After a bit of a non eventful December where I was limping towards my holidays and getting over covid… I took the opportunity of two weeks leave to get back into a routine of exercise – namely running, strength training and walking, and my first swim for a long time, today.

I’ve got a few trackers… my Apple Watch tracks my every day minutes and calories burned, along with my stand hours… and as you can see above, December was very hit and miss, with enforced time off training, but plenty of good rest and sleep. And since ive been feeling better since about Christmas Eve, I’ve met my Apple fitness targets.

Here’s what I’ve done in terms of exercise:

I wanted to get back running again, and an effort at the end of the year to meet my annual running km goal, helped me to be motivated. There was a lot of easy walking and some running in the last two weeks of the year.

Then I went on to do the following this last week which seemed to work well:

I was feeling a bit tired on Friday so I took a good rest day, but then I did run 7.4km and walk 9km on Thursday. So it was a well earned rest day.

Here’s my 7 day summary from the last seven days on my Garmin fitness tracker. Plenty sleep, plenty activity, a good resting heart rate and pulse ox, and a high step count compared to previous weeks.

I wonder if my stress will go up with being back at work next week? From 30 last week on average.

Over the last month or so, likely as a result of having covid and having some leave to recover, I’ve mostly had good sleeps, or I’ve certainly had longer sleeps.

But I have woken up in the middle of the night a couple of times a week on average (orange below). I think I’ve got a way to manage it – my iPod on hand to listen to an audio book if it happens again.

Sleep is important, and I know I need to do it well to function at my best. So fingers crossed when I get back to work it all settles. I’ll aim for early nights and early mornings.

My plan for exercise when I’m back at work is to be up by 630am and exercising by 645am… or earlier if I’m up. I’ll need to get to bed early though to make it work.

So what has the exercise in the last week done for my body?

I’ve felt fitter, with the build up of runs, but my swim today really knocked my sinuses. I managed 2,100m, and felt good after it, but as the day went on, I didn’t feel great.

My vo2 max estimate has gone up to 47 and my fitness age has gone down to 38 (on Garmin). Garmin also tells me I’m training productively. My Garmin watch is good at suggesting run workouts, so I’m using that to build my running up three times a week.

I plan to swim every Sunday, but I need to get better at not letting the water in my nose / or get used to it. I’ve had a sore head from about 5pm, I took some decongestant and ibuprofen, but I’ve been sneezing all day, a sure sign that I took in more than I should have!

My set today was:

I was going to do 2,500m, but it was busy with 6 others in the lane, so I shortened it a bit, also because I’d been off it for so long, so just over 2km seemed about right.

In the last week, here’s what’s happened to my body composition, or so my scales say.

It says I’ve lost 2.3lbs of body fat and put on 4.1lbs of muscle mass. So an overall increase of 1.6lbs… I’ll keep an eye on this and see what happens next with my increased exercise from a low level in December.

Now based on last week, here’s my training plan for January, a mix of running, strength, walking and swims, as long as my sinuses are up to it.

I’ll aim for 3 runs a week, 2-3 strength sessions, 1 swim and be sure to take rest days if I need them.

I’m working from home mostly, but do have some days in the office and a day in Dundee, and up to Stonehaven in mid January, so I’ve sorted my training around that.

Let’s see how getting back to work goes, I’m up very weekly tomorrow, then a busy time at work for at least two weeks. I know that exercise helps, and it’s been good to get back to it, so fingers crossed I can balance it all.

My goals for this month are to:

1. Exercise regularly and to a plan, with rest when I need it.

2. Eat well, and not be greedy.

3. Get good and plenty sleeps.

Process goals, which will hopefully result in body fat loss and muscle mass gain. We will see.

Do you have goals? If so, what are they?