How fast?

It’s been a few days since I last posted and I have a Friday and Sunday to report in.

Friday saw another lone session in the gym. Plug in the iPod and away I went. My calves were aching a little bit form the 40 minutes on the cross trainer from Thursday but I was determined to keep the work rate up. I programmed in 20 minutes at level 8 on the cross trainer and set off.

There is something I have noticed that I have hesitated to tell on this blog until now, is the curious connection between the cross trainer and flatulence. I can only assume that it’s the rotational motion of my legs, or maybe the slight twist I get as I use my arms, works the excess gasses through my system. Whatever it is, after about 5 minutes into the session I am pretty much a fart machine. I am slightly embarrassed to have shared that but this is a blog where I tell it like it is.

After 20 minutes of parping away, I set about the plank and the back exercises. I am really starting to feel my core muscles become a solid mass, and when I settle into the plank position I don’t start to tremble with muscle fatigue for a good 30 seconds or so. When we first started this the shakes took hold almost instantly.

After that I went for a bit of a run. 6.4 miles an hour (a really comfortable pace I can maintain easily) for 20 minutes. After that I was done and headed home.

Saturday saw a day of rest and I felt pretty good.

Sunday though my calves had finally realised that they had been worked hard and decided to show their displeasure by refusing to work at all. It is possible to walk without engaging your calf muscles however it is a silly walk where your bum sticks out and your arms swing around as you try to shuffle along.

I had to get better though as I was off to the gym in the afternoon on a rare occasion where Nigel was free so I engaged the magical powers of Deep Heat again. This time it worked and the lower legs began to work again. Another observation while I was ministering the miracle muscle cure, was some light bruising to my ankles. It doesn’t hurt and is only mild discolouration but I think shows the impact levels that are inflicted while running.

I was going to take it easy so I stuck 20 minutes on the cross trainer while I watched the last 20 minutes of the Liverpool Chelsea football match. The TV’s are directly in front of the cross trainers so it was ideal. I set the resistance level to 6. There were a few minutes left in the game after my stint finished so I tried the cross trainer in reverse. It works a completely different set of muscles going backwards and was surprisingly tough.

After that I completed the plank and back exercises with no issues. As Nigel still has a full routine to work through and I can’t do many of the machines due to my injured arm I headed off to the running machine again. My plan was to have a leisurely walk to warm down. Only trouble is I got bored with walking as it is dull. There was no one else in the gym bar Nigel so I thought I would experiment.

How fast can I run? I was going to be sensible this time and sneak the speed up incrementally.

7mph. No problem, a fast jog.
9mph. this was a fast run for me but I could hold it.
10mph and I was reaching my upper limits here.
11mph. In my head a red warning light went on, claxons started to go off and someone shouted “she canne take no more cap'n”.
12 mph I was at near full tilt sprinting now with the treadmill sounding like a washing machine on full spin.

I knew I could go faster and thoughts of the Great North winning speed of 13mph for an hour made me reach out and try to push the go-faster button…

When humans run they swing their arms and these act like pendulums which help maintain balance. Stopping one of these pendulums from swinging to try and push the go-faster button made me lose my balance.

I never did reach 13mph. I think it is possible, in fact, if I stretch my stride length I fancy I can go a good deal faster I just need someone to push the buttons for me while I can get on with the job of running.

You might be disappointed to learn that as I lost my balance I didn’t stumble over my own feet, crash down face first onto the high speed treadmill which instantly propelled me backwards into the wall at 12 miles an hour, and instead I pressed the stop button which brought the whole device to a nice controlled halt.