Winter Wonderland!

Ahh sorry it's been a while guys! Work has been hectic and my laptop is on its last legs so I haven't been able to go on it for long... Lets hope father christmas reads my blog haha

I haven't been doing much in the way of fitness the past week, I've had a really nasty cold/sore throat and only just managed to stay at work so it's been feet up at home! I did do my push-ups though,

16-17-14-14-26

26 is my new max! It's going up!

All you Brit bloggers will know about the snow! My town has pretty much come to a standstill, uni is closed for Mike and most people are working from home. Of course I can't do my work from home - not sure the home would like take a dementia patient home for the week.... Luckily it's within walking distance for me so I have been able to get in without too much difficulty, just cold wet feet!

Mike and I were considering running today but we decided the snow was too much.. It's up to our knees in places and really slippy in others... don't think we would have got very far. It's now I wish we had a treadmill. We couldn't even get to the gym with my mum and dad on a guest pass as they're completely snowed in! We did some strength at home...

Towel pull-ups 3x2 totally amazed I managed these!! The 2 weren't consecutive, I had to have a quick rest between reps I took a picture of this but I look horrible!! Maybe I'll get one next time hehe.
one legged squats wall assisted, these absolutely fried my legs 4x3E/L
14-18-13-12-10 push-ups did not go well today, I think I'm going to blame the pull-ups...
15 minutes core

Before I go, I'm going to leave you with some of my snow pictures... Roxie has been loving it!

Before it got heavy

What I woke up to..

Mike is in shorts?? My boyfriend is insane! Think he just couldn't be bothered to get changed haha.. still, insane!

Even Tia wanted in on the snowy fun.. although she didn't stay out for long!

Well that's about it for today. I have another day off tomorrow so hopefully I'll be back with my christmas decorating pictures! I can't wait to get the tree up!

Moving Day

Has almost arrived, we exchanged contracts yesterday and we get the keys tomorrow! Yippeee!

Our house no longer looks like a home though...

Our back bedroom/gym room looking very sorry without all our stuff in it..
Mike cooking when the kitchen was half packed... it's been chaos! Especially climbing over those boxes with my legs still totally dead from those burpees! We made a wall with them so Roxie couldn't get the the rabbit and guinea pigs.. it was nice to have all five of our pets in one room!
Tia has been really confused, but loving playing in the boxes! If I can figure out how I'll post one of the videos I took of her and Roxie when she was jumping out of the boxes and batting her!
This was the lounge yesterday...


We took Mike's step dad's van down to the new house twice full of boxes tonight and it now looks like this... much better... I can get to the kitchen without climbing over stuff!

Kitchen today, it's almost all packed, just the fridge, freezer, microwave, oven and a few daft bits left over now.. can move a bit easier too!
Bye bye house!
I can't believe how horrible it looks without our bits and pieces around. It's been getting progressively worse as we've packed more! The floors look worse than I remember when we did the house up just a year ago.. It was in a dreadful state we had to take about 7-8 layers of wallpaper off every wall, clean EVERYWHERE, paint every wall and ceiling and put down new floors, light fittings.. When people were looking round I said we would sell them the floors for £100, they cost us ten times that.

All the people who looked round were really happy with that and said they would definitely have them. Except one woman, who asked me 'what are you going to do if I don't pay you' I said I'll take them out and sell them else where. Annoyingly every single person who looked round the house wanted it and the letting agents gave it to her.. I rung her up and asked her if she wanted the floors 2 months ago and she said she did and that she would buy our shed too.. Yesterday I rung her up to arrange payment and she said I don't want to buy the floors anymore. She knows she's left us with no time to find a buyer.. She obviously thinks we're going to just leave them.. She's going to be disappointed.. We've taken them up and we've already given the laminates away to Mike's half sister and Mike's best friends mum is having the carpet. I'd rather give them away to family and friends than some cheap woman who's tried to get them off us for free.. Silly thing is if someone had got the house and said look you'll have to take them up because I really can't afford it I'd have left them.. She's been really underhand about it.. Oh well.. her loss.. £100 isn't life changing money and I'm happy the floors are going to people we care about who need them instead of her!

I have my theories that she's not going to turn up tomorrow to pay for the shed too in the hope we won't have time to dismantle it and take it with us... We do and we will! I wonder if I'm right... It's funny isn't it, sometimes you get feelings about people and I knew from the start she wasn't going to pay for them she was really not very nice when I was showing her round.. Then after the first phonecall when she said she wanted them and seemed nicer I thought oh Laura you were too quick to judge... Now I know I wasn't! Trust your instincts.. they're mostly right! Anyway, I've written far too much about that woman! Really it's worked out well 'cause we've been able to help family and friends!

