Feeling Good

 Hello blog readers.

What can I say about this past week or so.  It's been brilliant!  Busy, but brilliant.  I had a full week work last week, starting at 7 finishing at 6, but I still got up and lead group 0 last week.  I just feel so good knowing that I am encouraging others back to fitness, while also getting myself back to fitness!

As you know, this last year my running has been virtually on hold!  I'm just no good running by myself, I know me and Naggy did some socially distancing runs together, but we did do as much as we should have, or indeed could have!  I think my mojo is in encouraging others, so I shall just have to keep at it.

Of course that leads me nicely to my other leading role, that of leading the beginners!  We started back on  Saturday with our free beginners group. With the other leaders, RefMichael, ZippySherry and Hannah, and a smattering of PWR helpers, we saw over 40 people join up for our own beginners to runners session!  And amazing amount.  I can't tell you how excited we all were to see so many.  With the new booking on line system most of them were already registered.  We still have some who turn up and register, that's fine, we don't want to turn anyone away.  Our Nicola had a table set up, hand santiser, pens and registration forms at the ready!  It all went like clockwork.  Pity about the leader who went first...but I'll shall get to that in a sec.

DiscoRich welcomed all the newbies, introduced us four leaders and all the PWR's that came to help and encourage them.  Did the little bit of 'housekeeping' that needed doing, i.e, making sure no COVID symptoms, explaining about the loo situation etc, and then it was on to the session.

The first leader up.....well that was me!  "Ok, so we warm up first, need to raise heart rate and warm those muscles, so everyone show me a Burpee" Hmm, somehow I don't think they believed me!  Just as well, because that is not how we roll at PWR Beginners, it's all about easing into it, letting things creep on you so that you don't even notice that you're doing it!  

Of course I slightly went off the rails and tried to get them to do the dynamic stretches first rather than do the walking around the green for two laps, but RefMichael soon reminded me of what we needed to do first. After that it was plain sailing.  I was smiling all the way through our session.  I really enjoyed it!

Just the beginning!

This week has been a bit quiet in the old exercises corner, but for real good reasons. Monday it was my long awaited for hairdresser appointment!  Oh my goodness, you can't understand how good I felt when I walked out of Clare's salon!  I felt like a million dollars, 5 months after the last time! Today I had things to do in the morning then I got stuck into some work stuff which seem to take up quite a bit of time.

But this evening it is Running Time!  That is all I have to say about the evenings that used to be Tuesday evenings! It is running time, end of!  Nothing must stop me from getting back out there with me group 0's to do some running.  This evening we took our fist steps into the woods.  Something we haven't done for maybe a year!  We were slow, but so what!  It felt good to be back in the woods.  It just smells so much different than on the streets, (of course it does Old Girl, it's called fresh air!)     The terrain is different (Again Old Girl, it's called earth and roots) with that up hill section (Tut, Old Girl it's called the up hill section....oh well, yes) Well, it feels different running up hill in the woods than it does on the streets.  There is so much more to look out for, roots, dips, holes, bricks, knobbly, bobbly path ways.  So yes we were a little slower.

But it was so good!  I can't wait for next week, we are heading back into to the woods, we are just going to run, we are going to get better, faster, back to the original group one pace!  We are going to do it, because we love it so much!  Hello mojo, I knew you were around!

In the Woods

We finished

Week 2 Toopalarde On The Road Again

 Hello blog readers.

Club night again!  I'm lead Toopalarde!  There were 6 of us this evening, J.J. Snappy, Tracy, Wendimoo and Dee.  All of us have let lockdown boredom get the better of us, instead of us using it to get fitter!  I think it's because we all do like to 'flock together'.  We are no good on our own.  We try as hard as we could but without the support of our crew we just didn't do our running.....well not much of it anyway.

I am sticking to the same route, we are not ready for the woods yet,  we need to concentrate on our stamina first.  I am so looking forward to going through the woods but we need to be able to run for at least 15 minutes straight!  It's all hills and roots and branches in the woods, we can't look out for them while trying to remember how to breathe and run at the same time!

I have 'upped' our running to 2 minutes running and 4 minutes walking.  Yes, I kept to the 4 minutes of walking, next week that goes down!  We got this, we can do it!  It really is tough, the weather has changed, we had our 'false' spring on Saturday and Sunday, with the beautiful sunshine, tee-shirt wearing weather, family enjoying an Easter egg hunt around the estate, then yesterday, snow and freezing winds! Welly boots, hats, scarfs and gloves!  I think this is why it felt tougher for some of our runners in group 0 today, it's harder trying to run in the cold weather!

