The heat is on

Its 34.3 degrees outside according to the weather people but I'm sitting at work freezing - its positively arctic in here. I have to go outside to thaw out.

I went swimming last night and surprised myself at how well I swam - those muscles I'm gaining in the gym have finally decided to be useful. I'm following a 12 week swim program so I have gone back to basics and week one involves swimming 10 x 50m with 20sec rest intervals. To be honest I actually enjoyed my swim and it didn't feel like hard work, as it usually does. I repeat this same session again on the weekend.

This morning I met my trainer for my weekly gym session and to discover what creative ways she has to make me hurt (in a good way). The end result is always 'dead' arms and wobbly legs and an adrenaline high - it’s a love/hate relationship. Today began with barbell squats followed by incline chest press supersetted with cable barbell curls and triceps pushdowns. Then I did lunge stepups with weight followed by medicine ball bounce downs (lots of them). Why do I always get a runny nose when doing these? For good measure she then had me doing barbell chest presses supersetted with barbell curls (wide and close grip - these are soooo hard) and dips - I hate these with a passion. Next it was closegrip lat pulldowns followed by side raises (up and down then in and out) and shoulder raises, with weight plates. Omigod, these were so hard and my arms got heavier and heavier until I literally couldn't raise them anymore - but I couldn't wimp out completely as she then had me doing the exercise without weights. Finally, I completed 4 sets of decline sit ups followed by 4 sets of leg raises. And finally I wobbled off to the changerooms to encounter the bathroom scrum but fortunately it was the tail end of the rush. I really didn't have the strength to hip and shoulder my way to the basins and mirrors this morning.

After work this afternoon I'll be back at the gym for a 20 minute interval session on the xtrainer. Its really busy at this time of day - everyone wants to use the gym. Fortunately most seem to head for the dreadmills or weights. I'm glad that I'm a morning person - and before anyone makes a smart comment (and you know I'm talking about you!) I'm not referring to conversation but to getting up and exercising!!!! There is a big difference.