I need to get my diet back under control though. It’s all bread and junk food as far as the eye can see at the moment. I’m finding it a lot harder this month, partly because I’m not as motivated, and partly because I feel I can justify a worse diet on the basis that I’m exercising a lot more and can afford to take on more calories. I keep telling myself and come January I’ll leave all these bad habits. I’m lying to myself aren’t I? Still, lets call today a realtively great success!! Huzzah!!

Then it was the usual cross trainer for a bit, 25 minutes this time. All in all, when I do the bike and cross trainer, I shed about 500 calories. That’s a decent amount, right?

I’m looking forward to January and adding the running into the mix for the exercise. I’ve been working on a provisional training timetable in my head, and it should be a bit more interesting and exciting, and would also mean you could read something more than “went on bike and cross trainer” every day!!

My home from home, the gym at Wyckham Point

The plan now is to keep going at it for the next few days until the cold is fully cleared up, then hit it harder in terms of resistance and time, and then start adding in more jogging/weights/swimming around it. I’ve got blood tests and a scan next week, then Chiropractor and Runner specialist the week after. It feels like things are back on track a bit, which is ssssssuper!!

Now, to the couch!!

For the record, I did 15 minutes on the bike and 15 on the cross trainer, but I upped the level of resistance to make it harder and keep the heart rate up. Man it was tough work. Even I’m starting to get bored of writing the same thing every day about being on the bike and the cross trainer, so it must definitely be time (after 5 weeks) so start mixing things up more and adding in more swimming and, yes, some actual jogging!!

I’ve an appointment with the doctor tomorrow so I’m going to check the general state of my health and what level of exercise I can safely take on without killing myself! Then next week I’ll be heading down to Amphibian King in Bray to get a decent pair of runners for my gait and then I’m good to go.

Typically, I’ve come down with the mother of all colds, which just arrived out of the blue and without warning earlier and has me feeling pants. Not sure if I will be able to train through it or if that will just make it worse, so may have to take an enforced few days off the heavy exercise anyway. Boo erns to it!!

Today, I pushed it!

Today's motto in the Gym

Sorry, I’m not sure what i was trying for there. My unofficial physio came over to the apartments. I say unofficial, because I haven’t told her that I’m planning on running the marathon and that she has to treat me for free every time I injure myself. This will test to see if she’s reading the website anyway.

I’ve been harping on since day one about my weak knees and ankles and that I can’t do any real jogging until I get them sorted. Well according to Clare, it’s most likely that my problems are stemming from my posture, and the probably culprit is none other than my ass, which is pulling everything in the wrong place and putting pressure on my knees and ankles (note, she didn’t call it my ass, it is my “glutes” apparently that are the problem).

Either way, I’ve been given a load of exercises to try and fix the problem. I must take a video of me trying some of them ,they are very funny. And can I just tell you, that doing squats (one of the exercises) is outrageously painful and energy sapping! So, now that i have my exercise and things, I’ve got to put them into practice for the next month and build everything up, so I’m still on course to start doing some serious jogging after Christmas….

In the meantime it was back over to the gym for more time on the bike and the cross trainer. Really pushed myself and upped the tempo and resistance. I was sweating buckets (lovely) by the end. One thing that I find strange about particularly the bike and the cross trainer, is that on the bike, my heart rate will be lower, but I’ll be a lot more out of breath and “feeling the burn” whereas on the cross trainer, it doesn’t feel like I’m pushing myself too hard, but I’m heart rate is throught the roof?! Thoughts/Suggestions anyone?

To celebrate the fact that I had done so much in the gym, I had half a bottle of wine, half a packet of the big pack of walkers sensations and a load of after eights. Ok, so in terms of weightloss, that’s no use, but in terms of improving general levels of fitness, I think the balance was acceptable for a Sunday evening in front of the TV with X-Factor!!

That's me squatting that is

It’s a bit mad to think that I’m nearly 3 weeks into this training regime thing. I have to say I don’t feel that I’m any fitter or have more energy or anything, but I guess you probably don’t really notice things like that over night do you?? By the way, operation “touch my toes” is making steady progress. I’m incredibly inflexible and have never been able to touch me toes, but I’ve to stretch every day now before and after exercise, so hopefully when I’ve been stretching every day for a year I’ll be able to touch my toes. It’s a small thing, but worthy of mention, I feel.

Where all the magic (and by that I mean sweating) happens