Posts Tagged ‘pilates’

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Last Week: w/c 23rd November

November 30, 2009

Tuesday: Made it back to the gym. I had managed to put it off for a week but I decided it was about time to kick myself into gear. I was hesitant because of the pain in my feet but also because the last 2 runs had been harder than normal. I put it down to having not run for a few weeks (my asthma deteriorates much quicker than my fitness) but was determined to run at least 6k. I actually only managed 5km on the treadmill, but then did 5km on the bike and then another 2k on the treadmill. Not a great result but hopefully I’ll be able to pick back up soon.

Wednesday: Pilates class in the morning as mentioned in Wednesday’s blog post. Basketball in the evening was pretty good, we played a 2 on 2 for most of the session.

Friday: I told myself I was going to go to the gym in the morning and then never got round to it (though I did manage my end-of-week-5 100 push ups exhaustion test). I then spent the rest of the afternoon feeling terribly guilty about it and resolved to try harder next week.

Archery in the evening. The heating has broken though so it was pretty cold, and that had a significant detrimental effect on my shot. Stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to call it a night.

Saturday: Went to archery armed with my Helly Hensen base layer and plenty of change for cups of tea. It was so cold that people started to leave early, reducing the amount of body heat (the only thing warming the place up) and making everyone else colder :-) A few of us shot a Worcester round today instead of a Portsmouth (I scored a 270 – not too bad) and then I stuck around for the last day of the beginner’s course. The kid I was teaching did really well and hopefully he’ll decide to stay in the club.

Sunday: SCA played Leicester Crobas 2 today in our last game of the year. I played half the game, in alternating quarters, but didn’t score this time. We won 36-32, which was pretty good, so congrats to the guys.

Total Run: 7km

Congrats must go to Rachael, otherwise known as Marathon Mummy, who’s really making progress with her training for the VLM next year. Head over there and show some support!

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Pilates

November 25, 2009

About a year ago I was doing another 1 day gym pass with a friend and managed to get talked into an Ashtanga Yoga class. Ashtanga Yoga is fast and fluid, one move swiftly becomes another and poses aren’t really held as much as moved in and out of. By the end of it I had warmed up nicely and was feeling stretched, though nothing could prepare me for what I felt the next day. I discovered muscles I never knew I had and just about everything hurt. It was probably something I would have kept up had I been a member of the gym but unfortunately I never got to have another go.

I had a quick look at the class timetable when I joined my current gym last week in the hope they did something similar. I saw they did Pilates and so went along this morning to try it out.

I wasn’t expecting anything as rigorous as Ashtanga but I hoped for something that would help me with my stretching and challenge my core. Unfortuately I didn’t really get much of that. Going to a mid-morning class obviously attracts a fair few of the retired generation and the class seemed to be too preoccupied in catering for their needs. While we did do some leg stretches it was very cold in there and having not really had a warm up I was careful not to push too far for fear of injuring myself.

I also had a few doubts about the instructor. She seemed nice enough and I told myself off for judging her on first impressions (she was a few pounds heavier than your average gym instructor). However, those doubts returned steadily thoughout the class (eg. telling us that bicep curls work the forearm and lateral raises are the same as pressups) and I left somewhat unsure about her as a teacher.

Overall, not what I was hoping for, but I might try it again in an evening class where there might be some more people who are looking for a challenging workout.