The first time I was made to go up the stairs holding a 5kg medicine ball, I was huffing and puffing and trying to stall things before going up the stairs again.

Now I can manage several more reps before I start hearing the huffing and puffing. We often finish the workout with a couple of planks which are also getting longer.

At Wednesday’s session, I had to take my kids with me. They watched me working out between the machines and going up the stairs, but when it came to ‘plank-time’, Tom insisted that we do a ‘Family Plank’

Imagine this; there were four of us, including Tom, with our heads all facing inwards and our feet out like spokes on a bike. Tom called go, and we all had to plank for 1min. Cool, we all managed. Second time, Tom called go and up we all went again, but this time, due to being a bit sweaty, my arms slid out from under me and I all of a sudden face planted the mat and burst into laughter. This made my daughter start laughing and then shortly after that, we were all down and the clock had to be reset for round 3 which eventually were completed. So cool to have everyone involved.

Last week, I was feeling rather tired from a busy training week. In past 6 days I had done – 3 gym sessions, 1 road bike, 1 mountain bike, 2 pool swims and 3 swims at Corsair Bay.

This week will definitely be a bit quieter on the training front, but I am sure Tom will push the boundaries a bit at the 2 scheduled sessions I have booked at the gym. Thanks goodness the muscles have recovered over the weekend from the abdominal workout I did on Wednesday.

Ohhh, it was so hard to cough or sneeze without doubling over and groaning for a couple of days.

I saw this saying the other day in a book of rhymes  ... I'm going to the gym today, going to the gym, gonna run real fast & shrink my A$$, going to the gym today!