Entries tagged with exercise

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Myride/Couch to 5km

Tuesday
was supposed to go running, but it was too hot!

Wednesday
went straight to gym from work, on a stupidly hot bus, which almost failed to stop by the park. The studio was nice and cool again, what with all the air conditioning, but within 5 mins of starting my workout I was dying of heat-related hideousness.

Am currently playing with different combinations with the warm up and cool down. I think my favourite warm up is A (because it plays Dido) and my favourite cool down is C (because it plays Robbie Williams). Am still working with main body A, because I am determined to get better at it. I start with all the good intentions of following level 2, but I get halfway through and start to die, so I have to sit out on the 'waves' section. I do feel myself getting better though, so it won't be long before I can stick with level 2 all the way through :-)

Jamie was supposed to come with me last night, but he bailed on me at the last minute. Just as well though, as although there are many bikes and screens, only 3 of them appear to be working at the moment, and they were all in use.

Entry tags:

exercise,
myride

Myride

Utterly failed to post this last night.

Myride was fun. Am getting better, I think. Certainly kept up more with Level 2 woman than in previous visits.

Studio was lovely and cool when I went in, but I was stupidly hot by the time I left! and walking out of the air conditioned studio into the muggy heat of the rest of the leisure centre was not pleasant!

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couch to 5km

So as I am driving up to Milton Keynes tonight after work, I am unable to go for my Thursday night run as usual.

So I've done it at lunchtime instead. We're almost right on top of the Thames here in my office - it's only a short walk away. So I ran down the Thames path, from Caversham Lock up to the mouth of the Kennet, and back again. Pretty much took me almost all the way home - the Kennet's mouth is just round the corner from our place.

I now face an uncomfortable afternoon being all sweaty in the office - we have no showering facilities!

Am recouperating with a nice ham and cheese panini and some squash :-)

Entry tags:

exercise,
myride

Myride

Myride today! Did workout A again, and I was right - it is my favourite of the three. Again I find myself halfway between level 1 and 2 - stuck with level 2 until about two thirds in, but couldn't cope with the big standing bit near the end. So I reckon I will stick with program A for now, at least until I can do level 2 without a problem.

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myride/couch to 5km

So I failed to update last night when I did my spinning, so here goes a double whammy on the exercise updates for you!

Monday

Spinning! Got the bus from work straight to the gym, and this time did option C for the warm up, work out and cool down sections. Hard work again, although I've realised I'm sort of halfway between level one and level two, because I can mostly keep up with the main woman but every now and again I have to admit defeat and chill out at level one.

I think I prefer options A, to the others. I will test this theory by doing options A again on Wednesday and seeing how that goes.

Tuesday

Today was Couch to 5km running! When I came home from work, it was very hot and sunny outside, so we opted for waiting till it cooled down. So we chilled out and had dinner (chilli and tacos), and then when it was cool, we headed out. Because we'd recently eaten, we didn't think it was wise to push ourselves too hard, so we stuck to the 90sec/120sec rotation for one more session.

The first 90secs were horrendous, but then I warmed up into it and in the end it wasn't so bad!

Remains to be seen how well I cope by the end of the week. Spinning again tomorrow!

Entry tags:

Couch to 5km

So Jamie forced me out running today (literally, about half an hour ago - we've only just got back in)

90 secs running/2 mins walking, six repeats.

I am hot and sweaty and tired, but also feel good. It was not particularly horrendous, so starting this week we are bumping up a notch, and moving onto the next stage, which is two repeats of the following:

Jog 90secs/walk 90 secs/jog 3 mins/walk 3 mins.

I expect to find it very difficult, at least for the first try on Tuesday. Thursday should be better.

There will also be myride spinning tomorrow evening.

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Myride

Today I went back for my spinning torture. Tried out Weight Management program B today. I preferred program A, I think. So, I'm all hot and sweaty again, but feel pretty good.

I also experimented with the excitement of going straight to the gym from work, using the Bus. Now I don't use buses very often (we didn't have them where I grew up, so I didn't use them at all until I went to University). I've lived in Reading for nearly 4 years, and today is the third time I've ever got on a Reading Bus. The main cross-town route goes straight to the entrance to my gym, you see, and in spite of traffic around the Prudential building, its much quicker than walking! I got to the gym about 5 mins before I normally get home when walking.

This meant I could get changed, get in the myride suite and be finished well before the spinning class started at 7pm. Which was good.

