Off the Radar!

So it appears that I may have fallen off the blogging radar over the last couple of weeks! Life seemed to become a mish mosh of nursey shift work combined with swim-bike-run-eat-sleep! No different in nature from my usual life cycle but some weeks it seems to knock the wind out of you more than others! And so in a rare moment of calm in the whirlwind I will catch you up on the missing weeks :)


After my week of wrestling with the art of spinning came an easy-ish week! I say easy-ish as it featured a half marathon at the end of it and some pretty solid sessions in between! The most notable event in the week (aside from the half marathon) was my first Pilates class experience!Now I have been considering trying to fit a regular Pilates class into my training schedule for quite some time. It seems to be the buzz thing amongst many of my triathlete pals at the moment and like anything that takes the group by storm you often feel the need to be on the in! I have recently moved gyms to try and enhance my relationship with the heavy round things otherwise known as weights! As much as I loved my old gym it was a 40 minute drive away from home and getting there for a 'quick' work out would end up chewing more than 2 hours out of my day! I rarely have 2 hours free to 'spend' so I bit the bullet and joined a gym that is a 2 minute drive from my local swimming pool - theory of proximity being if I'm swimming at that pool 5 or 6 times a week then I really have no excuse not to back up my swim on some of those days with a quick weights session - so far the theory is working! Anyway I digress......on one of my early trips to the gym I noticed a regular Pilates class for members and so decided on the next easy week I would factor it into the training schedule and give it a crack!

So Wednesday evening rocked around and I opted to do a quick leg weights work out before the start of the class......mistake number one! I met the instructor Deb who pointed me in the direction of a mat and some weights - they seemed very small and light so I selected a heavier pair to ensure I got a decent work out.....mistake number 2! In my mind as I settled down onto my mat I thought that the next 45 minutes would feature some gentle mat work and some core exercises.......I quickly found out that my impression of Pilates being a 'relaxing' pastime was very wrong!!! Fifteen minutes in my legs were burning from a hideous amount of squat jumps, my arms were shaking from the continuous cycle of various push ups and weight holds and my core felt like jelly! I was a broken woman! Of course at any point I had the option to leave the class - I suspected I was going to pay for a good couple of days and with the half marathon looming I knew I should just get up and leave but there really is something to be said for the class environment! My ego would not let me leave the room - I didn't want to to be the person who didn't finish the class and so with every thought of leaving the class came a ridiculous burst of energy to push harder and jump higher! It was fair to say by the end of the class I was ready for my bed and that my muscles reminded me frequently over the next couple of days of what I had put them through!! Not yet ventured back to the torture chamber of the Pilates class but it's on my agenda.......somewhere :)

Over and Out!