Thursday 27 June 2013

Less Attack, More Threaten

Do you ever have periods of time when exercising just doesn't quite seem like it's hitting the spot? I'm going through a phase like that at the moment. When I add up everything I'm doing, it's a fair amount. It just doesn't *feel* like very much. I'm getting periods of lethargy and restlessness, procrastination and frustration. It's all a bit odd, but soon I'm hoping I'll find a rhythm.

I've been taking part in a couple of challenges lately, to work up to 100 consecutive press ups (on my toes), 250 squats and 150 crunches so most days I've been doing a combination of these and can't remember the last time my glutes *didn't* ache.

Last week featured my first swim since the 1500m, a Body Attack class and a PT session. I'd hoped, yet again, to get to a track session with running club but it was not to be, so no dedicated running session; that all starts this week. My swim was lovely. I think I did 20 lengths in total, 6 of which were front crawl, but not consecutive. I'm working up to that but it felt easier than I'd expected, my goggles didn't leak and I didn't have to dodge cleaners in the changing area afterwards, so all good!

Body Attack was a new experience for me. It was a new release day and we had two instructors sharing the class. I don't know if this is normal but it could well be, the energy levels that are required. Anyway, it was an hour of jogging and jumping with some core work thrown in, which made me sweat a LOT but I'm not sure what else it achieved. I learnt that burpees are exhausting, I cannot tuck jump and that it's compulsory to sing along. I think I prefer running for my CV and for classes to either make me ache or stretch me out so I may not be doing another. It's very high energy though, if you're into aerobics classes.

For my PT session, Dave had dreamt up a cool little circuits class outside followed by some laps of the astroturf pitch we were using getting faster from 1 minute to 20 seconds. I surprised him with the speed I was capable of! After that I took off on my little microadventure involving a 3mile-ish walk along the Thames Path. I saw my friend Alex at the weekend for what may have been only the second time this year, and we compared notes on our marathons (Brighton and London), found out we'd both signed up to do at least one more, and talked training plans. We're hoping to go to Nice in February to do the Rock 'n' Roll 10 miler there as a training run. How cool would that be? It got me a little more motivated.
This week so far I went for a 4.2 mile run with the lovely Amy along the Basingstoke Canal starting at Frimley Lodge Park (site of the Frimley parkrun), which really energised me and got me back into running where I've previously failed, and I used AudioFuel to get me through an intervals session this evening. My attempt to try out a Group Kick class was thwarted for a second week running so I finally did the gym programme that Dave set up for me about 6 weeks ago... and it was good! Didn't manage to fit in a swim, it's been such a hectic week.

I have Friday off and I'm heading for a long weekend in Bath with my mum so I won't be doing any strenuous exercise, just some wandering around town and gliding around the spa.

If anyone's got any tips for fitting in and getting enthused about exercising/training when life is manic I'm all ears.

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