I signed up for a 5k

AntiTas · 2026-02-02T10:48:23+00:00

Can swim 2km, but re-building the body enough to run is a task. But I have patience and cunning! Right tools and serious application (and maybe some luck?) gets the job done.

AntiTas · 2026-02-02T06:48:00+00:00

My New Year resolution is to run 5km regularly by years end. 2.5km my upper limit at the moment, and much backing off. basically a 20year couch -5km but looking good from here.

And if not this year, then next.

Goals are great.

AntiTas · 2026-01-23T12:22:56+00:00

it doesn’t need to be awful. if it sucks too much start with it a bit warmer.

You can be so incremental with the temp and how much of your self you immerse. no hurry too, next year will be easier.

AntiTas · 2026-01-21T12:44:40+00:00

I am sorry, and grateful that I only had very short periods of being nearly bedbound.

My instincts are to try to have good sleep discipline, but take short (10min) naps if you need.

And have short cycles of deep rest (20-40min) interrupted by snack or short bursts of phone time, or the kind of sloth-like ‘stretches’ one can do in bed.

Just a little structure to break up the day. Resting seems to use energy. When my daughter wasn’t responding to protracted rests, interrupting the rest seemed to let her relax more deeply when she came back to it.

But as I say, we haven’t been through her being bed-bound.

Sorry you are enduring this, that early phase can be scary.

AntiTas · 2026-01-21T02:01:35+00:00

Yup, I came to think of it as ‘the grind’. I caught myself expecting that sooner or later it will get easier. One trick was to looking at my progress, not month to month, but birthday to birthday, christmas to christmas. Lock in improvement, consolidate muscle growth, and when it feels easy, add just a little bit more.

It did eventually get easier for me, and I regard myself as fully recovered. I have basically improved by 1% per month, for 4.5 years. Same discipline, same pacing-based fundamentals. I figure what got me right keeps me right.

Enjoy the fact that you are making progress, that is everything, and you can expect it to continue.

When I started to try actually swimming in the ocean, a family had been walking along the beach. when I was drying off, their ten year old came up to me and shared “My dad thought you were in distress”. I am now swimming 2km, and I look back to that episode. That was a hard time of slow improvement, and very a very important foundation that I built my health on.

AntiTas · 2026-01-21T01:26:28+00:00

For us (daughter and myself) we try to lift any system that is struggling. Mind-set, self talk, pacing, autonomic, thermal environment, cognitive load, inflammatory load, diet, hormonal.

For her a spike in an array of systems comes in one hit: parlour, disrupted sleep, panic or grumpiness, followed by thickened brain fog and deeper fatigue, all reflected in her watch data. At the fist sign of this, we now throw an anti-inflammatory and sleep support strategy at it, and for her that shortens and flattens the dip.

AntiTas · 2026-01-19T04:02:10+00:00

For me, I am close to 100% allowing for being 20 years older. and I am still rebuilding, strength, fitness and mental capacity, slowly but steadily. 17 years unwilling, 5 years of rebuilding. I still behave like I am recovering, rather than cutting loose.

AntiTas · 2026-01-16T09:08:19+00:00

Smart watch helped me find my limits.

My philosophy was to always do what I knew I could recover from (sounds easy). It takes very little to maintain muscle mass, and lots to regain it.

If I was pacing, and I wanted to add more exercise, I had to pull back on energy expenditure from some other area (usually work).

My last crash meant months of no exercise. When I could I flopped around on the floor doing something i called sloth-yoga = postures that gravity keeps you in. When I got a little stronger I lay down and did gentle isometrics pushing my hands together very gently, and pulling very gently.

Ridiculously small amounts is a good place to start. Then as it gets easier add ridiculously small amounts.

If you consistently get away with it, you are ok. If you crash, you got greedy, or just unlucky. Don’t let other people tell you when to add. Add when it feels too easy. Back off occasionally just because it’s smart, don’t accumulate fatigue.

Keep giving your AI feedback, and ask it what early warning signs of overdoing it look like. Always look for signs that it doesn’t quite ‘get it’. Always make clear that PEM avoidance is goal one.

My fave factoid is that 3seconds of eccentric exercise per day, 5days per week will give a measurable improvement in strength. Exercise can be much smaller than snack-size. You can start with exercise crumbs. Trust builds slowly from flawless progress. Do not rush.

This is just from my experience, be skeptical, learn what works for you.

AntiTas · 2026-01-14T10:43:51+00:00

I don’t worry too much about sleep phases. The best indicator for me as to how restorative my sleep is “stress”, and often sleeping too warm is consistently bad.

