Power Pilatez

Met with Chris Edon (PT) and am starting Power Pilatez classes to improve my core fitness & general strength. Had induction & first class this week. Its fun & another challenge. Bring it on....one day I will have a 6 pack.

22 August - Dorset Doddle 33.25 miles

Tanja came up for the evening before we headed off very early on the 22nd Aug down to Dorset for the LWA 33m "Doddle".

Tanja not feeling all that & the weather is pretty grim. Cold, grey & threatening to rain. Great. It is going to be a very looong day! Drove to Swanage where we picked the coach back to Weymouth. Pretty cold, so had a hot chocolate before the start. Route almost identical to Day 2 of the Jurassic Challenge. Pretty much walked the whole Weymouth promenade which was a shame as this was going to be the flattest part of the course. Tanja, due to feeling unwell, needed time to warm up!

Headed up hill at prom end & had a nice gentle undulating trot for a few miles. Tanja still unwilling to run, so I had to leave her behind. Enjoyed running where I could & striding up the steep bits. Stopped to take a couple of piccies at Durdle Door & there met a nice girl who I spent the rest of the day with. She was a pretty keen runner prior to a nasty illness, & was just getting back into things. Still a lot fitter (and younger) than me!!!

After Lulworth, the weather decided to close in pretty horribly & we could hardly see our hands in front of our faces. Both made a decision to follow the JCC course & were both wrong. This added a couple of unnecessary hills & a mile to an already long distance! Coming out of the gloom & contemplating our error, we bumped into Tanja! 3 of us toddled off for a couple of miles, before Tanja again decided that walking was more for her today!

Ran walked for the rest of the day until believe it or not we got lost again in Swanage town centre. So close to the end but so far. Very frustrating as our final time was 11 hrs 3 mins. BUGGA! Still nice hot meal & plenty of hot tea at the end. A good day but hampered by poor weather. If I decide to do this event again I WILL NOT GET LOST!!!

Boot Camp Day 7

Home Day!! Sprint session before breakfast. After that it was weigh in measurement time. I lost around 7" plus 7lb so was pretty chuffed. Hard part is going to keep it off!

Fantastic week although jolly pleased to be going home - it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Great people & good fun.

Have decided to do the follow up day in Bristol later on in the year.

Boot Camp Day 6

Final day at camp. Today was dedicated mainly to the team excercise of getting an "injured" plank around a long hilly obstacle course in as quick a time as poss! Around 10 per team & 6 have to carry plank at once. Great fun, especially as we won....just!!

Evening was dishing out the T shirts & staff giving us our complientary comments plus a glass of bubbly. Boy did that hit the spot & the head!

Boot Camp Day Five

Today we headed down to Branscombe beach for some tough exercise. Started off with a nice little stroll along the pebbles & jog back. Then into the grassy car park area where it was pretty much a very tough circuit training session. AAAAGH! Staff Reitze did make me scream!
All ended off with a run up the steep hill which heads over to Beer. Didnt quite make it all the way but I gave it a darn good try.

Afternoon was spent with toy guns learning a little bit about armed combat/war games. Good fun but the poor old knees didnt like the constant crawling around. Ging the holiday let owners cat found the whole thing amusing.

Totally whacked so went to bed early.....again!

Not missing the alcohol at all now - to knackered to miss anything at all apart from a lie in.

Boot Camp Day Four

Usual 06:30 rise! Getting used to this routine now. Today is Jurassic Coast hike day. Really been looking forward to this, but weather couldnt really have been worse! Cold, cloudy & mizzy rain. Total YUK! Mini bus took us all down to Seaton where we spent the next 6 hrs or so walking & a little bit of jogging to Budleigh Salterton. A total of 16.3m. I was originally put into the medium group but after a bit of protesting from the "elite group" & myself was moved "up". Thank goodness. Ann due to a leg problem was in the medium group but said they were so slow it was driving her up the wall - they all got so cold & wet. I certainly dont think I held the elites up, & if anything was generally one of the front runners!

Had lunch in a grim cold bus shelter in Sidmouth, after which the sun made an effort to come out & we managed to see some of the views.

Really lovely day.

Boot Camp Day Three

Again, up at 06:30 for stretches & a bit of jogging before breakfast. Actually, the whole day was pretty much dedicated to running in some form or other ie fartlek apart from a boxing & lunge walking session. YUK!! . I really enjoyed the running part but many totally hated the whole day! Its the exercises & boxing I decided I hated the most.

I found I had a little sparring partner in Ann Gilchrist. 40year old who is great fun. Pushed each other to work hard on the running which was brilliant.