WHMP: 2 September 2017

Today I am giving myself a day off from doing my Percy journal and I am handing over free reign to my biggest and bestest support person I have had on this crazy ride.  My amazing beautiful Mum…..Noelene!  She is going to do today’s entry and she’s been told she can write whatever she wants to.  Thanks Mum. Love you xxx

Well here I am, the very first guest blogger – firstly, I must say how proud I am of Holly for making the decision to go on this journey and for her magnificent effort in the last eight months.

That brings me to today ………… “let’s go to the gym together – it will be fun”  Holly says to me.  It did take me some time to answer  that question, as the thought of ‘fun’ went through my mind.  FUN- enjoyment, light-hearted pleasure, leisure ….. yes, that would be great – I will do it!!!

Not having any ‘gym clothes’ with me, I went with Holly looking like a beraggled version of a novice exerciser!!

We started on the seated cross trainer for 20 minutes – yeah this should be FUN!!  After choosing the exercise profile, we started pumping.  Holly powered off right from the start at a feverish speed and remained that way for the entire time.  I was puffing after only two minutes into the set but managed to womble my way through to the end with lots of moaning, groaning, sweating and the odd swear word.  I can’t tell you how many calories I burnt or what my heart rate was as I left my phone in the locker.  Holly burnt off 310 calorie.  What????  That’s not even equal to half of a meat pie’s calorie content!!!  I renamed that machine the ‘Torture Chamber’.  But it wasn’t time to go home …………

Next we did 20 minutes on the tread mill – I was soooo much better on this, maintaining a speed of 5.7 and increasing the incline to 10 …… but Holly was out-doing me with a much higher incline.  Holly burnt off 276 calories.  Well that seemed like some tough work for that amount of calories. I was gathering up my towel and water bottle,  heading out to pick up the grandson from the childcare room, when Holly informs me that we have to do a 20 minutes set on a bike!!!  You gotta be joking!!!

And what a fancy bike this was – it had a video generated screen showing where you were riding after picking your course.  I felt like a teenage at a video machine game!!!  Off I pedalled on the 5.42 km lap, only to be informed by Holly that I have to increase the gears on one hand and decrease the gears on the other hand whilst steering the bike – all those things to remember!!  I think I forgot to pedal while I was concentrating on other things!!  Well I FINALLY finished about  four minutes behind Holly.  While Holly was waiting for me to finish she worked on a stair master (I’ve never heard of or seen one before!!)  She was glad when I finished the course, so she could finish on that  ‘Agony Machine’.  I was able to get me stats from the machine and to my disappointment I had only burnt off 95 calories.  OMG!!!  I would have to ride 50 kms to get good numbers!!

Now that I know just how hard you have to work on these machines for it to be useful, bouquets go out to all the people who do this on a regular basis.  You have determination, drive and dedication!!!  Keep up the great work and best wishes!!!