The Battle of Mt Remarkable

Well it truly was a remarkable day.

I headed off for my 5 kms hike - which according to the geocaching site was a wheelchair accessible 5 kms (wasn't sure if this was 5 kms return or each way) with a rise of approx 100 m.

Great I thought - I'll have a go at running it. 100m's over 5 kms isn't very steep.

My first problem was - which trail to take. My GPS shows you the direction to the cache as the crow flies, and the trails are all quite windy. So I headed off on what I thought was my best bet, but after 600m the trail turned and I was pretty sure I was going in the opposite direction. So I headed back. The only trail left that seemed to be going in the right direction was the Summit Hike. Now I've done this before - its 6 kms straight up, for advanced walkers. Not really sure that I wanted to tackle this on my own, but I thought, well - maybe the cache is just part of the way up - so I forged ahead.

It seemed to be going in the right direction, and I was getting closer, but not quickly enough. For every km I walked I only seemed to be getting about 500 m closer. And wheelchair accessible track my foot! This is one of the steepest climbs I have ever done, and the track is only about 75 cms wide, very rocky and uneven, and then falls away down the cliffside! So running was out of the question, I had to concentrate on my footing.
I kept going. I ran the sections where I could be sure of my footing. Maybe it was up the top.

I got to the top to find that the cache was still 4 kms away! But the direction that my GPS pointed also showed another trail. This time a wide one that a vehicle could drive on. Aggh - don't tell me I was meant to come up on this different track.. Oh well - I walk down on this one - its probably gentler!

Wrong

I walk/ran this track for quite some time. I was getting closer and closer to the geocache, so I pushed on. but it was far from gentle - it was actually very steep - so steep that in places they had place reinforcing mesh over the path to provide the vehicles with better traction. The hours passed. Every time I thought I was starting my descent another hill would loom, taking me right back up to the top. I got within 1 km of the cache only to find the trail was now taking me further away, and from the direction of the cache - it seemed to be across an impassible ravine! Agghhh. I started to worry about the time and how many daylight hours I had left. I had now been walking for 2.5 hours, and still high in the mountain. I had no idea if this trail would actually take me down to the town, or keep traversing across the ridge of the mountain range. It was 2.30 in the afternoon and I had to make a decision. I knew I could get back down if I turned around and retraced my steps, but it would mean another 2.5 hours of hiking. If I kept going - I might get down quicker, but I might not at all - the mountain range was quite extensive - I had no idea how far the fire track would go. If I turned around, I could be guaranteed of getting back to my car by 5.00pm and in daylight. So I made the hard choice, and turned back. Reclimbing those very steep hills after travelling 14 kms was really hard work. I was also very worried about daylight hours and getting back home in time to take my daughter to dance practice, that I made myself run everything that was flat or downhill, provided it wasn't too steep. Once I "re-reached" the top of the summit, I was overjoyed to think that I was close to getting back. Only 6 kms to go of a somewhat treacherous descent. But it would at least now be all downhill. It was fairly slow going as some of the passes are just loose rock, so I really had to concentrate. I finally hit the last two kms of the path, which for the most part turns into a soft dirt trail (although still narrow and on the edge of the mountain), so at the 20 km mark of my journey I ran the last 2 kms.

I have never been so happy to see my car come into view! So after 4 3/4 hours, 22kms, an ascent of 1961 meters (according to my GPS and associated software), AND 2500 calories, I completed my battle - although cacheless - and exhausted.

My main focus at the end was hydration - straight to the shop for a powerade. Because when I headed out - I thought I may have been going for a walk/run somewhere between 1/2 hr and 2 hours absolute max, so I had only taken about 500mls in water. No where near enough for my marathon effort! I also hadn't eaten in 5 hours. Had only had my porridge in the morning, and a banana as I headed off. So I grabbed some soft lollies also for energy.

After a 45 minute drive back home, I had time for 10mins in the spa, and then had to take my youngest to dance lesson in the nearby town. This meant having to hang around for an hour whilst her lesson was on, and that I wouldn't be returning home until about 8.30 at night. I decided it would be too tiring to start cooking at this time, so decided to treat my self to some take away - after burning all those calories, I don't think it would matter what I ate. So I had crumbed prawns from Barnacle Bills - and threw out the chips.

So there's my battle for the day - oh and did I mention that before I headed out in the morning I had run for 45 minutes on the treadmill!!!!

Not surprisingly, the scales are smiling sweetly at me this morning......

The War - Day One

This was a highly successful day with almost all of my goals achieved.

I ate extremely well, although the Points Tracker recorded 22 points (I'm only allowed 18). However I had at least 8 points in exercise, and with the 4 points I'm allowed to convert to food, I still came in on target. Never used to use my exercise points for food before, but I think I have to train my body to eat more. According to Calorie King, it was an exceptional day with a total enery input of 219 calories! Of course I ate far more than this - I actually ate 1460, but in Calorie King it subtracts your calories burnt through exercise - and yes, I burnt 1242 calories in exercise!

What did I do? Just the treadmill blast, and then went on a 12km run/walk/hike! Tackled the nearby hills, but because I am still nursing a hamstring injury, I have to be careful with my running and not do too much. I also went hiding a geocache - have I talked about this before? Geocaching is a world wide "treasure hunt" where people hide and find secret stashes of goodies (usually just cheap trinkets), and locate them with the use of GPS devices. More information can be found here. I of course have a GPS on my Garmin for running, being the technonerd that I am, and so get to go running and treasure hunting at the same time. So after walk/running 5 kms of hills, I went hiking up through a reserve, got to the top, hid my geocache, and then came back down, and walk/ran another 5 kms of hills home. All in all, it took me 2 hours, 20 mins (can you tell I couldn't run much!) But it was an absolutely glorious day, and I loved every second of it. Today I am going to find a geocache in Melrose - I am going to try an run a 5km fire trail up Mount Remarkable, locate the cache, and run back down. My hamstring may tell me I need to walk, but either way I will tackle the 10 kms, regardless of how long it takes. And the forecast is for 21 degrees - absolutely perfect!
'
So the scales this morning said.........well thats a secret, but lets just say I saw the result of all my hard work!

The War is On!

Guess how much weight I lost this week?



Zip.


Nil


Nada.

If anything, I actually put on weight as I was a little generous with my starting weight.


On one hand I'm not surprised - I didn't eat well over the weekend, and had pizza for tea Sunday night - my weight always goes up after this - I think its because its salty - and my body retains the fluid. However for the rest of the week I ate exceptionally well, and exercised every day. I am convinced that I eat better than most people, less than most people, and exercise more than most people - yet whilst everyone around me's weight remains stable (eg hubby, children), my weight keeps creeping up. I've spent ages soul searching re this, and reading about why this is happening. I have a few theories:

1. Yo yo dieting/weight gains and losses over the years have taken their toll on my metabolism. I don't think my metabolism works the same way as people who have maintained a stable weight over a long time. Because my eating is still somewhat erratic (sometimes I eat the absolutely ultimate clean/healthy/elite athlete type diet and then some times crash and burn and - I wont say binge - but I eat a series of unhealthy choices - akin to what others consider a normal diet (!) ) I may confuse my body - low calories one day, then an abundance of calories the next - body thinks - "must hold on to these - don't know when I will see them next"

2. Winter is impacting on my metabolism. I've read lots about how winter affects people's metabolism, and I've noticed on lots of other blogs about people struggling with weight gains at the moment. Because it is so cold, the body sends out more "hungry" messages because it is diverting its energy into maintaining body temperature. And like most people who lose large amounts of weight - we really feel the cold. So it may be making me more hungry, and it certainly impacts on my motivation to exercise. Whilst I'm still exercising regularly, the intensity, duration and frequency have definitely dropped - because its so damned cold and dark all the time - all I want to do is curl up in bed with a good book

3. I'm probably dehydrated. I know I don't drink enough, and being winter I'm drinking even less. I might drink a 600ml Powerade light, a low fat Feel Good Iced Coffee (non SA's wont know what a great high calcium, low fat, high protein drink this is!) and maybe a few glasses of diet coke) So volume wise I might get close to 1800 mls, but the bulk of this is caffeinated which is dehydrating. I try and drink the water, but really only managing this if I'm exercising. I love the Powerade Light, and can drink 600 mls of this in a flash, but it does contain calories - although only 60.

