A New Hope!

Just about completed the Ashton Court 10k - took me 1hr 10 up some horrible hills, but I managed to raise over £300 for Cancer Research so I achieved what I set out there to do.

Not being satisfied with nearly killing myself once, I've now signed up for the Bath Half Marathon in March 2009 - eep!

Training is going well, I've even signed up for a running group to push me that bit further. So without further ado, here's what we did yesterday:



Legs a bit stiff today, but worse than that, I got really bad stitch and now seem to have pulled a stomach muscle. We're supposed to be doing 3 training sessions a week, so despite my injuries I think I'm going to have to go out tomorrow morning. Yuk.

Long Time No Update

Haven't been able to update this in a while as Google decided my blog was spam and disabled it. Cheers Google. I guess it's because I'm writing lots of short sentences and numbers.

So what have I done?

Saturday Sunday Monday - Moving house days, lots of lifting and carrying. Very knackering!

Wednesday - Newbridge circuit in reverse - was harder because I had to run up Newbridge Road, but still managed it pretty easily.

Friday - Gym. Some light running and cycling to loosen my legs up, plus some weights.

Next session - Wednesday.

Thursday = Injury Day :(

Went out on the Bristol-Bath cycle path this morning. Legs felt a bit tight but decided to carry on, otherwise there was no reason for me to get up so early (I'm so stubborn)

Got about a mile and a half and pulled my calf. Couldn't run any further and had to walk back. Oh, the shame. And it had started to rain by this point.

Will go to the gym tomorrow and try to loosen up a bit, but definitely no running again until after the weekend!

Bank Holiday Morning Run

8:40am - Proper Road Running, Hoorah!

Found a rather nifty site called mapmyrun.com where I can measure distances and add them directly to a training calendar. Pretty cool eh?

Here's the route I did today. Took 40 mins but I stopped about 3 times and walked for a couple of minutes:



Legs feeling pretty tight now, might walk into town later to loosen them up.

Next session: Wednesday. Still undecided on gym or road run.

Gah - no training session today!

To say I have had a 4-day week, I think I am doubly-knackered. I decided sleep would be more beneficial this morning than getting up at stupid-o-clock and running my ass off.

Shame on me.

Will make up for it with a (drum roll) proper road running session this weekend.

Plus, I have just officially signed up for the race now, meaning that there's no backing out. If that's not enough motivation then don't know what is!

Tuesday = New Shoozies

Have been so busy that I didn't manage to record my session on Tuesday

I have new running shoes - brilliant! They are 10x lighter and more springy.

15 minutes on the treadmill - couldn't do anymore, I think I must have pulled my calf when riding my new mountain bike

20 minutes bike, resistance level 4

12 x 3 medex machines

Next session: Tomorrow (Friday) hopefully I will have recovered by then!

Friday - Feeling Tired!

Went into the gym this morning and did the same workout as last time. The treadmill was in km rather than miles so I ran at 10k/hr for 5k rather than 6mph for 3 miles -I think that works out about the same?

10 minutes on the bike at resistance level 3

Weights x 12 as detailed below.

Legs and arms feeling really tired at the end of it all - think they haven't recovered from Wednesday's session yet. Perhaps a couple more sessions the same as today, then I need to start upping the times.

Session 4 - Getting Better

Was really tired this morning but heard Chris Moyles on the radio saying that he was going to run 3miles today, so I felt I would be letting myself down if I did any less.....

35 mins - 3 miles - running and walking
2 x walk
10 x run
3 x walk
5 x run
3 x walk
3 x run
2 x walk
2 x run
5 x walk

10 minutes on the bike - resistance level 3

Weights:
50 chest press x 12
110 pull downs x 12
40 shoulder press x 12

Not sure if these weights are in kg - that seems quite heavy! Will check on Friday...

Legs feel ok, right ankle hurting a bit because I run funny. Think my arms will hurt tomorrow! Am going to try the same workout on Friday - at least I know I'm half way to running 6 miles then!

Arse, I've missed a session

The title sez it all. Didn't get up early enough and had to give someone a lift home from work.

A minor setback. The extra rest means I can work harder on Wednesday! :-)

Irrelevant Badminton

So much for taking it easy, couldn't resist a game of badminton today - I LOVE it!

• 30 minute walk into town to stretch my legs


• 1 hour of badminton - nothing too strenuous, a couple of proper games and some warming up exercises.


• 2 x 30 minute walks (hobbles) in and out of town in heels this evening - ouch!

Arms and chest hurting from doing weights yesterday, but legs seem to be fine - woo!

Day off tomorrow - back to the gym on Monday!

Session 3 - Friday Morning at the Gym

Dragged myself out of bed at 6 this morning and set myself on autopilot to drive the the gym.

Got there really early so managed to do some weights as well:

5 minutes run, 5 minutes walk with 0.5 incline x 3 (30 minutes)
15 minutes on the bike

2 x 12 reps on 3 weight machines (arms)

My right calf is twitching a bit so I'm going to try and take it a bit easier over the weekend. At the same time, I don't want to seize up so I'll probably try and walk into town a couple of times.

Session 2

Got up this morning with really tight calves so decided a morning run would not be a good idea!

Instead, went to the gym this evening and did 30 minutes on the cross trainer and 30 minutes cycling. Feeling fine at the moment, but I reckon I'll be a bit stiff in the morning. Still, it's a step in the right direction for full-weight-bearing exercise...

Next session: Friday - back to run/walk routine.