My new bike!

I decided in the interest of exercising more often (and avoiding the tourist traffic in Newcastle) that I would buy myself a bike. I've wanted a bike to zoom about the town on for ages and I didn't get one before as I lived in the city and I knew I'd never use it really. Anyway I didn't want anything fancy as really I don't know how well I'm going to keep up the cycling (despite all my best intentions!) so I went to a local place who sell second hand bikes as well as new bikes. After a bit of looking around I chose a second hand raleigh that doens't look a million dollars but it rides well and is highly unlikely to fall apart after 5 minutes. I suspect a new gel saddle is in order though as the current saddle is a bit old and uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as that blimmin' exercise bike I was on a couple of weeks ago!

I took the bike out today and went for a modest cycle - only about 4 miles in total and mostly on the flat - but boy am I feeling it! I remember when I was a kid and me and my friends took our bikes absolutely everywhere! We would get together in the morning, take the bikes out and cycle all day for miles in the nearby forests and on jaunts all round the local countryside and I've no idea how we did it. I am hoping that once I get used to being out on the bike again it won't seem so difficult but I'm definitely glad I got it and I'm looking forward to all the cycling I'll be doing soon! I am now waiting on a lock, a bell and a new saddle to arrive and once they're here there'll be no stopping me :-D

p.s. there'll be a picture soon!

Knackered!

I completely skived off my last gym session - oh the shame! I woke on Saturday to a horrible day and too many things to do so ended up spending the day bathing the dog (which is a harder task than you'd imagine!) and cleaning out the chicken shed which involved lots of moving things about and shovelling lots of sawdust so I reckoned I got enough of a workout from that. I had really hoped to go on Sunday but as I mentioned I've not been sleeping right and I was so tired all day that I thought it would be better to just chill. Ah well, excuses excuses but I went yesterday afternoon and am still utterly trashed now! I'm really looking forward to going home after work today and relaxing this evening and having my lovely husband cook me dinner :-D

So yesterday's workout consisted of:

• 4 min warm up on cross trainer followed by all my stretching.
• 10 mins of cross training on the cross trainer followed by some thigh and hamstring stretches
• 10 mins on the treadmill doing fartlek training (alternating the speed and incline of the treadmill) followed by some more leg stretching and my chest stretch
  
• 2 sets of 12 reps on chest press @ 7.5kg followed by one set @ 5kg - actually I think what I've been calling the chest press isn't actually the chest press - it's a pec machine or something!
  
• 3 sets of 12 reps on thigh abductor @ 35kg
• 3 sets of 12 reps on thigh adductor @ 30kg
• 3 sets of 12 reps on the actual chest press machine @ 10kg
• 2 sets of 12 reps on the leg press @ 30kg
• 2 sets of 12 reps on the leg extender @ 30kg
• and finally a 4 min cool down on the cross trainer followed by stretching stretching stretching

I'm really feeling my shoulders, pecs and upper arms today so there'll be more stretching later to help ease my aching muscles!

Gymming it!

I got off my bum and went to the gym last night for the first time in absolute ages and, surprisingly, I loved it even though I got the most unattractive sweat on and was surrounded by culchies. My fitness levels are far lower than they have been in while but that will be due to the surgery I had back in September and a very sedentary lifestyle since then.

My workout consisted of:

• a 3min warm up on the cross trainer followed by calf, thigh, hamstring, deltoid & tricep stretches.
  
• A 15min interval training session on the cross trainer at level 9 that I thought was going to kill me followed by some more stretching.
  
• 2 sets of 10 reps on the chest press (the weight was only at 7.5kg but it was more than enough!!).
  
• 10mins on the treadmill, it took me a while to work out how to use this treadmill so I probably only got a good 8 minutes of running done but it was hard going, especially after the cross trainer.
  
• Lots more stretching of legs and arms before I moved onto the free weights.
  
• Then 2 sets of 12 reps doing bicep curls with 3kg weights while sitting on an inclined wieghts bench followed by 2 sets of 12 reps doing tricep kick backs with 2kg weights. The time in between reps I used to stretch out my triceps and biceps.
  
• Finally I did a 3 minute cool down on the cross trainer followed by all the stretches I did at the start with a bit of extra stretching on my biceps, triceps and the front of my thighs as these were the sorest places.

Today I feel a bit achey in my arms and across the front of my chest but in a good way. I think the major amounts of stretching I did will really have helped ease off any pain I'd be feeling otherwise. Since I'm so out of shape I'm going to have 2 rest days before throwing myself back into it but I'm really looking forward to Saturday for my next gym session.