Bank Holiday Weekend

Since the marathon, I have slowly eased my body back into exercise. I didn't do anything for the first few days (I was still walking like a penguin so I didn't have much choice!) but after a restorative massage on the Wednesday, I was able to cycle commute for the rest of the week and to take a gentle Pilates class. I had hoped to be back running at parkrun last week but I was concerned about one of my hamstrings which was quite tender, so volunteered instead (whilst wearing my marathon finishers tshirt!). The following day I headed down to London to cheer on everyone in the marathon. I had a great day in the sunshine and came back really motivated to get training again.

This week I've cycled more, swum in my gym's outdoor pool & been to an energetic Pilates class. I tested out my hamstring with a short run on Thursday and decided it was fit enough to do parkrun this morning. I ran without my watch & despite my aching knees (marathon training seems to have aged them beyond my 29 years!) was pleased to finish comfortably in just over 26 minutes. 

Now that I'm not in training for a specific event I'm looking forward to doing some more non-running exercise. I was therefore excited to see that my local Sweaty Betty store was collaborating with a Hot Yoga studio to offer free classes. I'd tried Hot Yoga a few years ago at a different studio & was keen to give it a go again. The package I signed up for was 1 hour of Hot TRX followed by 1hr 15 of Hot Barre. The TRX was good - I want to improve my upper body strength & there was a lot of work for my arms, supporting my body using the ropes system. I struggled a bit with some of the floor based work because I didn't quite trust my (very sweaty) hands to hold on to the ropes whilst I did back bends etc! 

I enjoyed working in the heat and it didn't seem as hot as I thought it would. The Hot Barre was in a different studio though and was much hotter!

I enjoyed Hot Barre more than I was expecting given that I am not a natural dancer by any means and tend to struggle with any kind of choreographed routine that requires co-ordination. The mention of a routine to Bolero (think Torvill & Dean) panicked me but it ended up being very short and simple so I could just about keep up. The heat meant that we were all dripping with sweat (I was glad I had taken 2 towels) and even relatively simple movements got my heart rate up. This meant that I felt like I'd had a really good cardio workout from a strength/flexibility based class.

I'm not sure if I'll go back, partly because I have a regular Pilates class which I really enjoy and it's difficult to fit in everything I want to, but if I did it would be for the TRX. I loved how the instructor combined yoga with the ropes. Overall it was great to be able to try out two completely new classes. The studio (Ethos Yoga for anyone Cambridge based) was lovely and seemed very clean and fresh despite all the sweating! 

Tomorrow I'm heading to Norwich to run a 10K with my friend Michaela - I've been promised that there will be creme eggs!

How is everyone else spending their Bank Holiday weekend?