3. My metabolism in general - I think because I have been eating so little for so long now (nearly 2 years), lots of information out there suggests that my body will have slowed my basic metabolic rate to cope with this. this would explain why I eat less, eat better food, exercise more than most, yet still struggle with my weight. I can impact on this (ie raise my basic metabolic rate) in several ways. One is eating more often due to the thermagenic impact of eating (warms you up), and secondly by gaining more muscle mass. Apparently and extra 1 kg in muscle mass can equate to your body needing an extra 400 - 500 calories a day! I've been a bit slack on the old weight training lately - so maybe this is somewhere to start. To me BMR seems to be the key, I really want to raise my BMR so that I can eat semi normally for the rest of my life and not gain weight!

I officially start two weeks of holidays as of today - so I have decided to start and assault on my body. THE WAR IS ON, and I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!!!!!

• I will knock my body into shape, and teach it to behave properly if it kills me! There are no time excuses over the next two weeks not to fit everything in, exercise lots, eat really well. So this is my plan:

• Drink more - I will drink 3 x 600mls of either water or Powerade Light, and accept the calories that go with this if needed

• Exercise at least twice/day - Morning and night. Will do the treadmill blast in the morning (have detailed this below) and run/walk in the evenings, plus weights on alternate days, and core work inbetween. (that should shake things up). will also look for other exercise opportunities during the day for hikes, long walks, bike rides etc. Nothing high in intensity - just volume

• Eating - will follow Vanessa Wiltons Winter eating plan. This will be interesting, it is a clean eating plan of 6 small meals per day - but it looks like sooo much food. I will also track in on the WW E-tools (points system) and Calorie King. I'm very keen to see how the two tools match up.

• I will take Fat Blaster tablets 3 x day. Now this is an interesting point. I don't think you need these to lose weight, but they are meant to impact on your metabolism (which I'm aiming for) and they are an appetite suppressant -which I shouldn't need if I'm eating well - but this is an all out war - and I want to see what the maximum results are that I can achieve - so we will see.

I will try and post my achievements daily over the next two weeks to keep me accountable. After all - I'm on holidays - I've got nothing but time to devote to this!


Here's the treadmill blast program that I quite enjoy in the mornings if I have time. Its short and succinct but gets the HR up.

Warm Up
1 min walk, 1 min jog over 10 mins

Working Harder
1 min side shuffle x2 (once with each leg leading), walk 1 min @ 3% incline, run 1 min @ 3% incline
1 min side shuffle x 2, walk 1 min @ 6% incline, run 1 min @6 % incline
1 min side shuffle x 2

Working Harder again
1 min running slow @ 6% incline, 1 min running fast @ 6% incline over 10 mins

Cool Down - repeat warm up

OK - that's it for now. The question is - how much weight do you think I can lose in two weeks???

It Ain't All Good

Well - I'ts been two months since my last post - and it hasn't been all that good. On a positive note, I have finally finished my study after 3 1/2 years - I now have a Masters in Primary Health Care. Its a huge relief to have finished as I was finding it the time commitment very demanding on top of full time work, a family, and all that exercise! On the downside, the final assignment was a huge amount of work, and fell at the same time as some huge work deadlines, leading me to work around the clock and get by on about 4 hours sleep a night for about a month. During this time I made a conscious decision to not try and fit exercise in, and relax my diet, but now I have to pay the consequences.

During the 3 months I trained for the 1/2 marathon - I somehow managed to gain 2 kgs even though I still ate relatively healthily(go figure), and in the 4 weeks I took off, I managed to gain another 2 kgs or so. I'm now 5kgs above goal and not very happy about it! So yesterday I rejoined Weight Watchers (online - I'm not into meetings). My original goal weight was at the top of my healthy weight range, but this time when I signed up - the suggested goal was mid way at 53 kgs - and I thought - why not! If I'm going to go back to tracking every morsel into my mouth, I want to achieve something significant, not just relose the same weight. So I have now set a goal to lose 10 kgs, not 5!

Exercise wise - I'm still loving it although not necessarily spending so much time at the gym. I took a few weeks off running after the 1/2 marathon (contemplating never running again, I was so sick of it!) But re-introduced it into my exercise routine on the treadmill for my cardio -more like intervals and short runs just to get my heart rate up. Now I'm back training for the City 2 Bay in September (12kms) and concentrating on speed work. Last year you may remember that my goal was just to be able to cover the distance. This year I'm pretty confident about achieving that part, and for the first time ever am concentrating more on increasing my speed. Still doing weights, and mainly running on the treadmill due to lack of daylight hours to run, but I can do all of this at home - don't need the gym for it. I really just use the gym for the classes which I love, but with school holidays and being away alot for work it has been hard to fit them in. Finally - is anyone else struggling with motivation due to the cold???? Due to short daylight hours, I find that the only time I have to exercise is after tea (that doesn't quite make sense since I exercise inside I know) - but it is a really hard push to get me out there each night. And I reckon I'm a fairly highly motivated person - If I'm having trouble, I don't know how others are coping! The gym is very quiet at the moment too!

Any way - I've had two really good days of eating on my new Weight Watchers plan, and last week I added in lunchtime walk/runs to my schedule (my only chance to see daylight!) on top of my evening routines to boost my metabolism - lets hope it works. According to CalorieKing if I keep up this level of eating and exercise I should lose 5 kgs in a month - wouldn't that be fab! I'd be back to my old "new" body that I was very happy in. Lets see what happens!

Oorooo (Big Brother Travis talk!)

Adelaide Greenbelt 1/2 Marathon 2007

Well here it is, the start of the 2007 Adelaide Greenbelt 1/2 Marathon. Of course you can't see me here - as I'm somewhere at the back of the back. Don't want to get in the way of the real runners! The conditions were good, my fears of rain allayed, and I'd had a reasonable nights sleep.

Here I am starting off (the one in the centre).....

....and here's me from behind - laden up with water bottles and "gu+" for energy along the way. Whilst many of the better runners don't need to worry too much about energy supplements at this distance - I do because I'm slower and have to run for so much longer! So the good runners are only looking at about a 1 1/2 hr run - I'm facing up to 2 1/2 hrs! (Plus I'm a gadget queen and have to have all the latest)

Here I am taking a drink at about the 10km mark. I don't look too bad considering I was having an awful time! I don't know what was going on, but for some reason from about the 2nd km my heart rate was way up and my speed way down. My HR monitor was telling me that my HR was between 160 - 170 bpm. Now for any exercise enthusiasts you would know that with my Max HR set at about 178 bpm this is not good news and certainly not sustainable over two + hours. It was worrying me enormously, and there was no point me slowing down as my GPS was telling me I was only running at about 8 km/hr! (I aim to average just under 10 km/hr). This was far from normal for me - usually I run at about 140 - 150 bpm and I just couldn't work out what was going on. The options I came up with were a) nerves b)the result of some mild cold symptoms I had experienced in the morning. Either way it wasn't good and I thought of phoning hubby to come and pick me up. (he tells me afterwards that he doubts that he would have - said that I had trained too long and hard to give up and not finish!). So after even the first 2kms I had to stop and walk briefly to try and drop the HR, but it didn't seem to help much.

