Strengthening Week Half Marathon Training

This week I worked on strengthening. I actually write these behind so I can tell you that this week I overdid it and what I did is really not advisable – more about that in next week’s write-up but let me tell you about my packed-week.

It started on Monday when I decided that I would attend the Insanity Class whilst my son was in his swimming lesson. The whole thing is only 30 minutes – and only 20 minutes of that actually being the “exercise” bit with the warm-up, cool-down plus regular breaks. I had cycled there with my son and so only took a little bottle of water as it was all that would fit in his back-pack. It was actually an empty Coca Cola bottle – you know one of the small ones. This was my first problem as I ran out of water before the end of the class. I didn’t do everything fully (or as efficiently as some of the others) but I gave it a good try. I was actually pretty impressed with my diamond jumps, well my first few anyway – keeping them going was another thing!

At times during the class as the instructor counted down I actually thought I was going to pass out if I kept going, and embarrassingly need first aid. But I survived. When cycling home my son (who loves riding his bike and is better at it than me!) asked me to slow down as his legs hurt from swimming, but I just needed to get home as I felt so sick! Unfortunately when we got home we discovered that my husband had decided to run to the dentist, instead of taking the car. Problem was that I had left my keys and phone at home – and needed to pick the other 2 children up from an after school club! We had to cycle back over to where they were and then walk home!

Tuesday did not see me resting as my teenager had an appointment at the orthodontics in the morning and my 9-year-old had an assembly for me to go to in the afternoon. At running club I went with the greens and was happy to run out in front and loop back – giving me a real chance to stretch my legs out (4.7 miles). Again Wednesday was not a rest day with me taking my son and his friend to a secondary school open day. In the evening I tried a yoga balance class – which I am sure only really hurt because of the previous insanity class. I was glad to know some of the names of the moves and what to expect from the Yoga Retreat I went on with Mark Warner Holidays.

Thursday was meant to be my day for running 12 miles but the weather wasn’t great and I just got the feeling that my body wasn’t up to it. Instead I ended up speed running 1 mile (in just over 9 minutes – how kids at Parkrun Junior do 2k in 7 odd minutes is beyond me!). Thanks to my Garmin I could tell that at one point during that mile my pace was around 7 and half minutes! I then went out in the evening for a run with some of the ladies from running club (4.2 miles).

Friday I decided that over lunch time I would go for a swim. I didn’t know about swimtag but just kept things at a nice slow-steady pace intending to lane swim for the full 90 minutes. I mostly did breast stroke but did do a bit of front crawl. It was my first time there and after 50 minutes I ended up chatting to the staff I know for probably half an hour before swimming for the last 10 minutes.

Saturday I ran with the youngest of my boys at Parkrun and he wasn’t feeling it. Complaining from the off I thought we were going to end up walking the whole thing. He eventually got into the spirit of things though and gave it a good shot. My husband and 9-year-old ran together and both got new personal bests (faster than me!) We have ultimate goals which we reward for too, and our teen beat his goal of sub 24 minutes! We are so proud of his progress and he was very pleased with himself. We then headed off to see our oldest son. Sunday was Mothers’ Day so much more of a rest day – but I still managed to clock up around 30 thousand steps!

This week I was much better at eating less junk – apart from a treat of one bar of chocolate at the end of the week. Each time I thought about it I just thought about the pain in my muscles from all the exercise and thought what was the point of that pain if I was just going to keep eating rubbish. I did a much better job of drinking more water and adding a variety of seeds to my breakfast. I also had a Greek yoghurt with blitzed strawberries in it. This week also saw the arrival of some padded pants to stop my bottom getting sore when riding my bike and a glow belt – which is like a small bum bag with a light that goes through it – although the evenings are much lighter now.