30 day challenges

Day 23 : Went for a walk at lunchtime, then did weights in the evening. I'm liking the "Do Weights till calories expended" challenge, as it gives me a focus for a weights workout, and means I have to keep going, rather than stop when I feel like it. Day 24: Commute. Ride to work quite straightforward when I've booked it in. Day 25: Not really feeling very motivated or good at this stage, I just had 180 Calories to get rid of the end of the day, which was easily dispatched with 15 minutes on a bike. Did this "Just because" and didn't enjoy it in the slightest. Day 26 : Outdoor bike ride. These have really been improving recently, and whilst I think the main improvements have been as a result of the commutes, where often I'll race against previous times, or try and do the hills as quickly as possible, the extra sessions done purely to satisfy this challenge have contributed. Day 27 : First day of a holiday where we were camping and going to the

Day 19 was a bike - commute day. Piece of cake. Day 20 was somewhat of a breeze. Went for a run at lunchtime, easily completed all 3 circles. Day 21 just kind of happened - it was a Saturday, in which I took my son to an abandoned golf course so he could knock some balls around (the kid is currently golf obsessed - which could be a lot worse I guess, but any chance he gets, he's playing), followed by helping a mate decorate his house, followed by cinema, followed by playing football with some kids, so that quite happily racked up all 3 circles. Day 22 was a family visit, which is where completing the circles becomes tough, and it's always been the thing that I've had to work round. What helped was there was a garden with some football going on again, and actually if I'd have got involved with that sooner, I may well have hit the target; Upon returning home, Lu and I cleared the place up, watched the tour, and by then, lethargy won the day I'm sorry to say. :(

Usual 1-2 today of a lunchtime walk that accumulated a few hundred kcals on the red-ring, and finishing with some weights in the garage. Keeping a weather eye on the progress, it worked out about 10Kcals a set of 10x bicep curls to shoulder press super-sets [12kg each side], followed by 10xshoulder-flys + out in front arm-raises [5kg each side]. With about 130 Kcal to go at the end of the day, that was a pretty good workout. This would have been a trivial calorific expenditure on the bike, I guess it's that the legs are bigger than the arms, and my body is heavier than my weights. However, since we're doing it every day, I can't do meaningful bike workouts and keep up the pace... so these are good to slot in.

Disaster Strikes : I spent most of Monday afternoon at work feeling pretty ropey. Even though I'd camped far away enough from the festivities at Morgan-stock to warrant going to bed at the same time as Jack (10pm... impressive for him in how late it was, impressive for me in how early it was) which meant I walked away pretty unscathed, I still felt awful on Monday, and must have gone down with the same bug that had prevented Daisy from going. Got home from work at about 6:30, conked out for 3 hours, got up, spent an hour hanging out with Lu, then went back to bed. Tuesday, I was on the mend, but still pretty tired, so didn't make it that day either. I'm optimistic for Wednesday!

Day 13 : Finished with another "felt a lot harder than I expected" weights session. Good to have done though, and gives the legs a rest, and gets the torso going nicely. Had another day's failure, but not by as much as I'd have expected. My battery died at Morganstock (another social event involving fields, beer and kids running free - range ) which made me realise I can't just expect to hit the target, even on a weekend. I've got to make sure I'm making time in the day to do stuff, or at least make a concerted effort as often as I can to drip-feed the points.  That said, last night (day 15) I went out for a quick 10 mile bike, which got me in nicely. Another "wouldn't have done it otherwise" workout, so got to be grateful for that.

Knowing I was going to the cinema with Alex in the evening (to see the mind-blowing MUSE - Drones tour broadcast... his birthday treat haha!) I went for a walk at lunchtime, cycled in to town to see him, cycled back again. I only needed to do an extra lap around the block.  This was an odd one, as ordinarily, faced with Alex and a pint, I'm happy to sit for the evening, but in the back of my mind was "close the ring, close the ring" so I had to cry off early. Oddly, I'm normally mindful that socialising time is eating into training time... in this case it was the other way round. Ho-hum, such is the nature of these challenges! So far, I've noticed that it's easier to complete the circle on a bike than in the gym, so I've found myself going for that more than anything else. In that respect, it's a limiting factor. On the plus side, it's got me training when otherwise I likely wouldn't have.