In the end - around the time of this photo, I decided to ignore the HR/GPS watch, put my head down and focus on just running. And so I did. I picked a line on the path, focussed my eyes on it, and just ran. And I'm pleased to say - it worked. My records show that the second half of the race my speed picked up, my HR dropped, and I coped much better.

As you can see from the photo above, it really was a beautiful run - I don't know what my excuse was for such a lot of whingeing. Unfortunately the HR issues I had put to bed all my plans of running 5kms/ walk briefly to rehydrate and then continue. Although I had practised this religiously in training, I found I had to stop far more often (I usually walked up the short steep hills at the bridges as this would send my HR flying) but not for as long. And I have to say that all the volunteers along the way, like this one were so encouraging. Most of them clapped and cheered as I went past, and you have no idea how helpful this was when all you wanted to do was go home! Once I hit the city however with 6 kms to go I was in good spirits. This was the part I had been waiting for. The realisation that I'd run from some distance in the suburbs, hit the city and then had the pleasure of running past the Adelaide Festival Centre, people feeding the ducks, people out on paddle boats etc. It was a great feeling. It's also a bit cruel as you are running on one side of the river and actually run past the finish line - which is on the other side - and there's still 5 kms to go! and believe me, they seemed to go on and on. You run along the river with the knowledge that at some point you turn a loop and run back along the same path before you cross the river and finish. So I was watching all the runners ahead of me passing me on their way back, and I kept thinking "how much further can this loop be..." and it was further and further and I never seemed to get there. Well I did of course, and turned around and headed for the finish line. Over the last 5 kms I passed a lot of people - which was quite interesting - I don't know how as I had "had it", legs no longer possessed individual movement - they were stuck in one position and I just swung them from the hips, and I was still walking every so often. But I did pass many, and when I turned a corner and could see the crowd at the end, I still managed to pick up the pace and sprint to the end. Only problem was I couldnt see the finish line - as you can kinda see from the photo below. I crossed over and was looking around thinking "is this it - can I stop now?" Whilst the announcer was still announcing everyone crossing over, the presentations were on - and most people were focused on this. Ah well, not to mind - I DID finish, and I was FAR from last, and it was an experience I will never forget.

I finished the race in approx 2 hrs 20 mins, slower than my goal of 2 hrs 15mins, but then again the race was longer than I expected! My GPS clocked up 21.5kms - which would explain the extra 5 mins 0r so, and combined with my earlier problems - I'm pretty pleased.

A very big thank you to my husband who spent a lot of time supporting me leading up to this event and then running around meeting me at different points and taking all the photos. These will certainly help me to treasure the memories.

The Countdown Is On!

Well the countdown is on - only 4 more sleeps until the big race! I'm a bit nervous (ok more than a bit nervous), somewhat excited, and somewhat relieved that it will soon be all over. I'm home from work today as my daughter has a nasty cold, and am worried that I might be coming down with it too. Noooooo......I can't get sick now! So I'm going to try and rest all day, stay warm etc, and if I'm sick tomorrow - I wont be playing the martyr and going to work - I will have to do everything I can to get well as soon as possible.

Anyway - I have set some new goals which I am quite excited about, and have been doing lots of planning. I'm starting my new training the day after the 1/2 marathon (no rest for the wicked), but will keep it a secret until then. So stay tuned for the 1/2 marathon update and the big reveal of my new plans!

By the way - here is a piccy of me at my daughters Deb Ball recently. I'm semi happy with this - will share more when I talk of my new plans

I'm Sick of Running...

At least thats what I was going to post about, but now that the 1/2 marathon is getting close and I'm starting to taper - there is an element of excitement creeping in....

Up until last Friday - this was my catch phrase - I'm sick of running, I don't want to do it anymore, why have I entered this race? I just want to throw it in and forget about it! The weekly long runs make be anxious and fearful as to how hard they will be/will I be able to do it, and I get stressed about trying to fit in the weekly runs and what will happen if I don't do them. On the other hand, I know I can't withdraw from the race now, because if I do, then all the pain and effort I have been though to get to this point would be wasted. So I just have to push on and get it over with.

On a more positive note, I did my last long training run on Saturday, and managed the full 21kms. It was hard, but I did it, and there is a sense of relief that the next time I put myself through this it will be the actual race. And there is some excitement starting build about it coming closer. As I'm starting to reduce my running over the next two weeks, I'm also able to start thinking about my next goals/training plans and this creates a sense of release and excitement/anticipation. I'm thinking of working on the ultrafit program that I bought a book on a few months ago, but felt I couldn't follow it cause it interfered with my running too much, or doing some more work on low heart rate training, or even doing short treadmill workouts focussing on speed. Don't know, but ending this current training cycle gives me lots of possibilities!

Just one last running reflection - i was talking to hubby about why the runs don't seem to be getting any easier, and then I reflected on the fact that there are different types of "hard" when you are running. The first few kms often feel hard because you feel all the aches and pains because your muscles are warmed up yet - like stiff calves/quads etc. So if you feel this when you run and causes you to stop - keep going! because it passes. Then there's the pain I feel around the 10 km mark ( or earlier) when I realise this is just hard work and I'm tired and wouldn't stopping be nice. (This is not a good time to contemplate that I'm not even half way through!) But add a couple of short walk breaks in as incentives to keep going (just run 2 more kms and you can walk for a min and have a drink) seem to help. And then there's the pain of the 15 - 18km plus times which are really a result of lactic acid build up when the legs stop moving freely, feel tight, stiff and sore, and you know you just have to keep the momentum going or you might never start again! I guess this is really the point that you want to keep pushing out further distance wise with the training - making this happen later and later in the mileage, as this is really the difficult time, and the time you are prone to injury. So I might keep notes on the types of pain/hard work and at what distances, and see if I can improve on when they occur and for how long.

Well that's my running soap box for today.
Will have to post again soon about my eating and weight next time

Guess What I've Done Now????

R U sick of hearing about my running yet? If so - then skip this post!

I put my new strategies into place yesterday - and guess how far I managed to run? 17 kms I hear you say? 18 maybe..19.... Nope

I ran the full 21kms on the actual 1/2 marathon course! Yep - I managed to cover the full course. I actually only ran 20.25 because I walked the first 750m as my warm up - concentrating more on covering the whole trail, rather than running the full 21, but having done 99.9% of it now, I have no doubts I can run the whole thing. I'm still in shock actually, can't really believe I managed it especially after my difficult run last week. My time was 2: 19, including the walking, so when I run the first 750 m it should bring my time in to 2:15 which is what I am aiming for. And I managed to shop all day afterwards, and am only stiff in my quads now, 24 hrs later. Not bad hey!

The course was absolutely beautiful, and I'm so glad I've covered it ahead of time so that I know what to expect. For the most part it is part of the Linear Park trail, and starting in the suburb of Athelstone, it is very green and lush and shady, following the Torrens River all the way. It is all paved (bitumen or concrete) and at about the 16km mark you hit the city and feels quite exciting to know that you've travelled so far. I didn't realise that it would take me right past the Adelaide Festival Center, and I got to watch people feeding the ducks, taking out the paddle boats (very beautiful area) and then continues on to Bonython Park and almost all the way out to Port Road before looping back and finishing by Adelaide Oval.