After the short sharp shock of the little hill we continued with the rest of the flat route, just like last week.  It took longer for us to warm up!  How crazy is our weather, eh!?  But we are all so very pleased to be here.  Tracy was finding it a bit of a struggle.  The thing is, we have all let us selves go, we just need to be kind to our selves, 'saying it's ok to be slower' but then kick our own arses and say 'Now get out there and work it".  I think the fact that we are all there is the 'kicking of own personal bottoms'.  Now that we are there, running, well, you might as well do it and do it well!  We can and we will!  That is our motto at the moment, something that we kept reminding everyone, 'we can and we will'  We will not hear or accept 'I can't!'

It is tough though, of course it's tough, we are all that little bit heavier, we are all that little bit less fit than we used to be a year ago.  We really have to start back at the beginning, only this time we know what the end results can be!  We know what we are capable of, the miles we used to run, the speed we used to do!  We know we can get back there! And who knows, we could even improve on our best performances that we have done in the past!  We should not let anything convince us that we can't do it!  We can and we will!

I forgot to take pictures, again!  I should do it first thing!  SnappyHannah needs to back to her routes I think!  Anyway, this is our route with the geeky stats.  I took them a little further than last week, just a little further, and next week I shall take them to the next road.  With the little extra distance and a cheeky little hill, it will be a bit of a challenge!  

Make Way for the Toopalarde!

Hello blog readers. 

 It's been a while since I last wrote anything, I know but I am here now! I haven't been sitting around doing nothing though! Me and Tracy have been doing our thing while there has been no running with our club!  This blimmin lockdown is really just getting us all down now, but we shall continue to do what our government says, in spite of what some dimwits think, that it's all a conspiracy, ffs! But let's not talk about the numbnuts that refuse to wear masks in shops, decide to meet hundreds and hundreds of people, not wearing a mask, while counting how much bloody toilet rolls they STILL have from the very first hoarding session!

Tracy and I have been doing Team Body Project, YouTube videos together.  If nothing else it has helped to keep us mentally okish!  It hasn't help with the love affair with the fridge and the biscuit barrel, but hey ho!  At least we have been moving, which is all that Daniel says we need to do!  Oh if only!

But last night! Oh my goodness, last night!  It was sheer pleasure!  Just driving to the rec last night I had a huge smile on my face!  There was also a huge knot in my stomach as well (or that could quite easily have been the chocolate digestive that I had eaten 30 mins before hand)  PWR's were meeting up for the first time in what seems like......forever!  It truly feels like we have not run for the past year.  I know we had a few meet ups here and there, but really, it has been lock down for an entire year!  Not a lot of running has happened at all, well not for me!

But last night it happened.  I was leading a new group 0!  It's for all the people who have not run, or not run much in this past year.  And from listening to most of us, we are all toopalardes!  Most of us have a couple of extra pounds or two, those extra inches showing through our very close fitting running clothes, or even hiding under brand new run stuff!  But there was one thing that we all was agreeing on.....it's just great to be back!  

The park had 6 to 8 groups of people all saying "Hi, great to see you" or "My goodness I've missed you".  There was a sense of excitement and frenzied screeching  of  "Hi" from one group to another, of course keeping to our own groups of 6 runners.  In my group, because there are so any of us who have not been running, we had a special dispensation and had 8 of us.    

There were the usual crowd, J.J. Wendimoo and Tracy, but there was also a new person as well.  She has done our beginners course but has not done an awful lot of running since!  It just make sense to start our group from the very beginnings again.  I am thinking, "At least I should be two or three steps in front of the new beginners when we start again in 3 weeks".  This is my theory any way!  I need at least to look like I am not dying after the first minute run!  

I chose a flatish route, it will be shorter than our usual 3 miles, but that will increase over the weeks.  And no going into the woods just yet!  My goodness, I think I will have enough to contend with learning to breath and run again let alone look out for the sneaky tree roots and low hanging branches!  Them trees can be deadly sometimes!  The roads will have to do, I am sure everyone will understand.

Let me tell you, readers, if you could hear the sound of the voices of, not just of group 0, but all the groups that were there in the rec, it would really have lifted you up so much.  It was such a happy sound, seemed such a shame to spoil it with some hard work!  But we are a running, club, not a chatting club, and there are hills everywhere of course!  I had to get our one out of the way as soon as possible, so we headed for Kingsway, towards Petts Wood, its a short sharp shock to the system, but you know that after that its all plain sailing!  Hmmm, well, sort of!

We did the briefest of warm up before hitting the hill, brisk walk and some side stepping, then hit the hill running!  I kept us to the 1 minute of running and 4 minutes walking, (Shhhh, don't tell group 0 we usually do 5 minutes of walking during the first week of beginners!)  Everyone did well for the first run, even up hill.  There were a couple of people that I think are going to do exceptionally well, and will probably be moving up a group very soon, or at least go into the original group 1!  And from then on, it was run 1, walk 4 all the way around a short flatish route.

