Its all about to happen

Hi all
Quick post - pre-admission clinic this morning, and admission for surgery tomorrow! (and no computer access for days - this may be harder to survive than the surgery!)
Ciao

A Little Unbelievable

Well I've had a bit of a spanner thrown into the works of my Tour Down Under Training.

I received a letter from the hospital on Friday providing me with a date for my elective surgery - Friday December 4, only 3 weeks away.

What surgery you ask? I decided some time ago that I wanted to finish what I started with my weight loss, and have all the excess skin removed from my tummy - basically a tummy tuck. Its been two years since I decided, and since then I've been on the waiting list to see the surgeon, and then on the waiting list to have the surgery. I could have had it done quicker if I went private, but I weighed up the costs of private cover, plus the cost of the actual surgery, and decided I didn't mind waiting if it meant getting it for free!

I can't really believe that its actually happening and that in three weeks I will be without my little apron around my hips! Of course, it has come at a bad time weight wise - as for some unknown reason I have gained 7 kgs in the last 6 weeks - I have no idea how someone can gain weight that fast - I'm hoping its just a lot of fluid for some bizarre reason, and am now trying to do everything I can to lose as much as i can in the next 3 weeks. I'm also rather nervous about it all, but trying to just focus on all the positives.

I would love to read of others experiences with tummy tucks at the moment - so if you know of any links to relevant blogs - please let me know.

14 Weeks Out

Well - I've done the math - and I'm currently 14 weeks out from the Tour Down Under.

This weeks been fab for training (and confidence) as on top of my ride to work on Wednesday, yesterday I rode 65 kms. Now it wasn't continuous - I'm still stopping every 15 kms or so for a drink (probably about 2 - 3 mins) and a big stop halfway - enjoying a relaxing breakfast and a bit of shopping (in my ever so glamorous bike pants and jersey!) - but still I have now covered 2/3rds of the distance for the TDU with 14 weeks remaining. So I'm starting to feel quite confident that I can make the distance - and will start reducing my breaks, although I know I can break on the day as its not a race!

I'm also feeling much more confident on my bike, and learning new things every time I ride.


After having problems with my gears last time - I got hubby to look at them for me, and in doing so he explained the whole gear system to me. Yes, thats right - I'm riding 65kms and don't know anything about the gears! In fact until 10 months ago - I had never ridden a bike with gears! Anyway - what I discovered is that I haven't been operating the front gearing system, which means I have 3 times as many gears! Tried this out on the ride and found the smaller gears were of no use, but the bigger ones (harder to push) allowed me to go much faster. I knew I had strong quads for a reason! Hit a new all time fast speed of 47 km/hr downhill, and worked out that on flat ground I can easily motor along at 30km/hr. Its all good and its all fun.

On the weight side, I braved the scales today and it wasn't good. So I have a new target - back to the clean eating (with the exception of my Friday night pub outing) and I aim to be back to goal by Christmas. (possibly sooner). I've also challenged a face book friend to help with the motivation....

Smashing Times Ahead

I'm really enjoying riding my bike at the moment. On my side bar I set a goal of riding to Pirie in under 1.30 (30kms) and I smashed this on Saturday at 1.20. And today was National Ride to Work Day - so I elected to ride to work (in Pirie). My work colleagues made a big fuss about it - with someone sending out an email to everyone about my "humungous" effort - whereas to me its no longer a big deal, I've done it quite a few times now. (It was nice though) However, what was a big deal to me was that I smashed my time again - 1.10, averaging 26km/hr and a HR of 71%. I was pretty pleased with this average speed - given that the first 10 kms have some heavy duty hills.
One of the reasons for my faster time was that I was having problems with my chain/gearing and was reluctant to change gears very much. So I pretty much rode the whole thing overgeared - meaning that I had to work quite hard, rather than fast spinning, but this seemed to produce much faster speeds, and I discovered that I'm strong enough to maintain this over distance. Now I'm wondering about what the right speed might be for the Tour Down Under... for example do you ride at a slower pace eg 20 km/hr and ride over 5 hours, or do you work harder and ride at 28 km/hr and do it in say 3.5 hrs? Maintaining the pace might be difficult, but 3.5 hours is much closer to what I used to maintaining endurance wise than 5 hrs. And an extra 1.5 hours adds up in the time you have to stay in the saddle and lean forward/take weight through your arms........Mmm a trade off to ponder. I'll get back to you.

On a not so positive note - I've eaten sh**t for the last few weeks due to an enormous amount of work stress I've been under. I've been aware of my poor choices and made a conscious decision to allow it as necessary to coping.... but now my clothes are tighter and I know I need to reign the eating back in, and step up the exercise which has also slackened off. I'm strangely peaceful about this however, as I'm hoping that I'm starting to manage my weight like normal people do - making allowances for ups and downs, and moderating their behaviour to keep their weight under control. Well I hope so.

