Core work and its ups and downs

Monday 26th January
This has turned out to be a week of ups and downs and it started with a massive down. MAN held a staff update meeting this morning and whereas there are normally two sessions, there was only one today and attendance was mandatory for all staff. This only happens when there is important news, and no one expected it to be good.

The news was, in short, that while we had our best year ever in 2008 our business has been hit hard by the credit crisis in the last few months and the cost-cutting measures put in place have not been enough to withstand it. Not surprisingly, there will be no pay increase this year and more importantly, 44 posts in the UK will be made redundant in the next few weeks and months.

When you consider this is less than 5 per cent of the total number of staff, it could have been considerably worse. Fortunately no one in my department has been affected, but I know a few of the people who have been. Being in the parts business, I can expect to be fairly sanguine about the future - if companies aren't replacing their vehicles, logic suggests they will need to buy more parts for their older ones and so the parts business should be one of the few areas of the business to prosper in the recession.

Anyway, back to training. A positive was that Ali texted me today to ask if I wanted a PT session at 6.10 tonight. Excellent news - it was long overdue, and after yesterday I really didn't feel like running.

As always, it was a very, very tough session. Quick warm-up on the rower, then an hour of core exercises. We seemed to fit an awful lot into the hour, and the list looks a lot more challenging on paper than the previous routines. There are some interesting exercises in there, such as push-ups combined with a dumbbell row. Hmm.

All good stuff though and I need to make sure I do these exercises regularly to build a nice strong core which will hold me in good stead come April 26th. And if I can lose a few excess pounds, maybe I'll have a six-pack for the summer, who knows?

Another massive positive for me today was to find out that I am now officially one of the most prolific raters on the Runners' World website. Hopefully this will augur well for my chances of getting some articles printed by the magazine now that my name is known to people there.

Tuesday 27th January
Speed session, 1.6k warm up followed by 10 * 2 minutes. Did the first two at 14kph, then increased this to 14.5kph on the next seven, cranking it up to 15kph on the last one. 1.6k cool down and I was dripping with sweat by the time I came off the treadmill.

Was very tired when I got home but had noticed on imdb.com that The Wrestler got an average vote of 8.6/10 and was rated the 49th best film in the top 250. With that kind of rating, I really couldn't pass up the chance to see what all the fuss was about and took myself off to the cinema.

Boy, am I glad I did. There are some films that are so good that you want to tell all your friends about it, but for some reason you can't quite put your finger on exactly why it was so good. For me, this film falls into that category. Maybe it was the excellent performances from Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. I remember the latter especially for her performance in the very emotional Thirteen.

I guess what made this film stand out for me, apart from the acting, was that it was essentially a heart-rending tale of someone who just can't let go of the past and his passion, a man with a lot of love who somehow just doesn't know how or who to give it to. I'm pretty sure this will be an addition to my DVD collection later this year and it was £3.95 very well spent.

Wednesday 28th January
Half a mile on the treadmill to warm up, then body pump. Was expecting to go out with Pete in Bath tomorrow night so wanted a good session, and did another 4.5 miles on the treadmill afterwards.

Another up of the week was taking not one, but two calls from prospective lodgers while leaving the gym. Both sounded promising, in particular one chap who just wants somewhere to hang his hat to save having to commute from Wokingham.

Pete phoned me while I was in Sainsburys to ask if we can postpone our night out until next Friday so I will be training tomorrow. No drama, and to be honest I'd rather go out on a non-school night anyway as I hate having a hangover at work. Despite all the stress at work I am cutting back on the booze and my tolerance level is quite low at the moment.

Thursday 29th January
Finished work a bit later tonight and had kind of promised to go out with the running club tonight if I wasn't going to Bath. As it turned out, it was just myself and Terry, which I was more than happy with. I hadn't seen much of him since before Christmas as he has been busy with work, so it was a good chance for us to just catch up. I always enjoy running with him as we run at a reasonable conversation pace and have a good chat.

Tonight was no exception and we covered 8 miles (Asda walmart route) at roughly 9-minute miles. After a good session last night, this was about perfect.

Friday 30th January
Complete rest. It was my intention to go to the gym and practise my core routine but I had to go home after work and show the house to a prospective lodger. Not heard back from her, but she spent a good 45 minutes viewing the place and liked the small room so I can take heart from that.

Another big, big positive today was that Anthony phoned me for a chat and asked if I wanted to run the Bath half marathon on 15th March as he knows someone who has a race number but can't run. I said that I would love to do it, but hadn't entered as I refuse on principal to pay £32 for a half marathon. But I would be more than happy to pay £15 or £20 to run. No problem it turned out and the chap in question (one of the old managers of the gym and someone I know!) is happy with that.

I'm really excited to be running the Bath half as I obviously love the city (growing up in Melksham it was kind of my second home), I can reasonably expect to get a PB and I fully intend to continue the post-race ritual of a Schwarz burger and beer! Plus I found out that there is a twenty20 international between England and the West Indies that evening so it should be a top day!

Saturday 31st January
My original intention this morning was to go and do body pump and then run afterwards. But as I was having breakfast (eggs and bacon but I grilled the bacon and had it as a kind of omelette - yummy!) I got a text from Mumfy saying she was doing both classes (RPM and pump). So I thought what the hell, got a shift on, and made it to the gym with time for a coffee before RPM. Enjoyed both classes, got a good sweat on in RPM and after pump Ali spent some time with me perfecting my technique on the shoulders track. It is a huge compliment to me that he does this as he knows I want to get the most out of the class and we are extremely lucky to have him.

Went for a run afterwards, just a gentle plod up the railway path, down Vic Hill and through town back to the gym. About an hour on my feet, but I felt surprisingly strong at the end of it. My thinking was, as I'm out tonight (Mr Sas' birthday) I'll struggle to do a meaningful long run tomorrow (but I'm sure I'll try) so a three hour training session should shift a few calories and get me closer to the shape I want to be in come April 26th (and March 15th come to mention it). Time will tell.