I can't believe how busy these past few days have been.. I thought we were really close with packing but since exchanging contracts yesterday we have literally been doing stuff non-stop! We finally sat down at about 7pm tonight! Now we're both relaxing with Lush facemasks on... Mike took my picture and I looked like a man, then I took Mike's picture and he looked like a zombie, so you'll just have to imagine the face masks haha those pictures went straight in the trash! Can't relax for too long though, I have my push-ups to do! No rest for the wicked ;-)

edit: push-ups: done! 10, 12, 8, 8, max (20) ouchies!! How did I just do 20??? My arms just let me keep going! So pleased max is up, it really, really hurts now though, almost too shaky to type haha

Thank you all so much for the kind comments on my last post. We got some good news today, the damage to Mike's eye socket shouldn't cause him any further problems and doesn't need to be operated on (unless he wanted to for visual reasons but you really can't tell). That's a huge relief! The dopey boy forgot to ask the doctor about any implications to boxing though.. but he thinks the doc would have said if it was a problem.. I hope he's right! I'm not sure if we're going back at the moment I think the time he has to take off boxing will give us plenty of time to make a decision, hopefully things will come clear. We'll definitely continue the boxing training at home... Just need to find a spot for the bag!

Well I'm not sure when I'm next going to have internet access so I'll probably be gone for about a week :-( don't know what on earth I'm going to do in my free time! Hopefully the local library has internet access so I can catch up on blogs and blog.. Hope everyone has a great week next week.

Teamwork

Last night we did not go boxing... Mike didn't want to and since it's something we do together I didn't go alone. We did do a killer workout at home though...

300 crunches
300 star jumps
200 MB slams
150 Burpees
100 Push-ups
50 Pull-ups

Done as fast as possible as a team - makes you want to work extra hard so you don't let each other down... I had a little tally at the bottom to count my push-ups and pull-ups (I did chin-ups) separately so I could use them in my monthly totals. I counted them to the main totals of course. Mike carried me on the pull-ups quite a bit but I matched him on the push-ups and burpees and everything else was pretty even.. We should have done 250 star jumps which would have looked a lot neater but Mike miscounted at the end and we did more so I said we'll just do 300 every time.

Here I am looking surprisingly happy before...

Here is Mike before.. please excuse the chaos in the room behind him... packing!!

This is what we looked like after, yuck!!

How come he doesn't look like a tomato and I do.. hmmph!

I can't quite believe I am posting this sweaty mess picture, including my less than perfect belly on the interwebs... I feel very brave haha!

Done!

We finished in 18.58. If we don't beat this time next month we have to do 50 burpees as a punishment... I hope we beat our time!!

I managed 14 chin-ups 4 more than last month's entire total and 50 push-ups.. Just shows what your body is capable of when you push it. By the way... I still didn't check my max reps... I'm officially a wimp!

Do you workout with your parnter? I'm writing a blog post based on partner workouts at the moment. If you have any questions I can answer or any content to add, opinions, partner workouts you love etc, get in touch!

Winter is Coming

It's getting so cold here! I've got my first proper autumn cold - I'm blaming that on Mike though. Two weeks ago he started his masters and he's brought home all the nasty 'freshers flu' bugs! We're both sniffling and sneezing and feeling sorry for ourselves! Since we're both icky we didn't run today. A bit frustrating as I was going to run yesterday but I postponed 'til today as we were hoping we'd be going boxing in the evening yesterday but we couldn't get a lift in the end. Oh well! I did some push-ups, chin-ups and core work at home so I got something done just not what was planned... I did 60 push-ups and 10 chin-ups, not sure how long we did core for, about 10 minutes I think.. We forgot to set the timer off!

In a way it was kind of ok that I couldn't run today because our boiler is broken and we have no hot water so I would have had to wait for several hours to get a shower at either Mike's mum's or my parent's house - or have a dreaded ice bath, neither of which I was relishing! I hope we get it sorted soon, it's no fun without hot water!

I'm just going to leave you with two clips which had my crying with laughter the other day, they were on Rude Tube a UK program which shows the top 50 funny youtube clips in different kind of genres. The other day it was animals.. I'm a sucker for funny animal clips! These were my favourites, enjoy!





Enjoy your weekends everyone!

Interval Time

Mike and I went to the track to do our intervals today, when we got there there was a school PE class going on so we waited for them to finish.. They were doing 800s too, there was a really speedy kid who got a 3.01 on his last interval and was soo far ahead of the rest of the group. When they were done we got on with our training.

5 x 800m, 400m RI, prescribed pace of 3.47 per interval.

