Red31

BodyPump

Ruby’s Day 26/31

I don’t normally volunteer to go to classes. Copying an Instructor without falling over or crashing into someone is difficult. Add in some music and weights and there is potential for disaster.

I was slightly concerned by the amount of equipment people were gathering when I arrived. Despite doing red January I don’t seem to have gained any strength so the prospect of using the weights didn’t fill me with joy.

Thankfully I had Rebecca with me to tell me which weights to use at each stage and give me a quick run through of the moves before the class started. I would have been fairly lost without her.

The class involves a sequence of different exercises to music with various weights. I managed to just about keep up with most of the moves but there isn’t a lot of down time to work out which weights you need, or if you need the step, or the bar, or the mat….

Even though it combined things I don’t like; exercise classes and weights, I did enjoy myself. I made it through the class without hurting anyone. I’d call that a success.

I feel the need, the need for speed!

Keeva day 26/31

And speed it was! First full day on the slopes and we made the most of it. The weather temporarily threatened our epic adventure from one end of Espace Killy to the other, but the sun fought hard and blue skies prevailed just in time for our final ascent.

The return journey definitely tested our skills as the weather closed in and the ground and sky were hard to differentiate, but we persevered to the all important vin chaud stop at the end of the day 😉

Ski conversation can vary greatly, but when topical conversation results in discovering one member of the group has never seen Top Gun there is only one end to the evening…

I don’t know if I was to young to appreciate beyond the cheese before or it was the fabulous company tonight, but that movie was hilarious!

Ceilidh

Ruby’s Day 25/31

For day 25 we went to a Ceilidh. After working out how to pronounce Ceilidh, we just had to master the actual dancing.

I’ve got to admit, when we turned up and saw people in Kilts I thought we were in real trouble as I am not a good dancer. I’m happy to shuffle around a club in the dark but organized dancing in a well lit room isn’t something I love. Luckily turns out the people in Kilts were professional Scottish dancers.

The majority of the other attendees had a similar level of dancing ability to us. All the enthusiasm but not a lot of skills.

The dancing itself was brilliant fun. There was a caller who helpfully shouted out “forwards” “backwards” “left for four” Etc. Which is great as long as you know your lefts and rights.

In order to “help” my dancing my boyfriend started counting the beats and regularly shouting “Copy the people in Kilts” . I thought I was. Clearly not.

I was exhausted at the end as the longer your dancing the quicker the music gets! The Band were awesome. Their facebook is Arm in Arm Ceilidh band: https://www.facebook.com/ArmInArmCeilidh/ – check them out they also have a video of the “Addressing the Haggis”

The Event was in aid of Myeloma Uk to find out more about the work they do here is a link: https://www.myeloma.org.uk/

Tignes!!

Keeva day 25/31

It was an early 4.30 am start but when that means you’re on the slopes by lunch time it’s all worth it! Saturday is transit day which makes it a great day for a few extra hours on empty slopes.

And every ski day ends with cake!

Clip n climb

Clip ‘n Climb on a Friday night, sure why not! We both have tried this once before at a ThisGirlCan event and it was a fun alternative to the usual climbing wall.

It’s pretty straight forward, all in the name really as our lovely instructor informed us during the safety brief. You just clip in and climb! Quite a neat system, they use auto belays so you don’t need someone with you. The belay hooks onto a mat at the bottom – when the mats pulled up against the wall the climb is free to clip in to, when the mats on the ground watch out from above!

Love this ice pick style wall on the left

There’s lots of different walls each requiring slightly different techniques, so a great way to learn different hand and foot positions. Each wall has a set of challenges, 3 levels of difficulty from ‘just get up’ to only use a particular colour or type of grip.

The highest difficulty on the Tetris like wall was to climb with your eyes closed, an interesting experience!

The middle one is still my nemesis, that last foot every time, where there’s nothing much to grip and your fingers fail you!

There’s also some other challenges like the timed walls – which you can also race side by side on!

The stairway to heaven… this is a test of balance!

And the vertical drop ……. When I first looked at this I really didn’t think it posed much of a challenge. I donned my slippery suit and safety helmet and climbed into position. How wrong I was! First your arms gradually get stretched as it pulls you up and the full weight of your body hangs in your hands. As it gets higher you’re holding on for dear life as you realise the floor beneath has disappeared and you’re now hanging vertically. Then in a complete turn of events you have to actually convince yourself to let go! I definitely think there should be a leader board for the loudest squeal on the way down, what a thrill!

I wore my heart rate monitor during the session just to see how it compared to other activities. Think you can tell when I was on a wall! 😂

Campus life

My lack of lunch time on Tuesday meant I didn’t get the chance to try out the new Trim Track on campus, so today my own personal Mr MO-tivator and I went for a quick run around.

