Monday: 25 mins running, 15 floors stair machine, 30 mins weights.
Tuesday: 5k run.
Wednesday: 30 mins treadmill intervals, 15 mins bike, 30 mins weights.
Thursday: Ab challenge and 1 hour yoga.
Friday: 30 mins running, 15 mins bike and 30 mins weights.
Saturday: 10k and 1 minute Saturday Challenge.
Sunday: 20 mins yoga.

Another week of the DW Fitness challenge over!

I was given a 20 day pass to use the DW Fitness gym nearest to me, but sadly that’s ran out now. I’ve decided to join a new gym though!

Even though working out at home is possible, I find that the treadmill has been a great benefit to my running. Even though I hate it. It pushes me to go faster and I’ve seen the benefits when running out doors.

I would have loved to have joined the DW Fitness gym as it’s such a lovely gym. The fitness instructors are all great – there were always so many people having PT sessions and I loved that! Great motivational people watching for my boring treadmill runs. Unfortunately, it’s quite far from me and involves a trip on the motorway to get there.

Time is important to me. And if I want to be realistic about going to the gym long team, it needs to be quick and easy. I can’t justify 45 minutes travel time before I’ve even worked out. I run 4 miles in that time.

The gym I’m at is just down the road. I could probably walk it in five minutes. The downside is that it doesn’t have the swimming pool which was my favourite thing about DW Fitness! The beautiful pool!

But it’s only £20 a month and I’m not locked into a contract, which is good because I’m moving house in July and I’m not sure how far from the gym I’ll be then.

So yes. More gyming to me! Thanks DW Fitness for letting me use your gym and helping me falling love with gyms again.

Let’s see what the challenges were like this week:

DW Fitness Challenge Days 20 – 27

Day 20: Stairs Only.

Todays challenge was to take the stairs! I took to the stepping machine, which I’ve never used before, and completed the challenge. I could have ran up and down the stairs at home but I was at the gym anyway and it’s always fun to try out a new machine.

It was a little scary, I kept feeling like I was going to step in the wrong place!

I did 15 floors. Here are the challenge options:

Beginner – 5 flights of stairs.
Intermediate – 10 flights of stairs.
Expert – 15 flights of stairs.

Day 21: Ingredient of the week: Quinoa.

I was a little hungover on Tuesday as I went to see Placebo the night before, but in the afternoon I went out for a 5k run. I had in my head that I wanted to beet the PB I had set on Sunday which was 33:05. I wasn’t really trying to beat the time on Sunday so thought it was possible.

I managed it in 31:39! I thought I was going to be sick during the last half a mile, though. I took the first two miles steady and then really pushed towards the end. If I wasn’t hungover, I think I wouldn’t have felt sick and I could have pushed harder.

I want to get to that sub 30 min mark now. It seemed impossible a few weeks ago but now I’m more hopeful. The intervals are helping!

And I got my fastest mile!

Anyway, when I got back, I had quinoa salad. I was so happy that quinoa was the ingredient of the week because it’s one of my favourite things to eat. I’ve already wrote a post on how to make it here. I usually make this on a Sunday and have enough for use on salads for the next 5-6 days.

Quinoa is full of protein and it’s a great superfood. As I’m vegetarian, I’m always looking for natural ways to get protein as I don’t like eating too many processed substitutes like Quorn.

Day 22: Intervals for 30 minutes. 

I was dreading this so much as I really struggled last week. I managed it. Somehow. My heart was racing though and I felt exhausted after. Luckily, I recovered quickly and felt fine after.

Beginner: 2 minutes walk, 1 minute jog.
Intermediate: 2 minutes jog, 1 minute run.
Expert: 2 minute run, 1 minute sprint.

I ran at the same speed as last week, which is my half marathon goal pace of 11 minute miles, or 8.7km per hour. Then I upped the speed to 9.30 minute miles, or 10.1km per hour.

Next week it’s 2 minutes slower then 2 minutes faster for 30 minutes! Help!

Day 23: Ab challenge.

Beginner: 5 sit ups, 5 crunches, 5 bicycle crunches, 10 Russian twists.
Intermediate: 10 sit ups, 10 crunches, 10 bicycle crunches, 20 Russian twists.
Advanced: 20 sit ups, 20 crunches, 20 bicycle crunches, 40 Russian twists.

I did the expert version of this. I did about an hour of yoga too. Part of it was a 15 minute video to help my back flexibility and the rest was just practicing some poses. Mainly crow, which I did a few times but held no longer than 5 seconds at a time. My bruises were back the next day though so I might have to weight for them to heal again before I practice a bit more!

Day 24: Plank challenge. 

At some point during my yoga session, I did something to my back. It was painful so I struggled with the plank. I only managed 1:07 this week. Last week was 2:11. I was going to try again later but decided not to. I’d be gutted if I made my back worse and couldn’t work out!

Friday was also the day I joined the new gym 🙂

Day 25: 1 minute challenge.

I did better on all 3 of the challenges this week. Which is pretty impressive as I did it after I just RAN MY FASTEST 10K EVER! WUT WUT IN THE BUTT.

Day 26: Rest Day.

I was SO hungover on Sunday. So I did rest. A lot. It was painful. I did a 20 minute yoga session in the evening though. Woo.

How was your week?

Read about days 1-5 here.
Read about days 6-12 here.
Read about days 12-19 here.

Read about the 40 day challenge here.