Wk1 – 4.3M Hills then Circuits

It was a nice morning this Monday morning, cold and brisk, but nice. The sun had just risen as we started out on our hill runs around Bellahouston Park.  I ran with Jackie and my other friend, and aimed to do 4.3 miles in Bella park which was to include 4 warm up laps of the track and some reps of 3 hills.

First up was just over a mile around the track to warm up… 4 reps.  We got a good chat in and warmed our bodies up for the hill reps.

The first set was of the steps.  5 repeats of it (up and down).  I got my heart rate up to 174 (92% max) and although it was hard, it felt good.

Then we jogged to the next hill… a doubler which goes up to peak then down back over the other side of the hill, we went across this 5 times.  We took this one a bit easier than the first steps, but got into a rhythm after the first one or two reps.  The picture is at the end of the last rep.

I had a little rest at the end of that hill, then we went on to next and final hill.  It’s quite a steep one (it doesn’t look that bad in the photo, but it is), and we did it 5 times.

Run: 4.35M (hills), 48:30, Ave HR: 155 (82%), Max HR: 176 (93%), Calories: 435.

Check out the hills vs my heart rate:

After that we went into the gym – into the ‘Function Suite’ in fact – which kept us away from all of the newbie New Year Resolutioners… … to do our first attempt at body weight tabatas.

I set it at 45 seconds workout /  15 seconds rest – for 5 sets for each exercise.  5 exercises:  Jumping Jacks / Squat Jump / Press Up / V Sit Up / Burpees.  5 mins for each exercise, 25 mins in total.

We were ok for the jumping jacks, and after that we slowly deteriorated but had a laugh and completed all the sets.

We decided that we would be better off with 30/15 work to rest ratio and maybe do more exercises.  So maybe 10 exercises, 5 sets of each, 30/15 work/rest.  I’ll try that the next time.

Bodyweight Tabatas: 5×5, 45/15, 25 mins, Ave HR: 133 (70%), Max HR: 169 (88%), Calories approx: 250.