Dancing around the Bonfire!

When I was a child ,I thought the word was Bomb fire .

There is something very mesmerizing about a bonfire in the darkness.
The flames are wonderful,white and yellow and with the occasional blue or green where a gas escapes .
It is hard to understand the enormous temperature waves generated from such a random pile of old wood. You cannot see why it should get quite so hot.
When the breeze catches a flame,it bends it right over and the grass that you thought was a safe distance away,gets alarmingly near after all.

My son got the bits of shed into a pile on the cleared bit of veg plot and set it ablaze.
He needed only the lighter and a couple of bits of cardboard. (not the petrol that OH the scout always uses).
 

I was reminded of the firework nights of childhood.
Standing watching the licking,flicking flames.
The urge to dance and chant as the fire danced and crackled was enormous.


We stood and watched with a handy bucket of water in case it spread.
It didn't spread.
One of the piles of weeds was added to the heap and now there is just a pile of ashes and a few metal bits that didn't burn.
I will rake the ashes into the ground as they are potash.

7 pull ups!

LOL 7 in a row today.
We have the plumber here at the moment as one of the pipes is blocked because the water company came and 'mended ' a pipe in the road.
The mend forced gravel and sand into the system.
It means we haven't had any drinking water for about 8 hours.
Cant even offer the poor plumber a cuppa as we haven't got any water.....!

I have been reading the frugal web today and find an awful lot of it is about coupons or 'free' things or just money off 'bargains'.
Really the 'bargains' are NOT because you wouldn't buy the things normally and so why would you suddenly decide to, just because the price is reduced?


I have been listening to a new Audio book.
'The ultimate Cheapskates road to true riches by Jeff Yeager' .


He is a funny bloke but I do like his Fiscal Holiday ideas.
He advocates No Spend days but with a difference...
His idea is that you DONT SPEND ANYTHING !
Not just by not shopping, but also by not using the electricity (where even possibly avoidable).
I love this! It is far more my cup of tea than the,'I didn't go to the shop today' days that so many people congratulate themselves over.

You know how satisfying it is when you go camping and everything is condensed down into basic but comfortable living?
Well that is how this works.
The satisfaction is there but for longer.

So far a very interesting and entertaining listen, I am already collecting the ideas from it that I will use in my own life.

The link above is to the book version .


Friday rest day

No exercise today.
This week has been quite lazy for me.
We didn't run at all .
No problem, we will get back to it next week.
It's been nice to do something different even if that is just NOT running.

The plumbers were back yet again! They had to mend some more pipework outside as the leak in next doors drive had shifted .

Changing shape some more.

The pull ups are helping me to change shape !
Now,my shoulders and back area are stronger looking.
More like a female gymnast.
Okay maybe not an olympic gymnast LOL but when have you ever seen a 49 year old female olympic gymnast?
No,me neither.

However,despite not doing much in the way of exercise this week, I am not becoming a blob overnight.
This afternoon I did 6 pull ups in a row again.
Yesterday I managed a total of 32 Pull ups throughout the day!
Only a couple of weeks ago,I was elated to have managed 2.

I tried pistol squats both yesterday and today.
3 sets of eight each leg and they are not so hard to do as they were .

Heat stops play

The hot weather has stopped gardening for a few days.
The garden is in need of a good dig over and there is still some clearing to be done.
That is heavy work,much better suited to the cooler temperature and so I will wait it out.
I bought garlic in the supermarket for planting out when I plant out the onions.
It was 70 pence for 3 organic bulbs which will be plenty.

Slacking off

Have done very little exercise the last 2 days.
However I have kept up with the pull ups and this morning managed 6 in a row!
It was going to be a skipping afternoon yesterday but we ended up going into town for a new non leaking kettle.
Today was hopefully the last day of my TOTM which has been rotten this month .
There is no knowing how easy a time I am going to have each month,especially as I am 49 and even the unpredictability that I usually experience has become more unpredictable LOL.
I never have enjoyed the monthly 'gifts'. Why once you have had your kids, cant you opt out?

OH was given a huge slab of chocolate which I have had a few bits of.
Nice but not as addictive as it used to be.
I will most likely not run tonight as I am not quite back to my usual self  and don't feel like it.

Shedding the shed

Our oldest shed must be forty years old.
It stands at a slant and the door doesn't fit the hole.
A hole in the roof and a rotting side make it useless as a shed so for the last 4 or 5 years,I have been planning to dismantle it and use any good wood for building a compost bin.
Today my son painted the gate that he made a few weeks ago and then looking for another project, I suggested the shed.
Now it is in 3 piles.
The floor which hasn't been removed from situ
The good wood which will be the compost bin and remains will be burned.
The burn pile which is rotten wood and wood too soft to reuse.
Most likely the floor will be burned too as it is all holes.

My poor arms are worn out with dragging panels and throwing pieces of wood around.
I think that is plenty of a workout for one day.
Plus it is TOTM(womens problems) and as usual, I am knickered,knackered,knockered.

I have done 10 pull ups so far today.
2 X 5
The men have gone to Karate and tonights tea will be chips,sausage,bacon,tomato,egg and baked beans.

Thurs and fri in the garden

The garden was screaming for attention LOL
So for the last 2 days, I have been out there digging and hoeing for a couple of hours each.

Last evening,we ran as usual and it being a nice night,we managed a nearly 3 miler without too much gasping.

Today I walked into town to buy Onion sets and paint.
The onions will go in the garden when I have cleared sufficient weeds out of the way.
Onion sets were £2 each pack and I bought 3 packs of 50.That sounds pricey until you realise that 3 full sized onions in Asda is about  £1 . I will buy a bulb of garlic next time I am there as I'm not paying £2 for garlic if I can get it for less.
The paint is for the gate as my son wants to paint it to save it rotting away after he went to the effort of making it.
Also as it was only the worst half that was replaced, it has been a two coloured pair of gates for a few weeks which does stick out like a sore thumb.
Now it is half dark grey undercoat and half old blue paint and if it doesn't rain, it will be all blue tomorrow.

I have had to rethink my self employment.
After not really having any significant work for some months, I decided it was better to give it up than to sit on my behind and look hopefully in the direction of the company that had been sending me work last year.
With the economy up the spout just about everywhere, there isn't the demand for retouching ,especially when people are quite willing to have a go themselves or put up with a few spots and scratches on their prints.

While I am disappointed that things didn't really pan out with it, it is sort of liberating to have made the decision.

The pull ups have been going surprisingly well.
On Thursday,I didn't do even one because I am trying to be sensible and let the muscles rest between attempts.
Today I did 5 in a row twice and 4 once so far.
That is such a quick improvement.
It seems that once I got past two in a row, it is just a question of building from there because Wednesday was the first day I managed 4 and I think Monday was the first day I managed 3 .

The gardening has been quite an arm workout on its own but I am finding that using the tools is so much easier since my push ups,pull ups and dips have improved so drastically.

Tuesdays run

We ran in the dark again.
It seems to be a bit of a habit.
OH wanted to get back for a telephone call so we only did 1.75 miles.
The garmin worked perfectly this time and said we had run at 10.01 pace.
It felt reasonable but not fast which it turned out, it wasn't.

I held off on the pull ups all day so as not to over train but it is quite addictive to do pull ups once they come in multiples greater than one.

This morning Wednesday,I managed 4 in a row,then 3 chin ups in a row and 3 wide grip pull ups which I have never managed to do before.
I did that sequence twice.
Then I did weighted leg raises ,concentrating on getting a good crunch rather than numbers.
Lastly 12 assisted pull ups which seemed hard but I managed.
I have added a couple more 4 and 3 reps as I have walked past the pull up bar during the day.

In the afternoon, I did a laptop workout (virtual gym) which was Core focused.
Although I hadn't done one since last week, the core part of the workout seemed very easy.

The water board was back outside hunting for leaks as usual.
They actually discovered our stop-cock which is on a drive about 50 meters up the road. Not our drive but the drive to the house that is 4 away from us!

Good news! Our son has passed the theory part of the driving test.
We said we would buy him some lessons with a driving school once he had got that part under his belt.
He has had quite a lot of practice driving our car but needs a bit more specific advice on some aspects so a fresh pair of eyes will see what OH is missing.

Monday monday......

So Monday was spent mostly pulling up on the bar!
Well not really!
I went shopping in the car with DS.
We trudged around the supermarket and bought fruit and veg etc..not terribly interesting.
The reduced sections or whoopsied or yellow stickered as some people like to call them, is now so ridiculous as to be hardly worth the glance.
10 pence less was about the limit of the reductions.
We laughed at a rice pot thing that was smaller than a yoghurt and consisted of a handful of par cooked rice and about 2 tablespoons of some runny orange sauce..it was £1 reduced from £1.97. You could buy a whole bag of rice and a tin of something tasty to go on top for that reduced price and a whole 4 portion meal for the original price.

I can now do 4 pull ups in a row.Proper pull ups with hands facing away and legs not touching the ground at all!
I did several sets throughout the day ,some were only 3's but more than 1 set of 4.
I also fitted in the leg raises with weighted ankles and one set was with v.small dumbells hooked over my toes too.

I gave one legged squats a go again and discovered that I could do about 4 each leg and then repeat,providing I was alongside something in case I needed to grab on.
I have been reading a book called 'Never gymless' which has body weight exercises. Some are quite challenging and some I will never be able to do but interesting none the less.






Another similar book is





which is an excellent read and by a Russian Author with a lot of fitness knowledge and good advice.





There have been a lack of push ups and dips as a result of the pull up work so I fitted in 60 push ups and 50 dips just to be sure I still can do them.

Weekend of laziness

Saturday the OH was off to some police seminar thing and it bucketted down at home.
I went to town complete with backpack and came home with a nice big chicken.
I thought I would have a quick mosey in the charity shops just to see what was on offer sport wear wise at the moment.
Didn't buy anything but saw a sleeveless wet suit,reebok 3/4 trousers, La fitness full length trousers, Speedo swim suit in good nik , several mens swim shorts and one ankle weight.
All the clothes apart from the mens swim shorts, would have fit me but I didn't need anything.
I was back home in 2 hours so considered the walk a light workout.

I managed to do pull ups throughout the day as well,mostly 3's and some 2's.

Saturday night,the men decided to mention that they were off on a Karate day on Sunday.
 This was the first time I had heard about it and I was quite disappointed that they had not said anything earlier because I   do the weekly shop on Sunday and they would be taking the car.

Sunday,I thought I would go with them and watch so made some Bacon sarnies,boiled some eggs and put a bottle of water and an Apple a piece in a bag.
The camera and my camera phone went too.

Karate

The venue was a leisure centre sports hall.
There were quite a lot of people and several instructors.
Various levels of belts  were on display ,about 10 black belts,some brown and white,some brown.
There were 2 people not in belts who I think may have been from the tai chi class and one white belt(the earliest belt you can wear)
It transpired that the event was a combination of techniques.
Participants were divided into groups ,about 8 to 10 people in each.
Then they rotated around the hall, being shown the new techniques by the instructors.
I sat at the side and took photos without using the flash as the hall was brightly lit for the most part and I didn't want to be annoying by flashing throughout the day :D

One group did knife work,learning to react to a knife attack.The knives were fakes of course.
Another did self defence ,not Karate, more how to deal with unexpected street attack.
There was jui jitsu with a lot of plonking of bodies onto thick floor mats.
The group I found most impressive,was the Tai chi.
That is the flowing martial art that you often see being practiced as an early morning exercise form in Japan.
Here it was being demonstrated, practiced and then given relevance by being explained as blocks and retaliation for violence and I think it relied a lot on balance and shifting of weight but what was interesting was, the instructor was in his 60's and when showing some of the Black belt Karate people how to do it, he sent them reeling backwards with seemingly hardly any effort.

So no exercise for me on Sunday apart from the clicking of my finger on the shutter release.

Dark running

It was way past sun down by the time we ran last night.
My Garmin wasn't interested. I think it was too cloudy plus we started to run the minute we were outside which left it no time to catch the satellites.
We were bombing it .
I think it was about a 22 minute run all together.
A cup of tea and a banana refueled the fires once we were home.
OH had his dinner as well.

I was using the pull up bar on and off all day yesterday in an effort to improve my consecutive pull up count.
Sometimes I was managing 3,sometimes 2 1/2,sometimes only 1.
I realised that the challenge I have been following ,expects the counting to start from feet leaving the floor,till returning to floor which in my case has been 1,so although I have managed a maximum of 10,really it is only 10 X 1.
That isn't a bad thing because to begin with I couldn't do one and could only lower myself down off a chair.
I do want to progress now that I can do >1 though, so I need to push myself .

I have a couple of hard drives to reformat today.
They are surplus stock from OH's work but we were allowed to have them as they are just gathering dust in storage.
I will try GParted on them as that is a terrific program considering it is free. It can do pretty much everything partition magic can do and I always feel confident using it which I rarely do with P.M.

There is another crop of lettuce to harvest in the g house.
I sewed it as a cut and come again crop.
The lettuce seeds are sown in pots and then cut while quite small still. Only the largest leaves each time.
This crop is the one I first sewed a few months back.
Providing you keep harvesting,they keep producing.
Same with spinach.
You can get a good bunch of salad from the two plants every week when treated that way.

Pull ups again

The 3 rep sets are getting more frequent I think.
I did about 4 sets this morning .
Then the leg raises with weight.
4 leg raises without weight but more crunched as it is supposedly more effective.
12 assisted pull ups using the inner tube band.
A couple of chin ups.

I will get in some more pull ups during the day.
I moved the bar to my daughters bedroom after all as OH wont be using the room for a couple of weeks and it is the least in the way spot. It can go back on the living room door after that.

Core work

Managed to get in an hour long virtual gym workout this afternoon.
The ball was utilised as usual and still feels like it is doing its job on Abs.
I cant really understand the 'don't arch your back' comment the trainer gives out because it is done on a ball which is curved and so you don't really have a lot of choice.

I timed the workout so that I could gobble a banana while making dinner and then leave it to cook while I went and cleaned up and got changed.
That works well either before lunch or dinner as I don't feel like shoveling back food in addition to the meal if I haven't got long till a scheduled meal anyway and it makes it easy to just have an Apple or carrot or something later on.
Since I haven't been chocolating, I haven't felt the need to snack anyway. It's almost as though chocolate was responsible for wanting nibbles,not the boredom or extra exercise after all.

Hubs can be a bit of a nibbler. He will buy chocolate,biscuits,donuts and cake quite often at weekends and it is difficult not to join in with him. I'm sure he prefers his wife to be trim rather than blobby but the evidence would suggest otherwise.

New pull up scheme

After last times success with 3 pull ups in succession without a foot landing, I decided that I would change the routine a bit.
This morning I did 3,3,3,2,3,1,2,2
all being consecutive pull ups but smaller sets.
I think this is the way to improve because all the time I do single pull ups, I am getting more endurance overall but not very quick progress with increasing the time between foot landings.
After that,I did 6 singles,7 singles,8 singles and 2 consecutive.
Then
6 chin ups(singles)
12 leg raises
12x2 weighted leg raises
12 band assisted pull ups
My shoulders and arms feel very pumped and powerful.

I hung the pull up bar on a different door so that I could leave it there for the odd pull up throughout the day.
We really don't have a lot of doors where it will fit(3 in the whole house).
The usual door is right by the front door so the bar cant stay there else no one can get out or into the house.
The 2nd door is my daughters bedroom but also doubles as OH's study room and his exam room when the time comes, so would be a bit cheeky to hang it there , a bit too 'I'm in possession now'.
The only other door with a suitable frame, is the door of my workroom(former dining room) which has the sofa right up against it on the other side but as it wont be permanent,I have it there for now.

