Posts

Posted Jan 20, 2020

A couple of traditional hearties today. First off, an early start for circuits at 6:30am. It was freezing - pleasantly so, in fact, it being pretty dry so rather enjoyable to be out in, with the crunching under foot as we went about our exercises! I was concerned I was under-dressed, with just a long-sleeve tee-shirt and running jacket. However, the circuit was a good one and ten minutes or so later I'd lost the jacket and was perfectly comfortable in just the tee. The basic framework was: running - parellettes - squats - core. All good stuff, much of which I did yesterday in circuits so I was left pretty sore!

Posted Jan 19, 2020

We tried a local circuits class that was running this morning, at Fit Club Amersham. It was a TRX class, which was to say that about half the stations involved TRX. I'd forgotten how much I like a bit of that; it was hard work and enjoyable, and well-taught by the trainer, Marco.

Posted Jan 19, 2020

A late entry for Saturday (we went out on Saturday night and I was too tired to get this post done). The day split up neatly, starting with Parkrun over in Rickmansworth.

Posted Jan 17, 2020

Friday: circuits, the same as on Monday. Challenge week with the folks at FFS. I pushed as hard as I could under the circumstances, and managed to get a little bit further than Monday (just over 7 times round the circuit this time). Turns out the whole period was captured pretty nicely through my heart rate monitor; it felt pretty well how it looks.

Posted Jan 16, 2020

Yesterday's proposed early-morning run went ahead; my friend and I met up at 6:30am and headed off for a run. Long story short, we started a bit quicker than expected, such that timings meant we could just about hit 10K. So we did.

Posted Jan 15, 2020

I had intended to do circuits this morning. Events overtook me, though; my son needed a late lift back after a try-out for bar work at a local-ish pub, and that combined with some inevitable faffing around meant I was rather pushing it to manage a 6am start.

Posted Jan 14, 2020

It was dry this morning, thankfully, so my friend and I headed out for a sneaky run. We ended up doing a slightly higher pace than expected, which felt like progress! We went just over 4 miles in the end.

Posted Jan 13, 2020

Monday equals circuits, at 6:30am. Today was what's known as "Challenge Week". The good news: it is only half an hour. The bad news: the format is AMRAP (as many reps a possible) over that half-hour. Each round of the circuits was:

Posted Jan 12, 2020

I had hoped to fit in a bit of weights today, inspired by this picture of a massive crane lifting part of a new bridge at our local station in to place. However, it was not to be.

Posted Jan 12, 2020

Rickmansworth Parkrun was the host for Saturday's Janathon activity. In fact, not just for me but also for the other 691 people who had the same idea. Wow! I took a selfie to try to give some idea of how big the crowd was, but it doesn't really quite capture the scale.

Posted Jan 10, 2020

Today's physical activity - an hour of circuits - was all tied up by 7:30am. It was warm enough (certainly by the end!) and a good crowd was involved, so all told it was a fun session. It would have been even better if I'd actually managed to get in to bed at 10:30pm as intended, rather than more like gone 11:30pm (busy day). But again I did manage to only wake once before getting up at 6, so it could have been a lot worse.

Posted Jan 9, 2020

Today has been really busy, but not with exercise or other activity, much! (I'm guessing driving doesn't count...) I had hoped to at least get a quick weight training session in, but a last-minute school parents evening put paid to that too. Oh well.

Posted Jan 8, 2020

Boo, work meetings all day today. Between about 10 and 5 I basically sat at a table talking. Thank goodness, therefore, that I was able to use this rather dry meat as the filling for a tasty circuit/yoga sandwich! Mmm-mmm.

Posted Jan 7, 2020

With the benefit of hindsight, I've probably over-done it a bit today!

Posted Jan 6, 2020

That was it, really: an hour's circuits class this morning at 6:30am. Numbers are moving up a bit now that the year is getting going, which makes it a bit more fun. Today was a good mix of running, strength and core. Overall I seem to have managed 12,000 steps so that's all good.

Posted Jan 5, 2020

Today we went up to near Cambridge to visit my parents-in-law. My MIL has been rather unwell, but thankfully is making an astonishing recovery after a rather up-and-down period over Christmas. When we said we were heading up, the instruction was received to bring my flute, and who am I to argue! As if any excuse is required... So activity one: some tootling on my flootle.

Posted Jan 4, 2020

Parkrun has become something of a regular outing. What they say on their blog is quite right: it's a really inclusive kind of event, with all sorts of people doing it in their own way. (No Frosty the snowmen today, though - that I noticed, at least.) As I presume is usually the case at the start of the year, the numbers were still very high - 686, in fact, which was even more than New Years Day. As a result it was a bit of a bun-fight for the first mile or so. After that, though, it thinned out a bit.

Posted Jan 3, 2020

I'm just putting this out there now since, based on the way I'm feeling, there's not much else I'll be doing!

Posted Jan 2, 2020

Today's main activity was a run. My friend had been feeling a bit guilty about not doing Parkrun yesterday, so suggested a quick outing this morning. This seemed like an excellent idea when he suggested it, and so we agreed to meet up at 8:30 for a run round Amersham.

Posted Jan 1, 2020

Happy new year, everyone. So - Janathon 2020.

Posted Jan 13, 2019

Excellent news! I ran just over 2 miles with Mrs H, and my foot didn't hurt. That's brilliant, as it means I can resume my running schedule, which is broadly working towards a (not-yet-selected) half-marathon. Note to self: don't build too quickly.

Posted Jan 12, 2019

I'm feeling a lot better today, so thought I'd try out some weights. I went for a bit of a classic kind of programme: squats, bench press, bent-over row, tricep dips. I also finished off with some kettle bells (double-handed swings, and clean and presses). Doing this kind of workout always makes me feel better, so I'm really glad I managed to get it going. Progress!

Posted Jan 12, 2019

Unfortunately I was still feeling a bit rubbish on Friday, and I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour and not do the swimming I had been planning. Having something bad happen in the water doesn't sound too sensible. So apart from walking a few miles there really isn't anything good to say about this one. Boo.

Posted Jan 11, 2019

So long, Thursday. My day was rather hindered by an annoying headache. I put it down to either dehydration or lack of sleep (both entirely possible given the last week). An early night was in order, and some pain killers. All I can really claim on the Janathon front, therefore, was walking about 5.5 miles (just over 12,000 steps) and bashing out a token 20 press-ups. That's my first wildcard used up!

Posted Jan 9, 2019

With my foot not really playing ball yet, I was left with two main physical activities to perform today:

Posted Jan 8, 2019

Today has mostly been a day of wincing when confronted by stairs. Yesterday's weights has definitely taken its toll!

Posted Jan 7, 2019

I've had a fairly long-standing arrangement with a friend to do weight training on a Monday evening. Today we got back "on plan" after a few weeks of disruption (not least because of my recent months of training for a run). It was hard after too long a break, but fun!

Posted Jan 6, 2019

Everyone in my family, it seems, is demanding a new bed. Today was the day that two such demands were met. An Ikea trip yesterday meant we returned home with a "day bed" in the back of the car, but a bunk bed in the room it was meant for. So today I have:

Posted Jan 5, 2019

Today started pretty badly; nothing was really wrong, but I was feeling pretty low. First world problems really, though, as I am still healthy and have somewhere warm to live etc.

Posted Jan 4, 2019

Ok I did walk about 3 miles including commuting etc, but really it has been something of an enforced rest day. I seem to have hurt my foot running (this started mid December but has been getting worse), and I've also pulled something in my neck or shoulder. This put running, weights and swimming out of reach: annoying.