A bit of everything

Here's an update on a bit of everything for you. I've been away a lot for work, and working most evenings, so I haven't had much of a chance to update.

Weight - Last week - 58.5, this week 58.0
Very, very interesting. I am currently losing about 500gms/wk without really trying. I haven't counted calories, I've eaten whatever I've wanted, and I've drunk reasonable amounts of alchohol. I have however been somewhat stressed, still exercising a fair bit, as well as extra endurance bike sessions, and haven't eaten any large meals -I've tended to just eat lots of snacks - some very healthy, some not so. And I've stuck to my weekly weigh ins. If I drop any more weight I will be looking at my lowest weight range in 24 years. How come its suddenly so easy? I'm not sure. I'm wondering if my metabolism is finally recovering. Its been two years now since I stopped serious dieting and reached goal weight. I've also worked hard to build muscle to help with my metabolism as well as changing my eating habits to eat small amounts regularly. Has it all actually worked? Time will tell.


City 2 Bay
Ran this last weekend in a terrible time of 80 mins - but I didn't expect anything more given my calf injury and the absence of any training. I was just hoping my general fitness would allow me to run the distance. Having mainly only run intervals this year, 12 kms was a big ask. I decided to use Jeff Galloways walk/run interval trick to put more kms in my legs than are really there. He believes that all runners should put short walk breaks in every 9 mins or so - and then you can significantly extend your distances. The week before the race during my two and only two training runs I had run 9 min intervals with 1 min walk rests, and at times had to extend them to 2 mins. So for the C2B I did some calculations and set my Garmin up to have me run for 2kms (which would be about 12 mins) and then walk for 100m. This would mean that over the 12 kms I would only walk 500 metres of it - but would hopefully be able to cover the distance injury free. And so I stuck to the plan. I let myself run as slowly as I liked, but refused to let my self stop for anything more than the scheduled walks. As I hit the 1.5 to 1 km mark I realised I still had a reasonable amount of "legs" in me, and picked up the pace, sprinting past most people along the way. I ended up running down Jetty Road feeling a little green - but thats a good way to finish. It also made me realise that I could have pushed my running harder - but I had no way of knowing this given my lack of practice. I had originally set my target at 66mins, prior to injury, and still desperately want to break the 60 minute barrier at some stage. So I have decided that as I know I can run at these speeds for short periods of time, I am going to start my training for next year, now. I am going to try and run the fastest km I can every second day until I can run a 5 min km. And then I am going to string a second together with the first etc and I WILL reach my goals - after all - a year is a long time to achieve it!

Cycling
I did my second ride to Port Pirie yesterday (30kms) and it was absolutely awful. If I thought I had a head wind last time, it was nothing in comparison to this. At times I thought I might fall off as I was having trouble keeping the bike moving forwards! During the first 3 kms I glanced down once and saw my HR hit 220 bpm. Yes you read it correctly 220 bpm - with my official Max HR being 176. Well I knew I could manage more than this - but 220! In fact when I downloaded my ride onto the computer, I saw that my max HR in the first 3 kms was 225, 220 and 225! No wonder I was feeling sick when I stopped at this point to fix something on my watch. So the ride that took my 90 mins 2 weeks ago - took me 130 mins this time. For much of it I couldn't move the bike at more than 10kms/hr due to the big hills and the headwind - which is ridiculously slow for a road bike. What was also very interesting was the calorie calculation that my Garmin did. Unlike Polar, Garmin doesn't take HR into account - its formula is based on distance and speed, so for my 2hr plus ride, averaging at 13kms/hr - it told me I had only burnt 550 cals! Now for those Polar experts, or punch this in to a calorie calculator - I spent 130 mins cycling with an average HR of 180 bpm - I would think you could probably double this effort. Vigorous exercise with a HR of 180 bpm should be burning at least 500 cals per hour I would have thought!
Anyway - also of training note - is that once again I have no stiffness/soreness/DOMS from the ride. I'm wondering if this is because its a low impact sport.

Weight Training
Haven't done a lot of this of late due to work pressures. But I did bench press again this morning, and after two sets put another 1kg on the bar, and managed to push out 8 reps at 26 kgs. So I decided that if I can press 8 of them, the bar will stay at 26 kgs in future. Didn't try a maximum at the beginning - so don't know how this is going - but I did have another go at the chinups - and there is a little bit more movement there. So onwards with the bench press - maybe its helping. No update on the pushups, they have been missing for the last two weeks!

