By: Blonde Two
Today, dear Blondees and Blondettes, I thought I would write to you to extol the virtues of small training. Small training isn’t (you will be relieved to hear) training for your smalls, although since my sister told me that M&S no longer stock our favourite black cotton knickers, I have been training mine to last for ever. No, small training involves doing little bits of exercise instead of big ones. There might be many reasons for opting for small exercise; one might have an injury (I haven’t), one might be a very important and busy business woman (I am not) or one might (perhaps) spend one’s whole life eating soup from delicate china bowls and thus rendering most types of exercise impossible (I do not posses any delicate china bowls). My personal reasons for opting for small training as opposed to medium training, large training or even mega training are currently varied:
Small training 1 – 750 metres jogging
I am not a natural runner (see video below if you want proof) nevertheless, every once in a while (maybe every 10 years), I get the feeling that I should be and set out to find out if my running technique, by some miracle, has improved. It never has, but I am pleased to announce that, at least twice during March, I managed to jog (i.e. lift my feet higher off the pavement whilst still moving at walking pace) for 750 metres of a 2 kilometre walk.
Small training 2 – 100 metres outdoor swimming
Even in the sea, 100 metres really isn’t a very long distance to swim. However, when the water temperature is below 7 degrees centigrade and the wind is whipping in from the East, 100 metres is often all I can manage. Its true, I have recently completed a Polar Bear challenge, which involved 200 metre, no neoprene, twice a month between November and March swims, but forcing myself to stay in such chilly water for longer than the round 100 takes an amount of will power I don’t often find.
Small training 3 – 1.5 kilometres walk
This time I can honestly say that I do often walk further than 1.5 kilometres but I think it is my most common distance. This is because the walk to our nicest post box and back is 1.5 kilometres and I post a fair few letters. In truth I should be giving myself a pat on the back for this item of small training because I could make it shorter and undertake the 600 metre journey to and from our nearest post box. The nearest one however, is not blessed with a bench (in case I want to do small sitting training) and a stunning view of Torbay.
Anyone can do small training!
The great thing about small training is that it all adds up, and exercise counts even if you do it in little pieces (sadly so do calories). If you are interested in getting yourself outside just that little bit more, take a look at fellow Get Outside Champion, Zoe Homes’ ‘One Hour Outside‘ idea. It’s a great one, just a single hour outside every day… and you don’t even have to move around all of that time!
