Wednesday 30th September 2009

20:35 - 21:10 Session at Lanark Gym

Cross trainer - 11 minutes (split between levels 8 and 12, including two minutes backwards)

Stepper - 5 minutes at four floors per minute (but managed to beat that time !)

1 set of 30 at 20lbs, 1 set of 30 at 25lbs on the abominable abdominal wotsit

2 sets of 15 at 20lbs on the weights machine

Treadmill - 10 minutes, 2 at 6km/h, 6 at 8.5km/h, 2 at 7km/h - all at a 2% gradient

Gym pretty busy tonight - three or four people in for inductions by the sound of it - but managed to get a reasonably varied set of exercises in. First time experimenting with gradients on the treadmill - certainly made a difference ! Also tried to keep the training to keep my heart rate level maxing at about 150bpm - didn't manage it though - peaked out over 160bpm :(

Monday 28th September 2009

20:10 - 21:05 Session at Lanark Gym

Treadmill: 5 mins @ 6km/h, 10 mins @ 8.5 km/h, 1 min @ 9km/h

Cross trainer : 3 mins forwards/2 mins backwards/3 mins forwards at level 13

Stepping machine : 17 floors at 3.5 floors per minute pace

2 sets of 30 @ 25lbs on the abominable abdominal machine

2 sets of 15 @ 20lbs on the weights machine

Rowing machine : 5 minutes (digital readout broken, so no idea how far I went !!)

Because the car is out of action, started with a 0.6 mile walk from home to the gym (downhill !), stopped early to shower at the gym rather than at home then walked the 0.6 mile back up (uphill). Not a bad workout all round, but while my shirt was soaked through it still didn't *feel* like I'd worked that hard ?

I was talking about how, when I run outdoors, I don't seem able to keep going for the amount of time I can in the gym because my legs just got too sore to keep going, and it was commented that I might be hitting anaerobic levels of exercise very quickly. Watching the monitor in the gym, even restraining myself to 8.4 km/h the heart rate went up to about 160, so I was getting close - and I have a bad tendency to run faster than that when outdoors - oh well, best get a non-hard disk iPod and subscribe to to running podcasts that help control your BPM !

Sunday 27th September 2009

12:00 - 12:30 Stretching Session

Decided to have another go with the aerobic bands. Half hour session of the various exercises suggested in the set, plus a few more leg stretches - surprisingly hard work :-o Arms are still only on the yellow (light) band, but legs are on the purple (medium) band - seems to make things work a little harder :)

Must try for either a run or a trip to the gym tomorrow though...

Thursday 24th September 2009

Another hour of 5-a-sides. Got through it ok (no goals, again :( but hips are giving me some real gyp after nearly a week of not doing any proper exercise (had other things - like a self-destructing car !) to try sorting out this week !

Back to normal soon though, hopefully.

Friday 18th September 2009

20:30 - 21:25 Session at Lanark Gym

Longer session tonight ...

5 mins at 6km/h, then 10 mins at 9.0/8.5 km/h then 1 min at 7km/h on the treadmill (2.1 km ?)

8 mins on the reclining bike, did about 3.7km, with a lot at resistance level 8

1 set of 30 reps at 25 lbs, 1 set of 30 reps at 30 lbs on the abominable abdominal thingy

2 sets of 15 at 20 lbs on the weights watcher

5 mins forwards at level 12, then 1 min at level 12 and 1 min at level 8 backwards on the cross trainer

8 mins on the rowing machine = 1645m

Did a lot, worked a lot, but don't quite feel as well exercised as I did on the short sessions for some reason... and I think I need to get back to running a bit more, as the session on the treadmill felt like very hard work, even though I only did 10 mins at any sort of pace on it. Mind you, that's three days in a row, between a short session, football and tonight, so maybe it was just a step too far - but hey. Oh, and the gym scales are back to reading 100kg !! Bah...

Thursday 17th September 2009

Hour of five-a-side football at lunchtime in Glasgow - not a stellar performance by any stretch of the imagination, but I did my damndest to keep up with play. Now all I have to do is become semi competent when I *do* keep up with play... even less likely ... (sob) Strangely I think my team actually won by a goal, but I did come off the pitch thinking we had conspired to lose... :s

Wednesday 16th September 2009

20:55 - 21:25 Session at Lanark Gym

Another late arrival home, and another abbreviated session at the gym. Tonight's fun :

11 minutes on the cross trainer - 2 at L5, 2 at L8, 4 at L12, 3 at L8 - inc. 1 at L12 & 2 at L8 backwards

2 sets of 30 at 25lbs on the abominable abdominal exercise wotsit

2 sets of 15 at 20lbs on the weights machine

10 minutes on the rowing machine - 2120 metres :)

Not bad - better than nothing, but Friday is a public holiday at work so hopefully I'll be able to put in a full hour's exercise, and get a decent run on the treadmill...

Monday 14th September 2009

21:00 - 21:25 Session at Gym in Lanark

An abbreviated session tonight...

4 mins walking at 6km/h to warm up

5 mins (including 1 min backwards) on the cross trainer, mostly at level 8 (a little at level 5)

1 set of 30 at 20lbs and 1 set of 30 at 25lbs on the abominable abdominal muscle thingy

2 sets of 15 at 20lbs on the not-so-free weights machine

7 mins on the rowing machine - did 1400m this time

4 mins and 8 flights of stairs on the stepping machine

Rapid fire whizz around as I didn't get home from work until quite late - about 20:35 - and I was trying to talk myself out of it most of the way home, so now feel quite virtuous about having gone and done it ! And it was my first day back at work after a fortnight's holiday too... (sob)

PS. The scales at the gym now hover just below the 98kg marker...which would be about 15st 6lb ! *If* I believe those scales... I think I need some external verification before putting an awful lot of faith in them to be honest, but at least the *trend* is downward...

