#Janathon Day 8 – The Return to the Gym

Despite feeling a bit flustered with lots to do and not much time to do it in, I knew that I had to go back to the gym this week.

So this morning I headed into town for the first time in 2 weeks to tackle the weights.

The 2-week break wasn’t deliberate. I planned to take Christmas week off and focus on running and Yoga, but last week was entirely food poisoning related.

I’ve rejigged my programs a little so today’s workout focused on plyometrics, plus squats and some shoulder exercises.

I was expecting the gym to be packed with post-Christmas workout folk, but actually, it was super quiet. Maybe waiting till the 8th means those resolutions have already died a death?

The plyometric section of my workout focuses on box jumps and line hops for precision and power. It gets my heart rate up, so earned me 250 TomTom points in the first 20 minutes.

Weights, though, apparently just don’t get my heart rate up enough to make my TomTom happy, no matter how heavy they are.  Clean high pulls, back squats, overhead press, upright rows and dumbells, followed by core circuits featuring hip raises and swiss ball planks earned me a mere 46 points.

This meant I had to finish with some cardio to hit those Janathon points for the day. I leapt on the treadmill as it was closest and immediately remembered how much I hate running on the treadmill.

I honestly have no clue how people can run a whole 5k on the treadmill without dying of boredom. I managed 6 minutes and it was with a sigh of relief when those 500 points went buzz on my wrist.

So, that’s day 8 done. Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a pain, as I’m going to be out all day, which may mean running a miserable mile in the dark and cold tomorrow night to get my points in, ugh. But then, Janathon is as much a test of mental stamina as it is physical. Not giving up when it gets hard is as important as the amount of exercise you actually get out of it.

I shall leave you with a picture of my sweaty, totally unimpressed with treadmill running face.