I followed my game plan and stopped almost every 5 kms, walking just long enough to drink the energy gel, some water, dry off my face/glasses and catch my breath, before heading off again. It didn't quite have the effect of fooling me into thinking I had fresh legs again, and I still experienced the stiffness from lactic acid build up , but I think not nearly as much as last week. Although I did think at one point about not entering the race after all, I didn't experience as much exhaustion as last time. But it also had a very positive mental effect, as it broke the run into segments, and no matter how far along I was, it was always only another few kms until I could stop again. Breaking it into smaller goals works well for me, I do this all the time in the gym, and took away the anxiety I experience when thinking about the sheer distance ahead of me. I mean what do you say to yourself when you feel tired after 4 kms and you have 17 to go??? Agghh - I find that really overwhelming, but with this game plan I can say, just one more Km and you can walk and have a drink! I think I only walked about 50 metres or so, and it really hasn't affected my time, I'm right on target for my goal before adding in the breaks - and now I can go much further than I thought possible! Yeah me, I'm so excited!

I learnt a few more things - have recorded them here so I dont forget.

• Hills - Going up - there are some on the course, but lots of small steep ones as you go under very frequent bridges. Initially these are ok, but after a while you are so tired that they take too much out of you. Walk the 10 m's upwards, when you are tired. There is barely a difference time wise because you have to run up them so slowly due to fatigue, and if you walk you're not exhausted at the top and the change in leg movements is a release
  


• Hills - Going down - let loose and fly - allowing the momentum to release the tension in your legs -almost as good as a rest break

• Toes - my toes get numb after a while but I've discovered that if I'm running on the flat - I can actually wiggle them as I run, help to pump blood back into them, and hopefully reduce any swelling and the numbness! (who would have thought that was possible!)

• Lean forward - now this is amazing. I read in Fit Australia ( I love the technical stuff in this mag) that its important that your heel strike is not in front of your centre of gravity (cog) otherwise it is like putting the breaks on your forward motion. So this week when I've been running I've tried to work out where my cog is, following their instructions, and have decided that I run in too upright a position. So I have been trying to remember to lean forward slightly and with amazing results. When I lean forward, my speed substantially increases without any extra effort! How cool is that! Its also really helpful to remember when you are tired as it almost feels like running downhill - there is a certain amount of momentum being produced by my body weight and it makes the run so much less effort intensive!

• Mental Pictures - the power of positive thinking. I 've been reading a bit about the benefits of mentally rehearsing the race in your mind - and how powerful this can be. I read a story of someone who came out of nowhere to win a race, because the situation ahead of him near the finish line unfolded just as he had been dreaming about, and it gave him the energy to fulfill it. I'm going to mentally rehearse all the aspects as best I can. But I've also been thinking about how anxious I get before the long runs (its going to hurt/what if I can't do it) and have decided that I need to trick my mind into more positive thinking. So whilst running the trail I kept telling myself - "I love this", "Its so beautiful" over and over "go slow and enjoy it. I'm hoping if I tell myself often enough how much I enjoy it, I will start looking forward to it, rather than worrying about it.

• Mantra's - ". Mantra's are very useful for distracting the brain, and I've been using - " Power, glide, power, glide" and "think of the calories" (! LOL) and lastly "you can do anything" If you've been watching the Biggest Loser you may have heard a few of them talk about feeling invincible - I really relate to this after having been through similar weight loss experiences and regaining fitness, and I just keep telling myself this as I run "I can do anthing" "I CAN do this"

By the way - in thinking about the calories (LOL x 2), I've been battling between should I weigh myself daily to ensure the weight doesn't get away from me, or should I stop being obsessive about the scales, just eat healthily and exercise, and let my clothes be the judge. Well I hadn't weighed myself for a few weeks, and was a bit worried as the eating hadn't been great (sometimes awful!). But the clothes were no tighter, and then this morning I put on a pair of trousers that I thought were still to small to wear - but they fitted! Hopped on the scale, and thankfully I'm still as close to goal weight as I've ever been. HUGE relief - but it really must be the exercise keeping me on track, as I know that there have been many days that I have been well over my calorie allowance. I still need to try harder on the nutrition, but the exercise effect is quite cool hey!

Well here's an updated photo of me - had to take one for the gym as they want to profile my successes! Oh and by the way - I'm not blonde anymore- needed to get a bit smarter!

16 km Done

Well, I managed a 16km long run last weekend - but I have to say it was HARD, really HARD. I hit the wall at about 14 kms, but its just lucky I'm such a stubborn person because I wouldn't give in to my sore feet and dead on my feet legs. Lots of mental persuasion later I clocked up the 16kms after 1hr 41mins. Pretty well dead on for the time I'm aiming for, but given how much my legs instantly siezed making it very hard to walk - I've been left wondering how I will manage the 21 kms on May 6th. Well sort of. Nothing will stop me from achieving it, but its more about how much pain am I going to have to endure to get there!

So I've had some thoughts/done some reading/planned some more. Firstly, my run wasn't helped by dancing for three hours the night before in ridiculously high heeled shoes - woke up with sore legs to start with - Lesson One - rest before a long run.

Secondly - the seizing up of my legs is probably related to a build up of lactic acid which can be prevented by slowing down my run, or taking walk breaks as my body learns to burn fat more effectively (or something like that can't recall all the exact details), and dehydration, as I didn't drink at all during the 100 mins.

Thirdly - haven't eaten in the morning - or during the run - which is now quite long - blood sugar levels probably quite depleted.

So here's my plan. I've read in many places that beginners should walk through the drink stations, and Jeff Galloway swears that if you put in walk breaks you will reduce lactic acid build up. So in my 17 kms training run next weekend, I'm going to walk for 1 minute after every 5 kms (there are drink stations every 5kms in the race), and drink some water, and some energy gel. I'm hoping that this will keep me hydrated, give me energy boosts and prevent the build up of lactic acid which is tiring out my legs! And then I will just see if this makes a difference! After all, thats what training runs are for, right? To try out different strategies and see what works? I don't really want to walk in the race, but I'm keen to see how much difference this makes, and apparently it costs you very little in time, plus if it keeps you more energised, it can prevent you from losing speed towards teh end, so may actually assist with my overall time. AND I'm only talking about walking for 3 mins in total. Well - we'll see. It may just help me adjust to the long distances and I wont need it on the day???? We'll see.

Anyway - with my running plans sorted out - thought I'd post a few piccies from the 70's night that I went to last Saturday. The great thing was that I really enjoyed dressing up and having my photo taken - a far cry from the past life of dreading having to find dress ups and go anywhere near a camera.

And yes, the guy in the photo with the long hair is my hubby - my parents didn't even recognise him in the photos!

And I had to take a photo of my shoes. The day of the party - I walked into my local op shop (l live in a tiny country town) and to my absolute amazement they had these incredible platform shoes ($2) and seventies flared jeans - with splits down the front - AND it all fitted perfectly - AMAZING!!!!!

So here it all is....

Bits and Bobs

Well - managed 15 kms this morning - a fine recovery I reckon after a migraine Thursday night (so bad it affected my vision) and thumping residual headache Friday. threw in a weights session Friday night (much to hubby's dismay), and then got up and ran this morning with a troubled tummy, which thankfully went away once I started. I think I'm having to deal with a fair bit of anxiety the night before the long runs - don't know why, but I woke up in the middle of the night as tense as anything, practically doubled over in the middle and thoughts of ...well.... I'm not sure really, something to do with fine tuning my training or the way I run each km. Mmmm - I think I'm just weird. It could also be that my abs were sore from the upper body workout I did (shoulders, chest and back) as I had worked my abs hard stabilising for the heavy weights - but who knows. It all went away in the end.


Last few kms were quite hard - my feet were killing me! My toes in particular. I was running with a new pair of sandshoes (same shoes, just newer version) - I'm hoping it was just related to "running" them in. Once I stopped running - they didn't hurt at all to walk - of course walking hurt all on its own as my hammies did a little "we've had enough we're packing up and going home" dance of their own!