Sunday 13th September 2009

18:45 - 19:15 - 1.5 mile walk around Lanark (including doing the shopping and carrying it ;) Felt ok after doing this, so decided on a run...

19:46 - 20:20 - Run at Lanark Loch (3 laps of 1.1 miles/1.77km each = 3.3 miles/5.3 km)

Lap 1 - 350 run + 250 walk

Lap 2 - 300 run + 300 walk

Lap 3 - 200 run/200 walk/200 run/400 walk/250 run/200 walk/170 run

Very, very hard work this, especially the last lap (as you can probably tell !) Still not feeling 100% after my wee funny turn in Glasgow on Friday, so if I've had some sort of virus or bug then it's still hanging around me a little :( 34 minutes is the longest I've taken for a while, and it's the first time in a little while that I've had to have a 400 pace walk to get back to normal for a good while :((( (Although part of that 400 was encountering on the path an entire family of experts on the Philosophy of Rights; or at least, the philosophy that they have lots of Rights, and everyone else has the Right to get out of their way and let them enjoy their Rights...)

Thursday 10th September 2009

16:50 - 18:05

Walked around Lanark - similar route to earlier wanderings, covering about 2.5 miles/4.03 km. Time includes time spent in the post office, at the doctor's surgery and doing the shopping in Tesco (and carrying the stuff home as well !)

Home -> PO -> Doctors -> Tesco -> Delves Park -> Sorting Office -> St Mary's -> Home

Not a run, but a nice wander all the same :)

Wednesday 9th September 2009

20:25 - 21:25 Session at Gym

Should really have gone for a run today, weather was nice enough - but didn't quite get to it in time before it would have been too dark to do three laps. Settled for gym...

5 mins treadmill at 6km

11 mins on cross trainer, including 2 mins backwards - covered just over 1km on this

10 mins on treadmill starting at 8km, working up to 5 mins at 9.2km before dropping back - covered 1.5km

8 mins on upright exercise bike - covered 4km dead on this

2 sets of 25 @ 20lbs on the abdominal muscley wotsit

2 sets of 15 @ 25lbs on the weights machine

7 minutes on the rowing machine - did 1257 metres worth, apparently

Finishing up with the rowing machine seemed like quite a nice way to finish off the session, as it was work but not horrible - I felt like I could finish a few minutes on it and walk away without a lengthy cool down. Probably a bad idea, but hey... !

Monday 7th September 2009

20:25 - 21:20 Session at Gym

- 5 mins walking at 5km to warm up on treadmill

- 11 mins on reclining bike (did about 4.3km - time includes a cool down at the end)

- 2 sets of 15 on the abdominal muscle working machine, whatever it's really called

- 2 sets of 15 on the not-so-free weights machine

- 11 mins on the cross-trainer, including 2 mins going backwards (totalled just over 1k)

- used the stepping machine to virtually climb 10 flights of stairs (about 10 feet per flight ?)

- 1 min at 6km, 1 min at 8.5 km then 5 mins at 9.2km on treadmill, followed by two mins at 6km to cool off

Didn't quite have the place to myself tonight (one other person in for most of it), but think I might have done a little bit too much tonight - really had to chuck it after 7 minutes of running because I was starting to feel a bit under pressure, and the football jersey I wore this evening was soaked through - almost fit for wringing out when I got home. The stepping machine was absolute murder, so I think I might give that a wee miss for a while (apparently it's hard work for the instructors too, so I don't feel quite so bad about that !)

Hopefully I'll get out for at least one proper run before the end of my hols this week...!

Friday 4th September 2009

20:10 - 21:05 session at Lanark gym...

- 5 minutes warm up (walking at 5k) plus stretches

- 11 minutes on the treadmill (started at 8.5k, then up to 9k, then down to 8.0k - but only 1.5k at run for 10 minutes ? up to 1.6k after 1 minute of walking at 6k to cool down)

- 2 sets of 15 on the machine that works your stomach muscles (must learn the names of these things !)

- 2 sets of 15 on the free-weights-simulator-machine (like doing free weights only sitting down ;)

- 5 minutes on the cross trainer, plus a minute going backwards, plus a minute forwards to cool down (covered about 0.5k on this...)

- 2 sets of 15 on each of the leg exercising machines

- 11 minutes on the bikes (split between an upright bike I just couldn't get adjusted properly, and a reclining bike - covered about 6k between the two machines)

phewwww... had the cardio room and weights room to myself, so could really have had a go on the rowing machine and made an a**e of it without anyone noticing - but the machines that exercise your legs really seemed to take it out of me without me noticing until I had a go on the bikes ! It'll probably take a few trips to work out what the best combination of exercises for me will be - might use one of the remaining bits of the induction to arrange a programme ... how organised !?!?!?!

Wednesday 2nd September 2009

Induction at the gym in Lanark - decided to go for PAYG in Lanark, and maybe sign up for the Glasgow gym as I don't think that's available as PAYG :( (The other way 'round would make more sense, but hey...)

Anyway, went round the various machines, found a couple that would be quite useful (and a couple that seem best avoided !), and sneaked 5 minutes on the cross trainer and 11 minutes on a reclining bike afterwards ;)

(Oh, and had a mile+ walk around Lanark later for the shopping !)