You may be able to tell that the squat challenge is getting hard!
I know I chose it for that very reason, but that doesn’t change that fact that it is hard!
What makes it even harder is adding squats in on top of everything else I am already doing (I suspect Nancy who is doing this challenge too know what I mean!)
Anyway…may is the month of the squat..so squat I shall (I just reserve the right to complain about it a little bit.
Yes…I know it was my choice… shhh!
Anyway…
Day 322 Friday
on Friday, after walking at lunchtime, I decided to go for a run in the evening…
It was one of those days, I didn’t really feel like going but I went anyway telling myself I could just have a short run then come home…
72 mins and 7.9km later I realised that my plan had failed and I had accidentally gone for my longest run yet that wasn’t a 10k race! 😀 😀
I was doing my own interval invention which starts with a 5 min, then a 6 min then a 7 min then 2x 8 min intervals, 2 x 7 min intervals and 2 x 6 min intervals all with 1 min walks in between..
I have no idea if this is a valid training plan or not… But I thought I wanted a go at some more intervals of that length before I carried on with the 10k trainer whose next jump is back up to 10 min intervals…
Well, valid or not I am not unhappy with the run, it was quite slow, but quite steady which is quite good for me!
the most annoying thing about it, was the 7.9km distance…if only I had carried on a tiny bit more before I turned around and made it to 8km!!
Yes this is a petty annoyance but it bugs me!
The other thing that happened, when I was at the furthest point from home, is I remembered that I should have been going for a shorter run as I have to a) do squats and 2) dance on saturday…
ahh well…
as I may have mentioned…I had to do squats, despite my legs complaining really loudly I had to complete day 9 of the squat challenge:
90 standard squats
90 plie squats
12 low pulse squats
Day 323 Saturday
Saturday was Horsham Day of Dance! The most local day of dance that we do 🙂
Awesome fun is what it was!
Awesome fun in which I had to wear my compression leggings under my tights to try and stop my legs aching after accidentally running 8km!
<— look here is me dancing…and in fact levitating 😀 I am the one with the arrow on my legs, sorry about that it is a still from a video click the pic to see whole vid as I can’t embed it on here…it is awesome!
go on..it is worth it…but come back!!
the day started with a procession through the town, in which I mostly had to improvise as there was an odd number of people…but I didn’t want to be left out!
![IMG_3807[1]](https://midsummer365project.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_38071.jpg)
however by the end of the procession the rain stopped, then the sun came out and remained out for the duration of the day…woohoo!
It was lots of fun, and we got to dance with a lot of different morris sides, which is always good.
Best of all I got to do lots of dancing 🙂
Because dancing is what it is all about!
and lots of walking around town because our stands are always spread out to allow more people to see the awesomeness!
With that in mind…this is what I danced:
(as well as 7 mins of processing which is stepping and twirling and suchlike)
Our Henry
Star of the County Down (x2)
Maiden Castle
Summerland
Parma Ham
King of the Fairies
Raggle Taggle Gypsy
Triskele (x2)
Thors Hammer
Witch Hunt
Fanny Frail
And later, much to the dismay of my legs, I had to complete day 10 of the squat challenge:
95 Standard Squats
95 Plie Squats
15 Low pulses
I think I am improving at these squats…I am not doing them all in two sets so as not to prolong it any more than necessary…so I guess that is some sort of improvement!
Day 324 Sunday
Pilates was very welcome on sunday!
After all the running and squatting and dancing and squatting, something that lengthens and stretches muscles was very welcome…
It was hard work too mind you, Sarah has (as I have previously mentioned) found lots of new, more challenging exercises to so to keep us moving forward!
These included the dreaded side planks…during which I noticed that my arm (the one I injured a couple of weeks ago) was suffering slightly. Probably from all the waving about of heavy sticks and clashing and banging it had to do on Saturday!
arm ache aside, I had an enjoyable pilates class, and left able to walk better than when I went in…which is always good.
The wellbeing was slightly marred later on by day 11 of the squat challenge…
100 standard squats (2 x 50)
100 Plie squats (2 x 50)
20 low pulses
all in all it was a pretty good weekend 😀
Days 322, 323 & 324 complete 😀
Project Warrior Goddess 
I have to tell you, the concept of this squat challenge gives me actual pain! Well done on your run (and yes I understand the 7.9 vs 8.0 issue only too well!) I can’t watch the video at work, I’ll try to remember to have a look when I get home tonight 🙂
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so annoying!! and I must have only been a few meters off!! I was at 7.9 for ages!!
hehe…since you are work…I will let you off … for now 😀
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Just finished my squat challenge in my hotel room. I put in ~13,000 steps before I called it a night today. Love this city, and how all my walking makes for solid exercise when I’m here. 🙂
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That is excellent 🙂 the past two days have been sadly short on steps here 😦 no chances to walk at work and too much rain to go at lunchtime!
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My previous days in Toronto were very low step count days too 😦 Makes me sad that I don’t get a lot of just plain movement in (apart from deliberate exercise). (Makes me wish I lived right in a city centre al the time. So much easier to ensure you get lots of walking in – when everything is walking distance away, versus the car culture I’m used to…)
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yes, I am the same!
The only way to get walking in is to deliberately go for a walk.
work is seated and the only reason I have to get up is to make coffee or go to the toilet…mind you the more I do of the first the more of the second that happens…
where I live, I can’t even go for a walk out of my house without getting in the car first…the road outside is too narrow and busy to walk along safely 😦
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I used to marvel at how people living in European downtown settings looked so healthy and fit, wondering what they do to stay that way. It’s walking! They walk everywhere. (Or bike, like in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc).
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it really is!
When I was at university I was fit because I walked everywhere…I had no option and I lived close enough to walk everwhere!
Mind you…It isn’t enough to convince me I want to live in a city…
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That’s where we differ. The older I get, the more I crave city living. Raising my kids in the suburbs was nice, but now that they’re grown, I’m ready to move back. Unfortunately the house prices in downtown Toronto are STUPID expensive (I know London is the same). So this one may stay a dream, unfortunately.
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london is ridiculously expensive!
I love the fact that I have only one neighbour and I can see almost no other houses near where I am! Even suburbs have too many people in them for me!
I think I would happily move to the lake district or some other middle of nowhere area and live in a house that is only accessible by land rover!
mind you…I do love the idea of everything being convenient and within walking distance (I suspect I can’t have both…)
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You definitely can’t have both. 🙂
I try to keep in mind that I’m fortunate to be so close to downtown (30 min drive) and yet be in a quiet dead-end street, facing the lake, backing into 70 acres of conservation land, with a neighbour on one side if me and a ravine on the other. (You get an idea of the area from the maps in Strava. My runs start as soon as I step out my front door, so you can see the water’s proximity and also the green space. Still, walk ability to food, shopping, entertainment would make the setting that much better. 🙂
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I wish I could walk / run directly form my house! Having to drive somewhere first is mildly annoying. That is the one downside of living where I do, but I love it apart from that 🙂
and apart from when it is dark and I am on my own and I imagine serial killers approaching from across the fields…because I have watched too much CSI…
this rarely happens in sussex mind you… 😀
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🙂
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