Wore my hr monitor for this one - averaged 150/160 bpms - interesting, I didn't think my heart rate was getting anywhere near this for my long runs - because truth be known - I find the breathing quite comfortable. I guess this is a sign of increased fitness when 85 - 90% MHR doesn't puff you out!





Have had an interesting time with eating lately. I think I may have found some balance. I've been away a lot - and eaten a lot of take away and "treat" type foods, and haven't really gained a thing. My weight seems to be relatively stable, varying within about a 2kg range. Whilst I'm away or on special occasions I allow myself treats and "normal foods" and when I'm home, I stick to the clean healthy eating (5 small meals, low fat high protein, 1200cals). And I think that whilst I keep up a very active exercise routine, this may work for me. Yes, I could stand to lose another 5 kgs, but the reality is that I'm happy the size I am now. I'm happy with the way I look, the way clothes fit me (I can wear almost everything), my healthiness, the functional benefits of being smaller (like fitting comfortably in plane seats etc), the fact that I'm not overweight etc etc. If I can lose another 5 kgs over the next twelve months - well that's a bonus. I'm just going to enjoy where I'm at now.





Oooh - and I have a new gadget!

Yes its the new little Ipod Shuffle, and thats a battery next to it so you can see how little it is, and its sitting on its equally tiny docking station! The beauty of this one is that its a bit like a clothes peg - and you can just clip it onto your clothing/hat/sunglasses - anywhere you want! I found the arm band's chaffed, and its really hard to find shorts with coin pockets, and if you do - then you can't run with your phone! So I picked this up with my Fly Buy points and ran with it this morning - IT WAS FAB - i had great music and really enjoyed. And doubly gadgety cool?? I managed to take this photo with my phone and then "beam" it to my laptop using bluetooth. No cords required! Agghhh - can you tell I'm gadget obsessed!

Now I'm recovering quite nicely from my run - went straight off and spent two hours food shopping, followed by three hours peeling/chopping all my vegies for the fortnight - was feelign a little exhausted so had a shower (oh and I'm now no longer blonde - the shower was a good opportunity for a little colour to fall on my head), and now I'm thinking - maybe I could go do an abs workout tonight - or maybe even a step DVD- havent done one of them in ages......(somebody hold me back!) and Donna - I think we're becoming twins!

Btw - Sharon James if you're scrolling through my blog could you drop me a line? I'm getting worried about you - cant find your blog - can't find any recent messages from you on the cool running site - left you a message there - where are you? Just let me know if you are ok!

Cheers to all!

The Fake Athlete!

We went to watch the Victor Harbour Triathlon last weekend, and then ran the 5km fun run. We went feeling like fairly fit individuals, and left feeling like fake athletes! Jeeez there are some fit people out there. Even the short distance triathlon looked hard, and then there was the olympic distance one, and after you cope with the average fit athlete doing this, there are the elites doing it in amazing times. A 1.5 km swim/40km bike ride/10 km run done in under 2 hours! We're still sort of encouraged to give it a go next year, but man you really feel like the lightweight athlete: training 6 days a week, and then just running a mere 5 kms!

Ah well - I have to consider where I've come from though don't I. The 5 km was an interesting experience. It is my third race. The first was a local, low key 4 km about 10 months ago. It was first time running on the road, and I was terrified I couldn't make the distance. It was very tough, nearly killed me and I just kept concentrating on putting on foot in front of the other. Then it was the 12 km city to bay - also terrified about the distance- and used a walk/run strategy (run for 5mins, walk for 2mins to drop my heart rate). Both big achievements for me. But for this 5 kms I didn't really give it much thought - after all I'm running much longer distances now, I never go out and run anything less than 5kms - so I really just viewed it as another training run for the half marathon, and didn't alter my training schedule at all. (Mistake number one). I ran 14 kms on the Friday as planned, and just hoped that if I had a day off on Saturday I would be recovered enough for Sunday. I also decided that I would like to use the race to achieve a PB - I've always wanted to break the 30 min mark for 5 kms, previous best time about 31 mins - so I thought I'd give it a go.

Did I achieve it? YES - 29:08 - but it was b****y hard and I was really cross with myself.


I went out too hard/too fast without realising it. Ran the first km in 5:15 which I have NEVER done before, not even close. I set my Garmin to show me a pacer man on the screen - ie I told it I wanted to run the 5 kms in 29:30, and it then displayed me and a little pacer man on the screen, and below this it told me how far ahead/behind I was of the pacer man. I good idea I thought, but I had difficulties translating this into running speed. Whilst I was looking down at it thinking - good I'm 168m ahead of schedule, my brain didn't think clearly enough - "168m in 1 km - that's way too fast" and so what happened was that after the 1st km I was buggered! I couldn't work out why I was finding the race sooo hard - when i run this distance all the time.

I had to keep telling myself from there on in to SLOW DOWN or I wasn't going to be able to even finish. About halfway through I finally realised that I really needed to change the display on my Garmin to show my speed, which I did, and this really helped. Looking at my splits and heart rate for the race, my HR was at 168 bpm in the first km, and then this gradually slowed with my speed - down to a far more comfortable 120bpm in the last km.

I could have still achieved this PB, but possibly done better, if not far more comfortably if I had:

• Paced myself appropriately at the beginning, and not been influenced by the crowd
• Respected the distance in a race setting and tapered even a little for it. My legs were soo tired when I ran this, I'm sure the big run 48 hrs beforehand affected this
• Realised how much of an impact even a small increase in speed has on your capacity to cover any distance - and how much this impacts on HR. Basically I was running this race with really tired legs, and a much higher than average heart rate due to running faster - no wonder it was so damn hard!

Agh well - even though I have read this sort of thing on other peoples blogs, I guess experience is the best teacher!

Still - 29:08 - a 2 min improvement over 5 kms - gotta be happy with that!

A New PB!

Ahhhh, its easy to achieve PB's when you are continually increasing your mileage each week to distances you've never covered before! Each one is its own new record.

Just checking in to let you know that I ran 13 kms today in 1:23 - a PB for me because I've never run 13 before.....and I'm still standing!

Cheers

Week 2 Training for 1/2 Marathon

Well - I've finished week 2 of the training (skipped week one as there isn't enough time B4 the race, and I can run it comfortably any way)
Week 2 required me to do 2 x 5 kms runs and 1 x 8.5 km long run.
Forget the 8.5 km one - I ran 12kms instead! Why? I guess because I can, and I can't see any point in starting off with a lower mileage than I'm used to.

I changed my long run day from Sat to Friday as I had the opportunity to run down at Glenelg on Friday as I was down there for work. I ran to Brighton and back, and then worked out how many more kms i had to run towards West Beach to clock up the 8.5 kms on returning back to Glenelg. Did this - but as I reached Glenelg I thought I should probably run a bit more and round it up to 10 kms - as I have run this quite comfortably in recent weeks. So I ran on again towards Brighton, using my Garmin again to guide me as to how far to go/when to turn around to end up back at Glenelg with a 10km distance. But as you know, I can't help but challenge myself - as I approached the home base again, I thought - Why stop at 10kms, I know I can do that, this training is meant to be about extending yourself - so you guessed it - I kept going for another 2 kms to round it up to 12kms

Time - 1hr 16 - a PB for me, but potentially it was even better than this, as in the last km my Garmy lost satellite reception and stopped recording. looking at my 1 km splits afterwards showed a steady 6:10 ish pace, with a 7 something pace recorded on the last one - I'm slow, but never that slow! It even told me that my maximum speed during that last km was 894 km/hr mmm - just call me speedy! Anyway - I've never run 12kms continuously before - even when I ran the City to Bay I had scheduled but small walk breaks, so this is a great achievement for me.

