17/28 - Ladders 2

And what worries us most is that there might be a 3rd set of ladders to climb!
In week 1 we did a session entitled ladders where we repeated a number of  exercises once, twice, three times up to 9 times, it was hard enough!  Today we did ladders 2 - I honestly can't remember how many exercises we did today but the ladder was a tough one to climb!  We did LOTS of high knees, LOTS of split squats and a new bad boy called a switch lunge - it incorporates a jump to switch legs and it's hard!  There were a fair few plank to pressups and mountain climbers thrown in for good measure so I think it would be fair to say we were all pretty "done" by time we'd climbed this particular ladder... We were however all still smiling :-)

I had back to back meetings in Glasgow today which meant I didn't have time to drive back from Cumbernauld to Alloa and get organised in time to get the 7.30 train to Glasgow so after having a clean up and getting changed in the salubrious surroundings of the ladies loos in Tesco I drove the half mile to Croy station where I ate my boiled eggs and drank my water before getting the train into town.
I was in the city before 8 which is a bit earlier than I needed to be, but that meant I had time to enjoy a leisurely peppermint tea in Starbucks and watch the "early morning crowd" - the people who are around in the morning are much more interesting to watch than the ones you get later in the day, or even in the evening...
I walked down to the Scottish Government building on Argyle/James Watt Streets, it's a 15-20min walk and it was a freezing cold wind that was blowing around the city so I walked smartly and hopefully continued the fat burning process kicked off on the ladders. After spending the morning and then afternoon in 2 different meetings it was an even brisker walk back up to the station as by this time the rain had arrived!
Driving home to Alloa I realised it was 12 hours since I'd driven in the other direction, it had been a long day :-) The weather has turned really nasty and it was wild and windy driving back - I hope it's passed before Saturday!!
I baked a nutty loaf this evening while the dinner was in the oven, looking forward to that on the high carb day :-)
Today is a low carb day which means I can't have any fruit or yoghurt - and have to have protein at every meal so breakfast was 2 boiled eggs - not desperately exciting but it was easy to prepare last night and take with me...

Breakfast:  boiled eggs
Lunch:  mackerel and salad leaves
Dinner:  Broccoli and watercress soup followed by
chicken rubbed with garlic and smoked paprika with the rest of the dark green salad

I took water with me today and so have managed to get to my 3L target, have had a blackcurrant tea, peppermint tea and tulsi tea.

My quads are this evening officially dead - R.I.P :-)

13/28

This was the view as we ran out of the forest today it was pretty cool.

I am running leg 2 of the Highland Fling next Saturday and I was unsure of a bit of the course, so asked John if we could go and recce it this weekend.  We were awake at 5.30am - guess it's just becoming a habit :-) so we had some porridge for breakfast and set off at 8am.  It was a lovely morning even though the forecast wasn't great - heavy showers for the whole country...

We're about an hour away from Drymen so by the time we got parked, jackets on (and trousers in John's case) and organised, we were probably on the track by 9.15am  It was sunny with some cloud and was fairly warm, I managed to keep my jacket on for about half an hour then it had to come off!  We had a nice run up into the forest, and when we go out the far side, the photo above was the view as we crested the rise. It was lovely, last time we'd come this way it was overcast and you couldn't really see much.

We ran 4 miles then turned round and headed back - that was the best bit as it's mainly an uphill climb all the way from Drymen but it doesn't seem too hilly until on the way back you realise that you are going downhill nearly the whole way!

After getting changed we set off to Glasgow to Tiso's to pick up some stuff for next week.  Had a nice lunch there too.

We missed all of the rain while we were out running, we drove through a couple of heavy showers on way home though.

Back home early afternoon and I've just chilled, icing my sore knee and watching the last Harry Potter movie.

Today's menu:

Breakfast:  gluten free proridge, half a banana, cinnamon and dollop of yoghurt

Lunch:  Baked potato with mediterranean veg in it - I had worked hard so the starchy carbs are ok :-)

Dinner:  Baked salmon fillet, roasted veg with extra broccoli

lots of water, some tulsi tea and more water.

I might run again tomorrow as there is a cycle path near us which has just been opened and I have been waiting for months for it to open so we can try it out...

Day 5/28

Friday 13th, luckily I don't suffer from triskadekaphobia so this was just another day for me - except it was another 5am rise! I don't actually mind getting up early, I'm definitely a morning person, I don't do late nights very well, probably haven't since I was a teenager and even in those days I didn't lie abed until lunchtime, so 0450 and I was awake and up out of bed to get ready for session no. 3!

