AnnaTheApple

Hi guys, hope you had a good weekend. Mine was fairly busy. Christmas is in full-force now really isn’t it?

I feel quite good as I’ve done 80% of my Christmas shopping and I’m off Friday so can hopefully finish then. Hurrah. Our spare room is getting packed full of random purchases. Going to have to get some wrapping going on soon….

Last Thursday I had my first personal trainer appointment. What I love about my gym is because it’s open 24/7 I can go in as early as I like (which is handy for me as I have to leave for work around 8ish). It also means I can book my personal trainer appointments for the bright and early time of 6.15am.

We sat and chatted about my goals before we did anything. He also weighed me and gave me a host of different statistics…my muscle weight, bone weight, fat percentage and how many calories I burn just doing nothing. I’m not trying to lose any weight, but he said one of our targets should be to gain some more muscle weight. Cool.

And then we got started. I was using machines I wouldn’t have gone near in a million years. He would demonstrate the moves while I wrote down in a notepad lots of notes to make sure I got the right form.

There were lateral pull-downs, kettle bell single arm raises, deadlifts, using the Olympic bar (!!) for overhead presses and more. The concept behind using each machine was different to what I normally would have done. He set the weight for quite a heavy weight (for me!) and then I would only be able to do between 6-10 repetitions, decreasing on each set (which was usually three sets). He said I should be aiming to have a small number of hard, heavy reps rather than numerous light repetitions. Apparently if I aimed for light weights it would be more of a cardio workout than actually working on my strength. Something I didn’t know!

When we got to the end of the hour he asked if I had a bit more time. Then he did more sports massage on my back and legs. I was literally lying there on this mat almost crying in pain when he was doing my back. All the way up to my neck, then down to my lower back it was so tight. When he finished there was no residual pain and my whole body felt more loose.

Having the extra time with him meant I was seriously late though – I didn’t leave the gym until just before 8am!! Meaning I had to get home, shower, eat breakfast and leave in record breaking time. Luckily my work are fairly relaxed so I just worked a bit longer in the evening.

It’s funny because during the workout it was tough but I wasn’t sweating and at the end I was a bit like “well that was quite easy”. The next morning though my shoulders, my back, even under my armpits ached! I found getting dressed and putting my coat on a nightmare. Pulling open doors was terrible. Clearly doing something I guess!

My next appointment is Thursday morning. I’m really pleased with how it’s gone. I would never have done these moves on my own. In fact, the only upper body moves I would ever think to do are things like bicep curls or tricep dips. But these exercises he’s going through with me are more aimed at improving my posture and improving how I hold my body and support it when running.

I’m not going to lie though, it’s two weeks from the marathon and hearing Ben talk about it or chatting to the girls from my running club when I met up with them to catch up…it’s still hard. I drove back from the gym and saw a man out running and I just felt a bit down. Nothing beats running. But I’ve just got to stay focused on what matters at the moment. I have to remember that I will run again.

Have you ever had a personal trainer? It was brilliant having someone show me how to use the machines properly and watch me do the moves, correcting me when I went wrong and motivating me when I got tired.

Have you ever tried using kettle bells before?

What’s most important to you: strength, aesthetics, performance, general fitness? I’ve never cared really about strength…I guess I’m only doing it now to help my performance in running and remaining injury-free.

And breathe, it’s almost the weekend! Well, sort of I suppose.

I had my physio appointment Wednesday lunchtime, which went well. Beforehand she told me to bring my trainers so she could have a look. Like reading tea leaves, she examined the bottoms and put them on the table and randomly (to me) touched them all over. What she was doing, she explained, is seeing where my trainers are more inclined to move when nudged which indicates where my feet are falling.

I know that my feet roll inwards when I run, so I have special insoles to inhibit this. But it turns out my left foot just keeps trying regardless. This means my whole body is leaning to the right when I run. Which explains the tightness I’ve been getting in my right leg and my knee issue. This was probably exaggerated during the Great South Run when the wind pushed against my left side (especially on the last two miles along the front), which sparked the knee pain with the added pressure.

How crazy is that? Bodies are so complex.

