Dear Diary: January 2016

Well hello again! It’s been a good long time since I did a proper Dear Diary post, but I thought I might revive them again as it’s handy to have a little look back at the month and set some goals for the next.

January started as January often does with a little extra Christmas weight. I actually treated December as a sort of mini “bulk”, saying sod the extra calories, trying to eat well rather than make them ALL booze, and use them to build a bit of strength in the gym. So January’s PLANS were to get back on a bit more cardio fitness and set myself up for our upcoming Roller Derby season, however I was somewhat derailed by the arrival of my annual “cold from hell” meaning there were 2 weeks I decided that attempting to run in the freezing cold was a BAD IDEA and instead I stayed at home on the sofa.

Still half way through January my breathing was nearly back to normal, so this months diary really only started on about the 16th. In an effort to increase stamina and cardio vascular fitness we’ve started tacking on a short HIIT spin session to the end of our Roller Derby team sessions with Paul Fawcett Personal Training. It’s caused a bit of an issue as Sunday is normally long run day, so from February I’m going to have to rejig my plans and designate Sunday, walk for a bit until your legs stop feeling like jelly day.

January Achievements

Deadlift 85kg for 3 sets of 3. I had to use straps because my grip strength sucks! At Christmas my Deadlift was 70kg, so I’m pretty pleased with this.

I might have only run 9 miles in January, but 8 of those miles were under 10 minute mile pace. Something I haven’t done since before I sprained my ankle in 2014! The other mile was just after the HIIT session, so that doesn’t count. Right?

Kept a food diary for the whole month. I find this really helps me eat better. Even when I have days when I eat whatever the hell I like, making sure I track it means I’m more aware.

February Goals

Win our first game of the season. I’m aware that this isn’t something I can technically control, so shouldn’t really be a goal. But hell, I want it in there and I’ve promised myself new skate boots if it does.

Run 20 miles. I have the first 10k of the year coming up at Easter, so I need to pick up the running again. I’m planning 1 longer run and 1 interval session each week, though this might actually be tricky as there are 2 weekends that I’m away and it won’t be possible to get out and run.

Squat my own bodyweight. Well 67.5kg which is close enough! I finished January on 57.5kg. Again, this will be a stretch as my gym schedule is a bit messed up by weekends away, but it’s good to push yourself, right?

Complete my mobility exercises every day. I have real issues with shoulder, hip and back mobility, and I think improving them will improve my skating and my squats and deadlifts. So I have a short set of mobility exercises I plan to do every day.

And there we go! I’ll see you at the beginning of March to see how it all went!

P.S. For those of you that like that sort of thing, you can now follow me on Instagram!