by Mollie Millington | Aug 9, 2020 | exercise, quickie
Some of the exercises today require a resistance band, Pilates ring, or dumbbells. Be creative and use items from around the house (such as a bungee cord, pillow, or cans of soup). You can use a kitchen timer to keep track of your intervals. Remember to go for QUALITY over quantity. If you are unclear what the exercise is I am describing, please look for a video or arrange for an in-person tutorial with me. Please consult your doctor before engaging on any fitness regime.
Don’t forget to breathe! Please email me if you want tips on how to make the quickies easier or more challenging (mollie@ptmollie.com).
Warm Up– Skip rope for 3 minutes (you can pretend by jumping up and down if rope not available) or until you break out into a light sweat.
1 min– Step forward to lunge and lift arms in front of you from your sides to chest height as knee drops. Step back to your starting position. Repeat with other leg.
1 min– Forward looking twist- Keep hips and gaze straight forward. Hold a ball or pillow with arms straight in front of you. Twist torso left to right (keeping arms as straight as you can) but keep looking forward and hips facing forward. Envision your ribs sliding back and forth and feel your abdominals working.
1 min– Chest squeeze- Hold a Pilates ring, pillow, or ball in front of your chest. Push your hands against the ball to work your pectoral muscles.
1 min– Bicep curl- Using a resistance band under your foot, dumbbells or soup cans, keep elbows by your side and bend elbow bringing hands up. Fully extend arms and repeat.
1 min– Lateral raise- With band under your foot or weights in your hands, raise arms out to the side to create a letter ‘T.’ Bring arms down back to sides and repeat.
1 min– Push/Press up on railing, counter, wall, or regular on the ground.
1 min– Calf raises- Stand with balls of feet on the edge of a low step. Lift yourself up to be on your toes and then lower down so heels hang off of step. This can be done on the ground too by standing up on your toes and coming back to the ground.
Short one today but you should still feel the burn.
by Mollie Millington | Aug 7, 2020 | outdoors, product review, travel
Travelling is one of my passions. Living in the UK, I have been very lucky to explore much of Europe and even further afield due to my husband being a lecturer. Covid has ruined all the travel plans we had for this year, and possibly next year too. The walls of our flat were starting to become very tiresome during UK lockdown when we couldn’t even think of leaving our home, let alone London. Luckily, things have improved slightly and we have been able to explore the numerous options for a staycation in the UK.
The Field Studies Council (FSC) was founded in 1943 as a place to allow school children to study living plants and animals in their natural environment. Today, they aim to “create a world where everyone feels connected to the environment so they can enjoy the benefits it gives and make choices that help protect it.” As someone who loves spending time outdoors and is very interested in saving the planet, I was excited to learn about them this year. They have 29 centres all over the United Kingdom, at which visitors can take courses on natural history, art, leisure, and secondary school courses. Eleven of their sites, covering England, Wales and Scotland, are now open for the public to stay at at least through mid-October (depending on local government advice) for time away with friends or family. To help share the news about their accommodation being available to everyone (normally it is school groups that stay, but Covid has prevented these from going ahead), FSC invited myself and my husband for a complimentary two night stay to experience some of what their centres have to offer. The only centre to allow dogs is in Scotland, so we had to leave Maple at home (which ended up being fine as I had the best night sleep ever there).
James loves maps and is the driver in this duo so I let him choose which site we went to. He chose Flatford Mill in Suffolk. Only one hour by train from Stratford station in East London, Flatford Mill is between Colchester and Ipswich. Initially, we were going to drive as we wanted to bring my SUP and James’s bike but car hires were expensive. The train was very easy apart from booking a taxi from the train station to Flatford Mill centre. The visitors information we received when booking did say to arrange transport ahead of time. However, I waited until we were on the train and had to call several taxi companies. (Be warned, there are no Ubers in the area!) The centre is a 2 mile walk or run from station for those who are up for it and travelling light. James cycled and I took our luggage and SUP in a taxi (which was about £10).
FSC Flatford Mill is comprised of several buildings, one of which is Willy Lott’s cottage as made famous by Constable’s Hay Wain (spoiler alert: we stayed in this cottage). The buildings are old and rooms designed for school groups, so I would describe the rooms as hostel-style. Because of Covid, all available FSC rooms offer either en suite bathrooms or you will have a bathroom assigned to your room, which is really nice. Our room had five single beds, a separate (very small) shower stall, a sink in the room itself, and then a bathroom with sink too which meant if there were more than the two of us, we could all be getting ready at the same time. Each bed had a lamp above it too but I would always recommend packing a head torch to be considerate to your roommates. Our room also had a large set of dresser drawers and tea/coffee making equipment. Luckily, we are not very tall, as the room had very low ceiling because it was built in the 1600s. Most of the lower bits were padded as a precaution. Overall, the room was basic (no TV or radio) but also clean and warm. All bedding and one towel per person is provided. Paper towels and hand soap are available in the toilet but you need to bring shampoo, conditioner, soap for the shower, etc.
