Saturday 21 July 2012

A new 'do', a 12 minute run and a pain in the neck!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post - my week has been hectic as usual and most of my 'spare' time has been spent with my nose in my book!  I mentioned in a post last week that I had bought "Where the Red Fern Grows" for my son to read, but ended up re-reading it myself.  Well, last night I finished it and was a complete blubbering mess.  If you've never read it, I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say you need a very large box of Kleenex nearby for the last 30 pages!

I had intended on completing week 5 of my 5k training with a session last night - but with my nose firmly in this book, but arse did not move from the sofa!  I also was slightly nervous about doing any exercise yesterday because I woke up with the most tremendous pain in my neck.  I found an old workout DVD from years ago which incorporates some weights and kickboxing and for Monday and Thursday evenings, this has been my main workout.  The workout incorporated a Tricep weight exercise (like in the image below), and unfortunately 3kgs of weight was apparently more than my neck can bear!


It is better today thankfully, and I will be completing my running program later this afternoon.   Wednesday was my midway point in the 5k training and comprised 5 minute warm up walk, 5 minute run, 5 minute walk, 12 minute run, and cool down walk for 5 minutes.  My longest continuous run by this stage had been 8 minutes, so understandably I was a wee bit nervous about adding another four minutes to this!

When I went out my iPhone was acting a little weird.  I bought this new iPhone armband so I can run without taking a jacket with pockets, and the clear plastic cover sometimes doesn't work entirely right with the touch screen of the iPhone.  I'm a very impatient person anyway and when you're trying to concentrate on running, the last thing you want to be doing is fiddling with an armband!  Anyway, I was trying to skip a song on my playlist during the middle of the 12 minute interval and for some reason the Walkmeter app stopped.  But, I didn't realise that it stopped!  So, I just kept on running, and running, and running...  A good few minutes later I thought 12 minutes seemed like a long old time and finally managed to get Walkmeter to come up on the screen.  It had a notification that it has stopped unexpectedly! So, I restarted it, but I do reckon this added at least a couple more minutes to my 12 minute interval.  I suppose this can only be a good thing, but it's so frustrating when technology fails!

Earlier this week I decided it was time for a change.  Summer has literally arrived TODAY in England - we have had more rain in the past few months than I care to remember.  I've been wearing my hair in a ponytail more and more lately and that's generally a sign that I need a change of hairstyle.  I decided to go for a bob.  This is my old standby.  It suits my face shape, it's easy to maintain and I just like it.  So here's me - maybe a few ounces lighter from all the hair I've just had cut off!


Speaking of ounces - my weight is starting to really make me angry!  It's partially my own fault because I've been weighing myself every day this week (I really shouldn't do that!) and I'm not seeing numbers go down, but instead go up!  At the start of this week I was 192.3, and this morning I was 192.9!  What the hell?!  I know it's not a big jump, but it's still frustrating!

I have seriously behaved myself this week, food-wise, haven't gone above 1600 calories and I've exercised every day, except for yesterday.  I suppose two areas that can be improved on is to skip the evening Pimm's (seriously amazing summer drink!) - this is only about 85-100 calories, but obviously has a lot of sugar which I could do without.  The other thing is water.  I really am not great with drinking as much water as I should.  I don't drink anything else apart from coffee, water and the occasional Pimm's - but I know I'm not getting as much water as I need.  That will need to be my challenge for the next week - drink 2 litres a day!  Watch this space!

My question then to all of you - what part of a healthy lifestyle do you really struggle with?  

2 comments:

  1. I love the new hairstyle!

    The iPhone issue is frustrating--I've had that happen to me, too. But congrats on your 12 minutes run!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww thanks Melinda! I had literally just uploaded this post when I saw your question for Stop by Saturday and I thought "wow, she's up early!", then saw that you'd pre-written it :-) Mine is answered in Stop by Sunday this week!

      Delete