I did forget my headphones though, so Jamie had to cycle over to meet me at the door to give me some.

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Myride

So, as promised, I went to the gym after work and tried out the Myride indoor cycling facility.

The bloke gave me a quick introduction to the machine, as I'd never used it before. Its basically spinning class for one. There's a little DVD player/screen in front of the spinning bike, and you choose your workout from a wide range (they're all 5 min warm up, 20 min work out, 5 min cool down, so 30 mins in total).

I opted for the "weight management" workout, and did option A for all three sections. Which wasn't so bad. It talks about Borg Intensities quite a lot, which made my brain giggle at "Resistance is not futile" jokes. By the end of it I was extremely sweaty - it was a much harder work out than I'd have got if I'd just gone to the gym.

I feel pretty good now though, and will definately be doing it more!

Entry tags:

Couch to 5km

Workout Five

So today was the difficult day. As last week showed, Thursday is a day when I come home from work and simply cannot be bothered to exercise. Today is made worse by the absense of my training partner, who is oop North getting rained on in a muddy field!

However, big thank you goes to

utopia_necro for making me do it anyway.

Any fears I had that I would get rained on were unfounded, because the sun came out as I was walking to the park.

So 6 repeats of run 90secs walk 120secs later, and I feel great! Right leg started to feel a bit odd on the last cycle, I am attributing this to my sticking to the paths today instead of running on the grass, because it was all damp and I didn't want to a) fall over or b) get wet feet and ankles.

Out of curiosity, I did some heart rate counting while I was out. Didn't do it before I left (which was silly of me), but after my 5 min warm up walk to the park I was on 124 bpm (all numbers are approximate, as I was using the count-for-15-seconds-then-multiply-by-four method, rather than my heart rate monitor). After my first running section, it was more like 138. At the end of my last session, it was still up in the 130s, around 132. When I got home, it was closer to 128 and now I've been sat here for about five minutes, its down to 104. As I said, I have no idea what my normal, resting heart rate is, nor do I know whether these numbers are good or bad.

I think for Sunday's run I will dig out the heart rate monitor and keep track of it all the way around.

Entry tags:

Couch to 5km

Workout Four

So week two of the programme began in earnest today, stepping up from last week. This week I get to enjoy 90secs run/2 min walk cycles, a total of 6 for the 20 mins.

Psychologically, this was good, because although I was running further each time, overall I felt like I was running less, because it was only six times instead of eight!

The first cycle was really tough, but once I eased into it, it got better.

Thursday's gonna be tough, without Jamie's support!

I think I'm going to stretch this level of the programme for a couple more sessions, just to make sure I don't overdo it.

Entry tags:

Couch to 5km

Workout Three

So today was the last of the 60secs/90secs rotations. Next week we move onto 90secs/120secs.

Today was much hotter than previous two workouts. Direct sunlight for much of the circuit, plus bizarre cross winds. I do have to get used to running in the sun though, because on 19th July at 3pm its likely to be sunny (I got sunburn last year).

Today I struggled a little bit, possibly a combination of the heat, having a full belly before starting out (there was a much smaller time-gap between breakfast and run, than between lunch and run when I go after work) and maybe not having had a proper nights sleep. Anyway, I was complaining of a stitch after the first 60 second run, and by the 4th cycle I was really starting to struggle. So once we'd done six cycles, we stopped and leaned against a bench in the shade of a rather fabulously old and large beech tree. After a brief rest, I was good to go, and we managed to get through the last two repetitions, neatly finishing at the traffic lights!

Jamie had a massive headache as well, so I'm actually really pleased we made it through.

I only have Jamie for company for one of the workouts next week, as he's away from Wednesday evening till Monday evening. So Thursday and Sunday this week I'll be running on my own, and possibly Tuesday next week also.

Am interested to see how I cope with the new workout...

Entry tags:

Couch to 5km

Workout Two

Well I got home from work today and really didn't feel like doing my running workout. Jamie was pretty tired as well (on account of the having to get up really early to take the car to the garage for 8am), but he made me do it.

And I am very glad that he did. A cunning plan to start our workout on the opposite end of the park to the entrance meant we actually finished at the gates, so there was a shorter walk home and a longer walk to warm up with. It was cooler today, as the sky has clouded over, which actually made it easier.

My shins are not very happy, and are the first part of my body to start hurting when I run. However, improvements on Tuesday - I didn't develop a stitch in my side until the 6th repetition, whereas on Tuesday I had one after the first two. So my infallible logic suggests I wont get one at all next time, which is likely to be Sunday morning.

