Hit a few milestones this week with my first 30 minute continuous run, progressed from 3 runs per week to 4, and back to the You Yangs for the first time in 6 months!

This week

Monday

As usual started off the week at the gym. I’ve started bringing my own bag of gear to the gym which contains a spikey ball, theraband, bosu, and weight belt (for weighted chin ups). So this bag lives under my desk at the office so I can easily just grab it and have everything I need at the gym.

I did my first set of weighted chin ups with a huge 1.25kg added 🙂 somehow it felt easier than not having weight added, go figure.

Tuesday

Continuation of run/walk intervals building to a 30 minute non stop run. Last week I did 2 x 15 mins and today I did 20 mins, 60 sec walk, 10 mins. Done at my usual lunch time training venue Carlton Gardens and all felt good.

Wednesday

Back to the gym, after work this time as work was very busy. I seem to be getting through my rehab exercises a little quicker each time which is nice. A good sign that it’s getting easier. Also been increasing the weight on my lower body lifts, squats and deadlifts.

Thursday

A repeat of the 20 mins, 60 sec walk, 10 mins session. Somehow this run felt worse than it did on Tuesday. Even though it was the same route around Carlton Gardens I was a bit slower and my left thigh had a small amount of soreness towards the end. A bit concerning, I think I was having an off day in general though and rather stressful day at work.

Friday

Made sure I got to the gym at lunch because I really didn’t want to hang around after work. My goal was to be able to go home, relax, watch the footy. Specially since I recently moved thanks to a Removal Company UK and I haven’t had that much time to relax.

Saturday

After my run on Thursday I wasn’t sure how I would go with the planned 30 minute continuous run. But thankfully didn’t have any issues and it was a really nice morning running at Werribee Mansion.

Sunday

For so long now, my Sunday morning ritual has been pool running and swim. This week a switch back to my previous morning ritual of Sunday morning at the You Yangs.

The plan was a fairly cautious 6 x 5 mins (1 min walk) since it was a change in terrain. This maybe gave me some confidence that I didn’t need to be too worried about terrain. I ended up running up a decent climb up the trail to table top, I wasn’t too concerned about it with all the strength work I’ve been putting in. More concerning was the run back down as that can be higher impact, so it took that pretty gentle and cautiously and all was good, a successful return!

Sunday afternoon was spent preparing for the Western Athletics winter season celebration dinner. Followed by eating and drinking at said dinner!

Detail

Song of the Week

Close To Me by the Cure is one of those classic songs that I always come back to every so often. It’s also one of the first songs I’ll play whenever I’ve gotten new speakers or headphones, it’s a great tester.

Interestingly The Cure put out a few different versions of this song. There is the album version, single version and a remix they released later on. For me the single version is by far the best which includes the brass horns, the album version doesn’t have this but it really makes the song.

Also special mention to lovesong as an equal favourite song from the Cure.

Coming up

I’ve been doing all my return to running at one ‘easy’ pace so far, but next week I test out picking up the pace so that’s exciting. I didn’t get to the pool this week but I’m still planning to fit in a swim once a week.

Summary