@zupertramp ahh jeez, that surgery doesnt sound too good. It really sucks you have to pay for healthcare over there. We have to pay for dentistry over here and in my experience they constantly upsell you on the treatment so you can end up with a mouth full of new teeth instead of just a filling. I can't imagine what it's like not knowing whether a doctor is telling you to have a surgery to save your life or to line their pockets.
On the flip side, free healthcare (or at least healthcare paid by our taxes) is tedious. It's over subscribed and a nightmare to get an appointment unless you are at the stage where you get taken to hospital in an ambulance. I don't know if they do this in America but they kind of troubleshoot pain over here and it can take weeks or months.
First point of call is painkillers, if that doesn't work then an X ray, then an MRI, then a specialist. I had it when my knees went, I feel like it would have saved a lot of pain and time to just bung me in an MRI to begin with. I think most people kind of just know when something is more serious than something they'll "get over". I had a choice of physio or surgery and I chose physio because they said surgery could cause arthritis. I kind of thought it would be more than just an appointment with a physio who drew diagrams of a bunch of muscle strengthening exercises and told me to go away and do it but that's all it was.
And I was rubbish at keeping it up to be honest. In the end, the pain subsided and I got more balance and was stronger on my feet. But I think that's what caused my back issues. With bum knees, I had to compensate for their weakness by doing lifting with my back (at work/I know you shouldn't lift with your back). Then when my back got bad, I compensated by lifting with my knees and it just kind of goes back and forth.
But yeah that period where you can't do much is really frustrating so I completely sympathise. Im not sure what happened with my brother's shoulder in the end. I know that tablets didn't help and he refused to have surgery. They basically kept telling him it was something and then something else the next time he went. He doesn't talk about it any more so it must have got better, atleast to an acceptable level as he does weights now. Not sure how heavy, like I say, he has a lean figure so I doubt he's lifting Dwayne Johnson level weights lol
@LieutenantFatman@Thrillho for sure, the woods are great to run around with the clean air and nice scenery. The ground is much softer on your feet too and by extension, softer on your ankles, knees and back. Just a shame they get so muddy in winter or bad weather. Anyway, well done on your workouts peeps. I'll be doing my sixth yoga tape of the 13 week programme tomorrow. (3-4 tapes a week)
@Thrillho I go for shoes with a low heal to toe drop on them and don't like too much cushioning but barefoot running is definitely a step too far for me too. I've heard stories of people running various fell races barefoot, even in the winter. Fair play to them if they've managed it but I think the risk of frostbite or injury is enough to put me off.
Got my 100 miles but it was wild out there today. Had to walk the last 5 miles home as it was too dangerous to keep riding. Came off and did a forward role over the handlebars lol. Slightly bloody knee and bent my bars (managed to straighten them up before setting off again!)
Fun, but won’t be going out again in the snow in a hurry!!
What a difference 24 hours makes...(same location as yesterday in the first shot)
@kyleforrester87 nice photos again! The snow is nowhere near as bad where I am but it's at least started now. I can't stand the snow, it's cold, painful and you can't drive anywhere. I'm far too old for snowmen and snowball fights.
Are those deer in Richmond park?? We have some in Greenwich park but they don't roam free, they are in an enclosure
Keeping in good health is an important part of my... situation. I used to gym a lot and look after myself, but since lockdown and other things occupying my mind I've let things slip.
I do have a question though... do you think this is worth it?
I ask because fundamentally I'm just paying for a medal. It's virtual so I can just do it myself without having to part with £30. I do really like the medal, but... am I just wasting money if I were to do it?
@kyleforrester87 nice. I wish I got out today but I didn't fancy it by the time I woke up and saw the snow. Kind of wanted to walk through some dewy grass with my boots to wash the mud off from my last walk 😅
Do you have one of those turbo trainers for cycling indoors? My bro has one and there's like a game on the computer that it connects to. Admittedly I don't know much about it but it looks cool
@Thrillho nice one, you went a fair bit further than you normally do anyway so that's good.
@TheIdleCritic welcome! Keep us updated with what you get up to!
Not sure if that medal/programme would be for me to be honest. I'm an incredibly stingy person so I'd probably get a moody medal down the market if I really wanted one 😂. Honestly don't have much experience with those kinds of programmes to be honest and in fact had never even heard of something like that until I looked at your link. Maybe someone else can offer a different opinion
@ralphdibny yeah would like a turbo trainer I think. I don’t really have the room for one in my current place though. Something for the future, I guess!
Just did the 100 kettlebell swings today but feeling good for it!
@kyleforrester87
Awesome skills mate, nice work! Cool bike, I've not ridden one like that before. Energy drink in the drinks bottle?
@TheIdleCritic
I got a couple of medals like that. Good way to push yourself to hit a certain target. But afterwards for me, they felt a bit like cheap rubbish. But one person's rubbish is another's treasure. Might be worth getting the one and seeing how you feel afterwards.
