This came to me in a flash today as I berated myself again for lack of exercise and bad eating.  My two year old nephew needs routine or he does not go to bed easily or sleep through the night etc for days often.  I realised I am the same when it comes to diet and exercise.  Everytime I have time off due to injury, illness, holidays etc I find it really hard to get back into the previous routine however good I was being at it.  I had 4 days off over last weekend because of being in Plymouth and although I ate very well while down there till the Sunday (can’t say the same about alcohol intake though) I then had the Monday off as I was exhausted and the rest of the week ended up pretty much the same but has included me eating far too much junk all week as I’m out of the good routine!  Feeling really rubbish now and need to get out of this rut!  I don’t want to undo all the hard work of the last few months!

Tuesday 2nd February

double spin

1/2 hr cardio

whole body weights

abs class

I got really annoyed at the abs class on Tuesday, I was the only female there, kept up and beat the guys in some instances in all of the exercises and then for the last one we did last man standing for the plank.  All of others apart from me and one young guy gave up and eventually the instructor told the two of us to stop and called it a tie.  Well one guy twice, nastily, called me a show-off!  If I had thought of it I would have pointed out that he should have been calling the other guy a show-off too but of course he hadn’t, he was just disgusted at being beaten by a girl!

Friday 4th February

1 hr cardio

whole body weights

And then on Friday night I ran three blocks for a bus, in flat boots but not a good idea after wine and my foot was in agony.  Although it wasn’t the underside of my foot it was round the top and ankle, it’s still sore two days later so clearly I have made no progress whatsoever in 5 months, in fact I think it might be worse.

And Murdo, pacepusher is now able to run in his own trainers which is what had been stopping him before and has been out twice in the last few days.  Still consigned to campus in the evenings which makes for boring laps but I think he might be getting a pass soon.  He is under the illusion he can train for the Hardmoors now, I’m not sure!  But John looks like you better keep that weekend free, as I believe you said you would support him!!!  Don’t worry, I’m sure I would end up doing it!

Sunday 24th January

10 mile walk, 2hrs 35 mins, 15.35m/m pace, 615 calories.  I pushed the pace a bit today! (Nitsdale Road and Pollock Park)

Whole body weights (including cable machines)

Monday 25th January

30 mins cardio

some weights

Too busy, couldn’t cope!

Tuesday 27th January

1 hr cardio – 20 mins, bike, 20 mins, cross trainer, 20 mins step – 630 calories

whole body weights

Wednesday 28th January

40 mins cardio

upper body weights

And that was it for the week as I was off to Plymouth on the Thursday for Neal’s passing out parade.

Well it’s only taken him 34 years but pacepusher has apparently found his dream job at last!  He passed out from Navy basic training on Friday and my mum and dad, his mum and dad and gran and I were all there to see it.

 It was a really good day although quite different to what I was expecting.  We were to be on base between 9.15 and 10.15am and I hate being late so we there about 9.20am!  Luckily so were lots of other people so we didn’t feel overly keen…and there were a wide variety of different types of people there!

I was worried about being cold while outside for divisions in the afternoon but in actual fact I was pretty much cold all day; having wanted to look smart rather than concentrate on being warm!

 We were taken into a lecture theatre first and shown a DVD of basic training through the lives of some trainees.  It was really interesting and although I have been hearing all about the training this brought it home.  I was still finding it weird that there was this big passing out celebration from just 9 weeks of training as it does not seem to me to be that difficult (all being relative of course as it would be my worst nightmare!), at least to Neal.  I think it was more of a big deal to the younger guys to get through it.  Neal knew he just had to get his head down, play by the rules and get on with it.

We were introduced to all the PO’s etc who had trained them and then we were told the two classes would be coming in and this was informal and we could clap, cheer etc as much as we liked.  I was not even expecting them to come in, never mind be told it was informal, although of course they did not look or act informally, that was just for us (not that those of us there to see Neal were very loud.  So in they marched, Neal’s class being led by him as class leader to the Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling.  I wasn’t expecting that either!  And he had to shout all the orders to get them to stop and turn etc.

Prizes were given out for things like best academic scores, kit and fitness and one for funniest/kept people going person which was nice.  They then individually marched out to collect their epaulettes and then left to the Black Eyed Peas again.  They all didn’t like this part as they felt a bit conspicuous being on stage all that time but it was good for us as you could see everyone closer up.  (And apparently the music had to be something they had on CD so it was that or In The Navy by YMCA – no contest really!)

