exercise

as I no longer have to make much effort to get enough exercise in – for obvious reasons! Last month I ran about 150km and I think I’m going to do abouts the same, if not a bit more, this month and next month. Even if it’s often with beginners, so very slow, it’s still enough fr me for a while at least. Now it’s sometimes a challenge to make sure I get a rest day every week! I wish I had more time to run alone, but I can’t complain. I get paid to run, which is just the most awesome thing ever!
I manage to get some yoga in as well, though not as much as I’d like to and less intense as I have to be careful with my back, but it’s ok for now. I’m really enjoying trying different classes and workshops.
I should get a few weeks off in December so looking forward to focusing on myself then.

RUNNING.
Total distance: 102km_{NOTE: this includes run/walks with the club, I’ve since started working out the distance I actually run. I guess I ran about 80 to 90k in June}
I’m happy with this, as I’ve steadily increased my mileage since recovering from sciatica and, most importantly, I’ve done it without my sciatica coming back, so very pleased.

Time: that’s about 14hrs of running – wooow. Must remember that some it is very slow, and some is actually walking.

YOGA: oh god, not good. Just did a few sessions. Bad me. To be honest, I’ve had problems with my lower back and leg, so that stopped me from doing yoga for a while, but some of it is definitely due to laziness as well, I could’ve tried…

CORE: I only got back into the habit of doing core work towards the end of the month, so just a few sessions. It’s incredible what a difference even that makes, I feel so much stronger.

OTHER: I went cycling 3 times, but just about 5k or so. I also went on 3 loooong walks , one 15km, along some amazing cliffs by the sea (i.e. quite a tough walk), and others around 8 to 10km.

It took me a while to get used to my new schedule and I was quite tired for the best part of June, my legs and feet were really tired. Now, however, I feel like I’m used to it and my body is much stronger so I can add to my mileage, add a few extra runs (i.e. other than running club) to really work on my own fitness.
July has started well, pretty much the same as June. I should really have no excuse for not doing yoga anymore!

I had a gait analysis done and it shows that I’m a neutral runner. Turns out the shoes I’ve been wearing for the past half a year (Asics gel kayano) are wrong for me and possible to blame for my nagging hip pain. I only went into have the analysis done and try on some shoes and then I was going to order them online (this is how we shop in Ireland, or rip off republic, these days, lol). However, they had a nice pair on sale, 50% off, quick check online on hubby’s iphone confirmed it was a good deal and I just bought them. I’m so happy! Can’t wait to try them tomorrow. They look so much nicer than my old shoes, which makes me smile because my old shoes were a yucky colour.

I really wanted to try the chi running shoes to see how they feel. They look nice :).

Mon 18th: 3543 steps/2.4k (raining, no running)
Tues 19th: Club 2 28min/3k, Core 10mins, total steps 6413
Weds 20th: Club 1 33min/4k, Run with A 26min/2.5k, 14086 steps
Thurs 21st: Club 2 30min/3.5k, 5672 steps
Fri 22nd: Club 1 33min/4k, Run with A 30min/2.5k, 13347 steps
Sat 23rd: rest day – less than 1,000 steps
Sunday 24th: casual walking, 15,030 steps

TOTAL: 3hrs / 59,091 steps

Mon 25th: Club 1 40mins/5.12k, Run with A 30min/2.8k, yoga 20mins, 2857 extra steps (on top of running)
Tues 26th: Club 2 31min/3.74k, Core, Fartlek 10mins, 1690 extra steps
Weds 27th: Run with A 37min/3.53k, 2649 extra steps
Thurs 28th: Club 2 33mins/3.73k, 6509 extra steps
Fri 29th: Club 1 D 36mins/4.55k, Club 1 C 49mins/5.66k, 1,000 extra steps
Sat 30th: Casual walking 19,221 steps (14,607 aerobic)/13.07km
Sun 31st: Casual walking 10,371 steps (4724 aerobic)/7.05km

TOTAL: 4h 43min / 44,297 steps

I’m happy with the level of exercise I’m doing at the moment. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to adjust to my new schedule of running every day and I’ve been tired so have given my body plenty of time to recover and rest and not pushed myself to do other stuff. I’m getting used to it now and feel I can start focusing on other things again. I need to start doing more core work, I feel my core muscles getting really soft again. Definitely need to do more yoga as well. I was meant to start going to a class this week but have to wait a while as got some unexpected huge bills so can’t afford it right now…

MON: Running club W2 (35mins), Run with A W1 (35mins)
TUE: -
WED: Club W2 (30mins), Run with A W1 (30mins)
THUR: walking 8450 steps (3770 aerobic/32min)= 5.75km ^{started using pedometer}.
FRI: Club W3 (31min), 14742 steps (7965 aerobic/62min) = 10.02km
SAT: 20308 steps (11629 aerobic/104mins) = 13.8km
SUN: Run 1h, 21000 steps (20k aerobic ~2hr40)

TOTAL: 8h 13min aerobic; total 64500 steps (Thur-Sun, av 16125 per day – ouch, my legs were hurting by Sunday evening!)

MON: Club W3 (30min), 11842 steps (8632 aerobic/1h 10mins) 8.05km
TUE: Run with A W1 (30min), 6775 steps (5757 aerobic/48min) 4.6km
WED: Club short intervals (35mins), 11729 steps (6816 aerobic/54mins) 7.97km
THUR: (sick) 4103 steps (0 aerobic) 2.8km
FRI: (sick, raining) 2482 steps (0 aerobic) 1.68km
SAT: Club W4 (30mins), 5364 steps (4327 aerobic/43min) 3.64km
SUN: 7629 steps (4568 aerobic/43min) 5.18km

TOTAL: 4h 32mins aerobic; total 45696 steps (average 6528 per day)

The first week we had absolutely gorgeous weather and I loved being outdoors. The second week, it was raining almost non-stop…

I have to start doing core exercises again, been neglecting them completely and I can feel my abs have gone all soft. For a while my abs felt really strong when i was doing my core exercises every day. I have an appointment with a sports therapist on Wednesday, hopefully she can fix my back and leg and tell me what to do. I’m not feeling the greatest anyway so I’m taking it easy until Wednesday.