Of course I then followed this up with a Masterclass at the gym the next day 3 tracks from each of Body Combat, Body Pump, Body Attack and Body Balance - as a demonstration of all the new releases. It was long (1.5 hours) and high intensity, and I LOVED IT! At long last Body Attack has come to our gym, and classes start in a week - YEAHHHH - it is very me - I love the high energy aerobics stuff. Can't wait. But as a consequence of this I can barely walk today!
Have had to swap my run days around again (I'm always doing this) to give me a rest today.

Here's how the week is shaping up for me:

Monday - AM 5 km run
PM Combat

Tuesday - AM5.6 km run
PM - Weights

Wednesday AM - Walk
PM - RPM

Thursday REST
PM weights

Friday - AM - 12km run

Saturday - AM - Walk
PM - Weights

Sunday - AM - Run 5.6 kms
PM - REST


I 've had to modify it already due to two trips to Adelaide - so we'll see how many more modifications I end up making!

From Low to High in One Week!

I've had a shocker of a week really with food and exercise.

Firstly - I've been trying to write my major assignment for my masters (6000 words) which has meant time off work (aka more time to eat badly) and a severe case of procrastination. The only way I managed to get some writing done was to bribe myself with chocolate and caffiene - for an intense sugar hit! Not good, although I know this is a rare occasion. So eating has not been great.

And exercise has been poor/depressing. My hubby was very supportive whilst I was losing weight with my hitting the gym every night (and weekends) and coming home late, and asked that when I got to goal, could I work out how my exercise could be more flexible so that I was home earlier some nights. Well - not an unreasonable request after 12 months of total support, and extra work with the family. So I have been trying to incorporate morning runs, weights at home, and just some classes at the gym. Unfortunately the gym hasn't been offering as many classes as usual either, so choices have been limited, and as a result of this, I feel like my exercise routine has gone to h*ll. Don't get me wrong, I did run a few times, did a combat class and my first ever RPM (spin) class (more about that later), but I haven't been consistent with my weights, and more often than not I didn't run when I was meant to - couldn't fit it in before work/it was too hot (its been 37+ here), its been too dark too early in the morning - you know the excuses. On top of that, I have been really depressed about running lately. I loved running in Adelaide when I was on holidays - running by the beach, surrounded by lots of other runners/walkers/cyclists etc - it was a great atmosphere. But since I've been back, I've felt like there is just no where decent to run, and absolutely no company in it at all. I'm a lonely runner! I've been reading other people's blogs about all their running activities, who they've run with during the week, all the running activities that the local clubs have organised etc, and it has just made me feel so bored and lonely with it all! I NEVER see anyone else out running, and am sick of having to hit dirt roads to create the distance - I really don't like running on them. I think I was almost at the point last night of thinking of giving up running altogether!

But how quickly things change! This morning (Sat) I made myself run at 6 am as the forecast was for 40, and it was then or never, and I've used the too hot excuse too often this week, AND I hadn't done any exercise for TWO WHOLE DAYS! Anyway - I took heed of my last run in hot weather, and made sure I wore a waist belt with a bottle of water so there would be no excuses. It wasn't a big run - only 6kms, and I was determined to take it slowly due to the heat, but I decided to skip the dirt road section and take a shorter route that might be more enjoyable. The first 2- 3 kms hurt a little - as they always seem to do until my muscles warm up properly and I hit a comfortable rhythm, but after that it was smooth sailing. As I headed back up the road to my house, I checked the distance - 4.8 kms - not really very far, so decided to keep going to bring it up to 5km, and then 6kms. I really could have kept going for a good 10 km run, but decided to be sensible due to the heat and stopped it there. It wasn't an amazing run, it wasn't any great distance, but afterwards I just felt so good for having done it (as per usual), that I wished I could bottle the feeling and sell it to myself a little better.

Anyway - what was so exciting was that I decided to take control of my exercise schedule again, and set some goals. So I bought myself a whiteboard, and drew up a program that I can modify weekly as work schedules etc change. And then I sat down and looked at some marathon training schedules. I've decided that aiming for a triathlon might be a bit much this year as I need to do so much work on both my cycling and swimming, and the swimming season is about to finish, so how about I concentrate on my distance running this year.

I had been contemplating the Adelaide Festival City Marathon at the end of August. So I pulled out Hal Higdon's 18 week training schedule for this. To be honest - some of the mileage looked rather scary - and it would be a very, very big stretch for me. So how about a half marathon I thought. Checked out this training schedule - and this time - it actually looked a little too easy. Not that the kms wouldn't be hard, but its only a 12 week schedule, which I think I do the first few weeks of already as a part of my regular running and the 1/2 marathon doesn't run till the end of August - so that would be a lot of time spent hanging about waiting to start it, or very slow progress over a long time. But then I hit on a solution. On scanning the Adelaide Road Runners website for this race, I came across the Adelaide Greenbelt Half Marathon in May. It goes from Athelstone Primary School, and (I think) follows the Torrens River down to War Memorial Drive and the city centre. It would be a very pretty run, and I think with a tendancy to run downhill more than uphill. Sounds perfect. And there are just 11 weeks until its on, and when I reviewed the training schedule again - I think , with a bit of effort, its quite manageable for me! So I'm going to run it, and then, depending on how I find it, if I still want to train for the full marathon in August I can, or I could do the 1/2 again and try and better my time. I'M SO EXCITED! I CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT THERE AND START TRAINING!

Weird how things can change so quickly hey!

My RPM experience - for those who are interested. I am a gym junkie and have done every class there is, tried every piece of equipment, and lifted/pushed/pulled every weight. But I have spent 12 months avoiding RPM and the bikes! Why? At first I avoided RPM due to worries about being fit enough to do it, but this issue disappeared long ago. Since then it has been about avoiding the pain of sitting on those damned bike seats! At 5 foot nothing, and a small build, I think I have a smaller than average pelvis - which causes me great pain when sitting on a bike. But after my cycling experience on my holidays and my interest in triathlon's a felt I needed to give it a "whirl". So armed with my padded bike seat cover, I nervously set up the bike and attempted the class - with interesting results:

• I don't think I really got my heart rate up very high. No, not because I 'm superfit, but because the legs were doing something new, and "failed" before I could really push myself aerobically.


• I sweated buckets (it was VERY hot) and I have found this interesting lately that the muscles can work hard, cause you to sweat, but the heart rate remains low????? ( I think my heart rate remained low because the breathing was relatively comfortable)


• I found it pretty boring. There's not much variety - unlike a Combat class where you work all different muscle groups in all different ways. Its all just leg work either sitting or standing (surprise surprise)


• It was harder cycling sittiing, than standing. When I was standing it was easy - but sitting I had no body weight to help my push, and there's nothing in my exercise schedule that simulates this.


• the spinning required the legs to turn over really fast - and I think this might help with my running speed!

AND THE VERDICT: I'm going to keep doing it once a week for variety in my routine, to develop new knee/thigh muscles, to see if it helps me with running speed, and as cycling training for eventually doing a triathlon. But next time I'm going to wear a HRM to see what's really going on with the old ticker.

POST SCRIPT: and yes the butt has hurt all week - but not nearly as intensely as I imagined to be, and it hasn't stopped me from doing anything else - which is what I was worried about!

Until later - CIAOU

I failed twice (or did I?)

I failed twice yesterday - and it wasn't even in things that I plan to fail - like muscle failure in weight training.

Failure #1

There is a really big hill near me (about 4 kms long) that I decided to tackle the other day. Thought I'd walk up it to see how hard it would be - then follow it around to Bowmans Park (Wildlife Reserve) and then run back (downhill). Went ok - round trip about 12 kms. So then I thought - wouldn't it be great to run to Bowman's Park the back way (dirt roads, all hills approx 4 kms), then continue on the bitumen road retracing the path I had walked/run the other day (all hills again). Estimated it would be about 10kms (and should I say again - ALL HILLS!)

