Guest Post: Mandy's Jogging Diary - weeks 1 - 4, by Mandy Jones

One Sunday (Dec 2014) I marshalled a five-mile off-road race. At the end I watched the prize giving. For some reason (must have had a brain wobble) I suddenly became overcome with wanting/needing/necessity to try the race the following year (yep def a brain meltdown). 

Opening my big mouth I turned to my daughter and blurted out my thoughts...... Of course she was delighted..... Well I turned to the NHS website and decided to use the couch 'potato' to 5k as my training method. 

Run one arrived, sun shining, iPod blaring some 'get up and go' song - I felt INVINCIBLE woohoo - and off I went. Warm up good, first 60 sec jog ok, next okish, next mmm, next oh my what the hell do I think I'm doing? I finished the training and felt really good about myself. 

However, the next few days, boy I ached everywhere -mshoulders, hip flexors, calf muscles etc etc.. and to be honest didn't want to do any more. Run two arrived and the sun was shining again (thank goodness). I wasn't sure about this, but, teeth gritted, off I jogged. Not so bad as I thought and didn't feel quite as knackered as run one. I so admire anyone who can run more than one minute at a time! Let's see what run three offers. I don't feel quite as worried about the next one.

Well I've struggled through week two, and now entered week three. The first run involves a 90 sec run, then a 3-minute run and then a repeat of this. Oh boy, couldn't quite complete the first three minute run, but managed the second. This is soooo hard, how do people do this? 

So Sunday 1st Feb arrives and I head off for the second run of week 3, not going to give up. I decided to run along a straight piece of quiet road to see how far the 3-min run is. This did help me as I could judge how far I needed to jog for the last run.... I used markers such as: get to the lamp post, next the nice brown gate, then the roundabout. I'm knackered, but I completed it. I did have a tear in my eye and felt so proud of myself - yes I CAN do this. Planning to do the last run of week 3 on Tuesday... Onward and upward (I hope :-) !!!! )

So week four arrived and it was a bit of a shock: run 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then repeat.... FIVE minutes, is this even possible? Well just about managed the run and felt quite pleased with myself. However, I made a huge mistake in run 2. I came in from work, tired but just wanted to get out there and get it done. I also didn't plan my route properly and got lost. The whole run was a shambles and I struggled to hit the 3 minutes and the five minutes. 

What a debacle, but I did learn a few valuable lessons:

1. plan your route 

2. you have to be mentally prepared, especially if you don't have the fitness to do these runs. 

I mean it, because if you are like me and so far out of your comfort zone, you have to fight to complete EVERY run! 

Morning of the 15th Feb and I have just completed run number three of week 4. Much more prepared, didn't quite manage the first set of 5 minutes, but managed all the rest. I would be lying if I didn't say it knocked my confidence with the other run, but after this morning, I'm feeling better and back on board.

My Fitness Pal - Month One

I've now been on My Fitness Pal for just over a month. I became tired of it pretty easily when I used it a few years ago, but as I really wanted to lose between 10lbs - 1 stone, I thought I'd give it another go. It does work for thousands of people, after all.
Month one has been pretty successful. I'm 4 1/4 lbs down - good for someone who struggles to lose weight (partly because I'm slim so there isn't that much to fall off anyway, just a bit too much squish in a couple of areas).
However, the last couple of weeks, I've struggled to log. It could be because I know I haven't been as good with my eating, or because I've been extremely busy and tired. With the former, My Fitness Pal makes you face up to bad food choices, which is what most people need.
I like that I've been more environmentally friendly by not using paper to record my food intake, and the 'report' tab creates a strangely satisfying chart to show my weight loss. However, I don't want to be recording my food forever. I don't want to be so hyper-conscious of everything I'm eating, either.
This next month, I want to see if I can continue to lose weight without keeping a food and exercise diary. I still have 5lbs to go to reach my goal, but this month I'm going to diet without My Fitness Pal.
Next update: 4th March.

New PT Workout: #6

Yesterday, The Smiling Assassin texted me to tell me she'd ‘tweaked’ my programme an hour before we were due to meet - I took this as a warning. 