Well - that's it for now - I'm off to watch Australian Idol

How time and perspective fly!

I was reviewing my sidebar entry of events I've been in, and realised quite a few were missing.
So I've gone back and added all the "little ones" in - right back to 2003 when I entered the C2B for the first time ever and was terrified that I wouldn't make the distance - and I was only walking!

Delayed Weightifrication

In line with new found more relaxed approach to my weight, I have finally managed to stop weighing daily, and have only been weighing Saturday mornings. So far so good.

Last week - Weight 59.2
This week - Weight 59.0

Happy with that

Tour Down Under Training

Well- I managed one of my weird and wonderful goals today, except I then realised that I had never remembered to put this one in my sidebar. Now fixed.

I rode from my home in Crystal Brook to Port Pirie. This is something my husband and I have contemplated for years but never had a go. Its about 32 kms (but my trip actually measured at 30 today) and its the trip I travel everyday on the way to work. A little to far to run on a regular basis - but we have always thought cycling would be achievable. Since we can't both ride it (cause then there's no-one to pick us up) and I'm far more motivated than Andrew - this morning I decided that this was it - I was going to do it this morning. And I did

It took a little over 1.5 hrs - but I had a massive headwind all the way along the highway. Oh yes, that's one of the joys of living in the country - If I want to ride any distances, I actually have to ride along the highway and have all the trucks, lorries, caravans, boats etc try and shake me off and great speeds! Apart from the headwind, and the fact that it was reasonably warm (forecast for 27 deg) it wasn't too bad. The headwind made it feel like it was all hills (I even had to work hard on the downhills) but it was only about 12 kms of the ride, and once I turned off I only had to deal with a crosswind which was much easier. I had a quick 3 min break at the 15km mark, had a drink, stretch and a gel) and then headed off again. The really good thing was that when I arrived in Pirie and had some breakfast I felt good - no stiffness/tiredness, and briefly contemplated riding back home again. (No, not yet, but it will happen) I reckon that if I didn't have the headwind I could have done it in less than 90 mins, so this is my next goal.

Now - I just have to be able to do that ride three times in a row - and I'll be all ready for the big race!

Training for City 2 Bay

Given my injuries of late, I haven't done much distance running - in fact this year I have predominantly run speed and hill intervals. With the C2B being only 2 weeks away - thought I had better try some continuous running. So Wed morning whilst staying in Adelaide - I headed out along the Torrens by the Festival Theatre. I decided to run 9 min blocks with 1 min walk breaks - otherwise I would never be able to cover any distance. I ended up running about 7 kms.
My time was quite slow, as after the first block, I found I needed my second break to be 2 mins, and my 3rd to be 3 mins. What I did find of great interest is that although I was focussing on running slow, every time I looked down at my watch I found myself running much faster than I thought - somewhere between 11 and 12 kms/hour. This is a change, as my "slow" speed is usually more like 9 kms/hr - so I guess all my speed work has made a difference. Only problem is that I struggled with the 7 kms (its been months and months since running any distances), so the 12 kms next weekend is really going to hurt! Not to worry - I've given up on any time goals, I will just be aiming to relax, enjoy it and make the distance however I need to .

By the way, for any other SA bloggers who are competing, I will be having lunch afterwards with friends from the gym at the Jetty Hotel (i think thats what its called) so if you want to call in and say hi - you will know where to find me. I still look pretty much like my profile photo - except my hair will probably be up in a pony tail.

A Changing View

I've noticed lately that my body is changing. And for the better.



I've been exercising fairly consistenly now for almost 2.5 years, and it has occured to me lately that there are lots of signs that I have slowly changed shape, regardles of what the scales say.



For example

When comparing statistics from one year to another, if I compare at the same scale weights, my waist and thighs are smaller.



When reviewing photographs 1 year apart, same weight - and I tried on the same clothes, even my 12 y.o. daughter said - Mum you look different. Its subtle - but my shoulders are rounder and more defined - there is more muscle definition in my chest, my waist is smaller etc. A colleague looked at a photo of me 12 months ago and thought I had lost some weight since then - "You look thinner in the face". My weight is probably a few kilos lighter - but I think I've also changed muscle/fat ratio



I can feel the difference. I feel the difference in the way underwear sits on my body (more of that Lift and Separate feeling), I can feel the way my stomach feels flatter and my thighs feel stronger.



From a weight management perspective, I have now found that I can eat more without gaining weight. This was one of my goals to increase my metabolism through gaining more muscle. I think this combined with plenty of metabolism boosting exercise is really working.



You don't gain a muscly body overnight, and mine still has a very long way to go - but - I think the long term benefits of the exercise are really starting to show.

