Weekly Workout Recap

Monday - 3miles, 34:25mins, av pace 11:29min/mile
Tuesday - REST
Wednesday - Gym session: 30mins elliptical (hills), 10mins rowing
Thursday - 2.6miles, 29:28mins, av pace 11:13min/mile
Friday - REST
Saturday - Bushy Park Run 5k, 34:21, av pace 10:57min/mile
Sunday - Gym session: Cycling intervals and weights

On Wednesday I decided to try going to the gym in the morning before work. Usually I'm not very good at exercising early- I can get out of bed fine, but my body seems to take a little longer to wake up! However, going to the gym and being able to do a slow warm-up seemed to work really well, and it was great to have my workout done for the day and have my evening free! I think I'll try and repeat it this week, and once we head towards summer with longer daylight hours and better weather I'd like to try running in the morning too. Here are some tips on early morning workouts. I've found that telling someone (Mark) that I'm going to do it, makes me feel like I have to! 🙂

On Saturday I went along to the Park Run in Bushy Park- I did the one in Norwich way back in October and wasn't a huge fan, but Saturday's experience was completely different!

In case you haven't come across Park Run before it's a brilliant organisation that was set up in 2004, and organises free, weekly, 5k timed runs around the world from Australia and New Zealand, to Iceland, Poland and South Africa! You just need to register initially and make sure you take your own personal barcode along to the event so they can record your time, and that's it! Just turn up to whichever event, on whichever Saturday you would like 🙂

I think it's brilliant to get runners of all levels together and I really enjoyed the Bushy Park Run. It was on a much larger scale than Norwich with over 800 runners which I think helped- it meant there were more slower people (like me!) and made for a more fun atmosphere, with people offering encouragement and support along the way. Plus the course was 1 big loop around the park as opposed to 3 laps, which was more interesting and meant you didn't get lapped which is a little demotivating!

Most of the run was on grass which was a bit muddy, but I loved it- it made such a change from running on roads and even in the grey damp weather the park is a gorgeous place to run around, past the deer and the lakes...

Weirdly according to my official Park Run record I got exactly the same time as I did at the Norwich one 5 months ago, even down to the seconds! Bizarre. It was probably a bit quicker than that in reality due to the time it takes 800 runners to cross the start-line, but I'll take it! It's a pretty good feeling to know that I'm back to where I was after a few months off and can continue to build and improve. Plus I broke 11min/mile as my average pace, which might not seem fast but is a huge milestone to me! 🙂

Sweaty happy face 🙂

On Sunday, after a lazy lie-in, I headed to the gym to complete the same workout as last week. I did the same Spinning Intervals but managed 3 sets this time, and then repeated the Upper Body Weights Circuit, followed by 3 sets of 10 press-ups, and lots of stretching!