On Wednesday after work I decided to squeeze in a quick 3km run. The run was nothing out of the ordinary, but about 700m from the finish I became quite light-headed and had to walk the rest of the way home. It was reasonably humid, but this hasn’t ever happened before and it unnerved me a bit. 

Don and I went for a 34km ride on yesterday morning (public holiday) and that was a bit of a struggle too – I was completely knackered afterward and so have been asking myself some really tough questions about nutrition and fitness.

I know I’m definitely not fuelling enough for bike rides, which I’ve mentioned before. The sports tracker app tells me that Thursday’s ride burned 892 calories! Half an oat bar before the ride and a protein ball mid-way (my usual bike ride eating) aren’t really going to cut it, so future me has to focus on sensible ride preparation.

My overall fitness is definitely not where I would like it to be. I don’t feel unhealthy at all, and generally have loads of energy for day to day activities – I walk about 3.5km a day without an issue. But Big Physical Activities are becoming increasingly challenging and I refuse to believe this is because I am an old lady. Remember those 100 pushups? I haven’t done a single push-up for a long while now. I was doing 100 sit-ups along with the push-ups and those fell by the wayside too.

I’m wondering if 5:2 is having an adverse impact on my ability to push myself physically. I’ve also started inadvertently combining 5:2 with intermittent fasting because I rarely eat before lunch on any day. I no longer have quite the energy stores (okay, let’s be honest – fat stores) I used to, so maybe there’s not enough to absorb my bad choices.

I think if I want to do the big exciting things like running far and riding far and hiking far, I need to work eating more (I never thought I would say that!) and increase my basic fitness levels.

I finally had an annual leave day today where I didn’t have to think about work(!) and decided this was the day to jump back in, so I dragged myself along to my third ever Pilates class ever this morning and felt so much the better for it. I need to find a regular class or get back to regular yoga. 

I also need to get back to the daily exercise – push-ups, plank, sit-ups squats and work out what on earth I am going to eat. I see delicious carbs in my future.