I’ve always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with gyms.  Or maybe more love-apathy.  When I’m on it, I love going, and in the last year or so doing weights has been what has made me happy and motivated to go.  I’ve joined a local gym which is small but has everything I need for weights-type training.  I got a good deal through work on membership, and having received a refund from Uni for the course I was taking, I paid for annual membership back in May, with some refund left over.  Except my back hasn’t been great where training is concerned.  I find weights always help my back, but what I hadn’t really taken account of was my crap flexibility/general mobility, so as I upped the weights, my form was deteriorating, or at least the emphasis was being placed on the wrong muscles, and rather than help, weight-lifting started to bugger my back more.  So I  started to dial it back to basics and got a new program to focus on mobility.  In July my back was really bothering me again, and I was struggling with the programme and consequently lost all motivation to do it.  Cue sitting on my ass again, which doesn’t help either to be honest.

Anyway, weight loss is going well, and I’m feeling better off sugar.  Having done pretty much zero exercise since 1st July, I still managed to lose 15.6lb (based on today’s weight), so it was final proof (should it be needed) that weight management is all about food, and not exercise.  Exercise, however, is of course vital for health overall.  So I’ve been champing at the bit lately to get back to training.  As I said in my last post, i’ve signed up for a triathlon next August.  So right now, it’s just about getting back into regular exercise, not marred by a need to adhere to strict training plans.  Thankfully a friend persuaded me it would good to go for a run, so we went out last Saturday and I survived!  Thankfully the sciatica issues didn’t rear their head, and i’ve been for another short run since.  Back out tomorrow and I’m just taking it easy but enjoying it.  I’ve also used my spin bike twice this week for two easy 30-minute sessions.  Swimming is the final piece of the puzzle, so I swithered about doing a pay-as-you-swim membership at the new local leisure pool, or paying £23 per month to swim as much as I wanted.  While it’s a nice gym, it doesn’t have a steam room/sauna or jacuzzi, and if I’m honest, that ruins it for me somewhat.  So long story short, i’ve decided to rejoin the local David Lloyd where I was a member for a couple of years after moving here.  It’s nice, I loved going, I like relaxing there after training and it also has a lot of classes I can go to including spinning, Sufferfest sessions on the Watt bike (arggg!), and Masters Swim classes.  They even do triathlon specific pool swims/runs etc.  While this year has been all about debt repayment and budgeting, I’m in a good place financially.  I don’t buy stuff i don’t need anymore, debt is coming down, and for anything I want I save for it first.  I’m happy I’m not going to go off the rails, as my attitude to money has totally changed, so i’ve just readjusted the debt repayments down each month by the cost of the gym. All it means is my debt will be paid off a month later than planned which is fine.

So I’ve now turned into a total gym whore with not one but two memberships.  I’ll still do weight/strength training in the little gym, but i’ve already used the pool in the new one, and this morning I did a class to test my Functional Threshold Power on the bike.  It came out as 247 watts which I’m happy with.  It’s not something to worry about as such because I don’t have a power meter on my bike, but I’ll be given training zones etc. which I can use in the spin classes at the gym, and it’s merely a baseline against which I can test my fitness as time goes on.  I wasn’t sure how it would go today, and at the end of the test I wasn’t completely bolloxed, so could push it a bit more the next time.

The next few months are going to be very, very busy, what with work, my next course starts on the 18th September and I’ve also got other stuff going on.  Planning and prep are going to be key, but I feel like I’m in a good place.  Getting back into exercise is making me feel good but not under pressure, and i’m looking forward to swimming more and relaxing in the jacuzzi and steam room at the end of my workouts.

Onwards and upwards!