ATAR Notes: Forum

General Discussion => Accountability and Motivation => Topic started by: strawberries on June 08, 2019, 08:37:44 pm

Title: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on June 08, 2019, 08:37:44 pm
I don't really need to provide much context because being fit is good for you etc.

I don't really have a goal in mind other than being the best I can be :)
Every day, I hope to be doing at least some form of exercise - although it's hard when I have work if I leave in the morning and come back in the evening (if I can't, then I'll make it up the next day)

Atm, I'm running (pretty much) every day. Tbh, I've skipped a few runs when I fail to organize my life and write essays instead. But yeah usually I do around 4-4.5kms. Canberra actually has a lot of nice running tracks which I didn't discover till this year :o
There's a running group at my college which goes on a few runs each week, which are usually like 5-7kms, usually in the black mountain area (which is quite hilly and rocky which I kinda hate but it's good for you)
I've also done quite a bit of sports this year, playing for my college. In term 1 I did frisbee and touch footy, and last term I did AFL, hockey and basketball (even tho I'm pretty bad at most of them but they were fun). I'm also doing social netball at uni 2 nights a week during term.

So yeah I hope I'll update this regularly. Atm the uni term is over so it's exam period and there's no sports running atm :( so it's just running everyday (I also really want to join a sports club and play and train regularly?? But idk what sport to do??)
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on June 17, 2019, 10:37:01 pm
last week: ran ~18km across 4 days, so ~4.5km each day

today: tried a new route and ran ~6km in ~35mins, hopefully I can improve my time over the coming days. I'd love to hit around the ~30min mark for this route eventually
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Poet on June 18, 2019, 10:29:12 am
Hey strawbs! It's really great to hear you're keeping fit, and it's quite motivating to see you continue even with the stresses of uni life 💙

With sports season not far away, you asked for suggestions and I really would recommend soccer or hockey for you. Both are fairly basic sports - the rules are simple and fairly intuitive once you get to know the game, and they both mainly involve running.

I played hockey for a few years and it remains my favourite sport, because it engages the legs, arms and basically your whole body. Also, depending on how much you want to run, you can take defence, wing or striker, a lot like soccer. Except you're moving the ball with a stick and you can't touch it with your feet.

Gameplay for both soccer and hockey requires endurance and bursts of speed, agility and quick-thinking (and personally team sports are much more motivating than solo exercise).

That's just my recommendation but I wanted to encourage you to keep going, well done so far! 💙
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Joseph41 on June 18, 2019, 04:43:14 pm
Awesome work!
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on June 18, 2019, 06:17:55 pm
snip
thanks Poet for the recommendations! Yeah I was thinking something like soccer being something I'd like to try but I'm not sure how to go about it haha

today: ran the same as yesterday but I was 2mins slower. I don't know how that happened lol
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Erutepa on June 18, 2019, 07:20:44 pm
It's awesome that you're getting into running - I think it's a pretty cool sport.
 It's great that you have plenty of different courses to explore and keep you interested, but incase just jogging gets a bit mundane for you, it may be worth trying to vary your running sessions. You may want to try some varying tempo sessions where you may do a relatively hard 2 minute effort and then jog for 3 and replete this a few times with a slow jog to warm up. This is just one example though and I'm sure you can find plenty of interesting sessions on fitness sites.
If you, like me, find running with others and a bit of friendly competition really enjoyable, then you might want to have a look at park run. There's a few in Canberra and I would recommend giving it a go. It's pretty casual free 5km race every Saturday morning and their usually just great positive environments.

I can't say much about team sports, but soccer and hockey do sound interesting.

I wish you the best of luck in your fitness getting and a. You looking forward to seeing your updates!
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on June 28, 2019, 12:04:26 am
snip
thanks Erutepa :) yeah I've heard stuff about people doing interval training and how it really helps them

update:

I've run every day since my last post - usually 4.5-6km but today I decided to push and ran 8.4km in 56mins
Last Saturday I also walked 5km up Black Mountain in addition to a run
I'll be doing an intensive winter course next week running for 6 days over 2 weeks 9-5, so I'll have to wake up early to get the runs in :P
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Erutepa on June 28, 2019, 03:32:28 pm

update:

I've run every day since my last post - usually 4.5-6km but today I decided to push and ran 8.4km in 56mins
Last Saturday I also walked 5km up Black Mountain in addition to a run
I'll be doing an intensive winter course next week running for 6 days over 2 weeks 9-5, so I'll have to wake up early to get the runs in :P
Well done!

Those early mornings will be cold. So good luck. You'll mostly warm up once you get into it, but those fingers might sting. Do you have gloves?
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on June 28, 2019, 10:49:38 pm
Well done!

Those early mornings will be cold. So good luck. You'll mostly warm up once you get into it, but those fingers might sting. Do you have gloves?
thank you!

yep I do have gloves, I've already run with them on in the mornings but end up taking them off halfway through :P
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on June 29, 2019, 10:14:11 am
29/6: jogged 10k in just over an hour
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Owlbird83 on June 29, 2019, 10:31:18 am
Wow Strawberry, you are so motivating!! It's inspiring me!
Go go go!!  ;)
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: EllingtonFeint on June 29, 2019, 01:48:25 pm
29/6: jogged 10k in just over an hour

thank you!

yep I do have gloves, I've already run with them on in the mornings but end up taking them off halfway through :P

Your times are so motivating to me!!
I know someone else already recommended this but HIIT is so good, especially if it's a really hilly area.
I'm always talking about how killerrrr HIIT is, but when it's done, it feel so good!
Also, I'm so curious, do you ever get a runner's high when you finish?
I feel like you have to run for several hours to achieve one (I never have time for anything longer than 1.5 hours! :( )
And I'd really like to know what gloves you use!
I like to hold my phone when I'm running (I wear 2XU leggings and they don't have any 'real' pockets) but when it's really cold in the morning, my fingers start to go numb and I get slightly terrified of frostbite!
Do you have like fingerless gloves (cos then you can still use the screen!) or like those fingerprint gloves or what?
I have no idea what to get!



Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on July 02, 2019, 02:57:24 pm
Wow Strawberry, you are so motivating!! It's inspiring me!
Go go go!!  ;)
thanks owl ;)

Your times are so motivating to me!!
I know someone else already recommended this but HIIT is so good, especially if it's a really hilly area.
I'm always talking about how killerrrr HIIT is, but when it's done, it feel so good!
thanks EF :)
Yeah tbh I don't even know if I can handle HIIT - I literally just can't do anything high intensity/sprint at all, but I can maintain a steady pace for ages
But you know, enough excuses I should try and get onto it :P

Also, I'm so curious, do you ever get a runner's high when you finish?
I feel like you have to run for several hours to achieve one (I never have time for anything longer than 1.5 hours! :( )
I haven't really, but I haven't really run much more than an hour so :P

And I'd really like to know what gloves you use!
I like to hold my phone when I'm running (I wear 2XU leggings and they don't have any 'real' pockets) but when it's really cold in the morning, my fingers start to go numb and I get slightly terrified of frostbite!
Do you have like fingerless gloves (cos then you can still use the screen!) or like those fingerprint gloves or what?
I have no idea what to get!
I don't really know where she got the gloves from but my mum got me a pair of 'touchscreen' gloves where you can still use the thumbs and pointer fingers on your phone. I don't really need to use my phone while running (it's there just in case + to track my runs) tho but I find those gloves SO convenient!

updates over the past few days:
sunday - did 5.7k
yesterday - did only 4.6km but in -3 weather in the morning. running kept me warm though :)
today - did another 10k and was a bit faster
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Joseph41 on July 08, 2019, 05:06:19 pm
SMASHING it. 💪💪💪
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on July 09, 2019, 01:22:36 pm
SMASHING it. 💪💪💪
thankyou. I hope to see you doing it again soon ;)

anyways...
the last time I posted was a week ago so I thought I'd do an update

wednesday: 5.6km
thursday: uhmmm well I tried a new route up in the mountain and got very badly lost. I stopped tracking after 9km-ish so I could find my way home
friday: 5.8km
saturday: day off
sunday: 8.5km
yesterday: 6km
today: 11km which is the longest I've done (so far)

I'm gonna try and keep running every day and my goal is to do a half marathon (21.1km) by the end of this month.
Idk if that's too ambitious lol? (If so, I might just aim for a 15-18k instead)
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: PhoenixxFire on July 09, 2019, 01:39:07 pm
today: 11km which is the longest I've done (so far)
🎉🎉🎉
How different is it to running shorter distances? Like, do you just gradually get more tired or do you just hit a point where it hurts? (I ask as someone who barely knows what running is lol)

I'm gonna try and keep running every day and my goal is to do a half marathon (21.1km) by the end of this month.
Idk if that's too ambitious lol? (If so, I might just aim for a 15-18k instead)
Have you considered running IB? (This is a bit of a meme in Fenner, but also somewhat serious question haha)
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Joseph41 on July 09, 2019, 01:43:05 pm
thankyou. I hope to see you doing it again soon ;)

Don't we all? Haha.
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: strawberries on July 15, 2019, 03:46:51 pm
🎉🎉🎉
How different is it to running shorter distances? Like, do you just gradually get more tired or do you just hit a point where it hurts? (I ask as someone who barely knows what running is lol)
Have you considered running IB? (This is a bit of a meme in Fenner, but also somewhat serious question haha)
I don't really feel much different from longer distances as I run at a pretty slow, steady, low-intensity pace so I don't really get tired. The only thing is that it obvs takes longer and I feel better cos I ran more lol

and I'd love to do IB but it's super competitive at my college I probably don't stand a chance. I'll probably still train for it though.
Also why is it a meme at Fenner haha?

for those who don't go to ANU
IB is basically an endurance & orienteering competition where they drop teams of 4 blindfolded into the middle of some random place and you have to find your to the end, you run about 30-100km depending on your division.

update:
wednesday: 7km but super slow
thursday: 10.8km
friday: 8.5km but was windy af
saturday: 9.7km
yesterday: 11km
today: did a record - 12.2km in about 1h10. also today was my fastest recorded pace ever :o weird considering longer distances implies slower pace and I also only had 4hrs of sleep but I did run at lunchtime instead of the morning so maybe that's why
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Joseph41 on July 15, 2019, 04:01:44 pm
You're absolutely crushing this. 😲

Are you feeling awesome?
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Erutepa on July 16, 2019, 08:15:18 am
I'm gonna try and keep running every day and my goal is to do a half marathon (21.1km) by the end of this month
I think this would be a great idea!
Is there an actual half marathon at the end of the month, or are you just aiming to run the distance on your own?
Title: Re: strawbs wants to get fitter
Post by: Poet on August 23, 2019, 11:21:41 pm
Heya Strawbs, how's things? ❤️❤️❤️