How last week turned out - A week in review

It was a topsy turvy week last week, between physio sessions and considering my marathon training. In the end I resolved to keep training as best and as varied as I can for the next four weeks and then assess where I am. This is in the end all about getting 'on the move' and getting (maintaining) fitness, so I have relaxed a little at the realisation that this isn't the only marathon - it is a goal I set myself and I can give myself permission to move it if my body isn't capable, on that day, of completing it. By the way it is very much about completion in spite of my original flirtation with time/pace charts (I have revised these thoughts as well).

In the week just gone I got back to aerobics sessions and instantly realised this was a major missing ingredient in my 2012 fitness efforts. I switched to longer mileage on the road, then for time and other reasons dropped the simple aerobic workouts with all their active stretching, strength and lateral movement elements. A lesson learned last week that I hope will lodge itself firmly in my memory - "variety is the spice and the essence of training".

X-trainer a go-go - fuel, water, towel, ipod and an exciting beige wall to stare at.

Variety of a sort I suppose, also came in the form of my re-acquaintance with the elliptical cross-trainer in the rowing club gym. On advice from the physio the trainer was to be used to help keep workouts going while my hip / back gets sorted out. Two hours on the cross trainer went by pretty well much helped by the fact it's programmed to reset every twenty minutes (a throwback to it's former life in another gym I suspect). The frequent interruptions kept my relatively mind busy. 

I don't normally train outside with any music, but in the gym with it's associated background noise I found the ipod equally useful for my sanity. From my calculations of the distance after each twenty minute reset I covered at least a half-marathon distance on it which was pleasing to say the least. More sessions to come and more tactics to cancel out the tedium might be needed along the way... I am thinking a film loaded on the ipod might be useful, or a good audio book at the very least :-)