Week 6
It’s ironic isn’t it. Nearly six weeks of training and no injuries, yet all it takes are six inch Jimmy Choos, a few cocktails and a cobbled street to leave me with a twisted ankle. Running’s out for a few days, so it’s into the swimming pool and endless circuits of ‘arms only’ front crawl with a float clamped between our knees, and ‘legs only’ breast stroke while holding a float (harder than it sounds). Racing each other up and down the pool, we try to avoid splashing the sedate septuagenarian in the slow lane. “How are your swimming lessons going dear?” she wants to know. Adam tries the Cooper 12 minute swimming test on us – it’s a fitness test to see how many lengths you can swim in 12 minutes. Two sessions in the pool leave my ankle feeling much stronger – a good thing as the next session is back in the dunes with Adam carrying a suspiciously heavy rucksack. A sunny December Saturday afternoon means there’s an audience of families who stop their sand dune-surfing to watch as Adam sets up a long length of thick rope for us to use as a battling rope. The rope is looped around a fence post, and you hold one end in each hand. On Adam’s count we have to swing the rope up and down, sending waves along the rope. It sounds like nothing, but it’s a killer of an exercise – especially when it’s alternated with sprints up and down the dunes. Then the rope’s tied to the weighted powerbag and we haul it up the side of the sand dune, hand over hand. Strength and endurance is the theme of Saturday’s sand dune session, but if we thought that was going to be the most challenging of the week, we had another think coming. Sunday morning and we’re jogging to St Andrew’s Park. No, it’s not the climbing wall or the kids’ tyre swing. Adam has us start on a timed ‘best effort’ sprint around the park’s perimeter… and then gets us to run it another four times – beating our time on each lap. Note to self for next time: don’t run too fast the first time round…
And the results so far? Six weeks into our eight week fitness training course and already we’ve both lost weight, we’re feeling fitter and more alert, and best of all, my skinny jeans are getting looser on my newly-toned runner’s legs. Time to go shopping.
For more details about Adam’s personal training courses, give him a call on 07797 743742 or check out his website www.ampmtraining.co.uk
