Week’s Workouts

Howdy, howdy! Hope you had a great weekend. Ours was nice and quiet, which was definitely needed after last week’s London adventures.

Maybe it’s the sunshine pouring through my bedroom window or maybe I’m changing but honestly I never sleep in anymore. Obviously I can’t during the week due to that annoying but rather essential thing called work, but at the weekend I’ve been known to snooze in until 9am. OK that’s not a huge lie-in, but since university I haven’t been able to sleep later than that unless I went crazy with a late night. These days my lie-ins don’t go past 8am, but quite frequently I’m awake by 7am. Well, I’ll have to see when the lovely sunny mornings disappear I guess.

So this week gone has been crazy in terms of varied workouts for me. Who am I?? Previously I would just run five times a week. Not even a sneaky core or stretching session. Ergo, I got injured. But things are a-changing!

Monday: body pump

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In case you weren’t aware of what that might look like Winking smile

This kicked my butt. Literally I was an achy mess after this. My puny muscles quivered in pain.

Tuesday: for some inexplicable reason I thought running five miles would be a good idea the next morning. Just to ‘shake out’. I was running 30 seconds to one minute slower than normal. But I finished it and felt good.

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: running club in the evening (eight miles off-road). It felt tough but I felt like I was back on form. I’m definitely aware that my speed has diminished slightly. I’m still speedier than I was months ago, but definitely not top form like I was during the height of my races.

Friday: spinning. I was nervous about doing spinning in the morning considering I ran the night before. However, apart from being a bit tired I was fine. So much less stress on my legs. And I felt great for the day.

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Yep that’s a spinning bike

However, spinning was TOUGH. Jeeze I am so out of practice. The demon guy that was running the session was like “Come on! Push it harder! Get those RPMs to 125” and I was spinning as fast as my little legs could go and only reaching at most 110. Sweat literally poured off of me. One girl next to me was on fire. I was pretty sure she was going to cycle that bike off it’s stand if she wasn’t careful. Teacher’s pet.

Just shows really that you can be good at one thing and suck at something else. Fitness is not a universal thing. It can be very specific to the sport or workout you choose.

Saturday: Parkrun (5k informal race). I was nervous about it beforehand and did a little warm-up (new thing, let’s actually warm-up before racing. Well done, Anna). But once we got going it was fine. We were on the slightly harder course (only three laps with a hill, rather than a flat five lap course) so I knew PBing was very unlikely. However, I did beat my previous time for this course from a few weeks ago.

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I came second girl and 20th overall (out of 142). Not bad! And the best part was that I enjoyed it. It was tough and I felt the burn, but it felt like a normal run. No discomfort or twinges or feeling held back. The only thing holding me back was my stamina and running ability.

And check out Mr Volunteer doing his thing as he’s still sadly out of the game Sad smile

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Time-keeping – a very pressurised job

Ben was keeping the time of the runners finishing. Quite an important job, I think you’ll agree. I did try and bribe him to give me a good time. Haha, so joking. He wouldn’t be that nice to me!

Sunday: long run. Did I mention I’ve got a half marathon in about three weeks? 18th August Cheddar Gorge Half Marathon. We signed up to it ages ago. Anyway, this is not a race to even consider getting a good time for. We’re talking 1,600ft elevation. It’s on a gorge. It’s off-road. Help.

For the Reading Half Marathon (way back in March) I didn’t take any gels or fuel because I didn’t need them. I felt fine. However, for this half marathon it’s not just a simple road race. It’s hilly like you wouldn’t believe. So I plan on taking a gel at mile six as I know it’s going to be intense. This run on Sunday was therefore to practice what having a gel on a run would be like. I’ve never tried gels before and wasn’t even certain it would sit well with me <—never try something new on race day, always practice beforehand!

Long run survival guide

Long-run survival guide (my water bottle collapses – I love it)

My plan was to run 13 miles but make sure I do a route that if at 11-12 I felt tired I could cut it short.

