What's been going on in my life????

Well, its been a couple of months since a decent post - I guess I should fill people in.

I haven't fallen off the wagon or anything - just always seem to be too busy reading everyone else's blogs to have time to write in mine. Everyone else is much more interesting! The problem with not blogging very often is that when you do - there is so much to say that there is never enough time to write it all! I've had to write this over several days.

Well, I relaxed my eating over the holidays and gained a few kilos, despite maintaining a reasonable level of exercise. So now that I'm back at work, I'm back to relosing these, plus a few more.

I've set myself a few competing goals, which currently have me so sore I can barely walk!

Saturday, I walk/ran 16kms of hills. I've scheduled in one long walk/run each weekend until the end of March as I would like to compete in a local half marathon. I've been concentrating so much lately on HIIT workouts that I haven't done any distance running - so running the whole thing is out of the question. But I could certainly walk it, and run some. So I need to get some "distance" into my legs, so one long one for me each weekend.

Saturday evening I started the first of Jillian Michaels "Making the Cut" weight training sessions - which are fairly intensive circuits FILLED with plyometrics (jumping lunges/squats etc with weights). I've decided to trial her 30 day program to lose the holiday weight, and regain some muscle (haven't done any weights since December) . So March is the month, and I am following her diet/exercise program to the letter. (Well - close enough - don't like some of her recipes so am exchanging some of them for Tosca Reno's from her Clean Eating Cookbook)

Oh and between the 16kms and the weights that day- there was no rest for me - I spent the intervening hours preparing for my 12 yo daughters birthday party, and supervising/cleaning up after her 7 friends who spent the night.

Sunday morning I woke feeling rather tired and sorry for myself, but its the triathlon next weekend, and whilst I would have preferred a rest day (I think I was on 8 days stright) , I knew I needed to try out my gear in the pool before the big day. I have had great dramas over what to wear for this - I'm NOT riding a bike/running in my bathers, so I have finally bought some 2xu tri nix - which are basically like padded bike shorts which are designed to be swam in. This means they don't absorb too much water so that you don't feel like you are running with a nappy between your legs. Any way - I have the tri- nix, and bought a tri top from the 3 Sports store in Sydney when I visited there last week. So time to try swimming in these shorts, top and my sports bra.

Rode my bike to my friend's pool, jumped in and swam about 250 metres. The short course triathlon is very short - it only requires a 160 m swim - but for a hopeless swimmer like me, this is a lot. I have basically given up on the idea of being able to swim it all freestyle - the breathing is just too exhausting. So I will start with freestyle, then switch to breaststroke/sidestroke/whatever to get me to the end. I was just about to leave when I heard a "swoosh" come up the drive. It was hubby on his bike - he had decided that perhaps he needed to do one last swim too. So I waited for him to swim his laps (it only takes about 5 mins!) so we could ride home together - but at the driveway he turned in the other direction. Turns out he thought he'd ride a few kms out to the highway before heading home. Mmmmm - guess I'd better too - even though my legs were barely functional from yesterday. So headed off behind him and we rode a quick 4kms and then back home. As we got closer to home I thought - heck I've done the swim, done the ride - might as well finish it off with a run. So dropped off the bike and headed out for a quick short run. So for my "rest" day - I ended up doing a "mini" version of the "mini" triathlon for next Sunday. Limped back inside afterwards. Clothes were fine for all three sports, although I will have to apply antichafe stuff on the arms - a little bit of rubbing against a wet top!

Oh and did I tell you that after talking my Hb into us buying two of them (one for him, one for me) he's told me I'm not allowed to spend anything else on health and fitness for the rest of the year! (Man, that's one superchallenge!)

But remembering this is Day 2 of the Jillian Michaels challenge - I still had to do another intensive weight circuit that night - can't throw in the towel at day 2! So by Monday morning moving around was rather difficult. Decided that I will give the morning HIITT workouts a miss this week as somehow I have to keep up the JM stuff, do some minor triathlon training, and fit in a taper before the event. And, because of the need to rest for a good 3 days prior, it means I had to reshuffle the rest days on Jillian's workouts. Monday was meant to be a rest, but I moved all the workouts forward, so that I could legitimately have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. That translates into "ouch for now, worth it later!"

It has taken me so long to write this post, that its now Thursday. I might leave it here and pick up again after my weigh in on Saturday. The scales are looking quite good - and I can fill you in on the results for week 1, and the JM nutrition program and how its affecting me. Then after that, it will be time to let you know how my first tri went!