13, lucky for some

Straight to the gym after work as (a) it’s cold (b) my right foot was niggling a bit so I thought the treadmill would be kinder (c) it’s really cold.

Resolutioners haven’t given up yet, although I think we’re into the second wave of them.

Obviously the first newbies will be back on the biscuits* by now, as wonea aka Gareth Brown sagely tweeted in reply to my outrage that they were causing a queue at the gym: “Don’t worry they’ll all disappear before long, give them a couple of weeks before their couches come calling.”

But while the knee-jerk resolutioners have vanished not to be seen again until June, those that initially tried to ignore the New Year, new YOU! magazine features and D-list celebrity fitness videos** must have had an attack of conscience as they are now the new set of newbies.

Contemplating this changing of the guard I took to the treadmill and with not a lot of time to devote to Janathon today I decided to try some fast(ish) and furious interval training.

I alternated a minute of walking at 4kph with a minute of running at 13kph. I never run at 13kph, ever. I’ve always felt that if the number “13” flashes up in red on the display something disastrous will happen to my legs – like they’ll drop off – and that will be the end of my beautiful running career.

However, it turns out that 13kph is not my kryptonite, but my NBF. You see when I accelerated to 12kph it didn’t feel like much of a speed, which makes me wonder if I haven’t picked up my pace a little overall without realising it.

Flushed with success and with the end in sight I increased again up to 14.5kph and it was really fun. As the whole point of interval training is to get your heart rate right up I think it had the desired effect.

During the walking sections I had time to observe the second wave resolutioners.

Fellow Janathon nutter Mr Lumpy Badger recently embarked on quite some rant about the various species of gym-goer. As I surveyed the newbies and their interesting footwear his post came to mind.

Before I go on I must make it clear that if I were to start criticising the fashion sense of my fellow runners I would be in a glass house throwing stones. Hareem pants, hooped earrings, one-shoulder tops, velour tracksuit bottoms – I don’t suppose it matters what you wear as long as you’re comfortable.

But the footwear is another matter entirely. There are RULES, people.

They go like this:

Do not wear deck shoes
Do not wear ballet pumps
Do not wear those flimsy plimsolls currently popular with indie boybands unless you are planning on doing gymnastics
Do wear proper trainers.

It’s really not that hard.

Maybe it’s the bad trainer choices they make that stops them from coming back? Maybe after an ill-advised treadmill sprint session set to a dizzying gradient and hanging onto the side for dear life (see Badger’s thoughts on this) wearing inappropriate footwear they are too busy with surgical procedures and chiropractor appointments to ever fit another session in?

*I hearby admit to being a big biscuit loving hypocrite (biscuit count today – two fig rolls, one Jammy Dodger)

**Davina is NOT D-list, how dare you?