Home Alone

I have been home alone now for the last 9 days as my Mum and Step Dad have gone to Sri Lanka for 10 days. I normally look forward to looking after the house, but this time has been extremely tedious. For the first 5 days there was no one around as the majority of my mates are still at Uni, though I have had someone round most nights. The main problem has been the dogs as they are driving me insane. One of them insists on peeing on the floor most days, which often ends in me having soggy socks. Both of them ripped up the bin bags outside and scattered rubbish everywhere and one of them barks WAY too much. I love them, but I really wish they'd shut up!
I'm afraid I may be killing half of the plants as well. I've been watering them all, but probably not enough. I'm definitely not made for gardening.
Anyway, yesterday I was meant to go to the gym in the evening, and I did. My mate came down at about 7 and we watched some really exciting *cough* cricket and then went down to the gym. I don't like going at night because it's normally busier and I often see people I know. It's nice to see people, but I often feel judged when people I know are at the gym. The main reason I sometimes go with friends is because it's much harder to make an excuse not to go if they're picking me up.
We couldn't stay for that long because my mate's sister had had an induction and probably didn't want to be there for 3 hours, but as it turned out, she was there for 2 and a half hours. No idea what she did all that time.
I wanted to do a shorter run at a faster pace than I'd normally go, so I set off at 7mph, which I believe is 8.37 minute miles. I'd normally do 10 minute miles so it's quite a bit faster than when I've run for 7 miles. I ran this for around half an hour and then ended with a 9mph 'sprint' finish for a minute or so. I ended doing over 4 miles and was quite happy with it. My mate said he wanted to go in 5 minutes, so I did a quick random hill thing on the bike which was HORRIBLE!
Even though it was a short sesh, I felt quite good about it. I threw it all away last night though by having a couple of mates over and drinking too much...

Cocka-Doodle-No...

Now comes the real test. I'm not going to the gym today because, well, I'm just not...  Not two days in a row just yet. Instead I'm hoping to do some ab exercises and maybe some weights. The problem here is motivating myself when it would be easy to sit here at the computer, while glancing over at Sky Sports News on the tele, which is what is happening right now. All I need to do is some press-ups, planks, leg raises etc. and possibly some weights. I can't help but think it would be easier to make myself do it if I wasn't so bloody annoyed by the persistent noise coming from a certain Cockerel. Does he not know how annoying that stupid noise is?
Anyway, I suppose I better get doing something before England are on later because I'm not doing exercise while I'm filled up on cider...

Finally

So, after faffing about for a week, I finally got myself together and went to the gym. The excuse I've made to myself is that "Oh, there's a week left until the offer, so I'll go then". Obviously, I could have done some exercise at home...
Anyway, I've joined up for 3 months for the very respectable price of £40 off-peak! I'm hoping to go at least 3 times a week and I should also be playing Football at least once a week. If I keep to this I'll have a fantastic beach bod for when I don't go on holiday...
Anyway, I went along today and joined up, disappointed that the lovely lady staff member wasn't at reception and had my first go at interval training. I didn't follow any sort of plan and probably did it completely wrong. 1 minute at 7.5 mph then 30 seconds at 9 mph and so on. I did this for about 20 minutes and was pretty tired. The main reason I want to do this is to get fit for Football so that I might have enough confidence to join a team.
I went with a mate and he was using all the weights, so after a go on the bike I did a few leg weights.
Doing the thigh and calf weights at the gym makes me feel really good about myself because I, for some reason, have really strong legs and can do the heaviest quads weight. If only my fitness was as strong as my legs :|
I didn't come out of the gym feeling knackered, but that's probably because I did a few casual planks/stomach-based exercise at the end and didn't properly push myself.
Now I'm home I've put all the calories back on with a couple of BLTs and will probably add to that with something fattening for tea. I'm thinking Enchiladas?

Work, work, work

So, I haven't been around recently to update you on my thrilling life because I've had lots of Uni work on! I made the usual mistake of being too casual with my work over Easter and not doing any until the last week of the holidays. This left me in a bit of a pickle as I found out 5 days before a hand-in that it was in a week earlier than I thought. Cue getting up early and working late in to the night for 5 days.

