Continuing my gym sessions of last term, I signed up for the Body Conditioning activity on Tuesdays. This was a good choice as it gave me the chance to do more sports regularly during the largely academics-focused last term. During this term there was an especially high amount of work due to the closing of school for two weeks as a result of the terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday, so doing sports was a good opportunity to think about other things.

I continued with my usual workouts, consisting of push-ups, dips, as well as other routines including leg workouts, but I reduced these as I played volleyball this term, and I did not want to put too much strain on my legs. I improved particularly in the dips, and it was great to see that I could do nearly all three sets of 8 without a stretch band, which I used earlier to make it easier.

Push-ups. I changed the placement of my hands for every set to use different muscles each time for a more balanced workout. Photo credits: Savindi Jayasuria

My timer after running 10km.

I also ran on Friday mornings, with the final session being very satisfying as I got a new personal record of 54 minutes. I am considering running a half-marathon in a few months so this motivates me to keep training over the summer. I find it hard in the end to keep running sometimes, while on other days it’s no big problem. This is probably due to the amount of sleep I get, as well as mentally. The latter is an important part of long-distance running for me as when you have good mental control you can run much further than when you give up before your body is truly exhausted.