1 mile warm up @ 9.30 pace
1 - 3.38
2 - 3.43
3 - 3.45
4 - 3.47
5 - 3.43
400m cool down

After that we did some chin-ups and push-ups I did 5 chin-ups and 35 push-ups. We found a convenient bar to do our pull-ups from, glad we got them out of the way this morning... I can't see myself doing anything else tonight, I'm knackered!

Did I mention I'm on the board of trustees now for Seed? The eating disorder charity I've mentioned a few times before? Well it's the AGM tomorrow night which will be the first meeting I attend as a trustee, very exciting! I hope I can be part of lots of exciting developments with the charity.

Right I'm off to finish watching Glee... Even though it's a Madonna episode and I cannot stand her blehhh!

Double Digits

Yesterday was such a busy day! I had a job interview in the morning, it lasted 1hr 20 and I think it went well. The job is really cool, I hope I get it!! I'm not sure when I'll find out, the lady had a lot of people to interview and said there might be a second round... I feel quietly confident, I know I could do the job, I just hope someone with lots more experience didn't turn up after me!

EDIT! I just got a phonecall.... I got the job!! I will be an assistant manager at Holland And Barrett, I'm going to get lots of training about all the natural supplements and sports products they do which is really interesting to me :-) So excited! I've been unemployed way too long, it will be great to get into work! The only downside is it will probably take a little while for me to find my fitness rhythm again and figure out when I find it best to train when I'm working but that will come with time! :D yay!

After my interview I got home, ate lunch and we went straight to a course, Coaching and Mentoring. The course was just awful... and I have two more 4 hr sessions!! From the syllabus I expected something like sports coaching and the type of mentoring I'm going to be doing with Mind. It was all corporate mentoring and coaching. And it was done in such a school classroom style, it felt really oppressive and the information just didn't seem useful. I didn't agree with a lot of the things he was teaching and on several occaisions he had really obvious grammatical errors on the slide show... I'm not saying I'm grammatically perfect, especially in my blog posts because I don't always check them thoroughly but come on - if you're leading a course you should have checked your course material! I'm dreading the next two weeks, seriously considering not going back... It could get better though, maybe? Who knows, I hope so!! They need a better description in the prospectus haha

When we got home from the course we were soo tired! We ate tea and sat down for a bit before getting some push-ups and chin-ups done. I was really concentrating on the chin-ups from dead hang so Mike was giving me a little support so I could get the full range of movement, I think I'm improving, I wish I'd started from dead hang in the beginning though, I have so much catch up to do now! I got 10 Chin-ups and 35 push-ups done, some of the push-ups on the dreaded handles!

Today I ran 10 miles!! My first double digit run, it was tough! A lot tougher than 8 was, I got pretty dehydrated too, I need to start taking water on my longer runs I can't get enough in me now! The run was a relaxed run at no specific pace according to my plan so I just went on how I felt, I was going to go on HR and keep it in a comfortable zone but something went wrong with the heart rate readings, think it needs a new battery... it was telling me my HR was in the low 90s for a lot of the run... I know that's not right! So I'll just give you the mile times!

10 miles in 1:35:43 average pace 9.35

Mile 1 9.36
Mile 2 9.37
Mile 3 9.32
Mile 4 8.54
Mile 5 8.58
Mile 6 10.11
Mile 7 10.12
Mile 8 9.41
Mile 9 9.33
Mile 10 9.25

The wierd time differences between miles 4-5 and 6-7 were down to wind on the bridge, it was clearly helping me in miles 4-5 but it was pushing me back in miles 6-7... they were tough miles, I just wasn't close enough to the end to not be bothered by the wind, 3-4 miles seemed so far at that point!

I felt so poorly after the run, I had the worst stomach cramps and for the first time after running had no appetite what so ever. I felt really sick and I thought I was going to be sick several times! I had to force down a bowl of cereal cause we had to go out as soon as I'd showered... Not nice! Anyone have any tips or ideas for how to avoid the tummy troubles after running? I hope it was just a bad day and not to do with the distance increase because that will make the half marathon training pretty grim!

Well I'm off now to refuel with a takeaway at Mike's Mums, it's her birthday tomorrow so we're off to celebrate!

By the way, head over to Marcia and Karyn's blogs and wish them luck for Boston on Monday!! They are going to be awesome :D

Bodyweight Strength Day

Well, today I had intervals planned but I didn't do them. I was all dressed in my running gear at the door and I decided it was a bad idea, my knees felt bad to walk on and although I really didn't want to miss a workout I really don't want to injure myself and put myself out for any long period of time so I decided to play it safe. I think it was the right descision, my knees are still feeling sore tonight.

