Heavy legs

The Juneathon halfway point was marked with a run today.  There really haven’t been enough of those this Juneathon so I resolved to go for a four mile jaunt up to Westminster and round St James’ Park.  Having aimed to go before lunch at about 12, I finally succeeded in (temporarily) escaping the office at 7pm.  The timing was probably better though as there were far fewer tourists and civil servants to get in the way.

It was drizzling and dark when I left the office and I thought my kit choice of vest and shorts might be a bit inadequate.  Fortunately though the rain held off and I was soon warmed up.  But practically the whole way round my legs felt tired and heavy – this Juneathon thing is starting to take its toll.  I may not have done all that much running but the legs have had a fair old time of it what with all the spinning and the unfamiliar zumba and body sculpt classes.  My left calf and achilles in particular feels tight and sore.  Time to book in for a massage with Lucinda I think. 

There were a few interesting things to see out and about, and having forgotten my iPod I was noticing things more than usual.  The Ghostbustours bus made me smile to myself, even though it’s not really that clever or funny.  There were lots and lots of geese and their babies in the park too, generally taking over the entire pavement round the lake as people threw them bread.  I also couldn’t help but notice a couple, obviously tourists, wandering around outside Buckingham Palace wearing identical (and hideous) pink and green striped cagouls.  Yuck.

So, halfway through Juneathon, the stats look like this (drumroll please):

Runs
Proper outside runs: 3 (and a half, if you count the pre-hen do jog-of-shame home)
Treadmill runs: 2
Total miles: 20.7

Other stuff
Spin classes: 4
Gym sessions: 2
Zumba classes: 1
Pilates classes: 1
Y-sculpt classes: 1

Pumping iron (before breakfast)

An inner mental battle raged this morning as I kept hitting the snooze button again and again.  I was booked onto Y-Sculpt (body sculpting class, as the name suggests, the Y I assume coming from the fact that you lift your arms up a lot) at my work gym at 8am, and it takes 45 minutes to get into the office.  But at 7am, I had only just made it into the bathroom and quite apart from getting myself washed and dressed I still had to hang out some washing and put more on, and go to the dry cleaners on the way to the station to pick up what I planned to wear today.  It was all impossible and I very nearly gave in and went back to bed. 

But Juneathon won the battle, and I decided to resolve the problem by ditching the dry cleaners and finding something else to wear that is suitable both for work and a fancy restaurant this evening.  By accessorising an otherwise boring work dress with a large maroon belt and peep toe shoes I think I’ve just about managed it.  And as it turned out I was glad to be a bit dressed up because I ran into the colleague I mentioned the other day while getting my porridge post-gym.  Clearly not giving up this morning earned me some good Juneathon karma because normally that would be bound to happen on the way into the gym (in old kit with no make-up and crazy hair and looking all flustered for being late again), not on the way out when I’m in heels and make-up and with hair freshly blow-dried! 

As for the class itself, it was a good one.  I am trying to improve the tone of my arms in particular as they feel a bit neglected after all this marathon running and spinning, and given that my outfits for the two weddings I have coming up are both maxi dresses that only reveal shoulders and arms, those bits really do deserve a bit more attention.  Hence the sculpting class.  But as I am moving house again this weekend, I deliberately made sure not to make the same mistake I made last year (lifting weights to exhaustion right before a weekend spent lifting boxes and furniture), so I wasn’t too ambitious with the weights I chose.  Even so, I couldn’t complete the last set of tricep curls and I am really feeling the effects already.  Must try to get to this class more often.

Have a mountain of work to do today and then off to Hibiscus tonight for a client dinner.  Yum!

On the twelfth day of Juneathon, it rained (and rained, and rained)

What has happened to the beautiful summer we were having?  I had planned a ten-miler yesterday but the weather was just so bleak I couldn’t make myself do it.  All those hours of marathon training round Richmond Park in freezing, sleety conditions are still too fresh in the memory to make me want to do it again when I don’t absolutely have to.  Plus, I figured, if staying indoors is good enough for Andy Murray at the Queen’s Club less than a mile away, then it’s good enough for me.

But this being Juneathon and everything, I did eventually brave the elements for the one minute dash to the gym at 6pm.  A mile on the treadmill, followed by a mile on the rowing machine, followed by another mile on the treadmill.  All rounded off with a few planks, and that was Juneathon Day 12 done and dusted.

Fortunately Day 13 was luckier – this morning’s 60 minute Spin instructor was brilliant (much better than the crazy ones I’ve had lately), and we had an awesome, cheesy-tune filled, very hardcore workout all done by 9am.  A great start to the week.

On the eleventh day of Juneathon, I zumbaed

Part of the whole Juneathon thing is getting out and doing things you wouldn’t otherwise necessarily do exercise-wise.  My Mum has been going on about how great zumba is for ages so this Saturday I decided that I would have a go at a class.  I am a notoriously bad dancer (not an embarrassing dancer, I can move OK but I just can’t get the footwork) so I was expecting to be pretty terrible at it.  But it sounded fun so what the hell.  Very happily for me, my lovely flatmate was keen to come along and give it a go too so we went down to the gym together.

It was a LOT of fun.  As expected, I was pretty dreadful at anything that involved complicated footwork but the wiggling around didn’t totally defeat me and having an equally clueless friend there really helped as we could just laugh along in solidarity.  At least I escaped poor Rachel’s fate of a seriously bruised shin after she managed to kick herself really quite hard.  It was also a very decent workout – I didn’t expect to sweat so much but after an hour I was definitely very hot and happy.  Not sure I’ll be going every week but I’m glad to have given it a try.

The rest of the day isn’t going to be all that restful either – we are moving house next Saturday so today and tomorrow will largely be spent packing up all our worldly possessions.  But even that can be fun when you do it together with some Lady Gaga, a bottle of wine and some pizza.  Yay!