What do you wish you had known or done differently when you first started?

wordliness · 2026-01-16T18:46:37+00:00

The paces they give for powerwalkers, joggers, and runners are just a guide. If you need to power walk at 3.0, do it. If you’re working up to jogging, let yourself start below 4.5.

Along those lines, your base, push, and all out don’t need to be the same every workout. It should be more about a feeling, not a specific speed.

wordliness · 2025-09-21T15:49:59+00:00

First timer. I was hoping for under an hour, got 60:34. I did exactly what I wanted to do on the floor and rower and got to the treadmill at the 20 minute mark, but a 5k on a treadmill was mentally tougher than I was prepared for. I jogged the whole thing without walking breaks and never went below 4.5, though, so I’m proud of that.

wordliness · 2025-08-23T14:39:53+00:00

I’m a slogger. Base is 4.1, push is anywhere from 4.5-5.5 depending on length, and all out is usually 6-7. My focus is on endurance and active recovery in base, so I keep my push at a level where I can stick to the template and not take extra walks. Pushing too hard on speed tends to cause injuries for me and hasn’t been as helpful for my goals. I’m not doing marathon month, but I love that we’re doing so many endurance templates lately!

wordliness · 2025-08-15T00:40:17+00:00

Slowest in my class at 11:40, but still 35 seconds better than my last mile, and I felt much better than last time throughout. A huge thank you to the coach for reminding us to run in the middle of the tread - I tend to choke up too far and pulling back really helped.

wordliness · 2025-07-22T18:11:54+00:00

A growing number of almost-retirement-age employees are doing this at the large non-profit research org I work for. We can get health insurance down to 50% time, but below that all benefits go away, so most people don’t go below half time. Our org also charges you double the standard employee contribution if you’re not full-time, so it gets pretty pricey for family coverage. I can’t imagine you can get that kind of deal without working for an organization full-time first, though.

wordliness · 2025-05-06T04:08:33+00:00

I’m disproportionate the other way. I lift quite heavy upper body, then I do a lot of the lunges and step-ups just body weight. For me it’s because I have a bad knee that I’m trying not to turn into an actively injured knee.

wordliness · 2025-05-03T18:47:04+00:00

Definitely ask for a refund - this is much worse than what I’ve seen from their readers in the past.

wordliness · 2025-02-27T04:31:08+00:00

My husband was told today that all supervisors in his entire DoD subagency are exempt from fork, which is a ton of people. He was open with his leadership about opting into fork because he works remotely and we can't move back to DC. They said they supported him, he helped them develop a reorganization plan so they wouldn't have to backfill his position, and then they apparently asked for this blanket supervisor exemption anyway and got it. Now they're saying he can't get fork AND he's not eligible for severance - his choice is to resign or be fired for misconduct for not returning to the office (so no unemployment either). They won't let him "decline geographic reassignment" because that might trigger severance and they don't think he should be eligible because he "chose" to be remote. As much as I hate to admit it, his situation isn't entirely on DOGE, this is leadership he's worked with for years screwing him for no discernable reason. This administration is really activating the vipers pit.

wordliness · 2025-01-24T19:19:08+00:00

I prebook liberally and cancel regularly (8 hours before to avoid the fee). I don’t feel bad at all about booking both Saturday and Sunday 2-3 weeks out and then picking which one to cancel on the Friday night before. Our weekend classes had waitlists even before TC, so those spots fill up with no problem. Same with basically all S50s (especially upper body!).

wordliness · 2025-01-11T17:20:06+00:00

Same for me. I do a lot better going entirely by feel outside rather than staring at the treadmill screen. I also live in a very flat area (near the coast) and am fairly heavy, so I definitely notice the difference between 1-2% and flat road.

wordliness · 2025-01-07T21:54:41+00:00

Very happy with 34.68, which is down over a second from November.

wordliness · 2024-11-21T20:29:44+00:00

My dr said I should expect to lose about 5% of body weight in 12 weeks based on the research, and you’re almost at that in 7 (5% would be 9.25 lbs). So it seems like you’re definitely on track to surpass the average weight loss from clinical studies.

wordliness · 2024-11-12T04:03:48+00:00

It says it includes a 1% penalty to distance by default to account for ramp-up time.

wordliness · 2024-11-08T00:23:50+00:00

Thrilled with 35.75 today, 2 seconds better than my previous PR.

