Walking races
Well, in February I signed up for a couple of 5k walking races, which I honestly thought would be like the lake and fireman's runs I'd been doing over the past 9 months.
The first one was on 7 March, I went with a friend, who is a very good race walker, and it wasn't until we were parking up, that she commented that there would be race officials and judges making sure that we weren't cheating! (I was only keen to finish, never mind the style in which I finished!) Apparently you have to keep your forward knee straight (so just landing on your heel will do that) and no touching other competitors (not even brushing past), which was fine, I wasn't going to be overtaking anyone!
I was expecting there to be loads of people, so I was truly stunned to find out there were only 9 in our race - and only 2 of us were locals!!! He won the race, I came last.
Here's the starting line-up. I must be having some kind of mid-life crisis! BTW - my new claim to fame is that the guy that won that race has been picked to walk for Great Britain! I can officially say I was beaten by the best!! (& he's a fab guy who deserves it, he's a good sport and genuinely lovely).
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| The winner in red, me next to him |
Waterworks
I carried on doing aquarobics classes, rehab swimming and my own swimming as well.
16 March - for the first time since my accident, I have managed to do the arms-behind-the-back exercises - wasn't easy, wasn't smiling, but I did do them!
Managed to do 4 lengths in 5 minutes, after doing 55 minutes of arm exercises!
Our local pool is doing a swimming fundraiser for Muscular Dystrophy, so I'm going to sign up for that. It starts on 27 March, you have 2 months to swim 172 lengths! All I can do is my best!
23 March - Just plain swimming, I did 16 lengths in 30 minutes, needed a break, then managed to finish 22 lengths in 45 minutes. Not quite the 64 in an hour, but getting there!
Allotment
2.5 hours at the allotment, very happy, but hard to control myself just working on one bed, instead of a little bit of most of the beds, but I got the whole bed dug and ready for the potatoes. I'll need to sort out the edging, it's a bit had-it.
1.5 hours work got the beans bed all weeded and turned over. Little steps, but getting quite a lot done, so I'm happy with that.
Walking in general
Easter Festival of Running
I also signed up for this, and convinced a few other friends around the Island to join in some of the races. Some of them are now trying to convince me to do all 3 races.....we shall see (but the one I haven't signed up for comes with a free hat!)
A friend came with me to rekkie the Peel Hill route - we walked most of it and it took 28 mins 39 seconds (with a few photos taken) and we're not sure we went back down the right way, but surely it'd be quicker going down! Here's some pics of the view.
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| Standing on the spot, that's where we have to go |
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| Standing on same spot, that's the town we began at! |
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| 28 mins 39 seconds to get to this view! |
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| The tower is right at the end of this hill |
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| the start is the path uphill, then middle part is along the top |
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| The path goes up to the point then turns up the hill |
Well, the Fitbit arrived.....and the first thing I get to do is a day of driving and sitting and crafting! Luckily, the evening is a chance to walk into town and then out of town to do circuit training, and then back home. I just want to make sure the thing is working! I did do over 10,000 steps though!
Day 2 - chucking it down with rain. Got drenched doing an 8 min walk - and apparently housework just doesn't cut it for getting to the 10,000 steps. Didn't even manage 5,000!
Day 3 - sunny! Went for a 4.6 mile walk, aiming to be able to do the 10k run at Easter, so I'm building up the distance.
16 March - I got 3 "Champ" levels on goals! Still got to get over 15,000 steps, but maybe tomorrow.....which I did!
Circuit training
I have decided that since I need to build up my muscles again in my left arm, specifically triceps, if I am going to be able to raise it above my head, and the physio exercises seem to have plateaued, and I believe that muscles have a memory....... I'm going to do easy press-ups and dips, because I used to do those, and I didn't used to do physio exercises. I'll still do the physio ones, of course.
So I managed to do quite a few repetitions of press-ups, which I do on tippytoes against the wall, and also tricep dips, but leaning back and pushing up again, without taking my bum off the seat.
2nd to last session, I thought I was going to die! Worked my little socks off!
Last session was "The Bleep Test". Never heard of it. Probably a good thing. I figured it was going to be a lot of swearing (you know, like they bleep out swear words on telly). That's not why it's called that, but I don't think I was wrong either! We did the 20 metre test. Starting on one line, you have to get to the 20m line before the bleep. The spaces between the bleeps gradually gets shorter. You keep going until you don't get to the line, but you do get 2 chances. I was just hoping to get to Level 2. I worked out a system that I thought would work for me, and it did. I got to Level 3, which means that I did the 20 metres, 16 times! Now I have a starting point for next year and will be able to see my improvement.
Running in general
16 March - we went and did a rekkie of the lake lap route - the summer version of the Fireman's Runs. There's a really big hill to run up, and I managed to get to the top, running all the way! I also ran extra, because we didn't start at the start, so instead of doing 1.73miles, I did 2.66 miles, so I was really pleased with that too.
I had my first attempt on my own to do the lake lap - just 1 lap, and it took 24 mins 42 seconds. I'll keep going, the first race isn't until after Easter. Then I went to the allotment for 1.5 hours. Then my friend wanted to give the Couch25km a go, so we did that together, she was ready to give up after her first session, but by the time we'd had a coffee at the end, she was keen again, so that's fab!
Not actually exercising......
But I'm now on the committee for our local athletics club! First time I've officially been on a committee! They had someone take over the newsletter, but never did anything, so I said I wouldn't mind doing that....which was agreed as I'm "the one that's always on facebook!" and one or two of them know about my blogging. I'm hoping to be allowed to put it straight onto their webpage, but that might be pushing it. I've got to work out how to PDF things now (I used to do that at a previous job, not sure if I can do it at home!) cos I like to learn new things all the time.