Anyway - I thought I might try this as my long slow run for the week.

Set out at 6.00 am (weather forecast - 41C), ran the first 5 kms and then conked out! I made myself reach the top of a humungus hill before I stopped - but I have NEVER let myself stop on a run before. The problem was that I hadn't taken any water with me (dont normally need it for 10 kms) but the combination of the heat and the extra effort for the hills meant that my mouth/throat were so dry that I was unable to swallow. When I stopped and walked - I realised that I also felt light headed/headachey. I guess you really do need to listen to your body sometimes. So I walked then next 2 kms, and then ran the last 3 (mainly all downhill).

So I did do 10 kms over 1 hour 20 -- but I didn't run it all. FAIL FAIL FAIL

Here's where I ran - sorry the picture's a bit smaller than I thought

And here's a graph of my pace/speed, and elevation of my run (green line). And you can clearly see the section where I walked!

Failure #2

Went swimming. Yes swimming - something I can't do but want to be able to so that I can do a triathlon. Found a great website called Tri Swim Coach, with an e-book designed to help you achieve the swim leg of the triathlon. Got quite enthused about some of the drills and advice about breathing - so went to try it all out. FAILED - still cant swim a lap of the pool

OK I might be being a bit hard on myself - well I know I am - but I think its a good thing to not achieve your goals sometimes so that you really have something hard to aim for.

With the running thing - I will keep trying - hopefully each weekend - and with the help of Garmy I will be able to track my progress. My aim is that if I can run 10kms of hills in about 60 mins, I should be able to run the 12km C2B this year in 60 mins. We shall see.

Swimming - not really surprising that I haven't improved my swimming by reading a book - well after all - it takes PRACTICE not READING! When I think back to learning to run, I couldn't run for 60 secs without being out of breath - so the swimming dilemna is no different. I am going to have to endure the pain of regular practice of something that seems to hard in order to conquer it. Today I had another go and managed one full lap of the pool. Of course I was gasping for air at the end, but I managed to concentrate on relaxing my breathing (I tend to take a huge breath at the beginning and panic) and keeping my head well down. The drills were a little better - so maybe I'm making progress.

And by the way - I may not have achieved my goals - but at least I was out there trying - didn't see anyone out there giving it a go! Perserverence will win the day!

Addit - Photos now posted

Have now managed to get the photos to load in the post below
But now I have problems with my sidebar - if anyone can figure out what I've done wrong - its still there but right down the end. I know others have had problems with this in the past - any insights/solutions??

Back from Hols and Into the Swing of It!

• Well - I'm back from two glorious weeks at the beach - feeling tanned, relaxed and energetic. Thought I'd better post something or you might think now I've reached goal I've disappeared off the face of the earth - not so - in fact I haven't weighed myself in a couple of weeks - so might not even be at goal anymore - but I don't really care. I've had a very active holiday - my clothes all still fit and I'm happy with my weight/size so it doesn't really matter.
  
  Some updates:
• I relaxed my eating whilst on holidays - I decided that life would be a bit sad if I could never eat take away and other treats again - and that as I only have 4 weeks a year of hols - to let myself off on those times would be ok. So I ate what ever I wanted (within reason) with the understanding that I would return to my clean, high protein, low fat, low cal diet when I returned home - as this is part of who I am now - a lifestyle diet forever.

• I've done lots of exercise! Last week I covered approx 83 kms! I loved being able to run by the beach, so most days I alternated between walking or running to Glenelg and back (7 kms) and as the weeks progressed I kept running - and the last few times ran 10 kms (West Beach - Glenelg, then back again, then 1/2 way to Henley Beach and back) and then after that when I returned the family would decide to walk to Glenelg for breakfast - so I'd do it all over again. One day we followed this up with an 18 km bike ride, and then I did my weights session (Yep - that was about 5 hours of exercise that day)
  
  
  
• I've kept up my more intensive weight training (body sculpting) even whilst living in a caravan for two weeks. Took dumbells, medicine ball, exertube, and trained alternate days in the annexe! My favorite exercises at the moment are wide leg squats with 20 kg weights, and a dumbell incline extension for the back (done on a lazy boy - had to be very creative whilst away!). I'm really happy with how this is going and have included some photo's of my muscle development - yep muscles - I'm just proud to have some!

• The running is going well - I've found that when I concentrate on going slow - I'm now running at my "fast" pace (ie I've improved) and I love my new Garmin Forerunner 305 which I got for Christmas. It tells me how fast I'm running, how far I've gone, my heart rate etc, and then I just plug it into the computer when I get home and it downloads all the details, along with producing a satellite picture of my run. I ran a few times on the beach and it actuallys shows my path on white sand!

• I haven't actually missed the gym! When they were closed so much over Christmas, I set up my home gym better, now have a secondhand combo gym - you know the ones with leg extensions, pec flye, lat pull downs and high and low cables, plus bought a 20 kg dumbell set. Along with the treadmill for days I can't get out I'm pretty well set. Combining this with running, walking and some DVD's - I've managed to cover all bases. I will still go back though as I love the classes for variety.

• I've re-discovered walking! Yes, I'd given this the big flick as I couldn't get my heart rate up. But I seemed to have forgotten that it still burns calories - in fact covering a certain number of KM's burns the same amount of calories whether you walk or run - its just that running is faster and has fitness benefits. So on the days when I don't run (to prevent injury) I just fast walk it instead. And somehow I can now walk at 7 kms an hour - I remember the days when I first started out and thought 6 kms/hour was the ultimate goal that I would never achieve. Not bad for a shorty!

• I know that my body can cope with lots of kms if I don't run them all. Powerwalking also builds muscle, and I think that supplementing my running with lots of extra kms walked will help with my running endurance in the long run (excuse the pun), without increasing my risk of injury. As I said earlier - I covered about 83 kms last week - half run, half walked - but I think they all count.

• I can see myself improving just by doing more for longer! The 10 kms runs at the beach had no adverse affects stiffness wise, and today I set out to walk 8 - 10 kms, but ended up covering 12kms of big hills (really big - one hill is 4 kms long) - half walked half ran - and it took me 1.5 hours. Not bad consider I ran 12kms in the City to Bay and it took me 83 mins -no hills. And no significant after effects - yeah!

• I have finally ceased my online subscription to Weight Watchers. I think I will still be able to participate in the forums, but its a part of letting go on the weight loss issues, and focussing on being fit and healthy. I no longer count points, but am tracking my calories through Calorie King - which I am really enjoying. Whilst I don't think one system is any better than the other, I just feel that calorie counting is more in line with an athletes behaviour, and "points" ties me to weight loss behaviour. I think I've just outgrown it and need to move on.

Ok - I think this is a long enough post. BTW, my daughter is going in a Deb Ball in April and I have been looking on Ebay at evening gowns (for me that is) There are soooo many cheap, gorgeous dresses around (like $20) for small sizes. Its unbelievable - I may buy several just for the hell of it. So if you haven't reached your goal weight yet - can I encourage you to keep going - the shopping is sooo worth it!

G Day is here!!!!!!

Finally - I've done it - weight this morning - 57.8 !!!! whoooo hoooo - I have to admit - in my wildest dreams I never really thought I would see the day!
Its a very surreal feeling - the weight has come off so slowly that in many ways I haven't really noticed the changes - and now that I've "arrived" it kinda feels like "what now". Dont get me wrong I have plenty of plans to continue on with my journey to health and fitness, but even last night I was reading about some of the weight loss challenges coming up - including one you can register and pay for - with a financial incentive - and realised that I can't really join in on them any more. Yes I may still want to lose up to another 5 kgs, but its really not enought to make these sort of challenges worthwhile - and there is a sense of loss here - how totally weird is that - and on second thoughts - how incredibly stupid!
I HAVE REACHED GOAL! I HAVE REACHED GOAL!

