Bike ride, Fitness challenge and personal training

When I first started riding over the bridge on Commonwealth Avenue I used to worry about the traffic. I would reassure myself that I never saw cars coming through the barrier and hitting pedestrians, trying to convince myself I was perfectly safe on my bike. As my confidence has grown I've become much more relaxed about the whole thing. This morning I was reminded of that old concern. As I rode up the hill to the bridge I came across the debris from a car accident. A whole section of stone wall and railing was lying across the path. If anyone had been walking or riding past at the time they would have been injured.

I had to get off the bike to get past the rubble. On the way home I saw that someone had moved bits and pieces of wall to one side of the path. It never occurred to me to do that, but at least I'll think of it next time I come across an obstacle like this one.

Apart from navigating my way past the accident I managed to stay seated for all the hills again. Also, I'm finding my legs are coping a lot better on the way home than they used to. Mind you, having the Garmin is interesting. It takes me a minute longer per km on the way home than it does on the way to the challenge. Now, if only I could rememember to turn it on!

This morning's fitness challenge session was pretty good fun. We started off with a different way to do our warm up activities. It was all the usual stuff - lifting our knees, kicking our butts, side steps etc. We did the exercise between a set of cones, then jogged back to the start, where we did more static exercises like half squats.

After that, we were in Indian file in two lines. The back markers had a medicine ball. When the whistle blew, they handed the ball to the pair in front then ran quickly up to the front of the line. When a different whistle sounded, we had to find Krissi. The first person to reach her got to choose an activity card, with activities such as walking lunges, 2 mins of squats, 2 mins of zigzag medicine ball passes, 2 mins of shadow boxing, 2 mins of stair climbing, etc. I enjoyed this session last time and it was just as good this time.

Because of the warmer weather there were midges everywhere. I never realised midges were sensible before. They don't seem to come out when the temperature is below zero. When I was riding home there were a lot more people out and about too. I thought that maybe I was a lot later than usual but I got home at about the same time.

On Tuesday I felt a little sore during the day. I've been fine today, but I have a feeling that I'll be suffering tomorrow. I remember that the overhead shadow boxing had a way of reminding me that I'd done it.

Tonight I had my PT session with Julia. I warmed up on the bike before the session, as I don't want to waste any of my half hour on the warm up. The session was pretty much the same as last week. We only did one set of squats as I told Julia I'd done 45 of them this morning. I was pleased to be able to do 4 lots of the 5 squats and hold on the 5th. My legs were really feeling it. I am wondering how they'll hold up after PT with Krissi tomorrow.

The chest press was much easier today. I mentioned to Julia that she was the first PT who wasn't telling me to tighten my abs. I said, laughingly, that maybe I was finally doing it. She told me that was why she wasn't saying it. She even mentioned that I was self-correcting when I relaxed them. I was pleased - it seems that almost three years of being told to do something is all it takes for me to remember to do it most of the time.

The only difference today was that I did one set of dead lifts. I've never done these before. Normally I'm watching for my lower back to start helping and locking on my abs to stop it. This exercise is one where my lower back is meant to do the work for a change, so it felt a little strange.

I'm pretty sure I'll sleep well tonight.

Oh, an update on my Mum. I haven't been mentioning her health while she's been waiting to have her heart operation (a heart valve replacement). She almost had it a few weeks ago but a slight bug prevented it from happening. Anyway, to cut a long story short, she had it on Monday and is recovering really well. She was moved from ICU to the ward yesterday and I was able to phone her today. It was lovely to hear her voice. I'll be home this weekend to see her.

JoJo, your comment about wanting to do everything made me think about it. I figure that I want to do everything simply because I can. Three years ago I couldn't have done any of it, so now I want to it all. I love being able to do stuff that most of the people I know wouldn't contemplate.