FunkFit Personal Training

I have never had a personal training session before but it was one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done, fitness wise. I put this down mostly to Jo, from FunkFit, who is my trainer. She's great, down to earth and she put me at ease straight away. We met at the Pinewood centre in Crowthorne and found a corner near the balance beams to work out. We did a short warm up run and some dynamic stretches then got stuck into some proper stuff. I don't really know what I was expecting. Something akin to BFM possibly. Instead we took our time and I was instructed in the way of the ViPR. This unassuming bit of kit is used a little like a bar bell but is much more versatile. I did lunges, squats, clean and press and my heart rate rocketed. After that I used a kettlebell for the first time; swings and clean and presses. Finally I did some boxing which, after the day I'd had, was SUPERBLY liberating. The time flew by and I felt as though I could have done loads more. Two days later and I'm still aching in my glutes, hamstrings and shoulders. But you know what, it feels GREAT! The point of this is to get me stronger to get me faster (and burn a little weight in the process). I've got my second heavily discounted session next Wednesday and I'd love to continue afterwards but it's pricey. I may, instead, go to the bootcamps in Reading. I'm also thinking of investing in a kettlebell. The OH fancies a run tonight though I'm not sure if I can or want to do 4-6 miles so I may cycle beside him instead. Parkrun tomorrow and Zumba on Sunday after helping out at the VLM. It's going to be ab awesome weekend.

Frimley 10k

Wow, well quite a lot has been going on lately. The last time I posted was April 1st so here's what's been going on since then. On April 2nd I ran my 19th parkrun in about 30 minutes. I really thought I'd run faster than that so I was a little disapointed. This week will be my 20th! I feel slightly under pressure to get a new PB as Steve keeps telling me I run too slowly, plus I got a good time at the Frimley 10k which makes me think I could get a new PB, PLUS I had a PT session yesterday so I should be ever so slightly stronger... I will update next week.

On the 6th I ran 4miles with the OH as a last run before the Frimley 10k. It was one of the best runs I've done. I think it was for him too. We ran an average of 9:30 per mile and I kept up the whole way. I didn't even feel too puffed out at the end of it all - felt like I had plenty left which was exactly how I wanted to feel at the end of the last run before the event.

Sunday 10th April was the aforementioned Frimley Park 10k. You can see the route here (with optional altitude graph). It was the OH's first race and we were both aprehensive. It was a good one to start at as it was relatively small but still extremely well organised. We both saw people we knew and it was a gorgeous day. A bit too hot perhaps but some kind soul had her sprinkler going just over half way round which was very welcome indeed. There were two longish hills at 3 and 5km which I opted to walk up. It was at this point that the OH decided to power up them and we ran our own races from that point onwards. I didn't mind at all, I wanted him to have a good race and I know I'd have been worse off for running those hills. The k's clicked past pretty swiftly and for the last one I almost passed a girl who was being coached by her OH. Instead of passing her he encouraged her to stick with me and I took advantage of his motivational words in the heat of the home stretch. We stuck it out and I crossed the line in one hour. OH beat me by 4 minutes. We were both pleased with our times and not too sore afterwards and now I have something to aim for next time :)

Tune in next time for news of my first PT session with FunkFit!

This morning I had my first session with Jo of Funktional Fitness. Thanks to an offer from Groupon she is my new, though perhaps temporary, personal trainer. We met in a coffee shop at 7am to discuss what I wanted to get out of the session and to go through my food diary. This session was all about nutrition and chatting. I was already armed with a Chai Latte (a real treat as I rarely buy anything from coffee shops) when Jo arrived and I realised that she’d been involved in the Reading Half coaching session at moti> in Reading. I was expecting someone super svelte and exasperatingly perky but Jo is really down to earth and we got on a treat.

I told her that my aims were to:

• lose half a stone


• run 5km in 25 mins


• reduce wobble on my thighs

And she added:

• run a sub 2 hour half marathon


• improve strength (glutes especially)


• complete a triathlon

Apparently this is all very do-able.

My food diary stumped Jo a bit in as much as there weren’t many tweaks to make. It was a real boost to find I’m already doing lots of things right. For example not bothering with “low fat” products, eating good cereals like porridge, shredded wheat and weatbix. Did you know that organic apples can potentially reduce cellulite? My nutrition improvements are:

• Up my protein intake. Try to get some protein into every meal. This will include eating more things like quinoa and buckwheat.


• Water down my morning fruit juice to reduce the acidity


• Switch to full fat milk as it contains more protein and good fats. Raw milk would be even better.


• Avoid cooking with nut and seed oil if I can


• Drink more water (I currently manage around 1.5 litres a day)

I intend to also:

• Eat more wholegrains. 50% of the pasta and rice I eat is wholewheat or wholegrain and I can switch to wholegrain cous cous too.


• Pay more attention to portion sizes. 80g or the size of a fist is about right.


• Limit my alcohol consumption to around 3 drinks a week. Spirits are best but white wine is better than red which is better than beer.

I’m having my first training session on the 11th. I have to find a location but we’ll be doing things like sprints, fartlek, and strength building. In the meantime I’m making a copy of my booster bar recipe for Jo and she’s digging out some more information relevant to the vegetarian diet for me. It’s been a real boost so far and I hope that I come out of this with a bit more confidence and the motivation to keep up the good work.