Wow, just nineteen days completed and I am beginning to realise the enormity of this challenge. It sounded easy when I set it, but I am already struggling to motivate myself to just get out there and do something. Whilst out on a recent run it dawned on me that I have never consistently exercised for one year, nevermind exercise every day for one year! However, I am loving it and relishing the prospect. I am intrigued to see how much fitter I will be after the year as I am already starting to notice the benefits.

Monday January 13th – Today I had a crazy stressful day with work and house renovations, I actually couldn’t wait to go for a run to unwind! Dinner was cooking so I didn’t have long. I opted for the same run as last Monday, a straight run up Cwmtwrch and back again. Two minutes into the run all I wanted to do was stop and either walk or turn around and head home. I just kept telling myself, keep going, don’t walk. You did it last week you can do it again this week. So I pushed through and got to the turn around point. That was the worst part over as it is slightly up hill, the way back is always more enjoyable. Running for home and I was now feeling really comfortable and started to enjoy the run. My mind was working overtime and it got me thinking. The reason I’ve not managed to run a 5k in under 40 minutes is because I have never run consistently. On at least 3 occasions I have completed couch 2 5k, run a couple of parkruns and then quit. Christmas day 2023 I hit my current 5k pb of 41.14. And at that point my times had been slowly improving. However, I was training for a marathon and the distances were getting longer and longer and my times started getting slower and slower as I was just trying to hit the distance. So even though last year I ran the most I’ve ever run in my life, it still wasn’t consistent and after the marathon in April I all but stopped running. This year, I have to keep running. I am determined to improve. My run tonight was 1 minute 8 seconds faster than last week, and I ran the 3rd km in 7mins 48 seconds. If I can keep that pace up for 5kms then I will easily break that 40 minutes barrier. This is the most positive and confident I’ve ever felt about running and I am really starting to enjoy it for the first time ever. Ran for 25 minutes non stop.

Tuesday January 14th – Not a very exciting day today. Busy at work and a busy evening. Only just enough time to quickly have dinner and then I had to meet the kitchen fitter up the new house. From there I needed to go straight to play darts. I was actually running late which meant I didn’t get chance to practice. First match back since Christmas and I was a little rusty to say the least. My first 3 darts I scored zero with them all missing the board!! 🤣 I did improve slightly and my team won 9-2 (I was one of the losing two). Anyhoo, Emma needed my van for work tomorrow but as I needed it this evening she was unable to collect it earlier. So after darts I dropped the van to her house and then walked home. This was the perfect opportunity for me to get in today’s exercise. I was genuinely struggling to find the time today. I walked from Ystradgynlais to Cwmtwrch, mostly along the main road. A nice brisk walk. It was so foggy I could barely see where I was going. Made it home in 28 minutes.

Wednesday January 15th – Another crazy busy day. The morning was spent dealing with tradesmen up the new house and then I had two dog walks to fit in before getting my hair cut. The first walk was a one hour walk with Gus. This was such a lovely walk in the sunshine. We took the footpath near the fields that leads to henrhyd water fall. We didn’t get all the way there but we did find another lovely waterfall on the way. One for a future swim I think.

The next walk was a 30 minutes walk with Ralph. We did our usual walk down the hill, along the road and back up the hill. This hill is a killer and still doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. Definitely a good work out that gets the heart beating.

Walking done for the day and it was off to Pontardawe to get my haircut. Whilst in Ponty I thought it would be a good opportunity to go for a swim to the secret place, so I met up with Judith after my hair appointment. This was one of the most amazing invigorating swims I’ve done in ages. The water was flowing quite fast and it was like swimming on a treadmill. Loads of effort and not going anywhere. We did eventually manage to swim up to the waterfall and the power of it hitting my back was like a crazy rough jacuzzi 🤣. The water was really cold and fresh, it just felt amazing. After this swim I was on a high all night, it gave me a massive energy boost.

Thursday January 16th – Today was another walk with Ralph. I was only getting paid for a 30 minutes walk but the weather was so sunny I decided to go a new route with him which actually took 40minutes. I just wanted to keep walking. Instead of walking down the hill with him, I decided to try going up the road, something I’ve avoided doing previously as there is no pavement. Anyway, a little way up the road and we came to a public footpath, so I turned off down there. After a short walk through some grass and trees, we came to what felt like a million steps. I was just happy to be going down them and not up 🤣. The steps eventually ended and we came out in upper Cwmtwrch where the road splits into 2 by the river. From here we walked all the way back down the main road, to the Ffynnon well and then up the few steps there, onto Rhiwfawr hill and back up. It was a really good circular walk and maybe I’ll try it in reverse one day if I’m feeling energetic 😁

Friday January 17th – Today was one of those days where I really had to push myself out of the door. Leanne didn’t get home until 7pm and I couldn’t go out until she got back as I needed to look after the dogs. So I went for a walk round the block whilst the dinner was cooking. It was actually a perfect circular route as it took 21 minutes, and had a nice hill to walk up too was a bit of a cardio workout. Definitely one to do again when short on time. No photos as it was dark.

Saturday January 18th – My favourite day of the week, parkrun day. I opted to volunteer as parkwalker this week, and took Dora the explorer with me. I walked as fast as I could and jogged a small section towards the end as I couldn’t keep up with Dora 🤣 Finished in 48 minutes which was my fastest walking time for this parkrun.

Sunday January 19th – Sunday is swim day and I got to go to Spring Valley Lakes with Judith and my sister Jo. This was Jo’s first time joining us for a swim since my new years day dip in the sea last year. We got in the lake, the water was cold and refreshing. Jo started swimming and we couldn’t keep up with her, haha. A lovely 13 minutes swimming from bouy to bouy. I was really impressed with how well Jo did for her first time at the lake. Hopefully the first of many. Air temp 4° and a dull cloudy day, it was pretty cold 🥶.

As the swim wasn’t 20 minutes, I still needed to do some more exercise today, as my challenge is at least 20 minutes a day. I needed to go to Cwmgiedd to see a man about a dog so I decided to take Dora for a walk up the Cwmgiedd forestry while I was in the area. Not walked up here for a few years so it made a nice change. We just about had time for 30 minutes before it got dark. After a big Sunday lunch up the George it felt good to walk it off 😁

And that completes week 3. Total exercise time this week 5 hours and 7 minutes 💪