After this I had 4 more assignments that I hadn't done much on, so the next week and a half consisted of work the majority of the time, stopping for either a game of Football (this being the only exercise I did) or going to the shop to get some horribly unhealthy snacky food. In fact, over the two weeks I was back at Uni doing my work, I didn't cook for myself once, apart from a couple of pizzas in the oven. Awful!

The thing that stopped me going mad through this was Football. I probably played about 8 times over two weeks, including a five-a-side tournament at Uni, which was awesome! We got through the group stage, but were then drawn one of the Uni Football teams and were thrashed 4-0. Still, it was great!

Anyway, Summer holidays are here now and the only work I to worry about is my job at the Co-Op (and an annoying essay in for August, but that's aaaaaages away), which I will be starting again soon. Joy.

Time to be healthy again! Or so I thought. It hasn't really gone to plan just yet, but I did go to the gym for a 7.2 mile run and 2.5km row yesterday, so that's good! The quiche for lunch today was probably a mistake though. None of my friends are back from Uni, so I won't be going out much for a few weeks, but apparently today is a write off because I am also going to a pub quiz with my one mate who is home. Bring on the burger and chips and lovely calorific ciders!

Powercut

I woke up yesterday morning wondering one; why had I been sleeping on my phone, and two; why I couldn't switch my CD player on. We quite commonly get power shortages in my house, but you can normally just flip the switch back on. However, after forcing myself out of bed(or, sofa, because the actual bed of my sofa bed is horrible), I realised it was a full blown powercut. This terrified me because I have a lot of work to do that's in for very soon and I really didn't want to go back to Uni sooner than I had to.
I'd just had breakfast so I couldn't go straight to the gym, but I decided I'd leave it an hour and then go, assuming the gym would probably be in full working order, despite being less than a mile away. Luckily, we got power back just before I left, which calmed my nerves, but when I arrived at the gym their power was still down. This meant no working treadmill and defeated the point of me going to the gym really... I still had to pay the full £4.20 for it's services and thought I might as well go in because I'd walked up. I ended up doing just a 20 minute random hill session on the bike, 2.5km rowing and then some tricep work. Wasn't the best gym trip, but I guess it was better than being sat at home doing nothing, which is what I'm doing today. Though, I say nothing, but what I really mean is being sat in front of the computer looking blankly at the horrible piece of work I'm trying to do that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and that I have to present in 3 days...

Gym Sesh

Today I decided I'd drag myself to the gym because I hadn't done any proper exercise in 6 days. So, after sorting out shopping etc. in the village, I got to it.
It turned out to be another successful run where I went for 7 miles! Couldn't have been more pleased. I had to fight off quite a few stitches, but these seemed to go away quite quickly whenever I swapped the foot I was breathing on. I think I was also aided by a very attractive red head rowing in front of me and then running alongside me. Pathetic, I know, but I didn't really want to stop while she was running alongside me, so I didn't even really think about doing so!
Finished off by doing 2.5km rowing and then strolled home, very slowly.
My knees are aching loads now though, so I think tomorrow will be a rest day. Though, I've got to be up at 4.30-5 to go and film sunrise... what fun!

Disappointing Few Days

The last few days haven't really gone to plan. I was meant to go for a run yesterday, but didn't feel up to it. Not that I have anyone to blame other than myself, as the night before involved drinking and a late night. While I had fun, I feel I have let myself down by leaving myself with a hangover that prevented me going out.
Today is another story though. Today I just cannot be bothered. I was up at 10, but Football Manager seemed much more appealing that stepping outside. I'm also finding it really hard to motivate myself to run here because the surrounding area is really hilly and I don't think I'll be able to get very far. There is the gym, but the excuse I've made for myself is that I'm home alone, so can't leave the dogs for 2 hours while I go, cause that would be mean, obviously.
What's worse is that tonight is going to be an unhealthy night and a late night again.
My only hope for today is that I do some planks, crunches and press-ups or something. Possibly in front of the Arsenal vs. Man U game...