Happy Friday everyone

 I appreciate you reading my ramblings week in week out, and I hope you can relate to them and they may inspire you to try something new or have faith in yourself knowing that you aren’t the only one that feels like this or struggle with things sometimes.

Last Saturday I agreed to do a 5km (which was actually over 6km apparently) Spartan Race at the Olympic Park.  Now I’ve done a 5km obstacle race before which was fun but this time round it was slightly more serious as a bigger, more popular, dare I say serious for some event! My training had something to be desired what with really taking a back seat with my food and training over the last couple of months due to sadly miscarrying and other personal circumstances, and I lost my love for it if I’m honest…….not the best situation for a personal trainer.

So trying to get myself back into the game, and remind myself why I used to love training, and lets be honest with summer approaching and the weather being (sometimes) nicer……did I mention it rained all morning on Saturday! I thought lets do this.  My new found friend and hopefully future work colleague Amy asked if wanted to join her 3 weeks prior to the event, and I just thought why not, this could be my rude awakening.

So after getting into a bit of a routine again with training, event day came, and I have to admit I was not a happy bunny from 6am to 8.30am waiting in the rain, watching the elite runners get ready looking super fit……did I mention I’m a personal trainer….shouldn’t I be looking like this, raring to go and not psyching myself out of having a go at trying the monkey bars or climbing a rope and if not being able to do them revelling in the fact that I was going to have to do 30 burpees instead! Somewhere, that part of me had shrivelled up over the months/years, and even though I couldn’t do those things as a kid at least I would give it a go and just hang for a bit ha ha!

Anyway, I digress. It was our turn to go and there were all shapes and sizes, we warmed up, we jumped a wall and got wet and dirty before crossing the starting line and then we were off.  It was AWESOME! We enjoyed it, we slipped off the monkey bars like everyone else did as was too wet to hold onto (yay), we pushed each other over walls, we crawled under barbed wire, I did about 70 burpees, I was the first girl to carry two sandbags, and finally we jumped over fire and crossed the finish line! An hour and ten minutes later, not even 10am and we were done.

Felt such a high, it makes me smile thinking about it and was great having Amy to encourage me as I encouraged her.  A great team event, a push out of the comfort zone, one to try, and now to try another (maybe even train for).

I guess in my long winded way I am trying to say that you can do it.  You can do anything you put your mind to even if it takes a while to get there.  Being healthy and fit does have to be part of your life, there is no compromise with that one I’m afraid if you want to live a long, healthy life, but it doesn’t have to be boring, it can be outdoors with a group of other people (in the sun or rain) throwing some kettle bells about rather then stuck on a treadmill in a gym wondering why you are doing it.

There are going to be ups and downs and phases when you really can’t be bothered, but remind yourself of those positive feelings and you will get it back, because you can do it!!