A Trim Track turns out to be basically an obstacle course! Its set up as a long winding path with various balance beams, climbing fences, chin up bars and horizontal ladders to across along the route and finishes with a set of gym equipment, which very handily includes a twister & ski trainer to prepare me for my upcoming activities!

Last time I was near a ladder my 8 yr old niece put me to shame! conquered it this time!

And since it’s Thursday, a bit of mucky Touch Rugby!…

What I didn’t manage to squeeze in this January was a cycle to work. I have to admit I’m a bit more of a fair weather cyclist but I do love the commute when I do it, great way to start and end the day! Some people have even managed to incorporate into their everyday…

EMBL are organising a charity cycle from Cambridge to Heidelberg to raise funds for Aid for Labs, dedicated mainly to the transfer of scientific equipment and know-how to local organizations in developing countries.

And Alejandro from the Sanger Institute has developed a great Public Engagement initiative Scicling to bring cutting-edge science, together with an enthusiastic scientist, to Secondary Schools across the globe in a sustainable manner: cycling!

THRILLER

Ruby’s Day 23/31

It was 10.30pm when I realized I hadn’t done my day 23 REDJanuary activity.

I could easily have made something up, written about it, and just gone to bed with a lemsip. Even though I feel like death, I am far too stubborn to give up on REDJan.

So looking sexy in my dressing gown and slippers I tackled the start of the Thriller Dance.

Despite having zero coordination or dancing ability I felt like I had the first video down …

The second video however is going to take more practise..

This time next year I should have mastered the rest

Run! Run! As fast as you can..

Ruby and Keeva’s Day 22/31

Day 22.

Weather: Rain

Calories consumed after running: Several hundred

Stravas Opinion: This was harder than your usual effort.

Keevas thoughts: Same as Strava

Another delightfully rainy evening run. This time we reached our goal distance of 9 miles.

Having made the statement before running “I won’t be very quick this evening”, we ran quite quickly. Maybe having a stressful week at work is the key to a new half marathon PB?

I felt both better and terrible after running. Mentally I felt more relaxed, but physically I wanted to lay down . Despite enjoying the 9 miles, several glasses of wine probably would have had the same effect.

youtube Pilates

Ruby and Keeva Day 21/30

When its one of those days for everyone….

Ruby: When you are arguing with a man at 9.30pm that you should still be allowed to use the hotel gym, you know your day has not gone to plan. The sign clearly stated “gym open until 10pm”. My assurance that 20mins would be enough time did nothing to change his mind.

Keeva: When you plan a nice lunch time adventure to break up the full day online meeting… and then someone throws in a lunch time meeting!

RedJanuary has made us realise how easy it is for plans to get scuppered and the day go by without getting any activity in. So often several days can go past before you realise it! and then you feel rubbish and wonder why. We’ve definitely concluded a quick Youtube video really is a great easy option just to break the cycle and boost yourself.

Ruby: I went back to my room and found a youtube video I could do in the limited space I had. The 25-Minute Pilates Workout to Tone Your Abs, Butt, and Arms was surprisingly fun. My favorite move was the corkscrew. However I still don’t know what “magnetizing your hips” is. If anyone can explain please let me know.

Keeva: I wasn’t really in the headspace for anything, I wanted to binge watch the latest ridiculous Netflix series I was on… so I did. But I also threw on a 20min beginners pilates video and did it as I watched. Then I decided to google how to do the splits …because why not?!! And since I’d tried that I thought I better finish with the hip care yoga that popped up on screen so I could still walk in the morning!

Activity and Netflix done …now I feel productive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap27X41VzUc

Wing chun

Keeva Day 20/31

Today is Blue Monday, the day that is supposedly the most depressing of the year! It was apparently coined not to be a negative, but to inspire us into action, to make bold life decisions.

So Blue Monday became Wing Chun Monday! My bold decision; to take on a 7ft German with a martial art I know nothing about! If I’d realised before looking at the picture he didn’t have his shoe laces tied, this might have been alot easier!

Wing Chun isn’t the activity to punch & kick the blues away in a mass of flailing arms & legs. Its much more subtle, and even effortless looking self defence. Legend says it was developed for a woman after she challenged an unwanted suitor to a dual in an effort to stop his advances. Whether its true or not, the technique is certainly different from other fighting arts.

It is a little odd at first, you automatically want to take a big swinging punch pivoting your body into it. Instead the idea is no one will see your punch coming, its at close distance & starts in front of your body which is facing your opponent straight on.

Watching Youtube videos of Wing Chun vs other martial arts it looks like a very odd game of slap around, but when your experiencing it you can easily see how effective the moves are …Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan obviously thought so too!