So, the run done, the noises on route were slightly different from when we were in the rec....but then after our stretches, the sound was as cheerful and happy as when we first arrived only 45-50 minutes before!  Fan-blimmin-tastic!  Loved it,.....hated it.....well maybe not quite as harsh as that.....but loved it all at the same time!  This toopalarde is well happy to be back to having the discipline of belonging toa run club!  

Toopalarde?  Oh, well, that is a name I heard my sister in law use, it's a very posh way of saying......tub of lard!  I will be Supairlite one day! 

Flippin 'Eck!

A picture from last week
I forget to take one
today!

 Hello blog readers.

Monday again!  Still furloughed! Still lacking in any motivation!  But, motivation, would you believe, is not the be all end all.  I follow this chap on instagram, his name is Ben Mudge.  I started following him while I cared for Kirsty.  He is a C.F. warrior!  He has cystic fibrosis, he is also a personal trainer!  The man is as fit as...!  But he is also  a inspiration for all young kids everywhere who has C.F., he looks like Thor! But of course that is not why I follow him....!!  Well....! Anyway, he had a question and answer session with his followers and someone asked how he stays so motivated!

"I am not.  I am rarely 'motivated' to do what I need to do.  Motivation is the spark that starts you.  It is not the right fuel source you want to rely on for a long journey though."

And he continues..

"Motivation in our health and fitness doesn't play as big a role as people think it does.  

Dedication, self discipline and patience play a far larger role than motivation does when you look at the bigger picture."

I can relate to this.  Because at the moment motivation is really well hidden somewhere inside my brain, but self discipline, at the moment, is what I am relying on to keep on moving, to keep on doing exercises.  Every morning I call Tracy and we workout together for 30 minutes. Trying as hard as we can to get fit bodies and fit minds.  

Today we did Two Week Transformation, Day 2.  We will be doing this for this week, all with the weights, a bit of mat work.  It was tough, but I am sure we are going to get through it and it will become easier by the end of the week! 

What else did I do to get moving? Hmm, well, I did the little doggie walk, My daughter had the big dog and I had the little one, he is just so cute.  A little Dachshund, the sort of dog that could quite possibly be my running partner!

Also, yup, there is an 'also', I went for a run!  Naggy over the green sent me a text this morning 'I've got my running gear, I shall meet you later at hometime!"  It wasn't so much of an information text as it was a 'get your arse ready, we're running' text"  To be fair, we had planned it for last week, but her work just ate up all the time!  But not today, today we are running!

I watched her car pull up and made my way outside.  It was quite chilly considering the sun was shining brightly!  "Three miles, just around the usual route, but ducking down Turpington instead running up to the Crown." she said.  "It's about 3 miles"  I thought about it, "I can do that" I said, probably not very convincingly!  But we that's what we set out to do!

We were running together, warming up, chatting away, but then once through the gate, she picked up the pace!  I didn't try to keep up with her, but I did try to keep the same distance as I used to!  Big mistake!  I would have thought Naggy would have slowed down, you know, like the rest of the planet, but there was no stopping her!  Naggy is one that she will run, not matter what the distance, she will run, all the way.  She adjusts the distance only when she hasn't done any running!  So before, she would have done 5 miles, now she is doing 3 miles!  Where as me, I plan on just breathing at the end of my walk/run/crawl!

The only time Naggy stops running is when she 'runs' with me!  We have these strategic places where she will wait till I get to her and then she runs off again!  I feel ok if I can say a few words when I get to her, but this time all I could do was stare at her! I had planned to do Naggy's shorter route, (usually we go up to Crown Lane Spur) Naggy's shorter route was to run to Turpington Lane, but I decided, after we got to the bus garage, that I will run down Magpie Hall Lane, Naggy will run to Turp!  We both got to the end of Greenway around the same time!  

It was getting darker as we approached the park, the lamps were all on, Naggy was already about 6 or 7 lampposts ahead of me.  It means that she will be waiting for me by the boxing club, for the last nag to get us home!  

It was tough!  Was it good? Well we did it, we did and we survived!  I am sure our hearts and lungs and legs and muscles appreciate all we do for them!  Motivation!  It's just that spark, its that idea, its that I can do that!  We know we can do it!  How many times have we done it it the past!  But it's that discipline that keeps you at it!  What I need, which is what Bend Mudge said as well, is the patience!  I was a lot fitter back in 2013 and 2015 (when I ran the marathon.....did I mention I did the London Marathon?) I need patience and discipline to get back there!  ........and to stop eating crap!

Still Going

 Hello blog readers

Sweatslinger!