All bookings can be made on Booking.com and the price includes a takeaway breakfast. Pricing for Flatford Mill starts at £27/night/person or £72/family of four/night. For breakfast, you could chose either a sausage and egg sandwich with hash brown (vegan sausage available) or continental (yogurt, cereal, croissant). Each breakfast comes with tea or coffee (even though you have kettle and coffee machine in your room). Other locations might have their canteens open, depending on local government advice. We found it a bit awkward to eat on our beds but if the weather was better, we would have eaten outside. FSC aims to be as sustainable and local as possible. Packaging is recyclable or compostable. There are recycling bins everywhere and food is locally sourced. For those looking to stay in touch with social media, there is excellent WiFi available throughout the site. We never had a problem logging on or with the reception.
Flatford Mill has many paths and fields for walking or running. The Stour River is right next to the site, so I brought my inflatable stand up paddleboard and was able to explore the river while James went on a long bike ride. The river was very busy by Dedham, with lots of families in hired row boats, inflatable kayaks, more SUP boards and people swimming in the river. I even saw a few people fishing, although I am not sure if they caught anything with all the people going by. Everyone on the water was very friendly and was great at sharing the river. At the Dedham lock, I took my board to the other side of the lock and continued on for another 30 minutes. There was much less traffic and it was still beautiful. I would have gone out SUP’ing again on the second day but it looked like it was going to rain, so James and I went for a 5K walk instead.
The Flatford Mill centre is 1.8 miles away from the local town, East Bergholt. Depending on how fast you walk, it can take 30-40 minutes to get into town through fields (some uphill) and then a small neighbourhood. Going out for dinner was the only time I wish we had a car but we had gorgeous weather on Friday and Saturday night so we didn’t mind walking. There are two pubs and we ate dinner at them both (this was just as restaurants were allowed to open up, so it was our first experience eating out). The menus were quite similar, with jacket potatoes, sandwiches, chilli, lasagne, and nightly specials. Everyone, both staff and locals, were friendly. There is also a Co-Op in town should you need anything during your stay. We brought lots of snacks because I really like snacks and we weren’t sure where we would get lunch from. It turns out there is a National Trust cafe right next to the FSC Flatford Mill centre, which offers sandwiches, scones, desserts, and cream teas. Again, due to Covid, their operations were a bit different with take away only but there was lots of outdoor seating along the river as well as grass if you wanted a picnic. We were told it is normally one of the busiest National Trust cafes in the UK. There was always a steady flow of people taking photos at the pond and people coming in and out of the cafe but it never felt overwhelmingly crowded.
I really enjoyed our weekend there. It was close enough to London to head out after work on Friday and still arrive with sunlight and time to explore the local fields. The landscape is completely different to urban London too- green and quiet with a few cows and sheep dotted in. Even if I couldn’t SUP, I would still go to decompress and get back to nature. A few things I would suggest packing (depending on what outside activities you enjoy are) are:
- mask and hand sanitiser (hopefully this is automatic now!)
- walking shoes/boots/trail shoes in case it is muddy
- swim suit for water sports or wild swimming
- sunscreen
- reusable water bottle and snacks as there are limited shops
- bike lock if you bring your bike in case you cannot store in your building
- head torch for walking home from pub
- rain jacket or umbrella (This is England, after all)
- a good book or deck of cards in case it rains
We are going camping in Slapton Sands in a few week’s time and will visit their Slapton Key site. Unfortunately, we will have Maple so won’t be able to stay overnight. If you have any other questions about FSC or Flatford Mill in particular, leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer. Or if you have ever been to a FSC site, let me know which one you visited and what you learned while you were there (there are even a few in London).
Thanks to Field Studies Council for the complimentary weekend. All opinions are honest and our own (as James weighed in on some). Check out my Instagram to see more photos from the weekend.
by Mollie Millington | Aug 4, 2020 | guest post, running
Lockdown has inspired many people to start running. With the gyms closed, no team sports allowed, and lots of sunshine, many people took to their feet. Running is one of the most accessible and affordable sports out there. All you needs is a pair of shoes (not even these in some cultures) and to walk out your door.
One of the members of my local gym, Matt, used to spin with me but during lockdown, he started lifting more weights at home and invested in a Peloton bike (but that is another blog post). He also started running. Even before lockdown, Matt had started watching YouTube videos about ultras and learned the names of all the big runners (see below). I kept joking with him that he was going to run an ultra soon, and he always denied it was going to happen.
And then it did.
Over the next three weeks, read about Matt’s first race experience- a 4x4x48 challenge. He voluntarily ran four miles every four hours for 48 hours, totally 48 miles (he didn’t even want a medal for it). In this series, Matt explains how he trained, and what happened on Day 1 and Day 2.
Prep work- 6 weeks out
For a couple of years, me and my friend Ben have been growing more inspired by endurance athletes. I am in awe of what some people can achieve; whether it’s Courtney Dauwalter winning the Moab 240 (238 mile race through the Moab desert), beating all of the men, or Jim Walmsley breaking the Western States 100 course record two years in a row or Zach Bitter running 100m in 11 hrs 19m (that’s an average pace of 6.48 per mile /4.14 per km).