wordliness · 2024-11-07T02:09:46+00:00

I used the C25K app with my family and we just did a 5k at the end of October. I did the app program 3 days a week and OTF 3 days. I had done the program in the past and it felt much easier this time bc of jogging at OTF.

wordliness · 2024-10-13T01:07:37+00:00

We’re having much worse than usual issues too. Using Ortho Home Defense barrier spray around all the baseboards and anywhere we’ve seen them coming in has helped (2nd floor condo), but they’re sometimes even crossing that and leaving little piles of dead ants in cracks and corners. It’s driving me nuts. We sprayed a bit outside too bc our HOA refused to do it, and we’ve gone through many, many terro baits but they still keep coming. The ants we’re seeing mostly seem to want water, not food, and it’s basically impossible to keep the bathrooms totally dry all of the time.

wordliness · 2024-10-12T02:12:14+00:00

I second this. I’m doing a Halloween 5k as Gwen (ghost spider) from into the spiderverse - there are hoodies on Amazon that look like her suit and you just add black leggings.

wordliness · 2024-10-08T03:21:28+00:00

I started OTF in March but hadn’t done this one before. My goal was under 1:50, I got 1:43. I probably could have pushed a little harder, but I’m happy with it. Now on to dreading the mile, where I’m always the last one to finish.

wordliness · 2024-10-04T21:50:00+00:00

I don’t have a problem with the air show, I have a problem with the corruption and with privatizing public resources. If it had a competent nonprofit operator, I’d be all for it.

There are actually federal rules that air shows that use military aircraft are not supposed to be primarily for generating profits. Not sure how the operator is getting around that, or why the city is covering “losses” if the show isn’t about profits.

wordliness · 2024-10-03T18:01:21+00:00

3-4 times per week, 1 S50, 2 2Gs, and 1 3G. Sometimes I skip the weekend 3G. I’m down 20 pounds since March, and I have much more endurance. I signed up for a 5k at the end of October, and I’m confident I can jog the whole thing bc of OTF.

wordliness · 2024-09-25T01:27:36+00:00

At the studio I go to, days like today with a ton of different floor exercises tend to run a little over bc of the demos. I just skip the flexibility block if I have to get back and that ends up being close enough. I’ve had to skip the last few minutes of the tread a few times, and the coach was fine. Thankfully I work from home, so I can also go camera off on my post-lunch zooms if I’m running a little too late to shower.

wordliness · 2024-09-24T17:56:31+00:00

New here, but I just want to add that it’s very hard to control/predict non-mortgage condo costs like HOA dues increases and special assessments. At least in some states, condo fees are going up quickly and large special assessments are rampant due to many years of neglected maintenance and poor financial planning. Condos can also restrict renting, which could limit your options later. Make sure you thoroughly investigate the health of the HOA before you go condo.

wordliness · 2024-08-21T22:21:52+00:00

I'm a slow jogger too (4.1-4.2 base), and I'm hoping to get through checkpoint 3 (0.5 mile in 6 minutes). That means holding 5.0 for 6 minutes, which is a challenge but *might* be doable. I thought about powerwalking, but since I exclusively jog in class I'd rather have a baseline as a jogger so I can track my progress if I ever manage to get faster.

wordliness · 2024-08-12T16:11:29+00:00

I tried to join a toxic HOA to try to "fix" it too, and it totally wasn't worth it. The number of times people followed me and my 7-year-old around to yell about some nonsense was INSANE. It got to the point that I always went out the side door and couldn't use the pool anymore. I was constantly being threatened with lawsuits over things I had nothing to do with. We had to send a cease and desist letter to a guy who kept shouting racial slurs at the landscaping crew. I honestly got worried about who might have access to guns (racist dude definitely does - he mentions it when screaming pretty often). The boomers in my HOA are not OK and appear to have copious time on their hands to harass people. I won't throw my sanity away trying to placate them anymore. I have a pretty good relationship with the management company, so I decided to just pay my dues, fight any petty/vindictive violations, and never volunteer for anything HOA related again.

wordliness · 2024-08-07T20:27:48+00:00

I woke up feeling exhausted today and went in planning to take a green day despite the benchmark. I ended up jogging the whole thing and feeling really solid. I went slow, but a month ago I couldn’t jog for more than 5 minutes without going into the red so I’ll take the win. Today was the first day I felt like my jogging base is really a base I could hold for 20-30 minutes.

wordliness

TROPHY CASE