Our 40 Plus Blogger Steps Back Into Normality

Our 40 plus blogger Claire Kenny on stepping back into normality after COVID, and her latest health kick.
Easter usually heralds a nice little break for my daughter and I, but I haven’t given it a second thought this year. It might be because we’ve been ill so everything went on the backburner. It’s not all bad though; being in my usual routine has given me plenty of scope to make healthier choices and get back into training.

Having signed up with a nutritionist for some monthly support online, I’ve been shockingly healthy this week. That said, it’s the way I always am when I’m in the early stages of my latest drive to get in shape and stop eating quite so much beige food. I’ve even given up wine in favour of a ‘cleaner’ tipple. Anyone who knows me would tell you my signature poison is pinot grigio, but at my running club’s presentation night on Saturday at Elland Road, I opted for pink gin and tonic. I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely taste as I remember hating it when I was younger when there weren’t quite as many lovely flavours on offer. The downside was that by midnight I was still stone cold sober. Call me a boring fart, but while I never set out to get drunk, I do need a little help from time to time to get into the party spirit (if you'll pardon the pun). I really admire people who can drink water all night and still find it in themselves to do the conga, but I'll never be one of them. I loved the fact that Sunday was hangover free though!

One of my other goals at the moment is to cover 10,000 steps a day. This is so much harder than I thought it’d be and I’m finding it spectacularly difficult on weekdays when I spend so much time at my desk. I am getting some steps in though. I’m going out for a longer walk at lunchtime with the dog when I can, doing walking workouts on YouTube while prepping our evening meal, and I went for my first post-COVID run on Tuesday. My breathing was ok but the dreaded heavy limbs and cold sweats came back quite quickly when I started to push myself. Eventually though I found a comfortable rhythm, and with so many people suffering from long COVID, feel extremely grateful that I’m able to exercise at all.

It was also fab to try out my new trainers from Yorkshire Runner in Otley, and it sounds like I’m going to be needing them because I’ve also signed up to run the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon next May! An actual marathon! Rather than an all-consuming need to push myself to my limits or free up the athlete I know lies deep within, my motivation was basically FOMO when I saw other running club members sign up.

I’ve subsequently spent most of the week wondering who on earth I think I am. I remember taking a group of corporate runners to run the London Marathon years ago when the company I worked for sponsored the foil blankets. Back then, when I barely exercised at all, I saw the runners as otherworldly automatons. I also saw plenty of people cross the finishing line physically and emotionally broken. I can only imagine what state I’ll be in.

I guess I’ll find out in due course…

Claire can be found on Instagram and Facebook as my40pluslife.me