Monday: 20 minutes treadmill run, 20 mins bike, 3 sets of 20 chair dips.
Tuesday: 20 minute treadmill run, 40 mins weights
Wednesday: 3 hours snowboarding
Thursday: 3 sets of 40 squats
Friday: 20 minutes treadmill, 10 mins bike, 30 mins weights
Saturday: 15 mins yoga, 3x 1 minute fitness challenges
Sunday: 5 mile outside run.

DW Fitness Challenge day 6-12.

I’m still doing well with the DW Fitness challenge! I’ve manage to keep up with all the workouts, though I did have to swap two around, so I completed day 7 on day 8 and day 8 on day 7. Here’s what the challenges were this week:

Day 6: Tricep Dips.

Mondays challenge was to do 3 sets of tricep dips. There were three options to do here:

Beginner: 10 with legs bent
Intermediate: 10 with legs straight
Expert: 20 with legs straight

In the Power 90 programme that I’ve just completed, I had to do 20 dips with legs straight so I opted for the expert level.

I went to the gym beforehand and did 40 minutes cardio. I was looking for somewhere suitable to do the chair dips but no benches were free so did them at home. For some reason I have a strange fear of doing weights and exercise other than cardio at the gym!

Day 7: Ingredient of the week: Substitute milk

As quoted from the training plan:

Courtney: Dairy can be difficult for many people to digest. It can cause gas and bloating, and unless you eliminate it for a significant period of time you won’t know if it is the source of your discomfort. Unsweetened versions of milk alternatives also tend to have less calories, one cup of almond milk has around 30 calories, whilst skimmed milk has 90. Despite the reduction in calories, dairy alternatives often have similar percentages of vitamins and minerals.

I drank the Koko dairy free milk that I got in the January Degustabox last month. I substituted this on the Wednesday instead of Tuesday as I had to do the run on Tuesday.

I had a 3 hour snowboarding lesson on Wednesday so didn’t have time to run too!

Day 8: 25 minutes.

Day 8’s challenge was to jog, run or walk for 25 minutes, 5 minutes more than last week. 25 minutes of running is pretty easy for me, but challenge comes with doing it on a treadmill!

Even with watching YouTube videos while running I’m still bored! Next week is intervals which should mix things up a bit!

Day 9: 3 sets of squats with 60 second rest in between 

Beginner: 20
Intermediate :30
Expert: 40

On Thursday, I only managed to get the squats in, I would have liked to get something else in too but I had a long day! I got home at 11pm on Wednesday from 3 hours of snowboarding, then I had to be up at 6am for work. After work, I went straight to a hotel to get ready for a work party I had to attend.

I had planned on leaving early, but 10 minutes before I was about to make my move, they called everyone together for some speeches which took over an hour. I didn’t get home until 11pm so had to do my squats then!

I opted for expert and it was a lot harder than I had expected. My legs were burning.

Day 10: Plank.

The challenge was to hold a plank for as long as possible. I went to the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio before, then weights. I started to plank but felt weird doing it, so stopped after 30 seconds. Near the end of my weight session the gym was about to close and not many people were there, so I attempted again.

I only managed to hold it for 1:31 this week, probably due to leaving it until the end of my workout when my arms were already tired. The previous week I held of for 2:01 seconds!

I feel like I might have held on for a bit longer if I was at home. Maybe next week! But I am getting over my fear of doing weights at the gym and have started doing some free weights. I did have one instructor correct me on one move where I had my back bent too much.

I actually like doing weights at the gym, they have a better variety than at home and I feel much more motivated with all the mirrors around.

Day 11: 3 minute #SaturdayChallenge

Time to do the Saturday challenge again and see if we could beat the previous week! Here’s how I did:

Jump squats: 50     Last week: 51    Difference: -1
Sit ups: 28               Last week: 18    Difference: +10
Star jumps: 49        Last week: 40   Difference: +9

The jump squats burn so much! I would love to beat my score but I honestly don’t know if I ever will! You need to try them and see what I mean.

I tried really hard with the sit ups this week as 18 is a poor effort. For some reason they just seem to take me so long!

Star jumps are also painful. If you think you hate jumping jacks, try these!

I also did a 15 minutes yoga video afterwards which was learning the eagle pose. Fun times.

Day 12: Rest day.

Sunday was a rest day, though it was suggested to do some gentle stretches of yoga. I went for it and did a 5 mile run.

I’m running a half marathon in May so I’m going to start doing a long run on Sunday. Starting yesterday with 5 miles, then going up each week until the marathon.

Read about days 1-5 here.
Read about the 40 day challenge here.

Hows your week been?