Since I wasn't doing my running I decided to get some push-ups, pull-ups and chin-ups done. The push-ups were done with varying hand positions, wide, normal, close and knuckle and the chin/pull-ups were done as negative holds, jump up to the top hold at the top for 3 seconds, middle for 3 seconds and bottom for 3 seconds. I did;

38 Push-ups
8 Chin-ups
8 Pull-ups

Core Challenge Sample Workout 2
Ab Roll-Outs
Complete 5 sets of ab roll-outs either standing to a wall or kneeling. Choose the reps according to how it feels for you - just past when you feel the burn! If you don't have an ab wheel you can use a dumbell with the weights loose and hands either side of the weights.

If you don't have the equipment for ab roll-outs here is an alternative circuit (if you don't have a medicine ball you can use small handweights instead)!

Sit-ups with medicine ball
Side bends
Russian Twists

Complete the circuit 3-5 times and remember to stretch afterwards. Be prepared to lower the reps as the weights will probably make you more sore than a bodyweight core circuit... They do for me anyway! Remember to stretch out afterwards!

Hope everyone's enjoying the first week! Just want to do a quick shout out to Lauren who got a 3.30 plank on her first timed try! Only stopped by her socks slipping - something which always gets me too, I never remember to take them off! Check out her first core post!

By the way... I finally joined Twitter to see what all the fuss is about.. no idea what to do on it yet haha, is anyone else on it? My user name is BoxRunEat.

3-4/02/10

Sorry I haven't posted for the past two days, I'm not even sure how I ended up so busy but I've barely been on the computer. On Wednesday I did my first ever tempo run, I went into it feeling quietly confident, how wrong was I!!! It was one of the toughest runs yet, I don't know if it's because I took my intervals a bit fast on Monday or if it's down to the fact that the slow base building running I'd been doing can lower your pace temporarily but I could not keep pace. My average heart rate for the fast portion of the run was 178 and my highest was 188, tough!! I hope I do better next time it comes up in the schedule!

03/02/01
AM - Tempo Run
1 mile easy prescribed pace of 10.11 ran at 10.23 (included running up a flight of stairs which I guess must have slowed me down cause I was on track until then, finished the mile right after)
3 miles at short tempo pace prescribed pace of 8.36, I ran at 8.48 per mile
1 mile easy again, prescribed pace of 10.11, I ran a little faster at 10 minute pace, it didn't feel like I was pushing it too much and I just wanted to get home!

PM
Isometric punches x4 sets Jab/Straight/L.hook/R.uppercut
Push-ups 5x12
Wrist curls 5kg 3x20
Reverse wrist curls 1kg 2x30
Uneven wrist curls 0.5kg 3x20
Core work - 15minutes

04/02/10
Boxing - 2hrs
Warm up - 10 minutes jogging/ stretching

Skipping - 6 x 2min

Heavy bag - 9 x 2min

Power circuit - 20s each station/ 2 rounds

• Bench dips
• Db punches
• Box step ups
• Mountain climbers
• MB Slams
• Shadowboxing
• Military press
• Sit ups with a twist
• DB Shrugs
• Push ups
• Full jumping jacks
• Upright rows
• Leg raises

Cool down - 10 minutes stretching
included 47 push-ups

I have a 6 mile slow run planned today so I'll be back later!

21/01/10

AM - Humber bridge run

[Image source]

Today I went for my longest run yet.. 8 miles from my house going over the humber bridge and back again, was going to take my camera but it was too tight in my trouser pocket. I ran with Mike today, he was doing cardiac output so it was faster than my cardiac output pace and he was wearing the garmin so no HR info... I really want my own garmin! Believe it or not the weather today was a lot drearier looking than on that picture.. it's been so grey in England lately, or in hull at least. It was nice to run with Mike instead of just me and my headphones for a change, we do a lot of boxing specific training together but rarely run together as his pace is over 2 minutes faster than mine so it just doesn't work unless we're doing sprints or intervals on a track or field.

Stats
8.1 miles
1:23:18
average pace 10.24

PM
Chin-ups - 10

Diamond push-ups x5
Push-ups x10
Wide push-ups x10
Knuckle push-ups x5

Neck bridges 2x10

15/01/10

Didn't do much today, got a cough and feel under the weather didn't feel up to any cardio

2x5 diamond push-ups
2x10 push-ups
2x10 wide push-ups
2x5 knuckle push-ups

Isometric punches - Jab/Cross/L.hook/R.uppercut x 4 sets

14/01/10

AM
7.5 miles in 1:20:45, slow run but not quite cardiac output pace. Included shadow boxing, backwards running, running whilst punching.

PM
5 slow chin-ups in single reps

2x5 diamond push-ups
2x10 push-ups
2x10 wide push-ups
2x5 knuckle push-ups