Guest post: Holiday workouts and how not to avoid them!

Hands up if you're going on holiday soon! Keep them up if you're planning to work out while you're away. If you just put your hand down, today's post is for you. The fabulous Joslyn from Fit Girl About Town (and Nike Master Trainer - she's a professional badass) has some great tips on keeping up your fitness routine and maintaining that beautiful bikini bod when you're far from home (and the gym):

So you've done it, you've worked your little tush up into frenzy and you are ready to rock that bikini. Hey y'all, look at my fly toned ass!!! So what a girl does not want to do, is blow it on holiday, sure you're gonna relax sweety, but we don't want the tone in the ass to relax too, you dig!!

So here are a few rules to follow:

1. Up and out - get that shizzle done first thing in the morning, that holiday lazy days feeling only gets more intense as the day goes on. So you know the way you know the way you don't feel like working out after a long hard day... multiply that by a gazillion, and that's how you're gonna feel about an afternoon workout on holiday!!

2. Keep it simple - Got your running shoes?  Go run!!  Find a hill and run up it 6 times for 30-60 seconds, resting for 2.5 minutes in between, like I did camping in France last summer, or make yourself a mini track on the beach and sprint up it ten times for 15-20 seconds with 2 minutes rest in between each one.

Just a small little hill for running up, when camping in San Sebastien

Usain who, nobody gonna catch me on my sand track!!

3. Keep it even simpler - work out in your hotel room with a circuit that is so quick you'll be done, showered and down to breakfast before you can say "ass still tight!" - Repeat the following (10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 press ups, 60 second plank, 10 burpees) rest for 1 minute and repeat 3-5 times. Work out hard through each rep!!!

4. Do it every day!! Run, do the circuit, do cartwheels if you need to, just move!!!! The 10-30 minutes it takes to workout will be worth it when you can chill guilt-free for the rest of the day!!

Juneathon: Day erm, 15

Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! I've been such a bad blogger these past couple of weeks, but a good Juneathoner, I promise!

I've been hitting the gym in the mornings before work (so lovely to be reunited with my morning gym crew - we don't talk to each other, it's far too early for that, but it's nice to know we're all in it together) and on weekends - at first, because I needed the endorphins, and then because I realised my holiday was just around the corner. I leave for the sunshine at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning, so things will be quiet on the blog front for a week or so, but I've got lots of fabulous posts planned for my return, so please come back!

Juneathoners, I've packed my trainers in my teeny tiny case, and apparently the hotel has a lovely new gym, so I'm planning to take full advantage - I'll need to work off all those cocktails.

See you in a week, Juneathon hard!

Juneathon: Day 5 (and why there's no 3 & 4)

So, after two days, I failed Juneathon. And I continued to fail it for till Day 5 due to a truly shitty weekend, the details of which I won't bore you with now. But then came Sunday, and as I hadn't moved much further than bed-sofa, sofa-bed for 36 hours, I gave myself a stern talking to and dragged my ass to the gym. I'm sorry, Juneathon family. Please don't banish me.

Juneathon day 5:

• 4km treadmill run
• 20 mins abs and legs

I'm not winning Juneathon, am I? Boo.

Juneathon: Day 2

Flickr image from rp72's photostream

Oh dear lord, the pain. Yesterday's weight-tastic PT session has left me with a really painful case of DOMS - although there wasn't anything 'delayed' about it, I was achey-painy the minute the session finished. It's a bloody good thing that I did my Juneathon run this morning, because as of this afternoon, I can't move at anything faster than an injured snail's pace.

This morning's run was pretty pathetic - a very slow plod to Marble Arch and back = 1.75 miles

I'd like to say I'll be faster tomorrow, but it all depends on whether or not my muscles are still punishing me. If they're still bad, I'm thinking a morning gym session for some upper body/core work or a similar session using the NTC app, which I haven't touched in too long.

Juneathon: Day 1

Happy Juneathon! You've all joined Juneathon, right? If not, please rectify that here. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Good, now you've signed up to run (or do some other form of exercise) every day, and blog about it within 24 hours. It won't be too hard, I promise. It certainly won't be as hard as Janathon, with it's icy, miserable weather and dark mornings (you can read my Janathon posts here). We can totally do Juneathon. And if you've missed day 1, just start on day 2, it's all good, the Juneathon family understands.

Day 1 of Juneathon happened to fall on PT day, so there was no getting out of it even if I wanted to, which is just how I like my exercise.

PT must have sensed Juneathon was in the air, because today happened to be the day we switched back to weight training. While I was training for Paris, we eased off the weights and concentrated on my lung capacity and building strength in my core and back, and with Operation Abs, we've upped the amount of boxing in our sessions. So it's been a while since I did any proper lifting. And I'm definitely paying for it now.

I really want to try to run as much of Juneathon as I can, but seeing as I've just re-joined the gym after a brief separation (we had a row about money), I'm back in the honeymoon phase, so my morning runs might be treadmill-based and split with some resistance work. Either way, it's happening - I'm exercising every day. 

Even though it's warmer and lighter outside, I get the feeling I'm going to struggle with Juneathon for a couple of reasons:

1. I'm not currently training for anything. During Janathon, I was training for the Paris Half Marathon, which gave me a reason to get my trainers on and my ass on the road. My next event (which I'll tell you about in a separate post) isn't till late September, so my official training plan for that doesn't start till July. But training for that is going to have to be pretty hardcore (again, I'll explain all in another post very soon), so there's no better way to get those miles back into my legs than Juneathon!
2. I'm going on holiday in two weeks. With my girlfriends. Clearly, this is going to involve some alcohol, which probably won't make me want to run/walk/get off my sun lounger. And I'm sure as shit not going for runs on my own in a place I don't know. But our hotel does have a swanky new gym, and I'm planning to squeeze my trainers, sports bra and a pair of shorts into my limited luggage allowance (don't tell the girls), and I'm hoping I'll be able to manage a quick treadmill run once a day. 

But that's the point, right? It wouldn't be a challenge without real life getting in the way.