Week 8

Well I’m pleased to report that this last week of training went much better than the previous week! I have definitely learned my lesson, never again will I go out running without at least eating breakfast first!

Monday night was back to Spin class again, was pretty challenging this week, the good thing about Spin is that you have some control over how hard a work out you actually do, as you can up the resistance on the bike more to make it harder, or easing off on it if you are struggling. I was feeling the thighs burning on Monday so I must have been using the resistance quite high, or I’m just very unfit! Tuesday night I went to Body Balance again, I definitely do feel my balance has improved since I started going! Not quite as wobbly as I was to begin with!!

Wednesday night I decided to do a fitness dvd in the house. I have recently got Billy Blanks Tae Bo dvds and there are various different programmes on them. I did “abs and glutes” that night. Now that was an intense workout! It only lasts about 25 mins, then 5 mins warm down, but it is very high tempo! I definitely felt it working immediately, and walking was a little difficult on Thursday! My butt muscles were agony, probably as they’ve never been used before!!

Thursday night I went to the hairdressers, oh wait this is just a training diary isn’t it?! Moving on…..! Saturday we went to Broadwood Loch for a run. The other half spotted his mate up ahead and so sprinted off to catch him up, I took off at a more leisurely pace. Had decided I wanted to do a 6k, as all my running recently I’ve stopped as soon as I reach 5k (if I’ve even made it that far!). I’m pleased to say I did do 6k without stopping, although my time was pretty slow, 35 mins 54 seconds! I was only just over 10kph! However I realised that this time last year if I was able to do a 6k without stopping it would have taken me about 40 mins! I am glad anyway that I managed to get beyond the 5k point, especially as I’m doing a 6k race in a couple of weeks!

Sunday I went out for a run just at the rain came pouring down! Thinking I wanted back in the house quickly, I ran what must be the fastest first mile I’ve ever done (without stopping at the end!), 8 mins 41 secs! I had planned to run out to the end of the road and back, which is exactly 4k. However at about the 3k mark you are running back up a hill…at 2.5k I was averaging 10.9kph, perfect pace, but my earlier exertions had by then taken their toll on me and by time I had got up the hill my pace had seriously dropped! In the end I made it back to the house having done 4k in about 22mins 34 secs, an average of 10.6kph! I am pretty pleased with that as it’s the fastest I’ve ran over that distance this year, as although I’ve ran faster over 2 miles (3.2k) I had stopped at that point so don’t know if I could have kept it up for longer! Plus I ran such a fast first mile, and the weather conditions were dreadful! (I was getting funny looks from passing drivers in cars for being out running in the pouring rain!)

This weekend I have the Stress Combat 5k at Glasgow Green on Saturday. Any previous 5k I’ve done as an organised race I’ve always been over 30 mins, I am not putting too much pressure on myself for a time for this one but would love to be around the 28minute mark….will let you know how I get on in next weeks blog!

Favourite Training Song This Week: Linkin Park/Jay Z = Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer