Category: Janathon

Janathon Day 25 – Fitness Blender kettlebells workout

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fitness-blender

After trying out the Fitness Blender kettlebells workout I’d found on youtube yesterday (the video is on yesterday’s post), I thought I’d do the whole 33 minutes today. It comprises a 3 minute warm-up (mostly jogging on the spot), then 3 rounds of kettlebell exercises. Yesterday I’d only completed the first round so I was excited (that may be a slight exaggeration) to find out what exercises were in the other two rounds. I wasn’t excited for long though, as the second two rounds were exactly the same as the first round.

Oh.

I had a look at their website just now and they have dozens of free workout videos on there, for all kinds of exercise (cardio, yoga, strength, etc.). You can search for the kind of workout you want, including type, difficulty level, duration and calories burned, or the equipment you own (including ‘slosh tube’, whatever that is).

I only discovered Fitness Blender yesterday – is this a website everyone else in the world had already heard of?

Janathon Day 24 – my first foray into kettlebelling

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I have no idea if ‘kettlebelling’ is a valid word – it sounds a bit rude, doesn’t it? Still, Argos delivered my kettlebells today (I say ‘delivered’, I mean the delivery man dumped them on the ground and left me to lug them indoors) and I was desperate to try them out.

kettlebells

Not having any kettlebell workout DVDs, I looked up kettlebell workouts on youtube instead and came across this beginner’s one from Fitness Blender.

Choosing the lightest weight (2.5kg) because I’m such a weed, I skipped the warm up (it involved jogging on the spot and I was wearing normal clothes, i.e. not gym kit and sports bra) and did ten minutes of the kettlebells bit.

I don’t know what I was expecting but those ten minutes were fun and more of a workout than I thought it’d be – my heart rate was definitely raised, although I couldn’t tell for sure as my heart rate monitor decided not to work. It was a weights/cardio hybrid I’ll be giving it another go at the weekend when I’m more appropriately attired and not about to make my dinner.

fitbit

Argos also delivered to me (and this was handed to me, not dumped on the ground) a Fitbit which I was mega-excited to get as it’ll track my steps and sleep and stuff. And it’s orange, which is obviously the best thing about it. I’ll write more about that another time, when I’ve played with it for longer.

Janathon Day 22 – sitting is apparently the new rowing

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I almost turned into one of those silly obsessives this morning. After drinking a bottle and a half of wine last night, one of my first thoughts this morning was GOTTA BURN ALL THOSE CALORIES OFF but we all know it’s thoughts like that that lead to eating disorders and so instead I thought GOTTA DO MY JANATHON and dragged myself off to the gym after I’d finished offending a friend on Facebook (I don’t know why she was offended, I only said she looked like a prostitute).

paris

I was happily rowing on the rowing machine when a man sat down on the one next to me. And continued to sit. And sit. And sit and sit and sit and I thought JUST ROW ON THE MACHINE, DAMMIT but he continued to sit and this annoyed me so much I got up and flounced over to the cross-trainer and he continued to sit for another two and a half minutes then started to row, yay, but only for four minutes, then he stopped and sat again.

Another thing that annoyed me in the gym today was people talking. People should not be allowed to talk in gyms unless it’s ‘ouch’, ‘help’, or ‘call an ambulance’.

Janathon Day 21 – a serious attack of the couldn’t-be-bothereds

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dog

Yep, I had a serious attack of the couldn’t-be-bothereds today. It started off okay; I woke up early, thought I’d be out for a run by 8, then decided I couldn’t be bothered to run, so I’d go to the gym instead but by the time the gym opened at 9, I decided I couldn’t be bothered to go and then I decided I couldn’t be bothered to go to university either, so I emailed my tutor to say I wouldn’t be in today but I thought I have to do something for Janathon, so I went on the rowing machine here for ten minutes which I know isn’t very long, but after five minutes I’d decided I couldn’t be bothered to do any more, so at least I stuck it out until ten minutes.

If anyone’s got any positivity, motivation and can-be-bothered vibes handy, please chuck them my way.

Janathon Day 20 – powered by CherryActive Concentrate and baby penguins

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Did you know The Montmorency cherry has been discovered to be a rich source of powerful antioxidants and flavonoids which promote a host of health and recovery benefits including healthy joint function, normal uric acid levels, a healthy cardiovascular system, regular sleep patterns, and muscular strength & recovery? No, nor me (I don’t know what uric acid levels – normal or otherwise – are either).

cherry-active-concentrate

Still, it all sounds like a good thing, so I gave some CherryActive Concentrate a go. It contains 100% cherry juice (over 3,000 cherries in a bottle – that’s a lot of cherries), so no preservatives, flavourings, sugars or colours and stuff.

Because it’s a concentrate, you don’t need much – a 30ml serving provides one of your five a day. I originally tried some in water but I didn’t like it. It was sour and bitter – maybe I used too much, but I tried it again in a banana and blueberry smoothie and it worked well.

It worked so well in aiding muscular strength and recovery, I’ve got the beginning of a bicep. That could, of course, just be the effects of doing body pump every other day during January. Who knows – body pump, or magic cherries?

If you’d like to buy some CherryActive Concentrate, you can order it online from the link above, or from Holland & Barrett.

After drinking this morning’s smoothie, I went to the gym. My Monday mornings are usually reserved for hangovers and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the inside of the gym on a Monday morning before but because I haven’t had a drink for a few weeks (don’t worry, I haven’t gone tee-total or doing that stupid ‘I’m-an-alcoholic-please-sponsor-me’ dryathlon thing; I’ve just had other things to do and find hangovers not particularly conducive to a) getting out of bed for long bike rides; or b) getting assignments done on time), I was up bright and early and raring to go(ish).

