Intervals and Squash

Yesterday morning it was back to the Group Outdoor Fitness Challenge. I rugged up for the bike ride across to Lennox Gardens. It was pitch black outside, and the ground was wet. I was sure I was insane, particularly when it started to rain. Fortunately, it only threatened to rain, so I didn't scuttle back to my warm apartment.

It was still dark when I got to the lake. Normally it's starting to get light by then, but the cloud cover was ominous. It threatened to rain again. I had visions of arriving at the park dripping wet and totally miserable. I missed one of my turnoffs in the dark, walked up every hill, and braked too hard at the top of the path down from the bridge so I ended up walking down. Despite this, I managed to get there.

On arrival I discovered we were concentrating on running. We were doing sprints and intervals. Now, I'm one of those people who doesn't have a sprint in them, so I was immediately regretting that I didn't turn around and go home at the first sight of rain. I suffered through the first ten minutes, and then, to my amazement, I started to enjoy the challenge.

We basically ran round and round a 200m track for most of the session. We did it in groups, where one person was running as hard as they could until they caught the other person, who was walking. The walker started running, the runner started walking, and so on. We did the session in pairs, then in threes, and then in fours. The idea was that we'd have to run a shorter distance each time to catch the walker in front of us, and so we could try harder for the shorter distance. I really got into it, once I got past the initial apprehension.

Of course I had to ride home. My legs were so tired! I measured the bike ride on Google Earth the other day, and it's 3.9 km each way. It felt much further on the way home yesterday. I really knew I'd worked hard. In the afternoon I kept it simple and went for a 45 min walk.

Today I played squash. It was another closely fought match with Murali. We're on the same team in the Global Corporate Challenge, which starts tomorrow. We were laughing about our step count today. When we started playing squash we used to get a lot more steps per game but we're both playing so much better now that we take fewer steps. We'll be fighting each other to collect the ball between points.

The GCC starts tomorrow. I'm keen to do well. I've been struggling with my eating over the past few weeks, and I'm hoping that getting back into a serious challenge will help me to refocus on my overall goal. My GCC goal sounds absurd, even to me, so I'm going to keep it to myself for a while. I should have an idea as to whether or not it's achievable after a couple of weeks.

I haven't really planned my exercise for the next few days. Tomorrow is taking care of itself. I've got the group outdoor fitness challenge in the morning and I'm participating in a fun run. It's 7.3 km, which should add a few steps to my daily total. Other than that, I don't have anything specific in mind.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I want to do a weights session, as I haven't done one since I went on holiday. I'd also like to get my steps up, so I guess I'll be doing some walking. I have to get myself to Kingston for lunch on Friday, so I might walk instead of catching the bus. It's a lovely walk along the lake for much of the way.

On Saturday I'd like to go for a bike ride. I've got to get these gears worked out, and I have to develop the confidence to stand up on the bike so that I can go up hills more easily. Hopefully I'll manage it without falling off.