It was another nice morning and it's quite a noticeable difference as the week has gone on, just how much lighter it is every morning. It's about 15mins from Monday in terms of when it gets light, and ok Monday morning was heavy rain and cloud whereas Wednesday and this morning were much brighter and frostier! Both mornings when I have been driving home, there has been ice on the Forth at Stirling...
We'd a great session this morning it was called Ladders - you do 1 rep then 2 reps then 3 reps up to 9 reps so that you've reached the top of the ladder, unlike a pyramid, you don't come back down again you move onto another exercise :-) Really tough strength and conditioning exercises too. We worked in pairs and I was working with the lovely Lauren and we should get an extra gold star because we did 51 reps of each exercise, but the 'T pushups' we assumed you had to twist to both sides as 1 rep, but turned out that that should have counted as 2, so we did 102 of them! Bet we pay for that tomorrow :-(
Most of Scotland has experienced some pretty heavy and sudden hail and rain showers over the past few days and the park we use for our sessions is no exception, the mossy grass is therefore slightly squidgier than normal so trying to keep a grip with your feet while doing planks and pressups adds that extra dimension to the exercise experience lol! The worms seemed to quite like the company too and were popping out to join in. They should have been out on Wednesday morning when we were doing inchworms...
I felt good after the workout, strong and invigorated, I even ran back to the car! However the early start is taking it's toll this evening as I'm really sleepy now... but as John is preparing for his marathon on Sunday and we have a potentially early rise tomorrow I can go to bed soon ;-)

Today is the first day that I've felt hungry at all, I forgot to take a banana or muffin to work with me for my snack so I didn't have anything from my breakfast at home til lunchtime and from about 1130 until I had my soup at 1245ish I was ravenous! However I'm pleased that I resisted the temptation of the choccy biscuits and things that were available at coffee time - that's the time of day I didn't drink a coffee!

Today's menu:
pre workout I had 1/3 of a small banana and half cup of decaf green tea
post workout I ate the rest of the banana and drank rest of tea(cold)

Breakfast: berries, pumpkin seeds and yoghurt, half of a wheat free apple&cinnamon cookie very kindly produced by Pamela after our workout :-)
Lunch: vegetable soup
Snack when I got home: 2 slices nutty bread
Dinner: Roasted sweet pepper soup with rocket leaves & goats cheese

Now I know I should have had more but I don't feel hungry so I haven't had anything else - we had planned to have steak and veggies, but John who's fuelling for his race on Sunday had been eating extra so he wasn't hungry either so the steaks and veggies will be tomorrow night's dinner.

Hopefully I will get up in the morning Bright and Breezy and ready for parkrun, but if I sleep longer then it will be the long lie which wins. Sunday morning will be another very early start as we have to be up in Fort William for John's race start and I will go for my longish run on the Caledonian Canal - which isn't nearly as scenic at that point as the Forth & Clyde but it's still an ok place to run so I am looking forward to it - Neptune's staircase is an interesting challenge, I would hope that I can climb it even better than I managed it last year!
I will then meet up with Susan & Courtney whose husband/dad George is running his first marathon and we'll be there to cheer the runners home.
I'll need to plan carefully tomorrow to make sure I take food with me etc but I'm sure I will manage :-) However you might not get a Sunday night update as we will be fairly late home and very tired...
Have a good weekend folks, let's hope the weather is on the up and may the marathon gods smile on the boys and all our friends who're racing at Lochaber or in Edinburgh at the Rock'n'Roll Half!
As well as our friend Sylvie (from Toronto) who is running the Paris marathon.

Session 1 - done :-)

Day 1 done!
I went to bed early last night - by 2130 and was asleep within minutes, I'd set the alarm(s) for 5am but woke at 0200, 0300 and 0445 so I got up then :-) I'd been organised and laid out my stuff in preparation and in the hope of keeping the noise to a minimum so that I didn't disturb John too much.
A glass of water, half a cup of cherry and cinammon tea and I was good to go. I took a banana and some water with me and nibbled half the banana on the journey.
I think I was the first to arrive in the car park where we were all meeting, but it was only a matter of minutes until others started driving in. Those who had paperwork to complete did so and after introductions off we headed to the park. John and Pamela took us through the warmup routine and then demonstrated the exercises we were going to do, we all duly got down on the wet moss and did as we were bid :-)
I thoroughly enjoyed the workout, I'm sure that he wasn't kidding when John said it would get harder, but it was a good workout never the less, and there is something extra that you get from exercising outside, the birds were singing and the rabbits were hopping around...
Funny thing struck me, it rained on the drive through and it rained on the drive back, but I am not aware of it raining while we were working out :-)
Home to a breakfast of fresh fruit and yoghurt, a race to enter and then I'm off to meet a friend to take her out for a wee gentle jog. The rest of the day will be spent baking nutty bread and preparing food for the week.

Update: Had a gentle 5km jog/walk with Susan it stretched my legs out and she did really well. I then went for a Mega healthy shopping - I think you should get extra clubcard points for having a healthy shopping trolley! Had a nice soak in the bath to ease my legs and heat up as it was a bit damp and chilly when we were out running, then after some home made soup it was time to hit the kitchen for an afternoon of domestic goddess icity!
I baked 2 nutty breads and prepped the ingredients for another 2, this is a really nice loaf which contains no wheat or yeast, but does have a lot of nuts in it which require chopping and this is time consuming so I decided to weigh out and zipbag the dry ingredients and nuts so that if I am making more later in the week or at weekend it will save time. I also made a nice Balti which we had for dinner and some home made soup, oh and roasted a turkey which I couldn't resist as it was less than half price :-)

Today's menu:
pre 6am session - cup of cherry and cinnamon tea and half a banana. Other half banana on journey home.
Breakfast: Fresh fruit and yoghurt
Lunch: Home made veggie soup
Dinner: Chicken Balti with cauliflower
Snack: Carrot and Banana muffin - again no wheat, sugar or animal fat.

At least 2.5litres of water!
Think it will be another early bed tonight :-)