I was gifted some items of clothing from adidas for the purposes of this post. All words and opinions are my own.
I don’t know about you, but the summer months definitely help me feel more active. The warmer weather and extra hours of daylight help, but I also love watching all the different sports on offer. This year I’ll be glued to the Olympic Games and following Team GB, which are being held in Paris from 26th July until 11th August. I always love the athletics and equestrian sports, but I’m also looking forward to watching the skateboarding and break dancing with the boys. I know they’ll love seeing these new sports take centre stage! Hopefully it will inspire them to get active and try something new.There’s also Euro 2024 and Wimbledon to get behind, so there’s loads for sports fans to get stuck into.
It’s always a treat to see some live sport
If you are looking to increase your activity levels this summer, here’s what I have been up to and how I have managed to make some long overdue changes.
This year I have actually been motivated enough to up my activity levels and get back into running. I’ve been running 3 times a week for the last couple of months, and so far it’s going well. I’ve written before about running. I used to be really into it, but have hardly done any exercise over the last 5 years. I finally got to the point where I was fed up of feeling rubbish and decided to make some changes. It wasn’t easy to get out of the rut, especially as I get easily overwhelmed and already struggle with the busyness of life as it is.
With age comes a certain amount of insight, and I knew that if I tried to make big changes it just wouldn’t work. So I made super small changes, one at a time – and I mean really small!
First, I found and charged my long abandoned smart watch. That was literally the first step (I told you I started small!). Over the first few weeks I started logging my steps and trying to walk as much as I could. Once I had a base level of activity, I started to slowly increase my activity levels, first I walked more and then progressed to short runs.
The good thing about running is that you don’t need a lot of equipment to get started, in fact as long as you have some good quality running trainers, you’re good to go. You can just step out of your front door and start moving. And It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as the saying goes: “you’re still lapping everybody on the couch”.
I personally don’t like the whole walk run thing, I prefer to just run slowly as I find it easier to get into a rhythm when I’m moving at a constant pace. This may be personal preference, or it may be because I’ve done lots of running in the past and there’s some muscle memory buried somewhere (very) deep down. If you’re starting from scratch, then something like Couch to 5k, would probably be more beneficial as it offers more structure and clear instructions.
I have got back on to Strava and have found that their challenges have been great for keeping me motivated. Even if I only managed 15 mins a few times a week, I found that just doing it and building up the habit makes it easy to keep going. It is easy to start getting competitive, so I am just focused on enjoying my running and not putting any pressure on myself. After a few weeks I was back up to running 5k, and I was surprised at how quickly I have improved. I’ve also rewarded myself with some new running clothes and have got my eye one of these womens tracksuits for when I hit my next goal.
If you want a buddy to keep you accountable, you can follow me on Strava here.
I’ve also added a couple of yoga workouts a week (I love Yoga with Adriene), I particularly find the leg workouts are great after a run. This helps with strength and flexibility and also helps with my stress levels! It’s great that she has lots of short workouts that I can squeeze into my busy days.
I have tried to take a holistic approach and improve all areas of my wellbeing. I’ve cut down on alcohol, tried to eat more healthily and have been trying to follow some healthy sleep habits. A lot of this follows naturally: as I started getting more active, I found myself innately wanting to look after my body. I know only too well how easy it is to get trapped in a downward spiral when you are feeling negative, so it’s refreshing to be in an upward spiral for once and reaping the benefits.
So what’s next?
I am going to keep on as I am, I’d like to get close to a 30min 5k, and I’d like to be able to run 10k again. I’m also going to add a bit of strength training (I’ve just signed up for some online classes). But apart from that, I’m not putting pressure on myself and just going to enjoy being more active and watching lots of sport this summer.
Do you find it easy to motivate yourself?
