// Personal website of Chris Smith

My interests » Fitness

I’ve recently been on a bit of a fitness kick. It started out with a lot of walking, but as the walks got longer and longer I ran out of new places to walk, and it started feeling like I was getting diminishing returns given how long I was spending. So I started doing a bit of running. Then I also started cycling. Now I’ve got the somewhat crazy idea of running a marathon before I turn 40. This page is a collection of bits and pieces related to my fitness journey. It’ll probably evolve over time.

Here’s a breakdown of my recent activity:

Walking

I have a separate page for walking:

Initially I was logging every walk, no matter how deliberate or how far. These days I tend to only long when I’m going out to intentionally walk for exercise, rather than just popping to the shops or something.

Running

I’m currently training to run a 5k in early September, and then aiming for a 10k in November, half marathon next May, and a full marathon next October:

I’m following a modified couch-to-5k plan to get there. The normal plan stops at half an hour, but at my current comfortable pace I’ll be running for more like 40 minutes to cover 5k, so I bumped the numbers a bit. My longest run so far:

I’m mostly aiming for speed not distance, but I still enjoy tracking my PBs:

Cycling

Cycling is mostly a leisure and cross-training option for me, but I’m aiming to increase my distance to make it viable to cycle to visit friends without relying on cars or trains. It’s also a great excuse to hit up coffee shops.

I mostly just cycle at whatever pace feels right, but like with running I enjoy seeing my PBs: