37

I turned 37 on Sunday. It feels weird.

I probabaly have a lot to say about how it makes me feel but perhaps not right now. 

I had a great weekend. On Saturday I went to a friend’s fabulous hen party in Bath. Saw my bro and his fiancé on Sunday at my Mum’s, and on Monday I went to the Natural History museum for a walk in a butterfly enclosure and then to the west-end to see Aladdin. It was all lovely. 

I was planning on yoga on Saturday before heading to Bath but for a slightly later wake up I decided to do Parkrun instead, and even managed to get Giles to come along for his first ever one! Naturally he finished it 4 minutes faster than me. 🙄

I didn’t exercise on Sunday or Monday due to all the birthday celebrations. 

This week is tough. On Tuesday I travelled to Manchester where I would be part of the faculty for a 2 day course with a delegate dinner on Wednesday night. Then on Thursday, when the course ended I had to get to Plymouth right down in the south west before heading backs to London on Friday. 

On Monday night was the deplorable bombing attack in Manchester. Needless to say I had some anxieties about being in Manchester for half my working week, but I’m also British and as such utterly unwilling to be driven to fearful withdrawal by this sort of thing. 

I want to write more about this but halfway through about a blog about exercising probably isn’t the time, so let me crack on with the usual stuff and…..

On Tuesday morning I did a 60 minute LISS bike session in the gym before packing for my travels. When I got to Manchester I did a Bikram yoga session. I took Steve with me and I am hopeful that he is now converted to Bikram yoga. As it was his 1st Bikram yoga class I think he understood the challenge I underwent in January of practicing everyday and running every day too!

I dedicated my practice to the people of Manchester and those who had lost their lives, which gave me a sense of connection to what had happened. I hoped for peace in this world of ever increasing violence, intolerance and hatred. 

Over the rest of the week I was going to be busy. Customer-facing training and dinners and travel on top meant that I would have little time to myself and little time to exercise. 

On Wednesday morning, thanks to Steve’s persistence, I got up and went to the gym for a slow 30 minute run.

I utterly abhor running in the morning. I really should do more of it. I managed 4.8Km and disliked every second.

From then however the running plan has been unacheiveable. 

Still to do this week is the 10Km I missed last weekend due to b’day celebrations and intervals. However, I am miles off my 10 yoga classes a month intention with only 5 under my belt this month so far. There’s just 6 days till the month is through, and I’m heading to Holland for the long weeekend.

So, despite being knackered, having travelled several hundred miles today, and wanting to sit in the sun with a beer; I’m going to go to yoga tonight. It’s a 75 minute class so I’ll be having a beer before I know it. Giles and I are going to have a BBQ (vegan for me) in the garden tonight and enjoy this glorious summer weather! 

If I can, I’ll try and go to yoga in Holland. I’ve checked and there is a studio really near my hotel, but it will all depend on timings as to whether I can go or not as my bro has planned stuff for us to do. 

I’m quite disappointed that my yoga has tailed off this month. It just goes to show that without careful management, time can just disappear from under you without realising.

I suppose it’s because I’ve been trying to increase the running, and because I’ve been travelling a lot and it’s been my birthday. So the fact I’ve done anything is good.

I’ve looked back through my training diary and there weren’t days that I didn’t do any exercise that I could have gone to yoga, but there probably were running days I could have gone to yoga if I moved the running to the rest days. On average I took 2 rest days a week over May, so there is room for better planning, as I should be able to run anywhere!

In June I have signed me and Steve up to a virtual race, where you get a medal if you submit how far you run (with evidence). Even though May had been pretty good for running I thought this might incentivise us to keep on top of our training plan for June. I just need to make sure I’m getting the yoga sessions in too.

Next week’s work is looking constant but not hectic so it could be good with a bit of organisation!!