Notes by Nectar

I went to the gym on Sunday morning. I started with a 5-minute warmup on the cross-trainer and then moved over to the treadmill. I did Week 4 Day 1 of the 10k Runner app:

• Warm up x 5 min
• Run x 3 min, walk x 2 min
• Run x 4 min, walk x 3 min (x 2)
• Run x 3 min, walk x 2 min
• Cool down x 5 min

I alternated between 6 km/h and 7.5 km/h. I can run for 4 minutes at a stretch! I struggled, but I did it. I did a few stretches after that and went home.

On Monday morning I had a session with Pete. He said the session would be mostly weights-based as I’d done a lot of cardio over the last few days. I started with a 10-minute warmup on the treadmill:

• Walk x 3 min
• Run x 30 s, walk x 30 s (x 4 min)
• Run x 3 min

And then I did three sets of each of the following supersets with a rest in between each set:

• Chest press x 14 (weights machine), bent over row x 14 (with 15-lb weights)
• Lateral pulldown x 14 (weights machine), shoulder press x 14 (with 10-lb weights)
• Leg extensions x 14 (weights machine), deadlifts x 14 (10-lb weights)

The weights were bloody heavy and I really struggled – especially with the machine exercises – and it seemed to take most of the session to get through them! I could feel my quads burning each time I did the leg extension exercise and knew I wouldn’t be able to walk the next morning. After that I did two sets of the following:

• Russian twists x 20 (alternating 10 on each side)
• Side hip raises x 10 on each side
• Rolling plank x 20 (alternating 10 on each side)

I did some stretches after that and was done for the day. Pete told me he had to go back home to the Czech Republic on Wednesday so I wouldn’t have another session until the following Wednesday…

I was sore on Tuesday, but not as sore as I thought I’d be. I thought my quads would ache more, but my hamstrings were aching more. And my pecs were pretty sore. I thought I’d feel better after some cardio. I got to the gym and one of the Lebanese guys in the building was there. He’s often in there at the same time as me – we started chatting about work (he recently opened a sushi restaurant but his main business is perfume) and he asked me if I’d be interested in writing the content for his website! Gosh, you never know where work will come from, do you?

After he left, I did a 5-minute warmup on the cross-trainer and then did Week 4 Day 2 of the 10k Runner app:

• Warm up x 5
• Run x  3 min, walk x 2 min
• Run x 5 min, walk x 3 min (x2)
• Run x 3 min, walk x 2 min
• Cool down x 5 min

And I actually managed to do it! I ran for 5 minutes. Twice! Admittedly, I went a bit slower than usual – I did the 5-min runs at 7.2 km/h and in the walks after the 5-min runs I did the first minute of the 3-min walk at 5.5 km/h to catch my breath before taking the speed back up to 6 km/h. But I think I did well on the whole! I’m still avoiding the Great Butt and Great Abs apps. I’ll start those again next week.

As Tuesday went on I could feel my hamstrings getting more and more sore. When I woke up on Wednesday I was really sore. As Pete was away I decided to go to a Hatha yoga class at Eco Yoga Sanctuary. The class was at 10.30am and apart from me there was just one other person there. It was a really good class and I’d go back to that teacher again, but she teaches at 8.30am on Sundays and Tuesdays (really early!) and 6.30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays (which clash with my Arabic class at the moment).

I woke up on Thursday and my glutes were really sore after the yoga class on Wednesday! I went to the gym and did a 5-minute warmup on the cross-trainer. After that I did Week 4 Day 3 of the 10k Runner app:

• Warm up x 5 min
• Run x 3 min, walk x 2 min
• Run x 5 min, walk x 2 min (x2)
• Run x 3 min, walk x 2 min
• Cool down x 5 min

I managed to do it again! And I was so happy when it was over, but at the same time I was dreading Week 5 Day 1! I should probably mention that after the last walk, just as the ‘cool down’ begins, I press the ‘cool down’ button on the treadmill – which reduces the speed by 0.8 km/h per minute for 5 minutes, so it really is a cool down. Also, I don’t take those last 5 minutes into account when calculating the distance I’ve covered.

I decided to take the day off on Friday. I’d worked out for 12 consecutive days and thought I could do with a break.

On Saturday, a friend and I went to Jumeirah Public Beach for our Saturday evening walk. It had been cold and windy on Friday and on Saturday it was cloudy and grey to begin with. By 4pm the sun was struggling to make an appearance and by the time we got to the beach at 5pm, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

And again, we decided we’d improve on our time from the week before and aimed to walk 6 km. We managed to do it in 57 min and 38 s. I noticed that I wasn’t as out of breath as I had been when we first started walking together two weeks ago – and we were getting faster too. It was cold and windy though – and when I got home I wanted some comfort food so I had a big bowl of pasta in tomato sauce for dinner. Oh well.

Total distance covered this week?

Low point of the week? I was out at a concert on Thursday and had two glasses of red wine, but that was mainly to keep warm! I did have my first big night out in ages on Friday and had a lot of vodka (I managed to avoid the tequila shots which were circulating and didn’t mix any drinks). I also had a huge bowl of pasta for dinner on Saturday with a slice of garlic bread.

High point of the week? Doing six workouts this week, including the 1-hour walk on the beach.

Weight loss? Down and then back up again! For some reason, my Libra weight-tracking app is now telling me I will hit my goal weight of 65 kg by the end of May this year. I really doubt that though!

Read more updates here.