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For whatever reason, the big Running God in the sky smiled down on me and I had a brilliant run (even notched on the .1 because it would be rude not to). Whether it was because I made sure I ran at a nice easy pace, or the gel at mile six, or just because it wasn’t so blinking hot: it was a great run. One of those highly coveted runs.

Like I said, I took the gel at mile six. Apart from the texture (like warm weird yogurt…yuck) it was fine and I honestly think it helped speed me up. The only annoying thing was despite passing a million bins before taking the damn thing, there wasn’t a bin in sight after taking it for like a mile, which meant I had to carry the empty sticky packet for a while.

Anyway, I felt brilliant after the run. After eating a big bowl of oatmeal, I quickly headed out (yes, before showering. I’m disgusting) in search of ice to have a nice ice bath. I went to four shops and they had nothing. I did buy apples though so not a complete fail Open-mouthed smile

Later I then had body pump again. I am crazy I know. But it seems Sundays are the only really good time for me to do pump (as I only managed on Monday as I had a day off). Strangely it was fine! Obviously afterwards I was quite tired and after finding ice (woohoo!) promptly went home to have an ice bath and do nothing all day. Fabulous!


So this week has been a great mix of running, spinning and pump. Alongside this I’ve tried to do my stretches and strengthening exercises three times a week. I won’t be aiming for two pump sessions a week but I definitely want to do one pump and one spin and only run four times a week.

How’s your weekend been?

What workouts have you been doing?

What’s your favourite gym class to do? I really want to try kettle bells soon but it’s always on a Saturday which is an issue for my long run the next day.

What’s your experience with gels?

12 Replies to “Week’s Workouts”

  1. I can’t sleep in at all, this weekend I was up at 6.30, I don’t remember the last time I had a lay in! Nice job on the workouts! I can never ever find a bin after I take on a gel during runs, it’s so frustrating! I use the Vega energy gels now, which have awesome ingredients like dates and coconut water, they are a lot more natural than most of the gels out there which I like. I have a half a week today, so I’ve just been running loads to try and get in some training before that.

  2. Glad you managed with the gel. I tried one once (when marathon training as there was no way I could run that far without any extra energy) but I took 2 sips (sips? glugs?) and felt like I was going to throw it all back up again- so I didn’t even try any other gels as it worried me that it would ruin my training runs. In the end I tried clif shot blocks and found I could eat them while running (they are slightly chewy squares, a bit like jelly), and nakd bars- as I run slowly I could nibble on them while I ran along.
    Yay for pump! I love it, but it is very tough. I find a run the day after helps to get rid of the aches a bit, but I can never run fast the day after.
    I quite like the look of spinning but it also looks extremely tough!

    1. They’re definitely an acquired texture and taste I think! I’m not sure I could chew anything on the run though (I remember trying a chewy sweet and it gave me such a stitch as it messed my breathing up). I think I’ll just have to grin and bear the gels for now.
      I’ve found spinning is a great recovery workout (though it doesn’t feel like it at the time). I can spin after a long-run or a hard workout and stil be OK. It seems to help get my legs moving and fresher again strangely.

  3. I actually just saw those collapsable water bottles at the store a few weeks ago and thought they were the coolest things ever. How have they held up for you so far? I thought about buying one but then my dad voiced his concerns over wearing out the folds by constantly opening/closing them… leading to a hole. And of course water spilled everywhere. Probably wouldn’t happen to anyone but me. Haha. Love the colors though and I think next time I see one I’ll seriously consider buying it.

    1. I love my water bottle! I love the foldy bits as I can grip the bottle well when I run – like finger holes. And it’s great to just collapse it when I’m done and it’s not so cumbersome to carry.
      I hadn’t really thought about it breaking :-S Though the one I have was so cheap I’m not too bothered. It would just be annoying to have water spill everywhere I guess!

  4. Oh I love body pump! I would probably go back to classes if they were on at better times for me. I love spinning as well, I keep thinking about going back to spinning on a Sunday morning – your right about it being tough!

    1. Yeah that’s the annoying part for me is that the times aren’t always that great with Pump – Sunday is really the only good time!
      I try not to think about spinning before getting there as otherwise I’ll never get there it’s that hard!!

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