Time to recover fitness - any advice?

[Time Waster]

I already fit for nothing which I'm not happy with!

Seriously there's fit for health and fit for activities. I'd like to be fit for health obviously but I'd like that bit more, to be fit for activities, whatever I choose to do. I'm my case cycling and walking/ backpacking I the near future. With a 9yo I'd like to postpone the point that he leaves me behind on the bike or hill as long as possible. Cycle touring I need to be carrying more but ride everything more easily than him so I could help him off needed. All things like that. Strength and cv fitness.

 

[Sittingduck]

I think you need to find a way to get more time for you. Very difficult to get proper fitness back without time, imho.

edit to add: from what you have said, even if you do somehow manage to get fit, you’re not going to have time to do any of the things mentioned anyway… be more selfish!

 

[Legs]

Never WFH and only 2 or 3 months furlough. Commuting by train with a 10 minute commute. Downhill into work and uphill to the station going home. I use that to get the pulse up a bit.

I get up at 5 am to get to work, that's part of the trouble. From sneaking out I the morning to not wake others up to not much time after son goes to bed time is difficult. Cubs is good and half with a holiday home place with a gym I coukd get time in. Possibly up to an hour. A bit tight unless I don't get changed out of gym kit. Mind you when I used to gym it a routine lasted nearly 2 hours with cool down, shower and occasionally sauna/steamroom. I guess I'd have to pick weights or CV for each session.

That's rough. 6am regular get-up is bad enough for us mortals. What time does your train leave in the morning? Is there any potential to streamline your morning routine?

 

[Time Waster]

In London I suppose getting off a stop earlier for a longer commute by bike but I can't do that. It would mean a 45 minute ride on a Brompton on very poor roads. Then waiting at a station for a much later train to finish the journey home. Other stop options are similar. Not practical, unfortunately.

Early starts in the morning means earlier to bed and less time after Jr has gone to bed to do jobs let alone exercise.

 

[Sittingduck]

Do you have a long term plan to improve this, like changing to a non central London job or anything like that? Any scope to WFH a couple of days? I am very lucky in that I have been mainly doing this for a few years since before the pandemic and of late getting out for an hour (ok an hour an a quarter) in the middle of the day has helped a lot. I lost 13 years of cycling fitness in 18 months of virtually no cycling and only started again last summer. It has taken me a good 6 months to get back to anything resembling decent base fitness and that is with dedicating 1-1.5 hours most days and now longer on a weekend. Back in the day I relied on my commuting miles as a base and when that stopped it was a steady decline, even with the cheeky lunchtime rides now and then. It is very tough to gain decent fitness (imho) with very limited time and you will have to find a way to build time into the daily routine but it does sound like a conundrum.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Have I also just read that you are recovering from Covid? That’ll also change what you do right now.

 

[Time Waster]

No chance of changing work in the foreseeable future unfortunately. The change was after furlough. Those back first asked to come in earlier to avoid traffic and rush hour. Once furlough fully over for us a few got asked if they wanted to change his back and they didnt want to, so it's now the standard hours. TBH it works well as we match the hours of our European customers with the time zone difference, plus the UK site for them does similar hours.

Doesn't help me finding time for fitness though!

 

[Time Waster]

Have I also just read that you are recovering from Covid? That’ll also change what you do right now.

Yep! Not really recovering, I've still had a very faint line. Plus I had no symptoms.

I feel good but if I push it in the garden I fatigue slightly more than normal. My 4 minute row got my HR up to 90% of my theoretical maximum HR. Not normal as it usually takes 8 minutes of hard intervals to get that high. Although I suspect my MHR is not 220- my age as rowing gets it up to nearly that MHR.

I'm not going to do much for a week or so after I get over it. Perhaps a few easy rides or rows after covid clear plus one week. Dog walks and light gardening too. I need to recover before seriously looking at training. I really need to find out how covid has affected me and what it's going to leave me like. Signs so far are that it's no worse than a cold, if that for me.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yep! Not really recovering, I've still had a very faint line. Plus I had no symptoms.

A lot of people make this mistake, assuming because no external symptoms there aren’t inflammation issues internally. Take it easy returning to exercise after a gap and illness. Especially with the additional stresses of your life that you’ve painted.

 

[Time Waster]

A lot of people make this mistake, assuming because no external symptoms there aren’t inflammation issues internally. Take it easy returning to exercise after a gap and illness. Especially with the additional stresses of your life that you’ve painted.

Plan to. I always take time out after any nasty bugs. I've had enough humdingers that came back by not doing that. The key is to listen to your body I reckon. It's why I went slow and stopped with the test row.