Playing Swapsies: Harder Than You Think.

My GOD, this week has not been my biggest fan. At all. It’s been giving me every kind of hell it can possibly think of, which is impressive… I mean, I have to give it a gold star for creativity.

Firstly, I had 2 assignments due this week. All my technology had a meeting and decided it would be tres hilarious to just… ya know, stop working and such. So, my MacBook just randomly wouldn’t turn on (like it did last week- yay round 2!), then my iPhone charger bailed. Flashback to me spending copious amounts of late night hours staring at a screen in the uni accommodation computer rooms.

Party at mine, no? Then on top of that, I legitimately became nocturnal for a bit, and didn’t catch a lot of sleep. That’s where coffee comes in – and lots of it.

{This was me: except it’s me on Monday, vs. me on Friday. Rough.}

But, it’s all good, you know why? Because it’s FRIIIIDAY and my entire weekend will be filled with spending time with family, friends and Tom, celebrating my 21st birthday, which is on the 3rd of April. Tom’s arriving in a few hours, and I haven’t seen that boy for 6 weeks… 6 BIG ONES. I’m ecstatic and I’m like a little school girl, giddy with excitement! 🙂

I’m so looking forward to a whole 2 days of just soaking up the amazing company, laughing, chatting, sharing a few cute hugs, and just being grateful for the incredible people I’m blessed with in my life. Corny? Maybe. But absolutely true.

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Training has been one of the things keeping me sane this week, and was my go-to thing to get the endorphins pumping, shake the stress off, and just get away from it all for an hour.

For my partnership with Fitness First, through the month of March we got to do something pretty damn fun: we all wrote down what our training generally looks like for a week, and then we swapped it with another blogger. There was a huge variety of different ways people were moving their bodies and getting their blood pumping, and it was interesting to see all the different things people were training for, or just loved doing!

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I was given a training plan by Liz, from Fitter Liz. She’s right in the middle of training for the National Road Series, and is in a Women’s Development Team. Here’s a sneak peak into what Liz gets up to. Warning: it’s pretty impressive and crazy intense! Kudos to Liz!

Monday: Pilates/Core/Yoga
Tuesday: 40-60 km hilly terrain, 30 km intense cycling – including sprints, hill sprints, etc. (total 100km) = equivalent to 2 x RPM classes + 2 hours of cardio (machines your choice) strength training (group workout at FF) , running 20 minutes
Wednesday: 40 km moderate to hard ride am, boxing training 30 minutes, 60 minutes maximal intensity stationary bike intervals (equivalent 3 x RPM classes) 
Thursday: 30-40 km hard ride at near maximal HR, 40-50 easy kilometres , small group strength training FF (equivalent 2 x RPM + 1 hour cardio)
Friday: 60 min Cycle class, pilates/core yoga
Saturday: 2 hour handicapped workout or bike racing (road, ITT, criterium), 1.5 hours bike handling skills training – balance and coordination drills on bike.
Sunday: 100-150km (3-4 hours) on the bike

Now, admittedly I had to adapt this a bit (okay, a lot) because this is high-intensity stuff that your body really needs to be used to by building up to it for a long period of time. Something I obviously hadn’t done!

So instead, in my week of tackling the plan, I followed it loosely to suit my body. I committed to 3 RPM or cycle classes, 2 Pump classes and a day of super-relaxing and slow stretching/a bit of yoga thrown in.

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{A lot of this definitely went down this week. Just minus the awkward matching wardrobes.}

Verdict? I was pretty exhausted! I haven’t done a lot of hardcore strength training since I went to Europe, so most of the week I was hobbling around like a elderly penguin due to intense pain in my legs. Hell, my entire body, let’s be honest here. However, I was definitely in my element with the cycle classes, as I generally do 2-3 a week anyway! I adore them, and am very much a girl who’s always done more high-intensity cardio than weight training… even though I equally love it.

The day I spent foam rolling and stretching was pure bliss – I could tell my body needed a bit of TLC, it had been beaten around a bit and was definitely forced to work extremely hard. It loved me for loosening up all the tight muscles and rolling out the knots! 🙂

All in all, I thought this was an interesting little experiment – oh hey  there, science nerd Kloe. Coming out to play? It was fun to walk in someone else’s shoes for a week, and get a glimpse into all the effort they’re putting in to reach those fitness goals of theirs. All I can say is, Liz must be one super fit chick! 😉

Are you training for anything excited at the moment?
What does a general week of training look like for you right now?

I’m off to enjoy my 21st weekend I’ve got coming up, have a good one!

Love,

Kloe x