@Thrillho
Impressive, congrats! I've never gone over 10k, personally.
@LieutenantFatman thanks! It’s a gravel bike, but I’ve got pretty slick tyres in it. I actually have had another bike on order for the past couple of months (Orro STC Gold Ultegra di2, full electric gear shifting, it’s gunna be awesome) and once I’ve got that my plan is to get some knobblier tyres for this so I can do some trail riding as well as commute on it.
I am in the habit of taking a bit of Lucozade sport out with me when I know I’ll be out longer than an hour, although I didn’t need any today as my brain was doing most the work trying to stay on the bike! If I’m out for 2 hours+ I take some fig rolls to eat as I go.
Well done on the kettlebell swings. I thought about getting one a few weeks back to use when I squat but didn’t realise how expensive they are. I was looking at £100+ for a lump of metal! Granted that was the heavier ones. Still want one but perhaps it’s not quite an impulse purchase.
@kyleforrester87
Wow, I had no idea they had increased the price of kettlebells so much, just checked the one I purchased in 2015 for £35, it's now selling for £120! I'm guessing all the gyms being closed has something to do with that.
Solid choice on the fig rolls, they are awesome. Good luck on the new bicycle, that does sound pretty amazing.
Once you hit 10k as a goal, it’s not difficult to go past that as you must be able to pace yourself, it just becomes a bit of a mental thing not to check out after you hit that point.
Wow I missed all the chatter on here yesterday. Seems like there was a bit of action over the weekend from everyone on the thread. Great work. I managed to get out myself and as is usual form for me my navigation let me down. Ended up heading out into the forest and took a few wrong turns that meant I ended up doing 16km instead of 10km. Worse thing was it wasn't even an easy extra 6km as even the places with less snow on them were hard work.
@kyleforrester87 Fair play to you for getting out on the roads. I was out in the car in the morning and having got stuck myself and having to turn around I saw a chap coming the other way on a road bike with standard all weather tyres on and he did not look happy.
@TheIdleCritic That is one pricey medal. It does look good though but are you going to wear it?
@render lol it was really rather stupid of me, frankly. In fairness it wasn’t snowing when I left and I thought I’d be out and on my way back before it really started to settle.
Well done on getting out, just because it’s uncomfortable and painful doesn’t mean it can’t be a good time.
@ralphdibny few days late here but I'll just say, while I'm sure there are pros and cons to different approaches to health insurance, overall i think it'd be preferable to be able to go to the doctor when you need to and not just when you can afford to. This goes for regular checkups as well which is something I've never had the luxury of experiencing, except in the military (which funny enough was largely spent in the UK).
Anyway, I'll probably start back up on my Bowflex again which I kind of hate but it's about as all-encompassing as you can get in such a small space. And I'll just keep plugging away at the running. There's a nice 10k down here in January (not this year) which gives me plenty of time to plan/train for it before trying first half marathon. So looking forward to that.
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"One of the unloveliest and least enlightening aspects of contemporary discourse is the tendency to presume that whatever one disagrees with must be very simple—not only simple, but also simply wrong." - Elizabeth Bruenig
Did my seventh day of yoga just now (beginning of third week). Bloody knackered from the day in general because I had to list some things on eBay to take advantage of a £1 seller fee deal. I spent most of the day hunched over on the floor adjusting boxes to fit the items I've listed so I am definitely able to post them. Anyway my back hurt a lot after that so I didnt get to start my yoga until about 11pm. Generally I took it a bit easier but I think I was a bit better on maintaining the lunges this time, I dropped down into the modified position much less on today's session. Normally holding the lunges for as long as the video shows really burns my quadraceps but I managed to hold it a bit longer today. Anyway, only 2 more tedious things to do this week, my tax return and applying for a casting for a VO role on an advert then hopefully I am free for the rest of the year to just exercise and play video games 😅. I'll probably be doing more eBay stuff, sorting out the loft, cleaning old dusty Lego for resale as well throughout the year though. I just find my chores so tedious!
@render nice one! That's quite a big forest if there's 16k of trails around it? I think I did about 2.5 miles (so I guess 4k?) when I walked round the edge of the one near me. Probably could stretch it to almost 10k if I had walked around the common that adjoins the woods. Probably could reach 16 if I zigzagged across it but the paths become a bit thin and rooty for running reliably without twisting an ankle on them
@zupertramp yeah I agree. I was just playing devil's advocate really. I do think the healthcare should be "free" as in paid for by taxes. There's no way I could afford to go private, which is still an option over here. A lot of companies offer private healthcare, dentistry etc as an employee benefit though I believe the value of the benefit (whether you use it or not) is taxable which is kind of annoying. Kind of makes me want to get a real job for a while so I can take advantage of some private healthcare and get my long term ailments looked at.
Just looked up bowflex on google, looks like there's a range of products. What have you got, that kind of all in one resistance training machine?
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