After the ankle injury, the January grumpiness, and the usual cycle of “right, this time I am definitely getting back into it”, I finally have something useful to report.
I have been moving again.
Not perfectly. Not heroically. Not in some dramatic montage where I suddenly become a different person after buying new trainers and drinking a green thing from a blender.
Just consistently enough that the data has started to look like a pattern rather than a collection of good intentions.
Over the first part of June, Garmin logged 20 activities across running, Zwift cycling, and walking. That adds up to 140.95 km and just under 12 hours of training.
That sounds like a lot when I write it down. It did not feel like a lot while I was doing it, which is probably a good sign. The sessions were mostly sensible: short endurance runs, hill walks, active recovery rides, and a few structured Zwift sessions from HumanGO.
The main thing was not any single heroic session. It was the rhythm.
Run a bit. Ride a bit. Walk a bit. Keep turning up.
What Changed
The biggest change has been accepting that training does not have to be beautiful to count.
Some of the runs were slow. Some of the walks were really just disguised conditioning sessions. Some of the Zwift rides were there because getting on the bike indoors was easier than negotiating with the weather, work, or my own lack of enthusiasm.
But that is the point.
After a reset, I do not need every session to be impressive. I need them to exist.
So the process has been fairly simple:
- Use Garmin to capture the actual work, not the training I imagined I might do.
- Use Zwift and HumanGO to keep the bike sessions structured.
- Keep the runs mostly controlled, with a bit of threshold work sprinkled in.
- Add walking where it makes sense, especially when the legs need lower-impact volume.
- Log it properly so I can see whether I am actually building, not just feeling busy.
And looking at the graph, there is a small but useful story there. The week of 1 June got things moving. The week of 8 June was a proper volume week. The current week is only partially logged, but it is still ticking along.
That is progress.
Not finished. Not fixed. But progress.
The Confession Bit
Now for the less flattering part.
The training is improving, but the supporting habits are still lagging behind.
Diet is still the big one. I know what works for me: simple food, lower carbs, enough protein, not turning the evening into a casual biscuit-based endurance event. When I follow that, I feel better and the weight starts moving in the right direction.
But I have not been as consistent with it as I need to be.
There. Written down. Annoying, but true.
The second weak link is stretching and mobility.
This is especially silly because I already know mobility is part of the reason I have had ankle, knee, and foot issues. I know my ankles need work. I know my hips and calves get tight. I know that doing ten minutes most days would probably make running, squatting, and cycling feel better.
And yet somehow, stretching still gets treated like the optional side quest I keep ignoring.
So that is the next honest focus: keep the training rhythm going, but stop pretending the boring stuff is optional.
What I Am Taking From This
The good news is that the engine is starting to turn over again.
Running is back in the mix. Cycling is giving me controlled aerobic work. Walking is helping me build low-impact volume. The numbers are not spectacular, but they are real, and real is what I need right now.
The next step is not to chase a monster week. It is to make the whole process a little more complete.
More consistency with food.
More mobility work.
Less restarting.
If June is the month where I properly got moving again, I will take that.
Now I just need to do the less glamorous work that lets me keep moving.
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