said:
No, they are drafts! Loads of work left before I even go to beta readers.
I know about trilogies, etc. Just by the way things are going, I don't know if this darned thing is going to stop or keep rolling like some runaway snowball! Frankly, the idea of a series is attractive. If there's already a full-fleshed MC (and mine's got a great backstory) then everything else is a lot easier. I'll see when I get to the end of this one. But when I do, it's probably time to go back and do a second draft of bk1. :)
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Snowballs are fun 😁
 
Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 23
:v: Fit December Day 17

Challenges:
:v: First Thing Water Day 29
:v: Daily Pushups Day 29
:v: Easy Core Day 29
:v: Easy Abs Day 29
:v: Calves of Steel Day 29
:v: 30 Days of Running Day 30
:v: Step-Up Day 17

:v: ZR 5K Training. W3D3. Didn't feel quite so hard today, and todayI felt confident that I'd get through it, but it felt hard enough for me to consider not only doing this week again, but doing the previous week again too. The body's got to adapt and that can't be rushed. Not at my age. I think I'm about 90 today - but that could have been because I had to go to the shops today and, you know, it's near Christmas, so everybody be like:chopper::twirl::saw:and I be like:surrender:. Anyway, my overall pace wasn't bad - 9'13" - but that is variable, depending on how much walking is scheduled. And what with the shopping expedition and all, my step count today went over 16,000 without even trying.

Doesn't our tree look pretty? So many push-ups! And lots of nice smiley bananas. :LOL:
 
TopNotch said:
everybody be like:chopper::twirl::saw:and I be like:surrender:. Anyway, my overall pace wasn't bad - 9'13" - but that is variable, depending on how much walking is scheduled. And what with the shopping expedition and all, my step count today went over 16,000 without even trying.

Doesn't our tree look pretty? So many push-ups! And lots of nice smiley bananas. :LOL:
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Shopping can be brutal when you get too close to Christmas :LOL: . I'm happy that I was done with it early.

The tree is a beauty! :heart:
 
TopNotch said:
The body's got to adapt and that can't be rushed.
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Congrats on 30 days of running (and other challenges)! I couldn't agree more with your sentiments about letting the body adapt at its own pace. It's so much better for me to progress slowly and consistently without injury than get wrapped up in arbitrary milestones or comparison with others.
 
Thanks, @Fremen @NancyTree @Haleth @oneironaut @Silent Wolf @lofivelcro @BetaCorvi
Programmes:
:v: Hard Reset - Strength Day 25
:v: Fit December Day 19

Challenges:
:v: Step-Up Day 19
:v: Daily Gratitude Day 1 Haven't sorted what other challenges I'll do yet but this one seemed appropriate, because the first thing I'm grateful for is strong quads!

Dodge Darts GIF by Ludo Studio


:v: ZR 5k Training. W2D1. Sometimes you've got to go backward in order to go forward.

I went and was sociable yesterday again. Well, fortunately not as sociable as I feared. I caught up with a couple of other writers - only two rocked up, and one was the bloke I knew from Taekwondo. He'd been there for ages but left this year - or possibly last, I forget. Anyway, found out where a lot of the other people from the club had gone to, and I'm considering moving myself. I haven't been happy this year, haven't felt I've got the training I really want and I can't see anything really improving. Perhaps it's time to move on. I guess this is the time of year to review and revise. Time for me to change my training plan in view of certain things. I love making new plans. :LOL:
 
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