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Today was the start of a new cycle of exercises - this is month 2 of my first three months of personal training. Today I did interval training (at 6.30am on a drizzly Scottish morning). We have a great place for doing this called the Kings Knot. It is a 400 year old mound just below Stirling Castle and has lots of levels to run up and down. There is nothing like training in a place steeped in history.

Basically I did 5 sets of sprints around the base of the Kings Knot - sprint around once (around 36 seconds first time), then walk around to gather my breath. Repeat 5 times. My glutes were killing me after the 3rd round. I think this is still a hangover from leg training last Wednesday. It is definitely doing some good though - my bum actually feels like it has some muscle instead of a big blob of lard!

Then there is the centre of the Knot where I started in the middle and ran down and up the next layer, turned around and ran back to the centre, then picked another route to run down and up. Did this for 12 different points around the Knot then took a 2 monute breather. Repeat 3 times. This was great for building leg strength and really pushing up the hills.

Then I repeated the first drill 3 times (sprint then walk around the base). Tried to keep my sprints below 40 seconds. Right at the top of my thighs was really painful - I didn’t realise that this was still my quad muscle - I didn’t think they went that high but I’m told they go all the way up to your hip. Anyway - they were really sore during my leg raises yesterday (last exercise as part of my weekend core workout). I’m sure they are getting stronger though - which is kind of the point isn’t it!).

All in all it was probably about 30 minutes of exercise but I was absolutely knackered. I think I could have tried a little harder on a couple of the laps and I’ll make sure I really push it next time.

Not sure what I’m going to do on Wednesday but I guess it will be some sort of upper body training. Looking forward to a new challenge.

Cheers, M