The gym was flipping packed. I’ve never seen it so busy. All three treadmills were in use, as were both rowing machines, so I had to start my workout on the cross-trainer (my usual routine is rowing machine, then the cross-trainer and I was mightily miffed at having to do them back to front). When I’d finished on the cross-trainer though, the rowing machines were still being used. I tried standing there staring at the people on them but that didn’t work so I got on the stationary bike and kept turning round to see if the rowing machines had become free and after five minutes, yay, one became empty so I got off the stationary bike and did some rowing.

Oh and by the way, today is Penguin Awareness Day, so here’s a baby penguin for you.

Baby-penguin

Janathon Day 19 – a parkrun PW, one day later

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tortoise

As mentioned yesterday, as I got up too late to make it to my local parkrun, I promised to do the parkrun distance on the treadmill instead. Unfortunately this plan was scuppered because all three treadmills were being used, so I parkrunned on the cross-trainer instead. So, today, I decided to cycle to the park and do my own parkrun there. Then I decided to ask iliketocount if he wanted to come with me. He originally said no, he had to wash the car, so I started mumbling about how he never wants to spend any time with me so he relented and said he’d drive down there.

When we got to the park, I remembered I don’t like running with people. Although, iliketocount hasn’t really grasped the concept of ‘with’ as he spent most of the time ten feet ahead of me, only turning round occasionally to tell me to stop walking.

I didn’t stop walking though and it’s probably a good thing I didn’t do parkrun on Saturday as, when we got in, iliketocount looked up Saturday’s results and said if I’d done it at today’s speed, I’d have come last.

Oops. 4/10. Must try harder.

Janathon Day 17 – cow onesie plank saves the day

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You know when you wake up and you feel ‘meh, can’t be bothered to do anything’? That was me yesterday. I was going out for afternoon tea with Helen and Mary, so I didn’t have time in the morning to do much, so my plan for Janathon was to go to the Post Office about a quarter of a mile away, then walk back the long way – the long way adding an extra mile and a half to the route. But, it was raining and I was feeling meh and I really couldn’t be bothered to even walk the quarter of a mile to the Post Office, let alone another mile and a half on top of that.

So I thought, I can’t really count the cycle to the station and back, so I’ll go on the rowing machine when I get back. Then, when I was round Helen’s flat after the afternoon tea (which involved eating scones the Cornish way – sorry Devonshire people),

scones

she gave me the birthday present she’d been hanging on to until she saw me. She said ‘you must do a plank in it’ and so, aha!, I thought, that’s Janathon sorted.

cow-onesie-plank

I still want more pajama/onesie planks, so get your photos posted!

Janathon Day 16 – Almost sabotaged by Windows

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I was up later than usual and I had an editing and copywriting seminar in the morning, so to save time, I decided to body pump in my pyjamas and slippers and I even did it while I was still drinking my cup of tea. Now, that’s dedication.

Halfway through though, Windows decided to interrupt my workout by installing updates, then restarting the laptop.

windows-updates

Yes, I swore at it.

Still, deciding my time could probably be spent more productively than swearing a lot and staring at the screen watching the percentage of completed updates slowly creep up to 100%, while I was waiting I emptied the dishwasher.

Dedication and multitasking, and I hadn’t even finished my cup of tea.

I am hardcore.

Janathon Day 15 – Tabata is not for me

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tabata

A few weeks ago, I was asked if I’d like to attend a Tabata class. This prompted flashbacks involving a shouty orange woman to the last time I’d said yes to attending a gym class when not knowing anything about the exercise involved, so I politely declined.

They didn’t want to let me off that easily though and asked if I’d like a DVD to review instead. Okay, I thought, I’m willing to embarrass myself in the privacy of my own home and so I politely accepted.

It’s taken a while for me to get the DVD out but, hey, it’s Janathon and Janathon is a good time to be trying new things, so today was the day to get Tabata’d up.

Tabata is trendy-at-the-mo high intensity interval training (HIIT) and apparently the only scientifically proven fitness session born in a lab, not a gym. Being one of those annoying vegetarian animal-rights people, I was a bit worried about the ‘born in a lab’ bit but I ascertained from the intro it was tested on small Japanese men and not bunnies so, so far, so good.

Except, further into the intro it became clear me and Tabata weren’t going to get on. It consisted of fresh-faced boys and girls wearing skin-tight white lycra doing what can only be described as break-dancing but without the spinning-on-your-head bit (for those of us old enough to remember break-dancing). Uh oh.

I started the warm-up and that was fine; it only involved moving my arms a bit. But then the lycra-clad gym bunnies on the screen started moving more and getting on the floor and I ended up just watching and not doing and so I gave up and went to the gym instead.

If you like gym classes that involve coordination and floorwork, you’ll probably like Tabata (you can find official Tabata classes at your local Fitness First), although Warriorwoman did a Tabata workout on a treadmill, I think that’d be more my kind of thing.

Janathon Day 14 – it has to be seen…

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…to be believed, but I’m still going strong! Quite literally strong, too, as I went to the gym this morning and could definitely feel the difference in my fitness. I burned more calories than usual on the rowing machine and I stormed through Audiofuel’s Thru the Gears on the treadmill without slowing down for a walk break. Go me!

And to copy Dave Lewis, who keeps posting his pretty runningfreeonline.com calendars on to the Janathon Facebook Page, here’s mine (yes that’s a photo of me in a race wearing devil’s horns and the number 666):

calendar

Janathon 2014 totals so far:

Running: 13.92 miles
Cycling: 95.09 miles
Cross-training: 4:48 hours
Total time: 17:41 hours
Calories: 6194

Well done everyone who’s successfully completed their second week.

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