Regular readers will know that my Saturday morning training for the last 18 weeks has included Beach Bootcamp and running up the steps in King Edwards Bay, Tynemouth. This week was no exception and Beach Bootcamp was once again taken by Dave Fairlamb and for the first time Mark Fleming. There were loads of people there today and splitting the participants into 2 groups worked really well. Dave took the Cardio element on the beach with Mark dishing out the orders for some strength work on the promenade.
I've said it loads of times before but if you fancy a good workout and an energetic start to the weekend then you should give Beach Bootcamp a try. It starts at 9 am every Saturday opposite the Grand Hotel in Tynemouth. There are sessions on other mornings too. See www.davidfairlambfitness.co.uk for details of those ones or for contact details.
Out of the 18 classes I've done so far, today's session was definitely the warmest. It's going to be brilliant in the Summer months when it gets really hot! I'll have to get my Borat Bikini ironed in readiness! As well as being the warmest, today's Bootcamp flew by the quickest. I thought we were only about 20 minutes into the session when it came to doing the stretches at the end! Yet again, Bootcamp was the usual brilliant all over workout. It also served, as I'd hoped, as a great loosener after yesterday's 17.4 mile run.
After Bootcamp, it was onto the steps in King Edwards Bay with 7 of us doing various numbers of efforts. I managed my planned 12 lots of steps incident free. The pain, the jelly legs and the nausea at the end are no longer evident these days as was the case when I started training 18 weeks ago. Let's see if that's the case when I try and beat my best of 20 next week though!
Finally, after the steps today I managed to run 8 miles on top of the 1 mile warm up before Bootcamp. This would have been slightly longer if the tide had not been so far in at St Mary's Lighthouse. Anyway, that took my weekly mileage up to 62.4 only 7.7 short of the target of 70 miles this week!
Not only was today a good workout but it has taught me a few things. Firstly, I get a much better recovery and subsequent run when my nutrition is right. Let me tell you that my nutrition has been spot on this week with no chocolate or crisps and plenty of porridge and fruit. The second thing I've learned is that I'm actually developing quite a good engine. The first 34 miles this week were done at an average of 00:08:24 per mile. The 17.4 mile run with hills caused no problems and I had a brilliant session today with no real evidence of having run 53.4 miles this week. There has been quality throughout everything that I've done this week. I couldn't be more pleased! Speaking of quality, Fraser Scott took some brilliant photos today of the session on the steps. He is an awesome photographer. If you have an up and coming wedding or family do then why not check his website out at www.fraserscottphotography.co.uk.