Another who falls into that category is David Goggins; an ex-Navy seal, Delta Force, US ranger and ultra runner who has a reputation for being a savage. I have listened to several podcasts in which he talks about his approach to callusing his mind and pushing through pain – he is genuinely so inspiring. When the world entered lockdown due to Covid-19, he set everyone a challenge: run 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours!
Ben immediately asked me if I wanted to give it a go, but on first thought I dismissed it straight away as being crazy. However, over the next two weeks I thought about it a bit more and started to convince myself that it could be doable. I was running four 5km runs per week and had been focusing more on trying to run fast but figured with 4.5 weeks training I could up the mileage a bit and give it a good go. So we took the plunge and set a date, 25 – 27 June.
Training
4.5 weeks didn’t feel that long to prepare and it was difficult to know the best way to approach it. There isn’t a lot of advice out there on how to train for such a specific challenge, so I decided to go with a combination of increased mileage (to prepare my legs for the total distance) and multiple shorter runs (to replicate the need to run every 4 hours). Broadly this was structured as 2 weeks of 10-12k runs, a week of 2 a day 6.5k runs, a triple and then just less than a week of rest.
Going from approximately 20k per week to almost 45k per week was probably too much, too quickly and as I trained for the challenge I started to feel a recurring soreness in my right hip. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was but it could have been some tendinitis. Regardless of what it was, I just hoped that when I rested for several days then it would sort itself out (which luckily it did).
I enjoyed the training and having something to train for made a really nice change to just exercising for the sake of it. Doing 2 a day 6.5k runs was not particularly difficult and even the day I ran three times wasn’t too difficult. What I learned was that it was going to be important to warm up properly and stretch to avoid injury.
Thanks again to Matt for sharing some of his story. Check back next week for how Day 1 went.
by Mollie Millington | Aug 2, 2020 | exercise, quickie
You can use a kitchen timer to keep track of your intervals. Remember to go for QUALITY over quantity. If you are unclear what the exercise is I am describing, please look for a video or arrange for an in-person tutorial with me. Please consult your doctor before engaging on any fitness regime. Of course, don’t forget to breathe!
Please email me if you want tips on how to make the quickies easier or more challenging (mollie@ptmollie.com).
Warm Up– Jog, run, or climb up and down stairs for 5 minutes or until you break out into a light sweat.
1 min- Hold a low squat with a slight pulse
1 min– Push/Press ups against wall, on your knees, or regular
1 min– Supermans- lay on your tummy, lift all 4 limbs a little bit off the ground to work your lower back
1 min- Toe touch crunches
1 min– Walking lunges
1 min– Hold a low squat with a slight pulse and alternate lifting one heel with each pulse
1 min– Burpees
1 min– Jumping jacks/star jumps
1 min– Wall sit
Take some time to stretch after this workout, especially your quads! Great job.
by Mollie Millington | Jul 31, 2020 | community
How many online groups do you have for support? There are several on Facebook I check in with regularly, most of which are about running and exercise. For many years, I have found help and support in the Run Mummy Run group (RMR). Founded by Leanne Davies in 2012, the group now boasts nearly 65,000 members. All women are welcomed, whether or not you have kids. Of course, running leads to topic about health, fitness, fueling, body aches, shoes and more. In order to keep the RMR Facebook group more running-focused, this year a new sister group was formed.
Let me introduce you to The Healthier Track (THT), a community for women looking to stay healthy and happy. The group covers a wide range of subjects surrounding female health. The main six lanes of health are:
- Women’s health
- Nutrition and healthy eating
- Sleep and relaxation
- Exercise and fitness
- Healthy experiences and entertainment
- Kit and equipment
The Healthier Track is not only a forum for conversation, they also have a range of experts on board to offer their own advice and help on specific topics. I am excited to say that I am one of those experts! I can’t wait to help the members of THT use exercise and movement to take them on a journey to health and happiness. Carole Gengler was the first expert announced to be a part of THT. She is a nutritional therapist and I think we will make a good team in THT group. If you join THT, you will find new, regular content to support you, including blogs, weekly discussion topics and Q and A sessions. There is a wealth of knowledge right there for you at your fingertips to enjoy and benefit from.
The thing I like most about THT is that we are there to help members “stay on track and be your healthiest, happiest self”. Talk about being in alignment with my ethos! I have known Leanne for years, and recently spoke to THT co-founder, Rebecca Richardson. These ladies are passionate about helping their communities and keeping these groups free for their members. As an added benefit, THT members will receive a discount on my services (and Carole’s), so please join today. 🙂 Although based in the UK, both RMR and THT welcome members from around the world.
Big thanks to Leanne and Becs for believing in me and the holistic coaching approach I take when working with my clients. I cannot wait to offer advice on everything fitness, wellness, and self-care related (and if I ever get my assessments submitted, nutrition too!). Inspiring others women to be active and healthy can be so rewarding when I see new challenges achieved. I love what I do, and I hope that comes through trackside.
Please join us over on Facebook for The Healthier Track. Tag me and say hello in your first post.
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