where do you work out?

When it comes to the weekend, I don�t want to be sweating it out in a gym class with 30 other people or dragging myself out for a run I really don�t want to do.  Weekends are for fun, for relaxing, for spending time with friends and family and enjoying yourself.  However, and there�s always a however, I may have convinced myself recently that I can eat like a horse without upping my exercise and not expect to see any effect.  Only I did, the scales went up, the waistband is getting tighter.  So this means while I still want to relax and have fun at the weekend, it�s probably a good idea for me to try and shift my ass a little, just to allow for those glasses or seven of Prosecco I�m likely to indulge in, not to mention the burger and chips I�m treating myself to in the pub, the pancakes I decide to cook up for breakfast, and the bag of chocolates I�m taking to the cinema.

So this weekend, in an attempt to get the best of both worlds, with the Lake District on our doorstep and a forecast that wasn�t showing rain (it�s true!), heading out on Saturday to go walk up a big hill seemed much more appealing than a half-hearted run that was over before it had even started (running and I have had a little fall out since straining my hip flexor nearly 3 months ago). 

It was a 6 mile walk, and the route was described as being "moderate". I think moderate would be the right word if you�re the kind of person who wouldn�t be phased scaling Ben Nevis.  I consider myself pretty fit, but after an hour of walking (read: climbing) I was sweating, my heart rate had hit 180bpm and my thighs were burning.  But with the peak just in front of us, I wasn�t going to give in.  Only those Cumbrian fells tend to be a bit deceiving, and for every 20 minutes we went on, there seemed to be another peak to scale.  Ok, so I�m being overly dramatic, but this �walk� was considerably harder than expected.  I couldn�t really complain though, there happened to be a 44 mile hill race going on at the same time.  44 miles! That�s almost two marathons, running up hills like this! And I was barely managing to walk up it, got to admire the guys talking part in that.

After a lot of huffing and puffing, half my body weight sweated out, legs willing me to stop and two hours later than planned we made it back to the car, and actually, I really enjoyed it.  And the unexpected additional calorie burn was well worth it.  I�d much rather spend the day pushing myself through something like this, when aside from the couple of kilometres of pain, was a really lovely walk, good weather, a day with the mr, and is going to help me shift those extra pounds I�ve been carrying recently.  For me, during the week it�s easy to stick to my usual gym routines, it�s close to work, it�s on my way home and so I really don�t have any excuse to skip it.  But when it comes to the weekend, it�s definitely about mixing up where I�m heading to work out, it keeps it interesting and I know I�m going to enjoy it a hell of a lot more than my usual slog round the park.

And this has definitely made me even more motivated to get out and try something new at the weekend.  I'm lucky to have such an incredible part of the country just 45 minutes down the road, but there's more I want to try and do.  I'd love to have a go at proper climbing (on an indoor climbing wall, I'm not totally crazy), I've been contemplating giving mixed martial arts a try, and even those runs I don't want to do can seem much more appealing if I drive half an hour from home and do a totally different route to my usual!

So I'm sure you're wondering why I've ruined all these photos with a less than flattering one of me in my sports bra.  Well it was thanks to this sports bra and Shock Absorber that I got myself out to do this, they challenged me to work out somewhere new, with a new brand to see what difference it makes.  As you can see from this post, it's definitely motivated me to take my workout elsewhere, and the bra? Well it kept my boobs supported all day, and it looks pretty too, what more could I want?

So what about you? Fancy joining the challenge to take your workout somewhere new? And if you do, be sure to let me know!