Warm-up: run, 10 mins

Circuit 1 - Lower Body (3 sets)

Walking lunges with 15kg barbell - 20 reps

Leg press 50kg - 12 reps (with this leg press machine, you push yourself up as opposed to pushing the weight away from you)

DB crossover lunge 5kg each hand - 20 reps

Superset (this will make you feel like you’ve broken your bottom):

Sumo squats 8kg - 12 reps

Pop squats - 12 reps

Circuit 2 - Upper Body (3 sets)

Cable chest press - 12 reps

T-bar/seated row 15kg - 12 reps

Cable/DB flyes – 12 reps

Lat pulldown 25kg – 12 reps

Tricep pressdown – 12 reps

Circuit 3 - Abs (3 sets)

Sit ups with 6kg med ball – 15 reps

Plank with rear leg extension - 20 reps

Russian twist with 6kg med ball - 20 reps

Hanging leg raises – 10 reps

Cool down, stretch, and collapse on floor.

Programme designed by Michelle Maxwell of Youmefit.co.uk.

There are no weights listed next to some of the upper body exercises as we focused on legs. I will update this post when I’ve done the full upper body circuit.

May Round Up

I said April went fast. So did May! I attribute that to finally being in full time employment - time seems to have flown by. I'll have been at my new job for a month on Friday!

Career

Life has definitely been more peachy since getting my new job - I've learnt so much, the people are like a family and the books they publish are really, really interesting as well as important (fastfacts.com). I'm still teaching and intend to continue giving private lessons once these students have passed their exams - it helps that my current students are wonderful and funny and hard-working, but teaching international students is incredibly rewarding. I've wanted to work in publishing and teach privately since I had a private tutor - who also had a 9 to 5 as well as his teaching (thanks Mr Stockwell) - so I'm proud I've achieved this goal at only 23.

Hair

Still no dye. I had a lot chopped off a couple of weeks ago, which makes growing out the colour a lot easier. You know your hair needs a good cut when your hairdresser gives up combing it, grabs chunks and just hacks the manky bits off.

French

Quoi?

SJ Competitions

I'm able to ride for 20-25 minutes now, but when the vet came last Friday Ernest was still completely lame in trot. I'm not sure I've explained fully what happened - Ernest damaged the tendon sheath in his back leg by getting it stuck in his rug, presumably while rolling. As he was out at night, he had been stuck with his leg up all night so it was very sore and tender - that was early April, I believe. I've put competing out of my mind while he gets better, and even then we will be building back up slowly. These things always remind me how lucky I am that he's still with me after his big injury in 2012 (fractured leg).

Running

I've not been running since our 'yeah! let's go running again!' weekend, but I'm planning to include a couple of runs a week in the run up (ha ha haaa) to our holiday.

Body Fat

Shut up. See above for attempts to lower it.

New Country

We go away in 20 days! I'm getting soooooo excited. There's a gym at the hotel which I'll be frequenting, but I'd really like to be in shape for when we go away. Body shape and size aside, there is so much about visiting Berlin that I'm hyped for - spending a week just Maxx and I, visiting a historically significant city, exploring a completely new place, trying German cuisine... Roll on 21st June!

How was your May? Which goals did you achieve and what are you still aiming for?

I Bought An Olympic Bar!

In celebration of my 100^th blog post, let me tell you about my exciting new purchase... 

This weekend I went away on a family visit up north. Before heading home, we decided to visit the shopping outlet Junction 32. My cousin had her eye on the Cadbury’s shop and Next, my brother and other cousin on Nike, and me on nothing in particular. 

Well… that was until I saw there was a Fitness Superstore. I bought my dumbbells from FS a couple of years ago (we had to load them into the back of my friend’s mummy wagon, then transfer them all again into my KA – poor little egg could barely move after!) and was very happy with my purchases. However, I’ve recently found myself pining after some barbells.

The Fitness Superstore at Junction 32 is glorious - it’s well organised with knowledgeable, super-friendly staff. The man I spoke to answered all my queries – including "what even is an Olympic bar?!" (see below) – and asked me appropriate questions to determine which barbell was best suited to my needs. 

I decided to buy a 5ft bar as doing a few reps of clean & press felt very wobbly with the longer ones. The bar itself already weighs 10kg, but I also invested in four 5kg plates and, of course, two clips. The total came to £79.99 – the bar was just £49.99, down from £119.99.

An Olympic bar is like a barbell, only stronger so it can hold more weight – they are typically 7ft and weigh 20kg before extra weights are added.

While considering which bar to buy, I decided to deadlift 50kg in the middle of the shop - that's my body weight and 20kg more than I've ever done before. Not a perfect deadlift but not too shabby either! Maxx offered to video - I obviously said yes (with the agreement we would delete it if it went wrong).