It's been a good week or more since my last blog, it doesn't mean that I haven't been busy!  Both me and Tracy have been doing our daily workout with Team Body Project.  All of last week we worked out with Daniel, Lisa and Angie and the Cardio and Resistance routine!  It was great stuff.  We are doing one routine for a week, hoping that we will be able to flow from one exercise to the other.  Knowing what is coming next will, I hope, help to motivate us to work harder.

This week we have been doing the TWT day 1 routine.  Oh my goodness, I have nearly puked on twice doing this routine!  It's hard going.  There are no other TBP, real team members, working out with Daniel and....Alex!  Yup that's right, we are working out with Alex as well this week!  The Sweatslinger!  

I had forgotten how hard this routine is!  Alex does the cardio and Daniel does the resistance.  From the very first exercise it's relentless!  Alex is straight in with 'touch and raise, squat pulse then squat and knee'.  It looks so easy when it's written down like that but to do it, after the warm ups of course, is brutal!  You start to look forward to Daniels resistance exercises.  I am watching the t.v. and watching Tracy on the Portal, trying to take my mind of the burning in my thighs, knowing that we still have another 20 minutes of gruling workout to go!

The Sweatslinger is aptly named, because at the end of it I am dripping in sweat.  Waterfalls of progress, Daniel calls it, it sure feels like I've been standing under a warterfall!  Surely it has to be doing some good.  One more day of doing Sweatslinger then I find another challenging routine!  Got to keep it going!

Also today, (Thursday) I got myself out on my bike!  So that's two lots of Cardio done today! Woo hoo!  I shall write more on my cycling blog!

Workouts and a Walk!

 Hello blog readers.

It was pretty hard getting out my bed this morning, but having Tracy waiting for 'the call' is a great incentive to get moving.  I think that is why I kept going 'live' on Facebook last year, knowing that people were waiting to either watch or join me in getting fit.  

We worked out together yesterday too, I just didn't blog about it, was to engrossed in doing.....um......I am sure I was doing something! I did the same one again, and tomorrow will be the last time for this particular session.  I will try another one, maybe a cardio and resistance on Monday, step it up for both of us!

I really do get a good old sweat on, it's hard work.  I just hope it starts showing results soon.  I am desperately watching what I eat, taking note of everything....well most things.  The occasional biscuit goes under the radar.  Also easing up at the weekend, after all, during this lockdown we need to have some things that are fun and have the 'feel good' factor in there.  Mapmyfitness has all my eating habits, as well as all my workout info.

The pictures today were from yesterday, if you look carefully, the bottom right hand corner, you can see Tracy!  It's more interactive when I video call her, that way I can keep an eye on what shes doing too! 

A walk today as well.  Walking with Little buddy and his brother Benji with my daughter.  It's blimmin treacherous out there, isn't it?  If I got a pound for the amount of times I said 'Whoops" I would have been quids in after that.  We walked for about 3 miles, maybe a little less.  I forgot to start up my Garmin, I hate it when that happens, but my vivoactive 3 does recognise that I am going for a walk, phew, but only after I have started. It also stops by itself if it thinks I have stopped walking!  But at least I have some of my walk logged!  

I felt so sorry for little Buddy being so close to the ground. Benji is a bigger dog and loves to roll about in the snow, but little Budbud, bless him, I was almost tempted to carry him, but I guess that is not the idea of a walking the dogs!

So another short blog about not much!  I am so looking forward to when I can get out for a run.  I seem to waffle on a bit more about that!  Until tomorrow dear readers for another riveting read of the antics of the Old Girls attempt to lose the pounds!

Earlier Start!

 Hello blog readers.

Two sessions in a row! I shouldn't say anything really, I don't want to put the 'mockers' on it!  But there I was this morning, up early......well, earlier than I have been doing during the week.  I said I would call Tracy so that we could work out together.  She said that she has not been doing anything much, maybe the odd walk here and there! 

Although I was doing a few exercises pre-covid isolation, as Tracy was joining me I chose to do the beginners TBP class again, the one with Wade and his wife Angie, and Daniel.  I could make it a little harder for myself with my weights, if I wanted to.  

Both Tracy and I were ready, not sure we were looking forward to it, but I knew, once we had finished we would be pleased with ourselves.  It's that initial starting that gets me, but once you're in the swing of things it soon passes quickly. You should have heard the moans and groans though! From me and Tracy!  I did enjoy it though.  We are going to do the same one for the rest of the week, just to loosen up before I start delving in to all those other ones!  The ones with Alex working out too!

I forgot to take pictures, I just about remembered to switch my Garmin on though, we were about 7 or 8 minutes into the workout! So, looking forward to tomorrow ....!