The usual scuttle
We ran our almost 3 miler last night. I didn't really feel like it as it was dark and cold but with a long sleeved top and track suit leggings,it was quite warm and I had my light jacket over it for visibility which left me feeling very steamy. I didn't take the garmin this time.I don't want to rely on it always .It can become a bit obsessive to always be fretting over a time when what I really got it for was the gps mapping and the heart rate .
We didn't have an audience last night and no dogs showed an interest.

new pics

New 3 quarter view. One quite noticeable thing is the looser fit of the sports bra! No bad thing in my opinion.
Also a bit less of a saddle around the lower back.

This one is taken with a less encompassing  top so I could see how the actual muscle tone was getting along. I think there are less folds around the lower back.

Although this is not really any more muscle than last times picture,I think it looks less baggy around the side and that is a good result. My arms are feeling much less saggy and bat-wing like.

I don't think I weigh any less than my last reported weigh in,maybe a bit tighter overall.
 Running is becoming easier.

progressing!

Yesterday was Sunday and quite windy out.
The boys went for a driving lesson so I got my skipping rope and bottle of water and went for a skip in the garden using the piece of board so that I could skip on the grass.
I wasn't sure the wind would let me but I thought I would give it a go and it was fine once I had found a place by the greenhouse where the wind didn't seem so strong.
I skipped 10 minutes to warm up choosing a different step for each minute.
A quick nip back in to the Loo (always a good idea before double unders ).
Then I double undered for as long as I could,giving myself very short water breaks about every 60 jumps.
I rarely manage more than 25 at a go so it was not exactly non stop but I did do 476 double unders all together.
On my second jump I did 34 at one go so that was very pleasing and then later on I did 43 which I think is equal to my best(not sure if it was 48 pb previously as I didn't write it down but I think it was 43).
Yay GO me! LOL

That was it for yesterdays exercise as I was worn out after 40 minutes of that lot.

About an hour ago I did the pull up routine again.
This time was 5 sets :
10,8,7,6 and max
The max was 10
What was especially pleasing was the 3 consecutive pull ups without my feet on the ground which I repeated three or four times in the different sets.
After the max,I did;
6 chin ups
12 unweighted leg raises
2X12 weighted leg raises
12 band assisted pull ups

HIIT and pullups combined

Friday was rest day.
Today (saturday) I needed to get back to it.
HIIT was neglected last week and so I wanted to get that in but also to do the pull ups that didn't get done yesterday.
So
I skipped 10 mins then did set 1 of pullups 7 reps
skipped 1 min set 2 ...6 reps
skipped 1 min set 3 ...7 reps
skipped 1 min set 4 ...8 reps
skipped 1 min set 5 ...9 reps
skipped 1 min set 6 ...6 chinups
skipped 1 min set 7...10 leg raises
skipped 1 min set 8...10 weighted leg raises
skipped 1 min set 9...10 weighted leg raises
skipped 1 min set 10..12 band assisted pull ups
kettle bell swings 1 min skip 5 mins to cool down.
This all took about 42 minutes and was hard work!

We walked into town earlier so I feel I have had a good exercise day today.

Cat calls en route

We ran last night.It was the almost 3 miler.
This route is the one where we run along by the river for about 1/3rd of the time.
There are often people sitting on benches at the sides ,mostly youths.
As we bounded past,they shouted Helloo in mock Queens English so OH hollered back (his accent is clipped anyway so no need to pretend).
Then on the return,they did it again so we all 3 warbled in response.
It was better than the sometime squawking  that greets us from cars,usually by young people who wish they had the bottle to get out and run themselves. This time there was a fun element and no rudeness.

The run went quite well. I had to keep speeding up to keep with the men and my glutes were feeling the ladder workout from earlier but we did it in about 29 minutes and were back in time to watch Torchwood.

quick ladders workout

I decided to warm myself up a bit so looked for a good simple workout that I could do without any equipment.
I found a ladder style workout.
Found here

This comprised of sets of 50's,40's,30's,20's and 10's
Each set is made up of Push ups,squats(hands behind head),crunches(it says sit ups on the page but they sound far more like crunches and I don't really find sit ups do anything) and lastly lunges.

