Yesterday was my regular 36-hour fast and all went well. Then, in the afternoon, I went for my Monday swim. It’s always much quieter at the pool in the afternoon, and there was only one other person in the “fast lane” (which is effectively two lanes combined), so we each had our own space, which was brilliant.
I was planning to repeat the same 1.5km set as last week: $1 x 750m, 1 x 500m, 1 x 250m. However, I got into the zone quickly and felt so strong at the 30-length mark (750m) that I decided to push it straight to 40 lengths – a full 1km. I finished strong, took 1.5 minutes to rest and stretch, and then banged out the remaining 500m to finish the entire 1.5km in just two sets.
Then came Tuesday.
To be honest, I wasn’t feeling great most of the day. I was dealing with some frustrating issues with my new Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) – more on that in a later post—and I kept procrastinating my run until it was past 7:00 PM. The great thing about this time of year is the brighter evenings, with sunset not until 8:45 PM, so it turned out to be a beautiful evening: still sunny and not too breezy.
But right before I headed out the door, a devastating email landed. It was a rejection from the company I considered my best, most promising post-redundancy job opportunity. I genuinely felt the role was a perfect match for my skills and experience, and the first two interviews had gone incredibly well. I was fully expecting to move to the next rounds, so it was a massive kick in the nuts to be told they had already chosen another candidate.
It was under the shadow of that news that I laced up my running shoes. I’ll be honest: I was mad.
Instead of letting that anger simmer, I pushed it directly into my legs and decided it was time to level up. I bypassed my planned 2.5-minute intervals and programmed the watch for the next milestone: 3-minute runs with 1-minute recovery walks.
The run went brilliantly. The 3-minute sets felt entirely manageable. I had to extend a couple of the 1-minute walk recoveries, but not because I was struggling – it was purely logistical due to gates and footbridges on my riverside route forcing a temporary pause. On each of the five running sets, I felt significantly stronger than expected, right up to the final second.
Chuffed with the run, I came home and kept the momentum moving straight into my GMB Fitness Mobility session. I’ve been gradually introducing two of these 15–20 minute sessions each week to build up my joint strength. Today’s lineup was the ultimate locomotor trio: The Monkey, The Bear, and The Frogger.
On paper, these animal movements look straightforward, but moving through them has always been a challenge. Today’s prescription was one-minute intervals of each exercise, back-to-back, for three full rounds. In the past, I’ve always had to stop-start these sets or cut them short. Today, for the first time, I locked down three full minutes for each movement and felt strong throughout the entire circuit.
Life seems determined to throw obstacles in my way right now, and truth be told, they are highly anxiety-inducing. But my response to that is simple: fuck that shit. I am determined to remain consistent no matter what the universe throws at me, and the data speaks for itself. I may be redundant and temporarily unemployed, but I am a darned sight fitter, stronger, and more resilient this week than I have been in a very long time.
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