She’s getting me a tiny wedge to put into my left shoe to help stop the lean. She worked on my dud leg with massage, movements and ultra sound. I’m to see her again next week for more of the same. Apparently it’s looking much better, and it does feel it. Though it’s definitely weaker than the other.

No running or spinning for now though. Ho hum.

This week I’ve been getting out of bed at the RIDICULOUS time of 5.30am to get to the gym as early as I can. I’m still using the recumbent bike and/or rower. To keep myself motivated I’m doing 1 minute tempo speed, 30 seconds sprint, then 1-2mins easy. Over. And over. I listen to podcasts to keep myself from DYING OF BOREDOM and then for the last 10 minutes I put some energetic music on and do some crazy sprinting. It works for me!

I aim for 50-60mins of cardio. It’s crazy that I literally watch the clock.

Ticking.

Ticking.

Whereas when I run I just run. Of course I look at my paces but I never think “OK just 5 more minutes”. I might think “do another mile” but that’s it. Never the relentless ticking down of seconds.

I will never, ever underappreciate running outside again.

On the slightly more interesting side of things my lovely husband brought back some unbelievably moreish treats for me from the German Christmas markets when he was over there last week ‘working’.

Appalling photo sorry

Apple chips and a gingerbread biscuit saying “Ich liebe dich” which means “I love you”. What a sweetie. Obviously the quickest way to my heart are apples and he knows me well 😉 Those bad boys are scarily moreish though and this is dangerous considering how many apples I eat normally anyway.

Just reminds me of fun times I had when I visited Berlin around Christmas and my friends and me enjoyed some amazing Christmas market time. Hopefully we’ll recreate that on our impending Bath trip the weekend after next. Although I imagine it will be heaving.

What Christmas markets have you been to? What was your favourite thing there? Mine was all the food (by that I mean sweets).

Have you ever been to Germany? I love Berlin. Such a friendly lovely city.

What are your tips for staying motivated on a gym machine? I do enjoy a bit of people watching as well 😉

Hello, hello. I hope all you lovely Americans had a great Thanksgiving by the way! The rest of the world continued on as normal. No turkeys over here…yet. Though saying that I did pre-order our turkey for Christmas day the other day. Jeeeeze Louise it must have been famous or something because it was an outrageous price. OK truth be told, I did buy a free-range bird…from M&S…the biggest one. Yeah, ouch.

But hey, ho. We’re having my parents and Ben’s parents round ours for Christmas lunch so it’s a necessary expenditure. I’m so excited. I absolutely adore Christmas dinner. People say that turkey is one of the driest and most boring meats but I disagree. I could eat it everyday. And probably will for quite a few days after Christmas 😉

Anyway, I digress. For a few weeks now I have been on the search for that illusive squash. The king of all squashes…the blogging world holy grail, if you like. The kabocha squash. I think I might just have found it!

I think it’s the top right picture. Let me live in my delusion if I’m wrong. I haven’t yet tried it but I’m hoping for good things after all the love that’s been outpoured for it. The alien spaceship-looking squash on the left (could be delicata squash?) is rather tasty I must say, and the two little ones bottom right aren’t too shabby either.

I’ve been eating my squash as a side-dish to meals, such as a lovely slow-cooked roast chicken.

This was the alien spaceship squash

I always have to go back for more chicken when I have this meal. I probably eat like a third of the chicken. With half a bottle of BBQ sauce.

Speaking of BBQ sauce (which, by the way if you couldn’t tell, is my favourite sauce in the whole wide world), I had some outrageously good slow-cooked BBQ pork ribs. The whole day I was excited that I had ribs waiting for me at home (oh dear, I sound quite sad). And they did not disappoint.

The meat just fell off the bone. I used THIS recipe which was just so easy.

This meal rocked my Friday night. Yep, that’s how exciting things are around these parts right now.

And someone else who’s been eating pretty well is this furry little guy:

With a bag of food as big as him. That’s what happens when you order dog food online and have no concept of weight. Well he was happy. In fact, I think it’s gone to his head a little. He was absolutely enthralled by the animal channel the other night.

