My plan on Tuesday night was to hit the gym after work for a Spinning class, with a quick warm up 2 miler on the treadmill beforehand. Unfortunately, the gym was so busy that all the treadmills, cross trainers AND bikes were full! The only free machines was this step machine… (I know it looks like some of the treadmills are free- they weren’t!)

I did 10mins on the PowerPlates before heading into my spinning class early, didn’t want that to fill up too. Well, I probably didn’t need to worry too much about not getting a bike 15mins before the class started!

I sat next to a lovely lady who was at her second ever spin class. She was wearing a heart monitor as motivation to stay in the ‘fat burning zone’. She laughed a lot when she realised that by just doing her warm up she was in the fat burning zone already! It was a great session, but my quads were really feeling it. I can tell that I haven’t been in a long while. At the end of our class our instructor, who had also been wearing a heart rate monitor, told us that he had burnt over 900 calories!! wowza. I want to get a heart rate monitor, talk about inspiration to keep working to see exactly how many calories you’re burning!

Yesterday, before meeting friends to see Les Mis, I went to the gym to do a quick Speed Workout. I haven’t really done any speedwork before, other than a bit of interval and tabata training on the treadmill. I went in not exactly knowing what to do, other than that my training plan said to do 8X400, ( I am mixing between the beginner and intermmediate plans).

I did a 1km warm up run at 9.7kph pace, before cranking up the treadmill to 15Kph for the first 400m.

And got a stitch.

Note to self, do not eat a large egg sandwich half an hour before going to the gym!!

I reduced the speed to 6.4kph for the next 600m, before running at 14kph for the next 400. I then alternated 400m at 6.4 and 400m at 14 for 6 repeats total. I was a sweaty mess afterwards.

This sounds ridiculous, but I didn’t know a speed workout would be so…quick. I definitely have time to fit this half hour into my routine once a week, and hopefully it will make me a faster runner outside. Just need to crank up the treadmill, fuel properly and be prepared to sweat!

On a different note, am I the only one who doesn’t have enough ‘gym’ socks, and ends up wearing some pretty weird ones for my workouts?

I’m fairly sure it’s not good for you to wear non-specialised socks when working out. During the London Marathon I wore running socks and although I did get blisters, in hindsight they weren’t too bad. However, two weeks later when I walked a marathon, my feet really suffered. My blisters were so bad I could barely walk! Maybe it is time to invest in more sports socks?!

Back to Les Mis, I really liked the film, however found it very emotionally draining and gruesome! I felt exhausted afterwards. Also, I don’t know why, but I didn’t realise they were going to sing throughout the whole thing! I thought the cast were amazing, and loved Samantha Barks as Eponine, and obviously Eddie Redmayne as Marius! Have you seen it? What did you think?