We got a tour of the submarine school, except it was only the museum really, lunch and then outside for 2 hours to watch the divisions (passing out parade!).  This was not as good as I expected as I thought there would be a lot more marching etc but most of it was the commanders/VIP’s going round talking to each individual sailor – there were 50!

Neal and one other guy had ages to spend standing up at the front as the other guy was collecting the best overall individual award and Neal was collecting the Ganges trophy for best class.  They won pretty much everything and the Commander when giving him the prize said something along the lines of:  “I gather it wasn’t very close!”

They did a bit of marching after that and then went back into the shed (and took off the silly white gaitors) and then came out to march up the path in the middle of all the spectators to be dismissed for the final time.

Again Neal led his class out and had to shout halt etc before they were ordered to dismiss and they threw their hats in the air before immediately going to see family and friends.  Neal’s greetings didn’t last long as he was desperate to get to the bar and well I was happy just to get inside!

Stayed for a few drinks, met some of his class mates and others including the big commander chief and his wife before Neal took us to see his old accommodation – both better and worse than I was expecting and his new accommodation which is much better than I was expecting!

 My mother-in-law can’t know me too well as she asked if I would not be interested in this kind of job as I was fit!  There are many, many reasons why it would be the worst type of job I could imagine and just a few are:  being told what to do and being shouted at, heights, climbing over walls, being cold, sharing a room, no make-up, straighteners et al (although this comes lower down, I manage fine in Malawi), no choice of clothes in basic training, hand-washing every day, having to march everywhere, especially bad when it is only trainees that have to do it, the food,  the list could go on and on  and on!

Neal’s done well though and his report stated that he should be considered for promotion at the first available opportunity!  What actually brought it home to me though how well he had done as class leader was when we went out with a lot of his class (and the PO’s that trained them) on Saturday night and what the other guys were all saying to us and to me separately and how they were behaving towards Neal.  They all obviously genuinely liked and respected him and many spent quite a while talking about how he had been a  great class leader and how many of them would not have made it through the basic training without him.  Their PO was also telling us what a great class it had been.

So down to only 7 of them in a room for the next phase of training and a bit more freedom!

I have put more photos on facebook and just these should be available for anyone on Facebook to see:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/album.php?aid=2029385&id=1316921298

Sunday 17th January

8.5 mile walk, 2hrs24mins, 16.59m/m pace (Auldhouse) 539 calories

1 hr cardio – cross trainer/stepper 630 calories

Monday 18th January

1 hr stepper/cross trainer – 775 calories. 

Really pleased with this and I know I was working really hard.  Of course the goal then became to burn more than 800 in an hour!

Body Balance

Tuesday 19th January

1 hr circuits am. 

Round 1 – 3 x 3 mins, 90 secs off.  Bike, level 15, 16, 17 – harder levels than the guys!

Round 2 – 8 x 1 min, 30 secs off.  Rower.  Kept up with the same guy as last week and beat the other guy!

Round 3 – 3 x3 mins, 90 secs off.  Cross-trainer, level 15, 16, 17 – harder than the guys again.

Round 4 – 8 x 1 min, 30 secs off.  Stepper, levels 15-20

Wednesday 20th January

1 hour stepper/cross trainer – 820 calories. Very excited by this!

Whole body weights

Thursday 21st January

Sunday to Wednesday I felt I worked really hard even though its hard with the gym being so busy but I was really limited to time on Thursday and Friday.  Then on Saturday morning it was really busy and I couldn’t get on the cardio machines I wanted, so disappointed at how the week ended!

40 mins bike

Upper body weights

Friday 22nd January

Body Balance

A few weights

Just a few weights as I was getting a new weights programme made up.  The gym instructors have encouraged me to use the cable machines and so I have some challenging exercises in my new routine.  I also have alternatives though as that’s where a mix of the serious weight lifting guys and the guys who just like to hang out gather so my chances of getting on them during the week at night are slim I think.  Still really enjoying the weights and starting to see some results along with the dieting although not as quickly as I would like!

