A marathon runner in the making? The September-October round-up

It’s been all quiet for the blog-life of City Girl Fit recently owing to various goings-on, but that doesn’t mean it’s been all quiet in real-life – oh no! Here’s a little round-up of events:

Wednesday 11^th September – Cyclebeat vs SportPursuit Challenge, London

I headed down to Cyclebeat, a new spin studio in Central London, with a host of fitness bloggers to take on the SportPursuit team in a cycle to the death! It was also my first experience of the mighty Beatboard: read all about it on my guest blog over on Be Pretty Fit.

Sunday 22^nd September – Teach First 10K, London

Over on Twitter, Jen announced that she couldn’t run this race due to a dodgy knee and offered her place up for one lucky person. I was quick off the mark to put my hand up – I normally run 10K on a Sunday, so why not do it for a good cause (and a medal!)? Starting down by Camp Bo-Jo and the Tower of London, the route took us a loop around the Thames with lots of pretty sights to see:

 

It was an open course, so lots of tourist dodging involved, but came home in just over 52 minutes – my new ‘official timed 10K’ PB, knocking 2 mins off my last one in 2011, and earned a well deserved chocolate cake slice :) Hope I did Jen proud! 

Nevetheless, a sub-50 10K race still eludes me, so have signed up to speed and hill sessions to see if I can remedy that next time... Will keep you posted!

Thursday 26^th September – You’ve got mail!

After a long day at the office I came home to this little bit of mail. Yes, that’s right, I’M RUNNING THE LONDON MARATHON NEXT YEAR!! Ahhhhh! I now have a sound understanding of what combined terror and sheer delight feels like. Can’t quite believe I got in, and it’s now starting to sink in how much work I have to do to be fit enough to not only get round the course, but also to finish in a time I’ll be happy with while managing to enjoy it! This also means that over the next 6 months you, dear reader, will be subjected to many a blog post of ups and downs on my VLM journey. Lucky you, eh?!

Thursday 3^rd October –#CHOspin with Chobani and BOOM

Another day, another spin class - spreading the spin love! - this time organised by  the lovely peeps from Chobani UK and in collaboration with BOOM Cycle in Shoreditch.

My love affair with spin actually began at BOOM just over a year ago: I signed up to a ‘5 classes for £25 deal’ assuming that I would go once, be completely out of my depth, hate it, and never go back, only having lost 25 bucks in the process. How wrong I was! BOOM is a different world of spin. It’s fun, energetic and atmospheric – the darkened room means you cycle in candle-light and the shiny disco balls give a nice touch – and the instructors are super motivating, friendly and approachable. There’s also a variety of classes to suit your needs and goals, including experts in fat burning to teach you the best way to lose those belly rolls... After just a few classes you will feel like part of the BOOM family!

And can I just say, I’ve always had fairly big thighs and assumed that spinning wouldn’t help my situation; however, since starting to spin I’ve actually reduced my thigh circumference and even have a tiny wee gap between my legs! If I’d known that through exercise on a bike I could reduce thigh chaff-age (yes, I have known the pain of walking quite far while wearing a skirt with no tights on a hot summer day: ouch!) I’d have been spinning long ago. Anyway, I digress...

Chobani were kind enough to set us up with a BodyBOOM class (taught by the lovely ab-tastic Tara, this class provides an amazing full-body workout – where else would you get hand weights with spinning?!) and they served up some delicious strawberry Chobani smoothies afterwards. I also took home a pack of passionfruit Chobani – delicious! – and a handy new Chobani tote bag for my working lunches, as modelled here on my way to work.

On another note, BOOM have just signed the lease for a new site over in Holborn so you should be able to check the new digs out soon!

Wednesday 9^th October – Elle’s Supple Strength Class

Last week, I was lucky enough to get a place on ElleLinton’s tester session of the Supple Strength Class. I first met Elle a few years ago while at the NTC classes in Clapham Common, and enjoyed her laid-back (in terms of attitude, not exercise!), fun approach to exercise. 17 fitness fanatics met with Elle at the O2 workshop space on Tottenham Court Road - I didn't know this place existed; it’s a really cool spot to book some meeting space, complete with free coffee! 

Some new faces, some old friends – we all got set up with our yoga mats and started the class. The class combined yoga and pilates moves with strength moves to give a full body workout – boy did my arms and abs hurt the next day! For more info and a full description check out Elle’s blog, where you can also find classes that you too can be experience 'the Elle effect' :)

What next?

I've got more fitness adventures lined up for the next few weeks and I'll be in touch with more details soon. Today I ran an 8 mile race followed by a game of touch rugby in the driving rain, so I'm off for a well earned bath! Next time, let's not leave it so long to catch up, yeah? ;)

Katy | City Girl Fit