Category: cross training

Juneathon Day 11. Back to Abs

So the reason I didn’t run today had nothing to do with the weather. Oh no, no fair weather runner, me.

Well, okay, I will confess that my heart did droop a little when I saw the rain this morning. But it drooped lower when I realised my calves felt tight.  I will NOT have shin splints again -I refuse!  So I decided best not to risk anything, so not to run today but to do … something else.

Cue another DVD with an Abs workout. Cue another American lady with a strange voice. Cue me lying on the carpet with cats looking on, worried as to whether I’ll be able to get back up and feed them later.

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I still haven’t worked out if she’s referring to my “littl’ belly” or my “low’r belly”.

Ah well –  job done. Cats relieved that dinner will appear tonight.  Abs knackered for tomorrow, and all’s well with the world.

Juneathon Day 8 – struggling with weekends

I usually run in the mornings, when everyone else has left the house and I get some time on my own. I always knew therefore that weekends were going to be tricky for Juneathon.

After a lazy Saturday morning, where the only activity was popping into town dropping daughter off for her ‘stay awake over’ and a spot of shopping, I made the mistake of sitting on the sofa.  I was promptly pinned down by a very large tabby.

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Apparently sitting with your feet on a copy of Runner’s World doesn’t count for #Juneathon.

After a nap with a lovely warm lap, me and the boy (son not cat) headed outside to assemble our new bench. This didn’t take long so I still couldn’t kid myself I’d done my Juneathon activity for the day.

So I got off the sofa and dug the Abs DVD out again.  My stomach was still sore from Thursday’s session, but I stuck it out (the workout, not my stomach).

I even didn’t mind the annoying lady’s voice as much this time, as each time she said something like “keep this up and you’ll soon have your six pack”, my son would say “she really wants her beer!”

Race day tomorrow – better drink some water and get my stuff sorted!

Juneathon Day 6 – Tired

After yesterday’s exciting exploits I headed off to bed early, full of antihistamine tablets to try and stop my legs from itching. The nettle stings were kicking in big time.

Sadly, despite being tired, I had an awful night’s sleep. It felt as though I was awake all night as I saw each hour on the clock but I’m sure I dozed in between times. 

Come the morning I had to be up to make sure everyone else got up and out, and then I simply went back to bed.  Good job I wasn’t planning on running today or that would have been the end of my Juneathon!

Instead, when I finally got up, I did what I’d planned to do anyway -a 10 minute workout for my abs.

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I’d forgotten how irritating the woman’s voice was though, still hopefully all good for my core muscles!

Extreme Tapering

Never being one to do things by halves, I decided to take my first week of tapering to the extreme – and do no running at all.

In my defence, I did lots of other exercise. We skied everyday, we swam, we ice skated, we played ten pin bowling. Oh all right – we actually went on holiday. It was a great change from all the running, it was great to spend time with my family, and i don’t feel my fitness suffered at all as we were constantly on the go.

I also discovered that, silly as I feel in my running gear, I look much, much funnier in my ski wear.

Last Chance – Thy Name is Bicycle!

I have been good. I have been following the Physio’s advice. I have been doing my stretches, I have  been applying ice and popping Ibuprofen. So I thought I’d better also get on me bike and keep my fitness up whilst I can’t run.
After dithering around (as usual), I made it out on my bike on Thursday. 12 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes is not very impressive, but my backside was shouting at me by the end that it was quite long enough! Mental note – add cycling shorts and/or new bike saddle to my birthday list! I set off thinking I would hate every minute. However, after a while I cheered up, and was just appreciating being out in the fresh air again. Cycling certainly seems much faster than running, and I was amazed how quickly my watch was ‘beeping’ the miles. As I was riding on roads I often run down, it felt like I was on the wrong side of the road – a most disconcerting experience.
Following on from that success, I set off today on an even more unusual experience both for me, and for my local swimming pool. May I introduce my Flotation Belt? It was to enable me to go and do ‘Aqua Running’, a strange form of torture involving bobbing about in the pool, performing a ‘running’ motion, thus propelling yourself through the water.
If cycling felt fast moving after running, then aqua running was slow motion! I felt a total dork approaching the pool side with my attractive belt in my hand, but fortunately the pool was fairly empty (apart from the tots in the shallow end). Once I was happy that I was wearing the largest float in the pool, I slipped into the water and set off. Yes I felt stupid, and yes it was boring going sooooooo slowly, and yes people did have a bit of a stare at me. However, it was a good workout, and after 50 minutes I felt tired which is good.
My birthday weekend is fast approaching, so enough fun for today. Time to hide the grey hair and smarten up for a weekend of celebrating moving up into the next age category for races!