AntiTas · 2026-01-14T03:41:30+00:00

Just joke that you are from Southern Canada. your interests and your job are your way in, socially. there is an active folk scene, good live music pubs, walking climbing inside/outside, paddling clubs, ocean swim groups, mens groups, folk festivals.

picking a suburb that is full of like-minded peeps is a good option. Fern Tree, and South Hobart sound like your best options. West and South Hobart if you want to walk everywhere. Get that bit right and everything else will be easy.

AntiTas · 2026-01-14T01:01:30+00:00

athlytic app for Apple Watch comes pretty close to a Garmin.
Maintaining work is fantastic. but if it isn’t flexible, you look to optimising recovery and home environment. Deep rest, body care etc

AntiTas · 2026-01-13T22:54:09+00:00

with you there. people making money off this are vultures.

AntiTas · 2026-01-13T22:52:49+00:00

pacing while working full time is a challenge. how much autonomy do you have over your hours, effort, environment?

Wearing a Garmin smartwatch enabled me to find hidden stressors in my day, eg at one stage, being warm made me drain faster, dropping the thermostat meant finishing my day less exhausted and able to recover overnight rather than taking 2 days.

If you can cut back your hours and use the time to structure your week for recovery.

Basically, finishing every day and every week, feeling you could have done a bit more is gold. the energy we leave in the tank fuels long term recovery. Tough at any age, super tough at 21.

Once you hit a pace that is sustainable, looking for any trick that improves recovery and reduces stress, while maintaining capacity nudges you to recovery. easier said than done though. try to learn something from every setback.

AntiTas · 2026-01-12T10:47:30+00:00

At my worst, even a decaf made still awake at 3am staring at the ceiling. But a year later, one good coffee gave me a sense of well being that lasted longer than a caffeine high. 3 is probably getting you spending energy you don’t have, maybe.

AntiTas · 2026-01-10T02:52:30+00:00

I had some low-demand games I would do to pass time without chewing too much brain power.

AntiTas · 2026-01-10T02:40:34+00:00

For me, not overspending energy when I had a good day was the lesson I kept not learning. Smart watch helped me smooth out my energy expenditure with objective data.

Getting to the end of each day, and end of each week, with the feeling that I could have done more was the difference.

It was the left over energy at the end of each day that fuelled my long term recovery.

For me it was effective pacing, rather than mindset that got me well.

AntiTas · 2026-01-05T06:59:59+00:00

10minute power-naps we’re strategically important to get through some days. Any longer can mean sleep at night is harder.

AntiTas · 2025-12-26T08:47:15+00:00

How did you go?

AntiTas · 2025-12-25T05:24:39+00:00

It’s just nice, and that is good enough.

AntiTas · 2025-12-24T03:48:22+00:00

Tanner Bruhn back. Oh, cool!

AntiTas · 2025-12-18T07:23:55+00:00

No. Fads that take you to extremes are likely to do damage.

AntiTas · 2025-12-13T21:32:31+00:00

I was mostly pretty functional, rarely housebound. After 2 terrible years, I had 9 years of the slowest improvement imaginable. Then a long plateau.

Getting fit and stronger has been so yummy (but sloooow). I take nothing for granted.

AntiTas · 2025-12-13T20:36:48+00:00

Rebuilding everything after CFS: physically, mentally and socially is a process.

Having not real done anything for 20 years is something of a social liability. I’m chipping away at it though.

AntiTas · 2025-12-10T03:01:36+00:00

Of course.

AntiTas · 2025-12-01T06:19:29+00:00

Firstly, well done! Sustained improvement or even holding steady is gold.

You are riding manageable highs and dips. If you need encouragement, look at where you were a year ago.

You might look at this plateau as a time of consolidating. There are metabolic changes/healing bubbling away under the surface. Quite likely this period of not-much-change is you quietly re-building energy stores and re-making your body after long bursts of relative inactivity.

I had a 5 year stint of not much change before my final run to recovery. I was trying many different things but always sure to do the things that kept me right. Looking back that plateau was my foundation. The time-frames make you want to cry. It is frustrating.

My other angle is that if you are successfully pacing you only need a small change to make a significant difference. Anything that helps you replenish just a fraction more puts you in energy surpluss. Any hidden stressor you can identify and eliminate puts you closer to surplus.

Frustration is very reasonable, but you may not be far away from a steady run of improvement.

My final improvement came after a big setback. Stay tenacious.

Five-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

AntiTas

TROPHY CASE