Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Staying Stress Free: With a Hard Workout




One of the great things about being seriously into physical activity of some kind is that you always have a way of working away at the frustrations that life throws at us do we not. There is no need for any of us ridiculously obsessive triathletes to have a temper tantrum and start throwing things around or start raising our voices because things have not worked out exactly the way we planned. No of course not. We simply change into some training kit and get stuck into a workout of some kind. Let us just consider the last few days.


Saturday was the first truly spring like day and a good chance to get out on the bike. We didn’t actually do that though because we started off on a turbo session so early that we did not realise what a nice day it would turn out to be, but after the turbo it was nice enough to do a bit of tidying in the garden, for me one of the things that involved was sweeping away the mess that the blackbirds who live next door to us make when they are looking for bugs along out little garden path. They are far to pretty to get cross with when they throw earth all over the place.


Saturday evening we met a gang of friends for our Club swim at 5pm. Time before hand to make plans for little outings here and there together.

Lane 1
W.U
6 x   50 @ 1.00
3 x 100 @ 2.00
2 x 150 @ 3.00
1 x 300 @ 5.00
2 x 150 @ 3.00
3 x 100 @ 2.00
4 x   75 @ 2.15
2 x 100 @ 1.00
Swim down

Lane 2
W.U
6 x   50 @ 1.15
3 x 100 @ 2.30
2 x 150 @ 3.45
1 x 300 @ 7.30
2 x 150 @ 3.45
3 x 100 @ 2.30
Swim down

The Sunday morning the 10 km run for Steve and I started at 8.25am exactly.
There was a sea fret that morning and none of the sunshine from Saturday.
Having promised the little Robin that has greeted us when we got out of the car for the past month, begging for some sandwich crumbs, I had brought a plastic bag with some bird seed in from home for him. Of course, this week he was not there so a sprinkled some seed around under the tree for when he got back.


He joined us further up the lane and I hoped he would find the treat I left for him later. Birds were singing away saying that spring was on the way but I think it is a way off yet. There was woodpecker calling and we heard it busily drilling a hole nearby too.


I said to Steve that it would be nice if we saw the little family of deer that we have seen bouncing through the woods just a little to the right of the path and sure enough we saw them a little bit further on than the usual spot. They are absolutely adorably and so beautiful as they stood and stared at us maybe thinking ‘Oh how lucky we are to see those two nice people again at roughly the same place’ and add ‘How nice and bright they are in their pretty coloured coats’.


The Bluebells are starting to show just the beginning of their bright green shoots and there were clusters of Snowdrops here and there leading the floral way as usual and even a primrose or two here and there. On the whole looking into the depth of the woods, it’s all starting to look a little brighter. 


Our friend who starts five minutes or so after us could be seen a good way behind us before we turned off the Monarchs Way and along the muddy ridge path. She likes to have us in her sights to motivate her to keep her pace and she eventually passed us as we turned on to the long gradual downhill. It is easier for her to catch us there because I run in a very wiggly line so that I run through the centre of all the Fairy Rings. That is one of my sillier habits but silly is good now and again. She catches us, running barefoot as she does and then we pass her again sometimes at the bottom where she puts her trainers back on before the last half kilometre back to the cars. We all did good times and were as happy with that as we were to be out in our wonderful countryside. We had our raclette set out again for our Sunday meal that we ate with broccoli, cauliflower and baby new potatoes to put the Swiss cheese on.


The Monday swim is still all 100’s
I did 15 x 100 @ 2.40
Plus a bit of back stroke
Whilst Steve’s guys did 20 x 100 @ 2.00


This morning, Steve and I did an old ‘Spinavals’ turbo set that we like.
It is an aerobic base builder
Warm up spin:
Then
20 minutes steady with various gear changes
1 minute rest
15 minutes steady with different gears
1 minute rest
10 minutes steady as above
1 minute rest
5 minutes steady as above
Spin down
It is just over an hour set.


Steve and I then had a nice bath and hair wash and dry before going out for a nice relaxing coffee in Osteria, Arundel together. After that Steve drove to the garden centre and bought me a pretty new iron hanging bird feeder and when we got back he set in into the garden for me, where I can see the birds feeding from my desk. I am so lucky the have such a sweet husband who cares so much about making me happy. 

 



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