Brentano-Murphy's Adventures

HIIT otherwise known as High Intensity Interval Training is a great way to get your heartrate up and get a full body workout in a short amount of time.  As the name suggests, the exercises used are often intense and the short recovery adds to it.  Most HIIT sessions are 20 seconds of workout, 10 seconds of recovery. I like to do 2 exercises per set, for 4 reps with 1 minute recovery and 4 sets in total to make up 20 minutes. If you are feeling up to it, you can increase a rep a week, but remember it is about intensity and not about overall time or seeing how much you can do.  Below are the exercises that I did yesterday: The workout I did: Set 1: Hurdles & Cones / Shuttle Runs (4 sets - 20 seconds hurdles, 10 seconds recovery, 20 seconds Shuttle Run, 10 seconds recovery) Set 2: Speed band high knees / Shuttle Runs (4 sets - 20 seconds High Knees, 10 seconds recovery, 20 seconds Shuttle Run, 10 seconds recovery) Set 3: Banded lateral shuffle / Shuttle Runs (4 sets - 20 se

So we have made it 4 days into lockdown... yippeee :) I thought I would recap my first 4 days into lockdown. To start off, I am still working, from home of course, so I still need to be available from about 7am to about 4pm. As such, I try get my workouts in before and after this time except on the weekend and the pre-lunch workouts (which are nice and quick). Day 1 Friday, 27 March My dads birthday - we were planning on going to craft beer library in Linden but of course with the lockdown we were not able to (something to do once we are out of lockdown). I decided to make one of my favorite cakes, an almond cake, but I made it gluten free as I am trying to be 80-90% gluten free following doctors orders. I started nice and early, so that it would be ready for my dads teatime break. The recipe can be found here , but I doubled up because it looked on the thin side: 230g Butter 4 Eggs 2 cup gluten free flour 2 cups castor sugar 4 tsp almond extract Sliced almond

South Africa went into a 21 day lockdown from Midnight 26/27 March, with the first full day being Friday 27 March. For our lockdown, only those providing an essential service or those collecting essential goods (e.g. food and medicines) are allowed out on the streets - this means no exercising or walking dogs outside of houses or in parks. For many of us, exercise is a daily essential; a way of letting off steam, getting the body moving after sitting behind a computer all day, a way of managing anxiety or stress and for pure enjoyment. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to swimming pools, treadmills or stationary bicycles to keep active and to keep up some kind of fitness. For many, it is also going to be hard to keep motivated, so being dedicated and planning will be vital. My plan of action is as follows: Monday AM: Meditation (2-5 minutes) Yoga +- 10 Minutes Morning Exercise routine (10-15 minutes) Pre-Lunch USN Daily Challenge (you can find it on the

Sunday, 15 March 2020   St Johns Collage Gauteng Relays 2020 Relays are not exactly my favorite and with this year’s relay being at my not so favorite map, I was contemplating putting my name down for a little. With the Raco ladies leading the events this year, I knew that I was needed, to have a strong team. I was paired up with Sarah and Tania Wimberley and was happy to be running the first leg. I knew that all I needed to do was try concentrate and not get disqualified. The first leg is my favorite, it is the mass start and I find that I push a bit harder and my concentration is better, despite other people around. I did a morning run of 1 hour and my left leg was feeling a bit twitchy with my left foot (fascia) tight, so I was going in with excuses already – but luckily working at registration I didn’t actually get to talk to my teammates, so I didn’t voice my excuses. The way the relay works, is the first leg has a mass start, does their course and then hands over

Saturday, 7 March 2020 Eagle Canyon Golf Course The first Night Orienteering took place on Saturday. I generally enjoy the night events because technically they are a little easier but then there is the element of it being at night – the controls cannot be seen from far off and depending on the headlight being used, features to navigate off are also hard to see, so accuracy is more important. During registration I noticed that my usual competition was not around, so it meant I just needed to have a good run and not get disqualified. I started last on the women’s course, which I prefer for these events as there is no stress of someone catching me. I was able to pass all the women on my course and come in as the first finisher on the women’s course, confirming my win. Start > 1: Set off down the path, turning left. I saw the hill and went around it. I misread the map and ended up going past the control and almost all the way around. Went back and found the control,

23 February 2020 The Campus, Bryanston This map has become one of my favorites, because of its faster running nature and not so fast and intense reading. The event started a little later than the other events because of the MyRun and instead of doing a run before hand, I decided to reserve my legs and lay in bed a little later than usual. The weather was at least cool and overcast. I set off 3rd, at 9:47 and was surprised that I found control 1 on the map straight away - a good sign for what was to come. Start > 1: Straight along the path, could easily see the control 1 > 2: Across the carpark, could see the control 2 > 3: Followed the road and fence round to the bench 3 > 4 :Set off across the road, up to the little path and then turned right at the next road. Followed the road all the way along, checking off the carpark areas and seeing where #5 is. It was a long leg and the running speed wasn't there. Had a bit of doubt when I reached the area and almos

2 February 2020 WITS Campus The season opener for the Urban Series Orienteering was held at Wits on Sunday 2 February. This season seems to have started quite late this year and with no time to find our bearings (no pun intended), we went straight into the complexity that is buildings... I only participated in one Bush event in 2019, so for me its been more than 6 months not being behind an orienteering map, so I was feeling a little rusty. Unfortunately the calf injury I had most of last year has come back, which meant I had to take this event a lot slower than what I would normally. So, on to the event. I got a nice early start at 09:04 - I saw Sarah Wimberley's name down and wanted to be sure I had enough gap for her not to catch me. Everyone seemed to set off in the same direction, down the stairs, which makes the start a little less nerve wrecking knowing where I'm going. I was very slow to find the start control on the map and control 1, and when I did find them