Number 48

I must admit, I was really pleased with my efforts training for my 10K over the tailend of the summer. However, I realise that doing this during the winter months is a whole different challenge. So, I decided to sign up for circuit training with the army - that'll motivate me.

I do it every Tuesday and Thursday evening. I get in from work at about 18:30, eat a spoonful of peanut butter, drink some water, and pull on my running gear. I run up to the park (it takes around 10 and half minutes) and then we run, crawl and exercise aorund in the mud for an hour, before I run home again (it takes about 12 minutes on the way back).

It's exhausting.

We get a coloured bib to wear (like back in my netball days) and we do a variety of exercises. I've learned a lot. For instance, I now know there a lots of different kinds of press-ups (regular, diamond, marine, seal, can-can, etc) and that I can't do any of them.

One night the instructor kept shouting "grenade", which meant we had to hit the deck and crawl like a commando. I was filthy. I had mud all over my face, in my hair and when I got home and peeled off my running tights - I had three distinctive stripes down the outside of either leg. Good branding. 'Date-guy' was coming round for dinner that night and arrived just before I got back. He got out of his car and genuinely thought I'd been in an accident. He ended up doing the cooking while I scrubbed the mud off myself. After dinner, I fell asleep almost immediately and he had to wake me up and tell me to go through to bed. The next morning he told me it had been a wonderful evening. I smiled and said "really?" and then I realised he was being sarcastic.

I think the worst exercise I've done is one where we had to lie down, roll over and jump up ... 30 times. I swear, by about half way through I didn't know where I was and was really just rolling in the mud and flopping about like a fish on the beach.

"Number 48, what are you doing?" "Number 48?" "Number 48!"
(Oh shit, I think that's me) "Erm ..."
"Are you actually having an epileptic fit?"
"Maybe."

Sometimes they tell us to run into the copse, find a branch and do 20 pull-ups. I told my mum this and she said "Oh, did you manage to find a branch that could hold you?". Funny.

It's tough and I dread going but it's fine when I get there. And, most importantly, I notice a difference in my fitness levels. So, I'm hoping it pays off when I do my runs next year.

Fingers crossed.