Fitness – First 3 Weeks

Starting slowly and maintaining consistency while adopting a “go with the flow” approach

Although I’m lucky I don’t have many health issues, I’ve been in a pretty sedentary mode for years & years. Over the summer I’ve lost a little weight, which has made it easier to start working out on our shakedown trip. My main focus at the start of this fitness journey is merely that…to START. I don’t have specific expectations for running a marathon or anything extreme. Just some foundational fitness goals that will hopefully put me in a place to age more gracefully as the years pass by, because I firmly believe that throughout life but specifically as people age, they need to:

Move it or lose it.

Here are some observations and learnings from my first 3 weeks:

How many times have I already written this? 🙂 Regardless, it feels important to keep reminding myself. Although I’m in my 50s, I remember younger days and it is easy to feel like the workouts I’m doing now are lame/weak/pitiful. But I will only get to a point of more robust exercise by easing into things now.

Even though I’m working hard to mentally embrace the slow pace, my body often reminds me that it isn’t capable of more right now. And in these moments I try to not judge my lack of accomplishment. I try to focus on the fact that I’m doing something fitness-oriented, when for years & years I did almost nothing.

Although the workouts wouldn’t look extreme or strenuous to an outsider, I am making sure I build in days to just stretch or relax. I’ve experienced in the past that recovery days are an important part of getting stronger.

This has been an interesting learning and I’m hoping to expand on it as we go.

The second campsite during the shakedown trip was way up on a hill, without many trails or roads within the hilltop itself, This initially seemed like a disappointment and a bit of a setback to my nascent running routine that had been started on a very flat county highway.

But it was at this campground that I added 2-3x/week basic strength training (via Jenna Collins Fitness). It was something that could be done at the campsite and a much-needed addition to my routine.

After a few days camping, I decided to try incorporating the long downhill to the main road into my cardio. Jogging down and walking back turned out to be a really nice change of pace to the flat running. It got my heart rate up where I wanted it to be for cardio workouts and it engaged different muscles than I had activated prior. So what had initially looked like a liability turned out to be a nice opportunity for variety.

The last workout opportunity was one that I hadn’t expected, but presented itself when a kind & helpful seasonal couple noted in passing that they weren’t able to get up on their RV roof for a good scrub-down like they could when they were younger. So I volunteered one morning and with a bucket, a scrub brush and a hose, proceeded to work a brand new set of muscle groups…while helping someone with a needed task.

Who knows what the next site will bring? Maybe we’ll even have a chance to break out our paddle boards!