New Counter 29 December 2011

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The benefits of a career break - back on track

Two weeks into a career break - a delightful opportunity to spend time with the children, lose some weight and devote the mornings to exercise, and, after having let things go in the last 6 months I am doing well. A routine is being established- morning dog walk, starting slowly, an hour in the gym, on the treadmill and then a 20 minute walk to the shops, and back if shopping is not too heavy. Twice a week my 7 year old has swimming lessons, rather than sit and watch I am getting in the pool and doing laps- dragged along eldest daughter(12) and son (10) and while the former comfortably beat me kept pace with the 10 year old and did 20 lengths - room to improve though and working exercise in to daily life is a real benefit overall. feeling good.

On the treadmill am finding that gradually increasing tempo and incline for the first 50 minutes, then dropping both for 5 allows me to then operate at a higher incline and pace for the last 5 minutes- enjoying sweating through exercise again. Have even managed to attack several flights of stairs on my shopping walks - of course i approach seizing up but stop just before and find recovery is speedy. That seems to me to be a key -know when to rest, ease up and then carry on....................................