7th January 2011

January 7^th 2011

Dinner Thursday night was delicious. Sorry to any vegetarians reading this but I had venison, medium rare, on a bed of spinach and mushrooms, washed down with a couple of glasses of Shiraz, followed by sticky toffee pudding and ice cream. Yum Yum. It was wonderful. Anyway…. If your mouth isn’t watering and I haven’t ruined anyone else’s diet plans I will now go on to describe Friday morning’s activities at the Gym.

It’s the first time I’ve been at the Gym since 24^th December. It’s going to hurt (and it does by the way). What to do….. so much to choose from. I’ve the 6k run (in fancy dress) in 2 weeks so really need to hit the treadmill. Cycling (gently as that’s all I do) or swimming is not really going to help me in the run when it is so close. So off I toddle to the treadmill. No lovely little jog for me though, oh no, I have Martin Yelling’s performance 180Max interval training from Audiofuel (http://www.audiofuel.co.uk) with me to help pound out the 6k and hopefully get me back to some sort of fitness a bit quicker than just a gentle jog. Okay you can all stop giggling now. I start at 150bpm which was a really slow 8km/hr. I can do this easily I thought. Not out of breath at all (this is just the warm up by the way). Next comes the first interval at 160bpm, my usual running beat but a shameful 9km/h on the treadmill. I didn’t want to push too hard and not reach the end (excuses). Okay starting to sweat a bit now and the breathing….still okay, but getting a little harder. It is only for 3 minutes after all then back to 150bpm at the pitiful 8km/hr. I could probably speed walk here but keep a bounce going that resembles a jog. Next is the 170bpm. ‘This should feel a little harder’ says Martin. OH YEAH! I’m still going and still happy I’ve not fallen off the end of the treadmill though. I am now doing a slightly more respectable speed of 9.5 km/hr. Still going okay. I have the music pumping quite load so cannot hear how loud I am breathing. I nearly giggle when Martin says run light. I can imagine the receptionist can hear the pounding on the treadmill never mind my fellow gym goers. Phew…. Back to 150bpm and still going. Right, now the 180 bpm for 3 mins at a staggering (not) 10km/hr, my usual treadmill speed for jogging.   Shouldn’t be a problem. Ha ha ha. ‘Legs strong (not sure about that), run strong (I’m trying), head strong (I want to get off….really)’. I kept wondering what the giggling feeling behind me was when I upped the pace. At the 180bpm I realised it was my bottom. Oh the shame of it. Glad the gym was quiet. Its just the muscle in my bottom staying relaxed I convince myself, Martin keeps saying stay relaxed during the voice over so at least one section of the body is obeying his commands. (I have an excuse for every occasion). Anyway, that’s the first set of intervals finished. I’m not feeling too bad and I’m still going. Face like a beetroot but nothing new there. Now I have to do it all again!!! This time around I even up the pace of each interval by 0.5km/hr and the final interval by a whole km/hr. Staggering. I was half expecting the treadmill to spit me off the back during the 180bpm track. I did it. I have a great feeling of achievement. Distance covered in 43.08 mins was 6.2km. Not a great distance, however, this does include the warm up and cool down so not too disappointed. I feel it’s a good start to completing the 6km in under 40 mins (last year 46 mins), that the aim anyway.

However, was I happy going to the shower after that. Oh no…. I decided to do some weights too. I had 10 minutes to kill what a better way to do it (not). Started with the shoulder press. 20x7.5kg, 10x10kg and 10x15kg. Yeow! Finally some leg abduction and adduction. That was fine.

Weight loss from 1^st Jan 2011 – 2lb