Running update

OK so…

Since my first 5k at the beginning of the month I have only been running a few times, about once a week. The longest run I did was 3.5km, and I ran with my other half once, but that was it really. I find it a little difficult to find motivation at the moment.

Since my calorie and snack cut I was feeling a little weaker than usual (never mind PMS also getting in the way…) so I didn’t go to the gym at all. And it made me realise how much I didn’t like the gym I had been going to! I got bored of my routine, I started to hate treadmill running and I just missed fitness classes! The classes at this gym weren’t attractive at all – never mind that they were just in the corner of the gym… So I froze my membership, but I might cancel it completely later. It all depends on one thing:

I signed up for a free trial class at the local martial arts centre. They do a women only class, and I believe it is kickboxing. It sounds very interesting, I can’t wait to try it! The idea of a stress-releasing kick-ass group class at a martial arts centre that is closer to my place and more easily accessible than the gym makes it even more appealing! My class is on Tuesday, I will let you know how it was, I really hope it will work.

And even though it will be more expensive than the gym, I think it will work better for me!

Still shattered – but it was worth it!

I finally have time (and a little bit of energy…) to reflect on yesterday’s run.

In summary: it was absolutely amazing!

The weather was not very kind to us. I woke up at 5:22am to the rain! I must mention that I have a roof room, but still, it was very heavily raining. I had a short panic attack, given that I have done outdoor running only once in my training, but it was indeed a short terror – I went back to sleep almost immediately.

I took half of the day off work so I could get there for the start at 4:30pm. In fact I was there by 3:30pm. I got drenched on my way to the train station… I was worried that I had to run in that kind of awful weather and that I would catch a cold or some infection. But by the time I got to the Tower it was actually sunny! I collected my T-shirt (which you can see in the pictures in my previous post here.

We had a funny warm up and then off we went! There were soooooooo many people. My racing number was just above 15,000, but the highest number I saw was well over 56,000! I don’t know what the numbering system was (I doubt there were as many as 41,000 runners), but it was fantastic to see so many people. Kids, adults, elderly – even a mum with her baby in a pushchair! I was stunned and touched by the whole concept and atmosphere.

It was a very emotional day for me. I thought of my sister a lot, but at the same time I was distracted by the excitement over my first 5k race.

The race was indeed in the moat of the Tower. A 1km lap was marked out, and you ran as much as you wanted to between 1km and 10km. So it was 5 laps for me.

I managed to run the first km – I was impressed! I ran out of breath so quickly so I was very close to giving up, but NO. I kept telling myself that I had to run the first lap, and so I did. After that I did intervals of fast walking and fast running.

It was so good that I could count the laps. It was easier to keep track of how much I had done without getting my phone out of my pocket (which obviously had the run keeper app running to track my speed!). The first time I checked my phone was after 3.5km – and it was so good to see that I was doing well. At that point the timer was at 30:00, which included the 5 minute warm up, so I was at 3.5km and 25:00 minutes! That really powered me, so I ran even more.

Sadly I had an awful toe cramp towards the end of my 4th lap – it was sooooo painful… But I just kept going, I knew there wasn’t an awful lot left, so I just forced it. With a hindsight: yes, it could have gone wrong and I could have ended up with a more serious injury, but hey, I didn’t 🙂

The weather was actually fine in the end. It was overcast and a little bit of rain every now and then. It was very windy as well, but I could only feel that in one side of the moat only, the rest was OK. Running on grass? It was very gentle on my knees, not so gentle on my toes. The ground was uneven and the gravel parts were very wet and a little slippery – but it was a better experience than the treadmill, never mind all those other people running with me…

And crossing the finish line… It was amazing! I was given a medal and lots of ‘well done’ and it was just great!

In summary: It was absolutely amazing 🙂

Would I do it again? YES YES YES!

Would I do more than 5k? No. The maximum I can run in one go is 1km so far – I know I can train to do more than that and to do it fast, but I just can’t see myself doing more than 5k. I want to be able to run that in one go first, but I’m afraid that will take me a long time.

Will I swap the gym for outdoor running? Hmmm I am actually thinking about it. Now that I know how amazing it can be to run outdoors… There are lots of things for it and lots of things against leaving the gym… I’ll let you know how I decided! 🙂

I’m back!

Hello Readers!

I am awfully sorry that I have been away for so long. I have been very busy recently with my new job, which has ended officially today, but luckily I have got a ten-week extension! 🙂 from tomorrow I will be working part time Mondays to Wednesdays every week, so I will have more time for blogging and exercising.

I had a superb personal training session today. I am extremely tired, and I will be in a lot of pain tomorrow! 🙂 I have enjoyed doing PT with Erika. I believe I have improved a lot. I have done things I would have never done on my own, mainly free weights and machines! I feel like I have developed my muscles an awful lot. My body fat percentage is at around 30% now! I believe it was near 50% in November last year!
I am 72 kg at the moment – I haven’t lost a lot of weight recently but that’s due to my job, which keeps me extremely busy and I was not able to focus on dieting as much as I wanted to.