The gym instructor who did my new programme was pretty amazed at how much time I was spending in the gym when he saw how much I had filled in on my previous programme both for cardio and weights and kept checking that I really had been doing all that I had written!

Saturday 23rd January

1 hr cardio – cross trainer and bike

Whole body weights – (including cable machines) challenging and hard but good!

I need to squeeze as much as I can in Sunday to Wednesday this week as will miss a few days at the end going down to Pymouth for Neal’s passing out parade.

I’m totally fed up of not being able to run.   It wasn’t so bad before and during xmas using the gym but now that it’s January the gym is the usual hell hole of folk who come for a few weeks once a year!  Wednesday and Thursday nights I got to the gym, couldn’t get parked anywhere remotely near to the centre (not a sign of laziness, just an indication of how busy it is) and could see the queues inside the fitness studio and just gave up and went home.  I couldn’t face it!  In my slightly obsessive manner I now feel very guility about this and much more so for eating too many carbs the last few days!

Monday 11th January

1 hr cardio, 10 mins rower, 50 stepper/cross-trainer – 750 calories, really good workout

leg weights

Body Balance

Tuesday 12th January

1 hr circuits class – am.  Rower, bike, stepper, cross trainer in 15 min pyramid blocks

Friday 15th January

1 hr cardio – cross trainer.  600 calories

Upper body weights

Saturday 16th January

1 hr cardio – stepper/cross trainer – 700 calories.  Good workout

Whole body weights

Need a better week now! 

Went to the Caley Challenge health and safety essential briefing on Thursday night.  Interesting if a little drawn out but I couldn’t take it seriously when they were saying about it being such a huge challenge and the walk of your life.  My biggest challenge I realised will be staying with the team and working together to finish together (there are 6 of us in the team) as it is so different to running in races alone.  Not a bad thing for me to have to do that, just different.  Used to working as a team in a work situation but not so much in exercise!  And I am very glad we are signed up for this and I have something to aim for and some training to do with other people.  10am in East Kilbride tomorrow for the next walk!

Well that’s the gym staff well and truly know who I am now, there have been a few comments about how often I am there! 

Sunday 3rd January

1.5 hrs cardio – 50 mins stepper/cross trainer.  Levels 10 – 15, interval session.  630 calories.  40 mins bike.  Level 5 – 15, interval session. 270 calories

Whole body weights

Monday 4th January

1 hour cardio – 480 calories

whole body weights

Tuesday 5th January

Abs class

20 mins cross trainer

double spin class – 1.5 hrs

Wednesday 6th January

1 hr cardio

whole body weights

abs class

Thursday 7th January

1 1/4 hr cardio

whole body weights

Friday 8th January

1 1/4 hrs circuits class

Circuits class did my foot no good but I wanted to try it as tired of just being in the gym and spin.  It was great to do something different again and it’s not all high impact but around my ankle was sore afterwards as well as my foot.

Sun 27th Dec

8 mile walk, 2.08hrs, ave pace 16.08m/m

Monday 28th Dec

45 mins cardio

whole body weights

Thursday 31st Dec

20 mins cardio

whole body weights

Plan for w/b Sun 3rd Jan

Sun – 1hr 30 cardio, whole body weights

Mon – Conic Hill walk, 30 mins cardio, whole body weights

Tues – 1hr cardio circuits class, double spin, abs class,

Wed – abs class, 1hr cardio, whole body weights

Thurs – 1hr 30 cardio,

Fri – 1 1/4 hr circuits class (+spin class am?)

Sat – 1 hr cardio, whole body weights

I am going to write a review of the year as well!  Although as I have said before as a teacher this never feels like a new year for me, August is always more of a new start for me.

Despite less mileage in 2008 it was a great year for running for me with pb’s in multiple 10km’s, the half marathon and the marathon and the start of trail running and a little cross country.  As ultra running collie also said I thought 2009 would then be good as well and to be honest I feel it’s been a disaster. 

I started 2009 with my first triathlon and that went okay and I did enjoy it.  I was then focusing on the Highland Fling and supposedly the Edinburgh marathon and although I had decent trail runs I fell out of love with long road runs and did nowhere near enough of that.  I had a terrible 1/2 marathon in Alloa in March and that was one of my very few races in 2009. 

