Notes by Nectar

I was not in the mood for the gym on Sunday morning.

After a really heavy Friday night, I still hadn’t recovered – my ears felt blocked and I had a slight headache (which oddly enough I didn’t have the day before). I didn’t think I could run without falling over so I decided to just walk on the treadmill. I did a few stretches, skipping my usual 5 minutes on the cross-trainer, and got on the treadmill. I started at a speed of 6 km/h, but increased it to 6.2 km/h after about 5 minutes. And once I got to 15 minutes I increased the speed again to 6.4 km/h until I got to 30 minutes and then I stopped. That was all I did, but I still think it was better than nothing. I noticed that I was a bit sweaty by the end of the 30 minutes but I wasn’t out of breath.

I had a session with Pete on Monday morning. The gym was quite busy that morning – two of the treadmills were being used so I did a 10-minute warmup on the cross-trainer instead. As I was stretching, Pete told me I’d be doing what he called the ’30 workout’ that morning: basically exercises in multiples of 30. Oh no, I had a vague recollection of doing that a few weeks ago and being sore for days afterwards.

I did the first set of exercises:

• Combined squat/shoulder press x 30 (10-lb weights)
• Lateral pull down x 30
• Cross-trainer x 30 calories (I think it was roughly 4 minutes)

I had some water and noticed that one of the women in the gym was taking selfies as she was using every machine. It was quite entertaining to watch and Pete was quite amused. I then did the second set of exercises:

• Romanian (straight leg) dead lifts x 30 (10-lb weights)
• Pushups x 30
• Cross-trainer x 30 calories

I had a bit more water and then did the third (and final) set:

• Combined reverse lunge/bicep curl x 30 (10-lb weights, alternating 15 on each side)
• Combined front raise/side raise x 30 (3-lb weights)
• Cross-trainer x 30 calories

After some more water I did the first abs set:

• Hanging knee ups x 30 s
• Side bends x 15 on each side (15-lb weight)
• Butterfly situps x 30 (3-kg weight)

After a break came the second set of abs:

• Scissors x 30
• Ankle tap crunches x 30
• Crunches x 30

I did some stretches after that and was done for the day. It wasn’t as bad as the similar session a few weeks ago – because by the end of that session I’d done 90 squats with weights!

My hamstrings were sore on Tuesday – I felt fine everywhere else. I went to the gym but someone was using my favourite treadmill. I warmed up on the cross-trainer for 5 minutes and did some stretches and eventually decided to use my second favourite treadmill. I did Week 6 Day 1:

• Warmup x 5 min
• Run x 10 min
• Walk x 5 min
• Run x 10 min
• Cool down x 5 min

I really struggled. I don’t know if it was the treadmill or if I was tired or what else could have happened, but I struggled from the very beginning. Five minutes into the first run I walked at 6.8 km/h for 30 seconds and then took the speed back up to 7.2 km/h. I almost didn’t even begin the second run – I thought I might just walk fast for 10 minutes – but then eventually alternated between walking and running for 10 minutes. I was disappointed but I just couldn’t do it that morning.

That afternoon I decided to go a hatha yoga class at Eco Yoga Sanctuary. It was quite a gentle class but I noticed at the beginning that it wasn’t just my hamstrings that were sore from Monday’s workout – my sides were quite sore too!

I had another session with Pete on Wednesday morning. He said we weren’t going to use the weights much but I’d be out of breath for most of the session. Oh God. I began with a 10-minute warmup on the treadmill:

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

I walked at 5.5 km/h and ran at 7.5 km/h. I did some stretches after that and then Pete put two dumbbells on the floor – about 5 metres apart. The first exercise would be shuttle runs:

• Shuttle runs x 20 s
• Rest x 40 s
• Repeat for 4 minutes

Pete told me the point of the exercise wasn’t to cover a great distance but it was all about controlling the pivot and change of direction.

After a water break, I did an abs circuit – which he calls the ‘Holy trinity’:

• Hip raises x 10
• Knee to elbow crunch x 10 on each side
• Crunches x 10

Whenever Pete mentions hip raises I think of glute bridges, which is wrong. The hip raise is lying on the floor, my legs straight up and raising my hips. It’s not a big movement but it’s effective.

Then came a 4-minute Tabata circuit:

• Split squats x 20 s
• Rest x 10 s
• Overhead tricep extensions x 20 s (with one 15-lb weight)
• Rest x 10 s
• High knees x 20 s
• Rest x 10 s
• Bicep curls x 20 s (with one 15-lb weight)
• Rest x 10 s
• Repeat

I had some water after that and did 4 minutes on the treadmill:

• Walk x 30 s (5.5 km/h)
• Run x 30 s (8 km/h)
• Repeat for 4 minutes

I did the same abs circuit after that, followed by the earlier 4-minute shuttle run, another abs circuit as before and another 4 minutes on the treadmill. At least, I think that’s the order I did everything in. I definitely finished with the treadmill! I did a few stretches after that and was done.

I went back to the gym on Thursday morning. I did 5 minutes on the cross-trainer as a warmup followed by some stretches. I then began Week 6 Day 2 of the 10k Runner app:

• Warmup x 5 min
• Run x 10 min
• Walk x 3 min
• Run x 10 min
• Cool down x 5 min

It was painful. I managed the first run – I took the speed down to 6.8 km/h twice but only for 15 seconds each time. The second run of 10 minutes was much harder – I alternated the speed between 6.8, 7.2 and 7.5 km/h but I really struggled with it. I think I might have to repeat Week 6 – is there any point in carrying on to Week 7 if Week 6 is such a struggle?

I didn’t work out on Friday.

On Saturday evening my friend and I went to Jumeirah Beach for our evening walk. We managed 6 km in just under 1 hour – but we didn’t manage to improve on our time. We were both quite tired (she’d already done 14 km that morning and I hadn’t slept much over the weekend).

Total distance covered this week?

Low point of the week? I’ve been feeling so tired and forcing myself to exercise. I also didn’t manage to finish Week 6 of the 10k Runner app – I’ll have to redo that next week… I’ve been working a lot this week and even though I was out on Thursday and Friday nights I ended up working when I got home – until 3.30am on both nights. And because I knew I had work to do, I only had one drink on Thursday night and none on Friday.

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

Weight loss? My weight somehow dropped to 75.6 kg this week – but just for a day – and then it crept back up again! The Libra weight-tracking app now tells me I’ll hit my goal weight of 65 kg in mid August this year. It also tells me that my lowest recorded weight is 75.6 kg (I’ve been using this app since August 2014)!

Read more updates here.