I began with the 50 push ups and managed all in one go,after that,everything else was easier and so each set followed on from the last without a break.
The whole lot took me 19 minutes.
I think it was so easy because of all the challenges that I have followed for the last couple of months.
I was breathing harder towards the middle of the challenge.

Being running day,I don't always do a workout but I haven't got any work at the moment and life can get a bit boring so it fills in the time, keeps me warm,cheers me up and keeps me fit.

Autumn on its way

It is colder for sure.
I am still wearing my shorts though and I got a full load of washing dry on the line.

Once the cooler weather comes in, exercise really comes into its own.
It is a great way of staying warm and even warms up the room a little bit.

Wednesday afternoon, my son was fitting a new Mortis lock to our front door and so the door was wide open for a good hour.
I logged onto the laptop and went into the workout program ,deciding to do 15 minutes upstairs in my bedroom.
Once it started though,I chose 1 hour as usual, 15 minutes seems hardly worth getting changed for.
In my room ,it is quite cramped and so I chose flexibility for the focus of the workout.
No equipment (as it was all downstairs and no room anyway).
The beginning part of the workout is always a warm up with a small section of cardio which was just about do able in the confines of an 8 x 4 area of carpet.
I was almost at the end of the session when DS knocked and asked me to come and hold something so he could mark its position.
Luckily there is the pause button.
Then another 10 minutes and he was back.
I was just in the middle of the dancer pose at that point , with only 3 minutes left so I called it a day and went back to help.

He made an excellent job of the Lock fitting and was bouncing around like Tigger on speed with  the high that the accomplishment had given him.
He has been a bit quiet lately as Jobs are nowhere to be found and life without something to do is very dull.

Then I made Tea of home made chips,bacon,sausage,eggs and baked beans with the last of the mushrooms fried lightly to finish them off. The meat and eggs were microwaved so not as fatty as it sounds.
After tea I went upstairs and there was the virtual coach waiting for me to answer how I felt about that last bit !
She wasn't the least bit irked by my abandonment!

Good reliable workout gloves.

Just before OH came home, I did a 3 minute plank just for the hell of it.
I have started wearing my weight lifting gloves for planks because they have a cushioned palm of leather.
The gloves are about 20 years old and say Bulls eye sports on the Velcro wrist tag. They double as running gloves in the cold weather and cycling gloves because they are fingerless and I can still change gears without catching the glove in the mechanism. They have also really helped with pull ups as the bar is hard to hold with my girly bare hands.

More digging up the pavement.

The water board are back yet again,trying to find the leak that is undermining next doors drive.
They have been here most weeks since about July and still haven't located it.
Part of the problem is the piping is not laid logically and so some peoples pipes go under other peoples gardens. The stop-cocks are all over the place too. This morning the man knocked and asked had my water been the one he had turned off? Nope! I think he just had to knock on every door and ask.
I cant think why they don't label the covers of each pipe when they work on them so that they would know the next time.

Running without seeing

Last night we ran in the dark again.
It was a 3 miler along parts of the river bank and some pavement.
The pavement was more precarious than the river, there are trees along the edge for quite a long way and the windy conditions of the last day or two have brought down some branches, which in the dark, we discovered by running into them.
Luckily they were all small bits and so no harm done but I had forgotten about the hazards of running along the unlit or poorly lit bits of that route.
The run itself went well. We ran at 9 minutes 40 per mile pace.
OH had his weighted vest on. It is an old stab vest complete with pockets which he can fill.
He had a dumbell and an ankle weight in each pocket and all the way up the river, we could hear one of the dumbells clanking as we strode, it was like having robotic joints.
He had to stop at the half way point and rearrange the weight .
He almost left the front door key behind as we set off but just noticed it lying on the path in time.
Although it had rained a lot during the day,the puddles were not too bad.

At home I had a bowl of yoghurt,1 weetabix and banana with jam to refuel. Usually I only have a banana but today I was ravenous.
Earlier ,I had done a 10 minute skip..
2 minutes regular speed,1 minute high knees (more like a run than a skip) ,repeated till the 10 mins was up.
It had rained and rained so I wasn't expecting to get a run later.
A 3 minute plank was added in a while after.