The very best thing about this job was that it was 9-5 every weekday – a very regular work pattern as opposed to my previous job. It was a lot easier to eat at regular intervals and fit in exercise at different times of the day. Working part time will be better in terms of having more time to focus on the diet and doing more exercise or the kind of exercise that I want to, but it will not be very great on money unfortunately – I will have to sacrifice my PT sessions with Erika. Don’t misunderstand me: I will not give up! I will still be a member of her Fit as Hel group and I will still go to the gym regularly. I will just see her less often than now.

I’m really sorry I’m actually very very tired and I have to get up quite early tomorrow so I will call it for today.
I will try to return to regular posting, not every day though – maybe every other day or at least twice a week.

Thanks for reading!
good night

Day 22 – the last week has begun…

So it is the first day of the last week already gone!
I got up early – I was really tempted to have a lie in, but I resisted 😉 I have to admit though, that it was partly due to my IBS kicking in this morning I have no idea what had triggered it, it felt like as if I had had a glass of milk – which I obviously didn’t! I had to visit the bathroom two more times after breakfast, then it was gone! Odd… But it was a good start to my daily routine plan 🙂
After a bad start the day just got better. I made a prawn pad thai stir fry for lunch – only 310 kcal 🙂 it was yummy! Practiced German almost all day, while relaxing (days off work always go by really quickly). Ich habe mich sehr viele YouTube videos angeschaut :).
In the evening I went to the gym – I finally managed to get to Erika’s classes! 30 min aerobics and 30 min spinning – I was exhausted by the end but I loved it so much! And I’ve never done this well before! On the fast track at aerobics I only missed a few repetitions – almost made it all the way through! I remember my first aerobics class with Erika – I couldn’t do even half of the fast track. I did a few jumping jacks and skiing, but I was unable to do any of the burpees – that was about 3 months ago. A few more classes and I will be able to do all repetitions 😉 I’m just hoping I can make it to these classes – stupid inconsistent work pattern…
And spinning! It was so much fun watching those (typical going-to-pub-after-gym and never-done-cardio-classes-ever) guys being out of breath by the end haha :). To be honest there was a point where I was almost crying – both from pain and joy, because I actually managed to do it even after being tired from aerobics 😉 I felt exhilarated by my personal success – better joy than any kind of food can give you!
Thank you Erika, it was an amazing workout tonight! Looking forward to Wednesday 😉

Day 18 – yes, to gym!

So I finally made myself to go to the gym. I wanted to do the BlogFit exercise before Zumba class, but I couldn’t find a private space the gym was just so full! So I decided to warm up with elliptic trainer and rower before Zumba. Zumba was amazing! It was very difficult though, I really had to focus to do it well, but I’m sure next time will be easier! The step class after it was ridiculously boring! I mean it was just the same as always, but it was boring! And the music must have been changed, because all the exercise seemed to be off rhythm. I couldn’t wait for the class to end! A few of us in a corner tried to make it better by actually moving to the music and thus doing it a lot quicker than the instructor. But I still managed to burn 1200 kcal according to the myfitnesspal app! Incredible, right?
Food was ok as well, I had 130g protein too! I had a lot of grilled chicken for dinner, so that really gave my protein consumption a boost!
I was watching Supersize vs. Superskinny – omg! I mean I thought I ate a lot of trash food, but what that woman ate in a day was ridiculous! I mean what she had for dinner was more fast food than I have in a month! No wonder she was more than 140kg!
The number of TV shows about obese people… I don’t even know what to think! I’m watching World’s Fattest Kids now and it just makes me feel very-very sad. Kids weighing more than 150 kg! 13-16 year olds! And there is a 13 year old girl who said she tried really hard to lose weight, but diets didn’t work for her, so she decided to have liposuction! And then she’s shown almost throwing up from tasting a tomato! I’m just sad… And upset!
Anyway, I’m off to sleep. Good night!

Day 8 – first day back in the gym!

I really loved today 🙂 although I didn’t hit my protein goal again I have stayed within my calorie limit, and on top of today’s BlogFit exercise I have been to the gym as well 🙂 I went to a 30 min pump class and a 15 min abs class straight after 🙂 it was amazing! It was very hard, the instructor made us work like hell, but it was such a great feeling to be back and have a good sweat 🙂

before classes and BlogFit exercise

after training – tired but happy 🙂

I have also met Erika after classes and had a really nice chat 🙂

I went to the shop after the gym to get some whey protein. I was very annoyed that all the protein powders and bars and flapjacks had milk in them 😦 One of the packages did say that it contained lactase for people who cannot digest lactose, but I didn’t want to risk it. I’m really disappointed, I feel like I have to try 10 times as hard as others to get all that protein 😦
The thing is with my lactose intolerance that it is stress related. When I’m calm and everything is fine I have a very basic lactose intolerance where I can’t have milk or fresh dairy products, but can eat cheese (apart from cream cheese) and can have other food containing milk (e.g. Cakes made with milk). But when I’m really stressed out – which I used to be during uni – I can’t have anything with milk in it.
So I need to look for vegan sources of protein… Need to eat more peas, beans and broccoli 🙂

But it really has been a good day 🙂 looking forward to Wednesday’s Pilates and hula hoop classes 🙂