Fitness challenge and Yoga

This morning I made it to the Outdoor Group Fitness Challenge. I was really looking forward to it after missing the first two sessions. As usual, I rode my bike to Lennox Gardens. It seemed much easier today. In fact, I managed to stay seated for the hills. Either riding to work has improved my cycling fitness or the bike service has made a huge difference.

There were several new people in the group, which certainly adds interest, along with a core of familiar faces. It was interesting to see how the new people were handling the work. It reminded me of my first challenge, when all the activities were new and I wasn't quite sure what to do. Knowing what to expect makes it less daunting.

It was the agility session today. After the warm up Brad took us through the activities, which were arranged in a rectangular area. He makes it look so incredibly easy. The activities included the ladder exercise, where you step between the rungs with both feet, starting with the right foot for the first ladder and the left foot for the second ladder; jumping in and out of a circle of cones, clockwise and anti-clockwise; standing jumps; a short shuttle run and a dodge and weave run. In between activities we ran around the rectangular area, jogging the long sides and sprinting the short sides.

The first time through we spent 2 mins per activity and the second time through 1 min per activity. We finished off with a shuttle run and then the cool down. I was really pleased with how hard I worked today. I made an effort to go as fast as I could on the short ends and I kept myself moving as much as possible.

This is the third time I've done the activity session and I'm really starting to see the improvement. I dreaded the jumping activities the first time. There's a picture of me doing one of them on the 121 website, along with a testimonial I wrote at the time. You can't tell from the photo how hard I was finding it, but I remember the feeling. I'm still not keen on the jumping, but I know I can do it.

I was a bit stiff and sore at work today, so I didn't run home this evening. I went to Yoga, which was terrific as ever for making sure I stretched out properly. we did a lot of "warrior" poses tonight. There are so many ways the instructor is able to get me tied into knots! We started off with a relaxing breathing exercise, complete with visualisations. I quite like these.

After that, we were kneeling down and then settled back onto our heels. It's a good shin stretch, but I just couldn't hold it at the beginning. We moved back into that position a number of times, so I persisted. I was able to hold it at the end, although I was really close to giving up and sitting cross-legged. I'm starting to get a few of the other poses at last. I felt as though I coped quite well tonight. I didn't have any cramps, which was a relief. I've started taking magnesium tablets and I hadn't just come from a run. It will be interesting to see how I go after a run next week.

I'm still in shock. I've signed up for the Triathlon training program that I mentioned the other day. Training starts next week, so I'll be busy. I'm a little apprehensive about the swimming and the cycling. I find it amazing that I've done this to myself. I've also started to look at what I'll need to do for the half marathon. I have a list of all the events I want to do next year, in Canberra and in Melbourne as well. I can't believe I'm this organised. I'm going to take a leaf out of lbtepa's book and use stars and stickers to reward myself. This is going to be fun.