If every day could be like today I'd be very happy indeed. Food intake and training were both of a very good quality and if I could replicate this every day I'll be on the road to superior fitness in no time. Now, I've started having breakfast at home over the last few weeks which has replaced trips to the canteen and the resulting bacon sandwiches and hash browns. Today's brekky was 3 slices of wholemeal toast before dropping Jack off at school. A good start to the day in anyone's book.
Lunchtime saw me put in a quite respectable 47 minute effort for 5 miles. Miles 2, 3 and 4 contained a few intervals as I started picking up the pace between lamp posts. I felt great and the end of it and was rewarded with a jacket potato and beans.
I was just about to get myself a Double Decker when some nutritional information came through via email from Dave and Mark. That put paid to that hope of getting a chocolaty treat! Talk about bad timing!
After work I managed 20 minutes on the cross trainer and a 15 minute interval session on the bike. This left time to try one of may latest favourite bits of gym equipment; the rowing machine. I've been knocking time of my PB's for 2000 meters on each of the last 5 attempts. Tonight was no exception as I managed a time of 00:08:10. I then had just about enough energy for a Spinning class. Now the benchmark for this class is to achieve an average heart rate of 162. I really went for it tonight in the class and I sweat buckets. Nice!
I got my heart rate up to an average of 161 during the last song and no matter how hard I tried the number just wouldn't increase by 1 to 162! I managed to sustain 170 BPM for what seemed like an age and still no movement on my heart rate monitor. AHHH!! I couldn't tell at this point if it was sweat or tears streaming down my face! Just before the last song finished and I pressed stop on my watch the reading on my watch went up to 162. "Yes!", I exclaimed with a clenched fist. The others in the class must have thought that I was taking things far too seriously. In my mind, it was as close a margin as one of the finishes by Mark Cavendish (pictured) in this year's Tour de France. Sad but true! It's not the first time I've imagined I was in contention for a stage win with a sprint over the final few meters (or rather on the last song in the spinning class). Watch out soon for tales of Olympic Gold while on the rowing machine!
Now the best was yet to come! When I got home from the gym, a most amazing feast of chicken kebabs with salad and peppers was waiting on the table. Nice one Katy! On the advice of David and Mark there were no carbs in sight and I even managed a couple of pears for pudding. This just about left enough time for a few bedtime stories which Jack read half of himself. His reading is coming along really well. What a perfect end to a perfect day! Now I've got it all to do again tomorrow! The training is the easy bit! Can I manage to keep off the chocolate?
