Tag: Gym

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.

Janathon 2014 Day 2 – unfit for purpose

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Slightly misleading title; my main purpose in life at the mo is to finish the final year of my degree and as students are known for being idle layabouts, I’m allowed to be as unfit as I jolly well like.

Still, after I looked at SportTracks yesterday and saw I’d only exercised on ONE day in December (Tuesday the 17th, when I did 40 minutes at the gym, if you really want to know), I thought it was probably time I got back down the gym. I don’t usually sweat much at the gym (unless I’m on the treadmill) and thought that was down to me not putting much effort in but today I was a right old Sweaty Betty after just a few minutes on the cross-trainer at minimal effort, so I’m putting that down to unfitness.

do-next-graphic

Anyway, tomorrow, I’m going to let YOU decide what I do. You can choose from:

Run (minimum 3 miles but I haven’t run for weeks so it’ll probably be more of a walk but I promise to get out there even if it’s raining)

Bike (minimum 10 miles but if it’s raining I’ll do it in the gym instead and believe me, I really don’t want to do 10 miles on a stationary bike)

Body Pump DVD at home (I promise to do the full hour and not skip the bits I don’t like; I’ll even do the stretching bit at the end)

Gym (30 minutes rowing machine, 30 minutes cross-trainer)

Okay, over to you! Let me know what you want me to do and I’ll see which has the most votes in the morning.

The JogBlog Guide To Not Being A Lardarse Over Christmas

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You know all those posts that are out at the moment? The we’re-going-to-piss-on-your-party posts cheerfully piping up with ‘advice’ such as ‘run three miles to burn off a mince pie’? Well, forget all those clichéd depressing doom-mongering party-poopers -  here’s the fun and easy JogBlog guide to not turning into a tubster over Christmas.

In the Pub

Got a work do or meeting friends for a drink? Get some exercise and get into their good books at the same time by offering to go to the bar for everyone, even when it’s not your round. Don’t get so drunk though you forget it’s not your round and you pay for all the drinks each time. Oh, and while you’re there, do a bar press-up.

athon-bar-press-up

Do a Santathon

Most of these provide – and let you keep – the costume, so, not only do you get to run a fun 5 or 10k with loads of other Santas, you also get bonus points by being able to dress up as Santa for your kids (if you have them. If not, I’m sure your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/dog/cat/hamster/goldfish/dead worm collection will be equally thrilled).

I took part in a Santathon with Shaun a few years ago. We’d only been seeing each a few months then, otherwise I don’t think he’d have agreed to do it quite so cheerfully (yes, I know Shaun needs to work on his ‘cheerful’ face). 

santathon

Supermarket slalom

Run to the supermarket, then make shopping into A Fun Thing by making a game out of slaloming around everyone fighting over the prawn rings and Ferrero Rocher. When you get home, pretend you’re in a body pump class by putting on some Christmas classics on the stereo using the bottles of port and Champagne you’ve just bought as weights.

Opening presents early is an act of kindness. Honest

Is there a bike shaped parcel in the garage? You’d better open it (carefully, as you’ll need to wrap it back up again) and give it a spin to make sure it’s in perfect working order. Imagine how disappointed the person who gave it to you will be if you open it on Christmas Day and find out it needs to go back to Halfords for a service? I’m not an expert on Halfords’ opening hours but I’m willing to bet a bottle of Babycham they’re not open on Christmas Day.

And if it gets a bit dirty while you’re test-riding it, you can blame whoever gave it to you for leaving your nice new shiny bike in a dirty old garage. 

bike

Make a fitness advent calendar

Chocolate advent calendars? Pah! What you need is a fitness advent calendar. Get a chocolate advent calendar, eat all the chocolate, then write down a different exercise (body pump, spin, circuits, yoga, running, cycling, walking, etc.) on the door of each day. It’s a fitness lucky dip!

Go to the gym

Yes, this sounds like a normal thing to do. But there are three very good reasons for visiting the gym over the Christmas period:

1. If you go now, you won’t look like a New Year Newbie.

2. All those annoying people who walk on the treadmills are at home on the sofa, watching Elf while munching their way through a tin of Quality Street.

3. You can buy yourself some new kit. It is Christmas, after all.

Janathon practise

Oh yes, Janathon is looming and what would Janathon be without a dressing gown dash? Practise those dashes now!

dressing-gown-dash

Hand and wrist exercises

Don’t forget other parts of your body this Christmas and exercise your hands and wrists by writing down all those New Year’s Resolutions you’re not going to keep.

Play Temple Run

Okay, so you really can’t be arsed to do anything. Fine, let Usain Bolt run a few thousand metres for you instead on Temple Run. He even wears a Santa hat for you to laugh at. Let’s hope he got paid a lot for this.

usain-bolt-temple-run-santa-hat

So, that’s my guide to keeping fit over Christmas, what are your top tips?

