Weekly update

I keep meaning to write up my blog but then I get intrigued by Facebook or distracted by The Age. Sometimes real life interrupts me. Fortunately, there's the quick update option instead of the "capture every second of the day" option.

Last Sunday was our last game of twilight hockey for the year. We don't start again until mid-January. The Blue Geckos decided to celebrate the end of our spring fitness activity in style with pizza and beer. Fortunately I did a bit of running during the game! I was well outclassed skill-wise on the field, which added motivation to my current plan to train next year. Let's hope that idea lasts across the summer break.

On Tuesday I had my bootcamp followed by PT run combination. I should just call it my "I'm going to need an afternoon nap" combo, as I was exhausted at work. We had a boxing cardio session for bootcamp. It was like the run along, stop, choose a card, do the activity session, except that the activities all involved boxing.

It was a good fun session but it was maybe not the best preparation for an hour run. I really didn't want to run. Ten minutes in, legs moving even if they were tired, breathing fine, mind completely out of it. Krissi was chatting away to me, but the distraction wasn't enough. I simply didn't want to run. I proposed a quick walk instead. Ha! As if!

Krissi kept me going, along past the sailing club and all the way up one of the long hills. She then completely amazed me by telling me I could walk after the top of the next hill. Before I could express my surprise, she then added a condition - if I really really needed to walk, then I could. We made it to the top of the hill and kept going. I don't know how it worked. Somehow having permission to stop made it ok to continue.

It was tough though, for the whole run. I was amazed how my mind would keep noticing how tired my legs were. My lower back started to ache. My shoulders were tense. Every time I conquered one problem, my brain would sneak in a new one. Fortunately Krissi was there with me. When I'm having a day like that I don't know whether or not I'm really hurting. I kept checking my breathing, which was fine. My legs kept turning over. If I didn't think about it, my back and shoulders were ok.

I was hoping Krissi would turn around sooner than usual. Of course not. Mind you, she didn't make me run any further than I have before. We turned around just past the nursery. It seemed like a long way back to the car, but we made it. All up, I managed to run for just over an hour even though I didn't want to run. That's got to be good for me when I eventually run a half marathon. (Shh: I'm not quite admitting this to myself yet. I'm planning to give the Canberra Half a go next year.)

Even though I was exhausted on Tuesday at work I managed to spend half an hour weeding the garden and I vacuumed! Yes, for those of you who missed the Facebook update, I bought a Dyson on the weekend. Wow!

I gave myself Wednesday off exercise, apart from a little walking. Today I had the double bootcamp. This morning we had our final session, so it was the fitness assessment. I was less apprehensive about the beep test, but I only made it one level past my starting point. I thought I couldn't go any further, but I didn't actually throw up when I stopped, so I think maybe I could have managed another level. I did more pushups and situps, ran the time trial 3 seconds faster, and was slower in the agility. Overall, it was a good result.

The one I was most pleased with was the 1 km run (almost 1 km, but let's not be precious). Last time I went out too fast and had to stop to walk a couple of times. This time I managed my pace a lot better, which made for a much better run. I can't say that I was enjoying it. In fact, I would have stopped half way if I hadn't had to face Krissi and TB afterwards. I was surviving it though, which makes me realise that I can run faster. It's all about managing my pace.

I was quite tired at lunchtime, which surprised me. Maybe I went out a bit harder this morning than I thought. With Billy, we did the usual skipping, three sets of 2 minute intervals today, followed by star jumps (I am so good at them!), power squats (not so good), bottom half of burpees (hopeless) and pushups (not as many as this morning, but still respectable). After that we did pulling people with the resistance bands. That's a lot harder than it looks. We finished off with two sets of boxing. It was a great workout.

I'm feeling really good right now. I just have to keep up the exercise now that one of my bootcamps has finished. Time to get my backside out running on my own I think.