Category: Exercise

I know this is super pixly but it was too cute not to post. I LOVE baby Samúéil. He is one of the smiliest babies I’m ever met.

Ellie doing her 35 calories on the assault bike
 Push press time!
And we’re done!!

A photo with SB is a must!

Finished off with a brunch outside at the new Singl-End in Merchant City

My sister finally made it to G5 on Friday! It was a long time coming. I’ve been wanting her to join in on the fun for forever but it’s just not been the right time until the other day. It was a great workout for her to do as well. For being the first time in G5, she took it all like a pro. She does train so definitely gives you an advantage rather than just being thrown in the deep end, it can be a bit of a shock the first time you realise how intense the workouts can be.

Strong Mums was super busy, with babies everywhere. I finally got to see cutie Samúéil again after them being away over Easter and me being in Sweden. He has grown so much and has started moving about loads. I couldn’t believe how much he had grown since I last saw him. Still just as smiley!

I loved Friday’s workouts. For the first part we were allocated either the ski erg, assault bike or rower. You had a 5 minute time cap to do 35 calories for scaled or 50 calories for RX individually. Ellie and I were on a team with Sara and we were given the assault bike. Oh that assault bike, how can you hate something and kind of love it at the same time? It’s painful at times but you know it’s good for you. I went first and when I sat there, Sara and I were told we’re doing the 50 calories. I wasn’t even sure I’d finish 50 calories in one go under 5 minutes! I’d never even attempted such a big cycle on the assault bike before. I knew it was going to be painful haha. Or as I would say, interesting (just to make it sound a bit more positive).

Stella yelled go and off I went, I tried to do a more steady pace at first and then blast it out towards the end. As I was sitting there struggling Stella came up and said that Faye had done it in 3:59 so I had that time to beat. No pressure… How on Earth was I going to beat that?! That was an amazing time. Around the halfway point, 25 calories, that is usually a longer push for me in one go, it was tough thinking I had another 25 to go. At one point I couldn’t really feel my legs anymore. Towards the end I could hear Stella shouting the time and knowing I had Faye’s time to beat I dug in deep and pushed for the final calories. I wanted to get a good time on this stupid bike.When the display finally ticked over to 50 calories I couldn’t have been happier. I ended up with a time of 3.40!! I was over the moon. I got off and tried to crouch down to grab my water off the floor and my legs were all over the place. I had no control over what was going on haha. A bit like Bambi on ice!

Then Sara did a brilliant run with her 50 calories and then it was Ellie’s turn. She had 35 calories to do and she smashed it. I was so proud of her.

The next bit was a five minute time cap for finding your 3 rep max front squat. Ellie and I paired up and I started. After that assault bike I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to my legs once I put weight on them. Anyway, weights on the barbell, lifters on and magic belt on. Let’s go! I started off with 55 which felt good. Then I did 60! My three rep max for Rainhill was 55kg so I was really happy with 60 but I felt like I had more in me. We loaded on 65 which is over my one rep max. I got them too! I thought maybe, just maybe I could get 67.5 as well. I got the first rep and the second one but on the third one it got too heavy so I dropped it. Either way, I got new PBs for my three rep (ten kilos heavier!) and one rep max. I was really surprised when it happened.

Ellie did amazing with her front squats considering she never does them and got 42.5 kg! Strong strong lady. I even got her in my lifting shoes so she looked like she meant business!

The next part was a three rep max push press with a 5 minute time cap. I started with 40 kg which went fine. Then 45, a bit tougher that one but I got it. Then 47.5kg! I got those too (I was so happy with that). Then attempted a bit heavier (I can’t remember the weight) but at that point my arms gave up. 47.5 kg for a push press for me is heavy. I usually jerk for that kind of weight so thinking that I can now push press that weight made me really happy.

The push press is a bit more down to technique and timing a well as strength. Ellie struggled a bit on those but got 25 kilos and did more practise ones on it until the time cap just to get a feel for the movement. I think her, like me, and a lot of other women struggle with our upper body strength. Both her and I are built very similar, a bit smaller in our upper body and muscular around our bum and thighs. It’s taken me a long time to build up the strength in my upper body that I have now but it’s better now than ever. When I was in Sweden I did a lot of strict overhead movements and pull ups and I think that’s really helped.

The finisher was as many burpees as possible in 5 minutes! Not an easy finisher but interesting to see how many you could actually squeeze in in that time. Five minutes feels like an eternity doing a workout like this. The goal for scaled was 50, intermediate 70 and 100 for RX. I was aiming for at least 70 but really didn’t know how it would go. The issue I struggle with is that I sometimes go out too hard at the beginning and then fade, like with the assault bike. I’m now trying to get better at pacing myself and go nice and steady at first and then push towards the end. About 50 or so burpees in my legs were on fire but as we say in G5, you can always throw yourself on the floor and get up again so that’s what I did. Just keep swimming as the Great Dory of Finding Nemo also says. I got past 70 and the five minute time cap was approaching. In the final seconds I managed to squeeze a couple more in and got 78 burpees. Not too bad, not too bad at all. I didn’t stop ever to break and went consistently throughout the time and I was really happy with my effort.

It was then Ellie’s turn. I really wanted to make sure she was pacing herself and didn’t tired herself out. It’s tough when you’ve never really done something like this before. Usually you do a shorter blast of burpees and not a five minute burpeeathon! I told her to aim for 50 and everything else was a bonus. We started off with her doing 10s and then a I got her to take a short break, walk around in a little circle and then did ten more. I could tell she was getting tired and we instead changed it to fives with shorter breaks for her to catch her breath. She was a real champ and before the time was up she’d managed 54 burpees. She did amazing.

I loved how happy she looked throughout the entire class and I know she’s been struggling with stress at university (I can really relate to that, those of you who have been following me since my uni days know how stressed I was whilst I was studying and training kept me sane). She even said she wanted to come back so we’re planning in for her to join in a couple of times before I leave for her to find out if this could be something for her.

After training you of course need a nice meal and we needed a catch up so we headed to Singl-end’s second venue which just opened in Merchant City. It was slightly sunny and being the desperate Northern Europeans we are, we sat outside despite how cold it got when the clouds passed the sun. Just for those little glimpses of light and warmth. The new Singl-end is lovely and very cosy! They really lucked out when they got their hands on that venue. The food was delicious, portions a bit smaller than the other venue but still super tasty. We sat there for ages until it was time to carry on with our day. At that point I convinced Ellie to come with us to Proving Grounds to watch her first Crossfit competition, I was so happy to have her join us on the cheer squad fun!

By the way, in two weeks today I’ll be waiting to board my plane to Australia. I can’t believe it’s happening so soon. I’ve still got loads to do before I leave but I’ll get it done! Two weeks, that’s really no time at all!