Win £25 to spend at Tony Pryce Sports (no minimum purchase necessary)

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tony-pryce-sports

Tony Pryce Retail Ltd is one of the largest independent sports retailers in the South West of England and has been trading since 1978.

They sell gear for running, badminton, football, hockey, rugby, squash and general fitness for men, women and children by all the big brands including – amongst many others – Asics, Brooks, adidas, New Balance and Reebok.

Win a £25 voucher to spend at Tony Pryce Sports

If you’d like a £25 voucher to spend at the Tony Pryce website, just leave a comment below and I’ll pick a winner at random after the closing date of midnight, Saturday 23 November 2013.

There’s no minimum purchase necessary, so you’ve got nothing to lose!

It’s not a condition of entering the competition, but Tony Pryce Sports would really like it if you could like their Facebook Page and follow them on Twitter.

Creak

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Creak. That’s the sound of my joints aching or the noise of the seams of my clothes bursting, take your pick. I’ve been a bit lax taking my glucosamine (I’ve been buying vegetarian ones from Health Span for a few years as they’re much cheaper than Holland & Barrett) – I know people say supplements are a con, but I know my joints creak when I stop taking them and stop creaking when I do. So, it’s either the supplements or I walk round in sports braces all day and I know what I’d rather do.

The seams of my clothes bursting is all my fault though, so I went to the gym this morning. Plus, I had a new sports bra to try out. Shock Absorber has always been my number one favourite sports bra and now they’ve done something amazing. They’ve made one you don’t need a degree in mechanical engineering to get in and out of.

The Shock Absorber Zipped Plunge Sports Bra has – unsurprisingly – a zip down the front. That’s it. No hooks and clasps to fiddle with and swear at, so even when you’re dripping in sweat, you just unzip it and it’s off. Another bonus with the lack of hooks and clasps is that it’s wonderfully comfortable. It’s only £25 which I think is a bit of a bargain.

Shock-Absorber-Active-Zipped-Plunge-back

Another bargain bit of kit I got recently was my US Pro leggings. I don’t like short shorts, or ones that are just under the knee. My preferred length, any time of year, is three-quarters and these are fab. A great length that doesn’t ride up, a waist band that’s high enough and stays up and all for £12.00.

US-Pro-leggings

 

I’ve got a new running app to try out tomorrow so I’m going to have to go for a run. I probably should anyway, seeing as I’ve got the London Duathlon and the Great South Run coming up. With all that running, maybe I should get some new shoes too. Perhaps some nice bright purple Asics, like these one here?

Plan A, Plan B, Plan… oh forget it…

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I’m off to Amsterdam on Friday and haven’t done a thing about it yet apart from buy the plane tickets and book a hotel (which is very grown up for me – I usually just turn up there then look for somewhere to stay). For some reason, I like to buy new clothes if I’m going away, even if it’s only for a couple of days.

So, today I had planned to sod the exercise and go into town and do stuff like take back some books to the library, get my hair cut, buy some clothes, toiletries and make-up and get some Euros from the Post Office (grown up holiday thing no. 2).

But it was raining. I got up at about 7:30am and it was still raining at 9:30am and so I thought sod it, I’ll go into town tomorrow instead and today I’ll do some exercise at home then crack on with my playwriting essay.

Hmm. That was the plan, anyway. What actually happened was that yes, I did start exercising at home along to Erin O’Brien’s Strong Body Fit Body DVD that I enjoyed last week or the week before or whenever it was I used it but today, I really couldn’t be bothered with it and so I sacked it off after thirty minutes.

Back upstairs to work really hard on my essay then. Yeah, right. What actually happened was that I decided to do two lots of washing, make a red bean, cashew and spinach curry for dinner and then it was lunchtime so I made some mushroom and lentil soup. After logging my meals into myfitnesspal, I was over calories for the day so after lunch (okay… two hours after finishing my lunch and finishing dicking around on the internet and not doing my essay) I did a rare thing – I got changed and went to the gym. Yeah, in the afternoon and everything.

Ouch, that was hard. I was bloated from lunch and it took forty minutes of exercise to stop feeling like a lead balloon. After I’d finished, I had a look at the classes on offer. As it’s a tiny gym, they don’t have many and the only thing I’d possibly do is circuit training but then I thought, maybe in Juneathon, I’ll force myself to do some of these classes. But not Zumba. There is NOTHING in this world that would make me do Zumba. Just the thought of it terrifies me.

Speaking of Juneathon – it’s only a couple of months away – yippee!

Cision Fitness and Exercise Blogs UK Top 10

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2013-Top-10-Cision-Blog-BadgeCision interviewed fitness guru Julia Buckley last week and in that interview, Julia said my blog was one of her favourites – thanks, Julia, I’m honoured and delighted! This led to Cision ranking me at number four in the Fitness and Exercise Blogs UK Top 10 which obviously further honoured and delighted me.

