January 2020 - Apple Watch Fitness Journal.

Hello and welcome to my first column in my “Apple Watch fitness journal” feature on my blog. I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I had a new year’s resolution to be physically fitter and healthier using Apple and Apple Watch.

I started off the year strong by getting to complete a parkrun achievement. “The New Year’s Day double”. I did two 5K runs on New Year’s Day. One at 08:30 in Bracknell park and the second being in Maidenhead at 10:30. Very good morning and doing this caused me to get my first 200% move goal of the year. (At the time my move goal was set at 420 active calories.)

GOAL ACHIEVED – RING IN THE NEW YEAR

Apple Watch Ring in the new year challenge

Apple watch users got there first limited edition challenge of the year and it wasn’t an easy one. To get the achievement you needed to close all three rings for 7 days in a row. That’s your move, exercise and stand ring for 7 days straight. Even if it was day 6, missing one day would cause you to go back and start again.

Knowing this with my strong start to the year I wanted to complete this goal in the first 7 days of the year. Using Strava on days where I hadn’t quite closed my move goal I went for a little run in the evening and got that ring closed. I was very pleased with the results as I completed the Ring in the new year challenge on the 7th of January.

GOAL ACHIEVED – JANUARY CHALLENGE

The apple watch gives you an activity challenge every month and as part of resolution I need to complete every challenge each month. This month’s challenge did appear to be an easy one but that’s due to a lazy December. (The apple watch looks at your data from the 1-3 months and comes up with a challenge that will be personal to you. It will make it a challenge but an achievable challenge.)

In January I had to close my exercise ring 12 times. I completed this on the 15th of January.

I also went to three other parkruns in January helping me close my activity rings. I travelled to Brixworth, Buckingham and due to work commitments, I finally completed my home parkrun in Witney.

I also ran my first 10K in a go using Strava route planner I planned out a 10k run and completed it in 56 minutes. Check next month’s journal to see how that comes along.

I’m very pleased with my results this month and I still believe that if you need help getting fit that using iOS and Apple watch can truly help you. Whilst I use Strava and WatchOS there are many great apps on the app store to help you. Check out my other article here where I mention how you can get fit with Apple.

In each month’s journal post you’ll see these stats at the end of each one which shows my progress. My goals for 2020 was to achieve every monthly challenge, every limited-edition challenge and to have 2 perfect months. (Perfect months are where you have to achieve your move goal every day.)