I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s a lion. He didn’t move from that position at all. He just watched. I didn’t have the heart to explain to him that if he was going to be another animal it probably wasn’t going to be one of the big four cats…

I’ve got my second physio appointment today, which I’m looking forward to (is that weird?). My knee feels a lot better in general terms and walking. I’ve been to the gym and rower and cycled a lot with no issues but I haven’t run. In fact, I’m actually scared to run. I don’t know when my first run back will be…I’m just terrified there will be pain or discomfort. So I’m holding out for as long as I can before I go mad.

Anyway, after showing you a small insight into what I’ve been munching on recently, go check out Jenn’s blog for What I Ate Wednesday fun with other bloggers 🙂

Do you have any good recipes or suggestions for my kabocha squash? I’m reluctant to use it yet as I haven’t found any more!

Do you buy your food online or do you go to the shop itself? Recently we’ve been ordering online because the only free time is at the weekend and that’s a nightmare. 

What’s your favourite sauce?

Well my weekend has been pretty boring. Because we’re coming to the end of a project and the deadlines are very tight I had to work. Thankfully I was able to work from home which meant I didn’t have to drive to the office (45 minutes of absolute pants). But it still meant no weekend frivolities for me.

I also had to get up early to get my gym sessions in. I don’t mind getting up early – even at the weekend. But I’m used to getting up early for things I genuinely love. Like Parkrun on the Saturday, or my long run on the Sunday. But Saturday morning saw me walking into a very empty gym at 7.30am. Clearly I am of the minority for early Saturday morning gym sessions. To be frank, I wouldn’t be there if I could run!!

I managed 40 minutes on the bike (I chose the recumbent bike to give some relief to my hips and knees). After a 5 minute warm-up I did 2 minutes easy and 1 minute sprint. It kept things somewhat entertaining. Then I did 20 minutes on the rower.

Afterwards I ventured over to the Power Plate. I’d heard some good things about the vibrations being good for helping with injuries and massaging tight muscles. Hey, I’d eat my iPhone if you told me it’d help me recover (I’m not quite sure how, but I’d definitely try).

Sunday I was really not feeling the gym. I had to get up at 6.30am to walk Alfie beforehand as Ben was having a lie-in (rightfully so). Oh lord it was hard. But I got there and sat on the bike for 15 minutes not feeling it, so went on the rower for 45minutes instead.

I then tried the Power Plate again. This time I’d done a bit of prior research to maximise my time with it and spent about 30 minutes working my way through some strength moves, stretches and then just lying my legs (hamstring, IT band, quads) on the plate for the massage.

Let me tell you, squats are a killer on that thing! My legs were burning!

Then it was back home to shower and start work. Joy.

Friday morning I had a crazy gym experience (sorry I realise this post is all over the place). I was on the bike really struggling to stay motivated and 10 minutes in my spin instructor walks by. He asks why I haven’t been going to spin for a bit and I explain about my knee. He didn’t seem surprised…apparently I look like I have terrible posture. My right side looks a lot tighter than my left, from my shoulder to my hips. He asked if I had 5 minutes. I thought, if it means getting off this boring machine then yes!

For the next 40 minutes he directed me to do different moves and gave me a sports massage for all my tight areas as we were going. It was so bizarre. It was basically a freebie 1-to-1 personal trainer/sports massage session! He specialises in ‘corrective exercise’, which basically means he trains people so that they’re body becomes more aligned, by strengthening the weaker muscles and stretching the tight ones.

Well I was sold on his technique and ability, and his extensive experience. After chatting with Ben I decided I’d sign up with him to for some personal training. I’ll have a consultation with him beforehand to tell him my goals (increasing my strength and basically reduce my running-related injuries). I’m very excited. This is exactly what I need right now before I get back into running and marathon training. It’s hard to motivate myself when I’m not running, so having someone guide me who knows what they’re doing is a huge relief!

And what can I say, I’m a sucker for a good sale…

 What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you or you’ve seen at the gym?

How do you keep yourself motivated on a gym machine?

Are you an early riser or do you like your lie-ins?