Now I'm just waiting for my dinner to finish cooking - I put jacket potatoes in the oven before we went out for our run, and they're not ready yet,

Entry tags:

Couch to 5km

Week One, Workout One

Brisk walk - 5 mins (warm up)
Alternate Jog 60 seconds, Walk 90 seconds for twenty minutes (8 repetitions)

All in all, it worked out pretty well. The walk from our house to Palmer park is 5 mins exactly, when walked briskly (I timed it). And then there's a handy wall against which to stretch the relevant muscles before embarking on the jog/walk bit.

I bought a new watch today, with both a countdown timer function and a stopwatch function. So I set the countdown timer for 21 minutes, to time the overall workout, and used the stopwatch to time the individual sections. Overall distance covered is approximately 1.5 miles, which was a lap and a half of the park. The 60 second running section was just long enough to have me feeling "Oh god I want to stop running now", but not so long that I actually died at any point. And the 90 seconds of walking felt like it went by just as fast as the 60 seconds of running!

We both (for Jamie is doing it all with me to support me) managed it without any real problems, and felt pretty good afterwards.

Repeat performance on Thursday, then again on Sunday.

Week two, if we're feeling ready for it (!) we up the times, i goes to 90 seconds/120 seconds (jog/walk)

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Wish the weather would make up its mind.

We've had snow, sleet, hail, every variation of frozen precipitation I can think of today. The floor is wet, so none of the more recent snow is sticking. So now its just irritating!

Everyone (well, mostly everyone) in work is now worrying about how they are going to get home - a lot of them use the Gatwick line to get home, and all the trains are cancelled.

I, of course, am unaffected by all this, as all I have to do is jump on my [freezing cold and wet] bike and cycle home through the icy slush.

I'm meant to be going to the gym tonight, but its cold and horrible outside and all I want to do is go home and curl up with Mr Fidget and my very excellent current reading material ("The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie).

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Its like being inside a snow-globe

So walking home last night was somewhat treacherous, as the lovely powdery snow had been crushed beneath numerous boots and wheels, and had become a layer of icy, compacted snow. Jamie came to meet me by the lock, and we made it home without either of us falling over, which was nothing short of a miracle!

The kids on our street had been busy building a snowman, and had scraped a lot of the snow from the cars, but as they were only small, they couldnt reach a lot of it, so both our cars were still half covered.

This morning, I decided that cycling in to work was the better plan, as slightly melted, compacted icy snow having frozen further overnight does not equal a safe walking surface. So the cycle journey went without a mishap - my tyres are slightly flat at the moment which can only have helped.

Now I'm sitting in my nice warm office, with an almost full contingent of work colleagues. We've just had a massive heavy snow shower, which has coated the pavements very effectively, but its not sticking to the roads. It surprised me, because yesterday's forecast said no snow today. Today, the forecast is saying "snow today, no snow tomorrow".

Of course, now my bike is outside being snowed on, which isnt good. And I'm meant to be going to the gym tonight, so at least I get to cycle home on a gritted road which hopefully wont be as busy as usual, instead of risking my neck on the ice rink of a tow path.

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Swimming!

Swimming was a success.

The mp3 player was awesome. Quite possibly the most awesome thing I've bought in some time, actually.

Got to the pool at about ten to six. By the time I'd got changed and sorted myself out and got in the pool, it was about six ish. I did my first few lengths in the medium lane (where I usually swim) but my arms were aching so much (from the gym on Tuesday) I moved to the slow lane. Then my goggles broke. So I had to get out of the pool and go buy a new pair, which took ages cos of the gaggle of students all paying to get in.

I then spent the rest of my swim in the slow lane, getting progressively more pissed off with the aforementioned students as they crawled up and down the lane in little gangs, constantly stopping and mucking about, and talking to each other incessantly. Seriously, if you want to do that in the pool, go in the public swim session. Adult lane sessions are for people who actually want to swim!

I had just over 40 mins worth of music on my mp3 player. I swam to it all, apart from the last three songs, so in all I probably did about half an hour. I could have done more, its just my arms were very achy and the students were really starting to annoy me. My hair is damp, but nowhere near soaking, and I didn't leave a nice pink trail behind me in the pool, so that worked a treat. My hair dye is washing out fast enough as it is (I am now on the ginger side of red), I don't really need the pool water to make it worse!