This morning (Wednesday), I dragged my weary carcass to the pull up bar and did the pull up challenge workout.
Today was 5 sets;
5,6,7,8,9
Then 6 chin ups
10 unweighted leg raises
2 X 10 weighted leg raises (the leg raises are for stomach muscle strength,not arms)
12 band assisted pull ups and
The Hydrant leg routine(performed on the floor mat)

My pull ups are better than they were but I still cannot do more than one at a time. I can do them straight after each other without a rest but I must start each one with my feet on the floor.OH admitted that he has trouble with the pull up hand position and prefers to do  chin ups.

Anyway,after the pull up session, I put the bench up and attempted some dragon flags.
They are performed lying on your back ,holding the handles on the end of the bench.
 You are supposed to lift your body up all the way from shoulders to feet in as straight a line as possible,then lower and lift in that same straight line.
I managed 3 but not particularly straight.

Mundy workouts

Whinge alert!

The OH decided he was having Monday off work.
He hardly ever bothers to tell me when he has a day off booked, he will just announce it the night before when he is deciding what to watch for his night time viewing.
Days off usually consist of OH lolling on the settee with the TV on.
He did suggest going to see a film at the cinema but really there is nothing worth seeing and it would just be exchanging one screen for another. The cinema idea was gone from his head almost as soon as it was out of his mouth which is a common occurrence  with his suggestions and makes life horribly unpredictable.

Anyway,this meant having to wait for the living room to be empty before exercising.

Whinge be gone!

I managed to get the pull up bar put up and did week 3,day 3 of the pull ups challenge.
7,6,5,4 and a max of 9
Then 5 chin ups
10 leg raises without weights and 2 X 10 leg raises with Ankle weights.
12 assisted pull ups using the inner tube band
 Last of all 2 X 20 push ups

It was raining much of the day so no out door skipping.
In the afternoon the men went out for a driving lesson so I took advantage of the empty room again,I stuck a pizza dough in the bread machine and then did the core workout from 'yourself fitness' on the laptop.

Warm and wet

Its not sunny but horribly warm and it has been raining.
Can't skip outside in the wet so did 10 minutes indoors.
We watched the Athletics again. Yay well done to Mo Farrah ,he won gold at the 5k.

whizzo the whizz

Well I don't know why but the run last night was good and fast!
about 9.42 pace instead of 10.08 (minutes per mile)
We were back in just over 20 minutes.
Our son decided to tag along and managed without stopping despite not having run for a week.
As usual ,I uploaded the run from my Garmin ,into the computer and then transfered it to map my run to check on the accuracy. I really need to trust it more. It was only 1, 100th of a mile out. The discrepancy is because the satellites sometimes cant tell whether you are going around a curve and so straighten the route, often this just cuts a lump off in one place but sharpens it out somewhere else.

I did the pull ups schedule again this morning.
5 sets:
6,5,6,5,6
I did balk a little initially on reading the amounts needed today, as I found I could just about manage last times, which was 6,5,4,5,6 but when I thought about it, it was only 2 more and proved quite do able
Then I managed 4 chin ups
2 X 10 hanging leg raises unweighted
1 X 10 hanging leg raises with ankle weights
Then to finish it off, 10 pull ups with band assistance.

The band pull ups were easier to manage this time because instead of looping the inner tube across both handles of the pull ups bar, I looped it through itself from the middle of the bar which meant it was long enough to put my feet in,instead of my knees.

I remembered to have my thumbs over the top of the bar again and it really does help because your thumb is quite a large part of your hand and adds a lot of support to take your weight.

Bleh

TOTM again (time of the month).
Age makes them unpredictable, not that they ever were perfectly timed but I hadn't really had one in two months and have been silently hoping they had finished.
No such luck after all!
On the plus side ,I can stop worrying whether I am getting enough calcium.
It does explain the tired feeling of the last couple of days and the addition of a pound in weight this week..