You’d think that as the UK’s number four fitness and exercise blogger, I’d actually do some fitness and exercise stuff, especially as I’m still on my Operation Stop Being A Fat Lazy Cow thing. So, yes, I have been to the gym over the last few days but I haven’t done any running though. I haven’t run for a month or more – anyone got any tips on how I can get back out there?

AWDis Girlie Cool T-Shirt

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I only did half an hour of weights yesterday, but I’m aching today. That’s what you get for not doing any exercise for a month, I suppose.

Today I went to the gym and not just because I had a new AWDis Girlie Cool T-shirt from Qtag.com I wanted to try out.

awdis-girlie-cool-t-shirt

I like this t-shirt. It fits well, it’s red (I like red), it’s got wickability, it’s comfortable and, best of all, it doesn’t cost much over six quid. Yeah, six quid for a proper technical wicking t-shirt without having to go into that well known high street shop that does cheapy sportswear but has a layout like a van backed into the shop, ejected its contents and left it there in a muddled heap. 

You don’t have to get a red one; you can get a black one, a yellow one, a purple one, a white one, a one-of-their-three-different-shades-of-blue one, a fluorescent pink one and even a kelly green one (whatever that is).

By the way, ‘AWDis’ stands for All We Do Is. I’m not sure what it is they only do. Make decent cheap t-shirts, maybe.

I got to the gym and as I got there a girl was going in and she held the door open for me and then there she was in the changing room and it’s only a small room and there was only two of us in there and so I thought I should probably make conversation or something but all I could think of to say was ‘cold, innit?’ and I’d already had the ‘cold, innit?’ conversation with the girl on reception, so I just smiled at her, hung up my coat and went out and did some gym stuff.

After being on the rowing machine and cross-trainer, I wanted to do an Audiofuel Thru the Gears session on the treadmill but I hadn’t run for nearly four weeks when I did three miles with a running group. Yes, a running group. Me, out running with other people on purpose and not just accidentally because I got caught up in a bunch of schoolkids running for the bus. Get me, Miss Social Runner.

Anyway, I managed a whole Thru the Gears session without any walking bits and felt knackered but great after.

I’m quite enjoying this Operation Stop Being a Fat Lazy Cow. I’ve still got university assignments to do though, bah.

Operation Stop Being a Fat Lazy Cow day 3
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
New t-shirts: 1
‘Cold, innit?’ dilemmas: 1

The JogBlog Guide to Spending More Time In The Gym

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Current Janathon record holder – Kevin Foreman, who ran a staggering 455 miles in Janathon 2012 (and blogged every day unlike some of the slackers currently at the top of the leaderboard) – tweeted me a couple of days ago and said:

kevin-tweet

to which I replied, ‘no it bloody well doesn’t’. Or words to that effect. Anyway, while we’re all ‘enjoying’ the snow here in the UK, spare a thought for poor Kev who is sweltering away in the searing Australian heat.

 

kevin_foreman_janathon_t-shirt

I want photos of you wearing your Janathon t-shirts! Buy them at the Janathon Cafe Press Shop and send them to me (the photos, not the t-shirts. Although, if you’re offering, can I have one like the one Kevin’s wearing in a size 12 please?)

Anyway, back to the subject of today’s post. How to spend more time in the gym than you’d planned.

I don’t know if I slept through my alarm or ignored it, but either way, I got up later than I’d wanted to, which meant that I wouldn’t be getting to the gym when I wanted to which meant that I’d be getting back later than I wanted to so I pondered whether to just not go to the gym at all but then I thought, aha! I don’t have to spend an hour in the gym, I can just spend half an hour in the gym and be back at the time I wanted to be back and when I thought that, I FELT LIBERATED. And not only did I feel liberated, I realised I’d worked out a genius idea of how to spend more time in the gym than I had planned because although ideally I would have spent an hour in the gym, half an hour is more than no gym at all.

Or something like that.

Day 17: GRUMPY

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I woke up grumpy. I saw people making the same lame Tesco jokes (you thought beefburgers were only made of beef? Seriously?) and I didn’t get any less grumpy. I saw people posting status updates that it was cold (it’s January. Der.) and this didn’t make me any less grumpy. I went to the gym at 9am and no one had opened it yet and that didn’t make me any less grumpy either and so I came home with the hump.

What did make me smile though was seeing Travelling Hopefully had changed her Twitter avatar to a penguin, so me, HelsBels and Fairweatherrunner all changed ours to penguins, just to confuse her. Well, that and because we like penguins too.

Even in my red mist of rage, I didn’t forget about Janathon. Instead of walking back from the gym, I ran. I know it’s not far, but I would have stomped back if it hadn’t been for the J word.

Stats
Grumpy moods: 1
Tesco jokes I am sick of seeing: Flipping billions of them
Open gyms: 0
Penguin avatars: 4
Runs back from the gym: 1

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