I am now waiting for Jamie to come home (he's been in London today) so I can have dinner, as I am starving. Fish and chips tonight, although its 'healthy' as its oven chips and oven cooked breaded fish from the supermarket, and frozen peas, as opposed to greasydeath fish and chips from Mr Cod. However, as I have no idea where Jamie is, I can't start cooking till he comes home. So I just have to cope.

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So those not-resolutions?

Hehe not really getting off to a good start so far! Well, not as far as the No Sweets! No Chocolate! No Fizzy Drinks! side of it anyway.

Mind you, the first week of the year, back in work after Christmas, when its cold and dark and cold and snowing and icy and cold, with nothing really to look forward to for some time (December might be cold and dark and cold as well, but at least there is Christmas to look forward to), is not really the best time of year to cut out all the nice treats that make you feel better!

So while I haven't been all that pro-active in cutting those out, I have been a bit more proactive in making sure the rest of my diet is back to pre-Christmas healthiness. Although there isn't enough fruit yet.

Exercise-wise, I dragged myself to the gym on Tuesday evening, and while I didn't do a full work-out, I certainly did enough to make myself feel all energised, and for my muscles to get all achy yesterday and today! Swimming after work tonight, I've tested out my underwater mp3 and its awesome. I've got a playlist of songs which is approximately 40 minutes long, so we'll see how we go swimming to that. its a mix of Tom Jones, Chicago, Rammstein, The Hoosiers and the Shrek 2 soundtrack...

Whats not helping my poor aching shoulders, is that when I fall asleep I tend to end up in a position where one arm is out of the covers bent up over my head on the pillow, which in my room means it turns into an icicle in the middle of the night, so my shoulders are a tad stiffer than they really have any right to be.

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wow, I haven't posted in almost a week

Did you miss me?

Its hardly surprising I haven't, given that my week has been mostly filled with dull, boring, everyday things. Things like a full week in work (very long and tiring), and not doing much in the evenings when I ought to be studying. At least I made it to the pool twice this week, if not to the gym. And I did some pilates yesterday lunchtime. So its not all a complete waste of time :-)

( study )
( pathetic fidget )
( rugby )
Ho hum, best get back to work I suppose, I'm sure there was more I was going to say, but it can wait.

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Course over!

Huzzah! For my performance management course is over. Four days in a row is actually pretty damn tiring. I am very glad my F7 course is structured differently (2 days next week, 2 days the week after). Much better.

Still, the hard work doesnt end here! Have to have done my Course Exam 1 by the end of the weekend (made trickier by my plan to do it on Sunday, forgetting that on Sunday I will be in Kent doing cat-things) so there will be much in the way of studying on Saturday.

I was going to do some tonight, but I'm exhausted. A combination of 40min swim on Tuesday, 45min workout on Wednesday and a late night both on Weds and Thurs. Also, my arm and shoulder muscles are in absolute agony. They were a little achy after the swim, cos I'd pushed myself quite hard. But following the workout my shoulder and wrist areas have been in agony. And then sitting in teh freezing cold air-conditioned room not really moving much has made it all really stiff. Am tempted to have a hot bath. Definately need to wash my hair tonight, so I don't have to get up too early in the morning, so a bath may be a good idea.

Today we are experimenting to find out where Fidget is getting his fleas from. Jamie combed him for about an hour last night, we drowned 22 fleas! Fidget has not been outside since, so when Jamie comes home he is going to comb him again, and if he has few or no fleas (there may be a couple we missed) then we can be certain they are coming from somewhere outside the house. If he's infested again, then there's somewhere in the house we haven't managed to get to. Personally, I'm sure its coming from outside.

Right, off to put some potatoes in the oven and feed the puss-puss.

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so sleepy today!

My own fault really for staying up later than I should have done last night. I just didnt feel tired!

So I slept too much this morning, and have been gently snoozing all morning. Which is not good, when you're supposed to be learning!

I am aching a lot this morning as well, 40 lengths of the pool last night means my arms/shoulders hate me this morning! I tell you what though, finishing early does wonders for my motivation in going to the pool/gym. Take this evening for example. I will be home by 4.15 at the latest. In the gym by 4.30. which means I will be home again by half 5 probably, which is still earlier than a normal day, and as Jamie's going to the gym as well, I get two whole hours to myself in which to study before Jamie comes home and distracts me with food and fun.

Awesome. Wish every day finished at 4.