I finally got myself a really good pedometer! I’m so excited. I love this one. It works out not only how many steps you take, but also tells you how many aerobic steps you take (and minutes as well) and even tells you how many calories you’ve burnt. Love it. It’s also great because you can keep it in your pocket, on a string around your neck or even in your bag!! The best thing is that it was 50% off on Amazon, so it wasn’t even expensive. (it’s this one if anyone’s interested) Love it.
Yesterday I took 8,400 steps (of which 3,200 or 30 minutes were aerobic) which is pretty good for a first day. However, I did walk A LOT more than I’d usually do. I’d normally cycle to the places I went yesterday and quite often on my non running days I move very little. This is why I got the pedometer, to motivate myself to move more on my rest days.
I’m going to aim to take 10k steps on rest days and maybe just 6k steps on running days (this is the advice I read in a book).
Today I’ve so far taken 140 steps…. :)

This week was rubbish. I was too busy feeling sorry for myseif to do much exercise and it rained on Monday and Tuesday so wasn’t able to go running or cycling because of that. My leg’s been troubling me as well.

MON – rain
TUES – rain
WEDS – Casual walking 1h 30mins, Club, W2, 30mins
THURS – Short run, 18mins, was exhausted!
FRI – Club, 30sec intervals, 30mins
SAT – casual walking 2hrs 20mins
SUN – nothing

TOTAL: 5h 8minutes

This week have to get back to doing core, yoga and maybe even some circuit. I have running club quite a few times this week and I really want to go on a long run on Sunday.

Good week this week. My leg was a bit sore on Friday and Saturday but today I’m totally pain-free. Almost feels like today’s run took the pain away!

MON – yoga standing 20mins, run 10mins/1.56km, Core, Running club W1
TUES – cycling 10k/45mins, Core, Stretching
WEDS – (walk 20mins), Core, Circuit 10mins, Running club W2
THUR – Yoga (standing) 25mins, circuit 10min, Core
FRI – Run 10mins/1.6km, Running club W2
SAT – Leisurely walk 1h 55mins
SUN – Run 31min/5k, Leisurely walk 2h

TOTAL: 8h 40mins (2648 calories burnt – woohooo!)

Next week, I’ll aim to:
Run: club x4, Sunday run 35-40mins and 1 or 2 short runs around the park if really sunny or feel like it before club
Core: 4 or 5 times
Circuit: 2 or 3 times – i’m finding this tough! stick to same sets as this week
Yoga: 3 or 4 times, at least standing, backbends and finishing. And lotus 2 to 3mins
Cycling: not much – I need to buy a new saddle first!

This week was great! Asides from yoga, I was able to exercise freely, without feeling any pain in my leg. I’m still really careful not to over do it and make sure I get lots of rest. I’ve also promised myself to stop running the minute I feel any pain, but so far, I haven’t had to do that. I’m still staying inside the park, where I can run on a softer surface (mainly grass) which, I think, makes a huge difference. However, my local park is quite small, it only takes me 8 to 10 minutes to run around it, so it gets a little bit boring. Next weekend I might try running on the pavements again.

Mon: Run 20mins/3k
Tue: Walk 1h/5k + Yoga standing & finishing 20mins + Core 10mins + Lotus 2mins
Wed: Yoga stand & finish 20mins + Cycling 20mins + Core 10mins + Running club W1 32mins
Thu: Core 10mins (new routine) (10mins cycling – awful weather!)
Fri: Running club W1 31mins
Sat: (leisurely walking approx 2hrs)
Sun: Run 30mins/4.5k

Resting pulse today: 52

Next week:
Running: club Mon, Weds and Fri, run for 35mins on Sunday (I’ll add 5mins every week)
Core training: 10-15mins Mon-Fri (put together new routine)
Yoga: gently, gently once ‘that time of the month’ passes. Go to class on Sunday?
Circuit: Try a circuit routine 3x week.

I’ve finally started running again. The week before last, I just did 2 10 minute ‘test runs’ in the park and felt fine, so this week I started my running club again (which, somehow, has become very popular! a bit scary…) and went for another run on Saturday. I’m determined to build my mileage up very slowly and I’ll stay inside the park, where I can run on a softer surface, for couple of weeks at least. I feel SO unbelieavably unfit. On Friday, I was almost in tears after my run because I just felt so unfit, like I’d never ran before, and my chest hurt (I’m starting to think I might have excercise induced asthma) and I was in bits. My heart rate was really high as well. I read that many women find running much harder about a week before their period, so it could be that also. Today was much better, though I’m still running REALLY slowly and can’t imagine going any faster. PATIENCE.

MON – club W1/D1
TUES – some yoga (still a lot of pain so no yoga for the rest of the week)
WEDS – club W1/D2
FRI – run 15 min/2.3k
SAT – lots of walking (went to the country)
SUN – more walking (around town)

This week, I’ve already ran once, I’ll have running club twice (yay! it’s so much fun!) and will try to do one 25-30min run at the weekend. I’ll do some yoga a couple of times too (though should get my period so might not…). I’m also planning to do at least 1 long walk and cycle a little. I’ve done a lot of short cycling trips around town. Once I’ve had my period, I’m going to join a yoga class so I think this week I need to start getting used to waking up really early again.