Aside from terrible problems with my throat I absolutely loved the Highland Fling and was desperate to do more ultra running.  The Edinburgh marathon on the other hand was one of the most miserable experiences of my life and I should never have done it.  Then trying to do another triathlon a week later was a terrible mistake although at least I completed it.  I much prefered the Eidnburgh triathlon despite the cold of New Years Day.

And that was really the end of my running year!  I managed to keep up some running in Malawi and that was great fun and we did climb Mount Kiliminjaro but that along with a stomach bug threw my chances of running the Devil of the Highlands a week later out of the window.   (I really didn’t plan things that well, but I did raise £2,200 for a teacher’s house in my village in Malawi.)

I started out in the middle of August full of enthusiasm for running again and with great intentions for a full year ahead.  I made sure I was enjoying it and I tried not to push too hard too soon.  I loved being back at the club and was really seeing my times and placings get better and better at the speed sessions on a Monday night and I was doing some good long runs for the race in France in December.  Then I got this foot injury on 4th October and thats been me consigned to the gym.  To be fair I am enjoying the weight training I am doing, I am toning up, losing weight and I am sure it will be doing my legs a lot of good for when I do get back to running but I would like to be running again by now!

I have a place for the London marathon but with it now being 16 weeks away and I have not run in 13 weeks I think it is time to face facts and resign myself to not doing it.  This also means there is no way I will be doing the Cateran Trail Race in May either.

I think I will plan to be running enough again to go for:

• Women’s 10km in May
• Devil of the Highlands in August
• Glasgow 1/2 marathon in September
• Autumn marathon
• Saintelyon race in December (hopefully)

Hopefully this will give me enough time to get my foot sorted.  The big picture though is to (hopefully) have an entry for the WHW race in 2011  I had hoped to have had the latter half of 2009 and all of 2010 to build up my endurance and feel ready to start the necessary training for this, so far this has not happened but I will always have this focus in mind.  I am going to try and build on my cardio work in the gym to make it longer each time to keep endurance up and keep going with the weight training.  I also want to keep my weight down as that will be a big bonus when I get back to running, I don’t think it was a coincedence that all those pb’s in 2008 were at a time when I was at my lowest weight for years. 

I am hoping that by Feb 2010 I will be able to have more of a work-life balance so that I can concentrate on training more.  I am just dreading having to use the gym in Jan/Feb when there are frequently wait times just to get in never mind trying to get on a machine! 

I am trying to stay positive and am finding Vicky’s blog a big motivator as she has come back so strongly after such a big injury.  And as I said to her before Debbie has long been a inspiration for me and is continuing to be. 

When not running myself supporting John in the Hardmoors and making sure he got to the finish was a great experience and one I am really pleased to have been involved in.  But even if my own year had not been so rubbish pacepusher’s run in the WHW race would still be a huge highlight for me and one I am very pleased to have been a part of in a small way!

I am only keeping a note of all my cross training on here as this has been my only training diary for a long time now.  Saving paper v using more electricity!?

I have not done as much as I would like during the xmas holidays for a couple of reasons.  The gym has been closed for a few days, how inconsiderate of them!, and since I can’t just go out and run this has hindered exercise.  Pacepusher is not a member of the gym anymore for obvious reasons and came with me once but since he had to pay £5.15 he was not keen on doing that again.  It is harder to fit in going when he is here and can’t just come too.

Sunday 20th December

30 mins cardio

whole body weights

Monday 21st December

45 mins cardio

Tuesday 22nd December

1hr cardio circuits class. 

Boyracer runs this class at 7.15am in the fitness studio at Duncanrig Secondary for staff and I finally went along.  4 x 15mins sessions with 30 secs between to change machines.  I did bike, run, cross-trainer, run.  It was a pyramid session with:

1 min on, 1 min off, 2 mins on, 2 mins off, 3 mins on, 2 mins off, 2 mins on, 1 min off, 1 min on.

I really enjoyed this and worked harder than I usually do in the gym so I need to try something like this myself.  Usually I just gradually build pace and gradient higher and higher but I definitely worked harder doing the pyramid session.

Wednesday 23rd December

1 hour walk

Thursday 24th December

45 mins cardio

whole body weights

And today was the excess shoes and jackets…..

Allybea, if you want Ian to throw out clothes send him off to the navy for five weeks! Below is what Neal has now thrown out of his own accord and how neatly he put back the ones he is keeping!