I have been tempted to post a few times since my November 18 cut off post - but I resisted but have saved up the stories to fill you in. After posting on the 18th, I was 600gms from goal. The very next morning I weighed in at 58.0gms - just 100 gms off of my target. Wow - I thought - I wont be keeping anyone is suspense for long - I'll probably have to post again tomorrow thatI 've reached goal. Must have jinxed it right there and then. The next day my weight inexplicably went up by a whole kg! Aggh - I was devasted - but then remembered that this is how it goes, don't get discouraged - it had dropped down before quite quickly- my weight will stabilise and then drop again.
However Friday morning I had an early phone call to say that my mum had been admitted to hospital and was having surgery in the afternoon. It was minor surgery - but my mum has MS and is physically totally dependent on other people. She also has a fear of hospitals - so I rushed down to Adelaide to sit with her. Whilst the surgery went well - they told her that she would need to remain in hospital for some time - so I took a week off work to stay with her. (She needs someone there as she doesn't even have enough control to push the button for the nurse if she needs something.) what this meant though was that I spent a week without access to normal food or home cooking - and also relaxed my eating (had a couple of pieces of cheesecake - ate out quite a bit). I did keep up my exercise visiting a gym and running, but this was really all. On my return home - my weight was up another kg - to 60kgs. Aggh - now I was further away than ever from my goal. I wanted to post and let you know - "stop checking - I'm going in the wrong direction" but I held off thinking that this might just be a temporary glitch, and thankfully it was. My theory is that when you eat more than usual, your body may temporarily hold on to the extra calories as fat, but if you return to normal healthy eating fairly quickly (back to the consistent nutritionally sound intake) it will drop back down - in an effort to maintain status quo. And it did happen - on my return I had a few Christmas parties - still stayed fairly relaxed - but in between ate very well, and when I stepped on the scales a week ago - I was back down to 58.7. So for the last week I worked very hard on the perfect diet/exercise schedule and I made it!

So what is the perfect diet you ask?
I know we all have a lot of ideas about this - mainly influenced by Weight Watchers, but as you know I have become very focussed on fitness over the last 6 months or so - and I read all the fitness mags - Oxygen, Women's Health and Fitness, Fit Australia - you name it, I read it. I think I've said before that I prefer these magazines to slimming ones because the people in them are fit and healthy with well toned, well defined muscles/body shape, rather than just being thin. But in reading all of these, a couple of things have become really clear:

1. Fitness models consistently say that achieving their look comes 80% from diet, 20% from exercise
2. A "Clean Diet" is the way to eat properly to fuel your body, cut fat and increase muscle.

I have been fascinated by their diets (and exercise routines) and recently bought Tosca Reno's The Butt Book, and (can't remember the author) Sculpting Her Body Perfect.
Tosca Reno is a 46 yo fitness competitor who used to be overweight and has a body to die for. In her book - she gives a one week sample of a 'clean diet". Essentially this entails 6 small meals a day (you must eat every 2 - 3 hours) - and each meal consists of a palm size serve of protein (eg chicken, fish, eggwhites) and some complex carbohydrates (usually salad vegetables). I've had a good look at it and think it is sound nutritionally - except for two things - there isn't enough dairy - so I 've replaced one aspect of one meal with dairy, and it is high in protein (about 100 - 130 gms protein/day). I don't actually have a problem with this though. It is above the Australian guidelines, but it is consistent with the CSIRO diet - so not so bad. It is also specifically designed to build muscle. To build muscle you need to consume 1 1/2 - 2 times your body weight in grams of protein - which means I need about 100gms/day, and this is a much healthier way than relying on protein supplements. So I've been following this for the last two weeks and it has worked really well. I've also still tracked my eating with points and kept within my allowance - it certainly means eating a lot - and eating a chicken salad at 10.30 in the morning takes some getting used to - but I'm sure this is the healthiest I have ever eaten. I have NEVER eaten so many vegetables in all my life - and the protein does of course keep you full.
So this year I plan to focus on sculpting MY body perfect and dropping my body fat down to 22% (its currently at a whopping 32%). So my goals won't relate to weight, but I estimate that I will probably have to drop another 5 kgs or so to get there.

Being Christmas - I don't have a lot of time to for complicated posts - but next time I will post final pictures and stats from this phase of my journey - as well as my goals for the coming year.

Have a great Christmas everyone - I've already received the best Christmas present ever!
G DAY!

Lisa

The Countdown Is On

Well - as of this morning I have only 600gms to get to goal! Yep - its finally getting close.
I should explain that when I set my goal weight, my aim was to to be within a healthy weight range. For my height this is between 46 and 58 kgs, so I set my goal weight to be 57 kgs. But I meant 57 point ANYTHING, anything that was below 58 kgs and would give me a healthy BMI. I've since learnt that according to Weight Watchers, 57 means 57 point zero. I've ummed and ahhed over this for the last 12 months, but have decided that I'm doing this for me, not for WW, and I should stick to my understanding of my goal. So weighing in at 58.5 this am puts me very close!
For those who read my last post - yes I was around this weight a few weeks ago, but I knew that my low weight then was a result of gastro the day before and that it would go right up again the next day, and it did.
What is interesting is that since then, I haven't weighed myself, and have relaxed my eating a bit. Still staying very healthy, but have allowed extra snacks (nuts, dried fruit etc), and just focussed on exercise. I was really worried about stepping on the scales again, felt that maybe I'd let myself go and I'd be back up in the 60's again. But surprise, surprise - I was at 59.1 - practically my lowest weight ever! Just goes to show that if you eat healthily and exercise well the weight can look after itself.
So I'm feeling VERY, VERY motivated now that I'm soooo close and have seen movement on the scales. Lets face it, if I'm really good - I could knock off 600gms in a few days - so I'm going to try and bust a gut exercise wise and be very careful with my eating.....

My next post wont be until D Day, or should I say G(oal) Day - so check back soon!

One year ago today!

Today is my one year anniversary of my weight loss journey. Yes, November 1st, 2005 I decided that I was going to change my life and lose all my extra weight. Which I have decided many times, but this time I've actually done it.
So I thought I should mark the occasion with anniversary comparison photos. Of course since I was quite camera shy before, I couldn't find any photos of me Nov 1 last year, but I had just come back from a 2 month trip overseas - so I knew I would find some from late October. So here is the progress one year on:





My daughter took the top photos, and she insisted on "posing" me, hence the middle shot with my face side on - but I included here because it shows that I do indeed have a jaw line again, instead of a double chin - and this is a big achievement! (Click on the photos to enlarge). My youngest daughter looked at the photos tonight and said - gee mum, I don't remember you looking that big, but if that's how you looked in the photo then, imagine how you must look now! Yes, I was puzzled by that for a moment too, but I think what she meant was that the photo made me look bigger than I really was, and hence i must actually look a bit thinner that the "after" photo now. (clear as mud hey!)

Anyway - the scales this morning said 58.4 - 1 kg from goal, and 30 kgs lighter than 1 year ago (and 40 kgs lighter than my heaviest). Of course this weight is a temporary one I suspect as I suffered from a bout of gastro yesterday -so tomorrow it will probably be up again. But nevertheless, for whatever reason that was the reading 12 months on from starting and I've got to be happy with that. Now if I can just keep control of my eating - maybe I can hang on to some of that temporary loss and shift my plateau...... Gotta get something out of gastro!