Diary Entry of a Fitness Freak

I am sooo loving my weekends at the moment.

Now that Saturday morning sport has finished for the girls, it means there is no reason why I can't head into the gym in the morning for a somewhat leisurely workout. I say somewhat leisurely as I don't seem to be able to get in there earlier than 10 am (keep in mind they don't open until 9) and that only gives me 2 hours until they close again at 12. But still, 2 hours of no rush in after work, and work to a time schedule because hubby will be picking me up at a certain time and I have to get back home to cook tea. I've been doing 45 minutes in the Male Zone weight room (had it to myself last week - maybe I've scared 'em off with my mega muscles LOL) and then running for an hour. Then I've changed clothes, taken my self to the local shopping centre for a relaxing lunch on my own, a dawdle through the shops and a bit of food shopping. HEAVEN! And Sundays I've been doing my long bike ride for the week (90 mins this week) and what ever else I've felt like. (Walks, weights, pushups etc)

By Monday I'm sore but loving it. I am also almost embarassed to admit that I think I had DOMS in my glutes for the first time on Sunday (must have finally hit proper form) - even sitting on the toilet seat hurt - WHAT A GREAT FEELING! My new motto for the glutes parallels a bra ad - "Lift and Separate" - LOL - don't share that one too far!

Gadget Queen

Anyone who knows me will relate this title to me. I loooove my gadgets. And two new ones arrived during the week. A food pod for my Garmin - which will now record my distance/speed on the treadmill so that I can download to the computer, and a Mini Ipod for swimming.

Last season I grabbed "a bargain" on Ebay and bought a waterproof ipod casing for swimming - thinking I will perform better and for longer if I can distract myself with music - like I do with running. Of course the "bargain" worked out to be a bit more expensive as my existing ipod didn't fit - so I've been searching every since on ebay for another "bargain" - a mini ipod to match! It came and I'm getting quite excited. I've even downloaded books and geocaching podcasts onto it. Imagine that - I could "read" a whole book whilst swimming!

I was telling a good friend (the owner of the pool I swim in) about my recent purchase and waiting for him to laugh and the conversation went like this
"Really - you can get waterproof ipods?"
"Yes" I said hesitantly - waiting for the snicker
Pregnant pause
"Do you think you could leave it here between swims and I could borrow it? I could swim so much more if I could be listening to music!"

Ah ha - I'm not the only crazy person in the world - and not a bad deal either - considering he lets me swim in his heated lap pool in the mornings for free!

But what really got me posted about gadgets - is finding out about all the amazing blogger gadgets that exist ! I've uploaded quite a few in my sidebar. I think I'll have to visit my own blog daily just to see all the latest quotes and tips! Check 'em out and have a game of Hangman on me!

Another mini goal

I was talking to my nephew the other day, who plays footy in the reserves. He's not a really big guy in comparison to some footballers, and only 18/19 - so I was curious as to how much he can bench press. The answer - he can do sets at about 80 kgs! Now I'd guess he weighs about 80kgs, and I think if you are seriously into power lifting you have to be able to press about your own weight. Mmm - that means I should be aiming to press between 50 and 60 kgs - eek!

What can I press now? Well I'm doing sets of 25 at the moment - but I put another 5kgs on the bar and managed to do 2 at 30kgs. I also had a go this morning with the weights my husband had put on - with him spotting - 39kgs - I could hold it but not push it. So I guess my max is somewhere between 30 and 39 - but pretty close to 30.

So I've set another mini goal. I want to be able to press 50kgs. I don't know how long it will take me to get there, but if I keep the focus on it, I don't see why not.

And this should also help with my other goals in pushups, one handed pushups, clapping pushups and pullups (still cant do them.) Surely if I can bench press 50kgs I should be able to do a pullup!

Oh - and more for my records than for anyone else - yesterday I did one point (one armed) rows with 12.5 kgs dumbbells- Woo hoo! Thats the most weight I've ever done with one arm anti gravity.

100 Pushup Challenge Update

I seem to have trouble fitting this in consistently.

Anyway, last Saturday I started week 4
Its 5 sets of 30, 22, 20, 20 and then a min of 27 (or something like that)
And for the first time I failed
I pushed out the first 30, and I think the next 22, but from there on in it was a real struggle. I'd do about 14 and then fall flat on my face. Get up, get up I'd say - and do another 2 before falling again, then 2 more, then 1 etc - you get the picture. I think I ended up doing about 113 - but I would have been fun to watch. Not to mention this was the day I ventured into the "male zone" the heavy weights area.
Ahh well.

but I will push on. Its been a week since then I must go again soon - but its scary!

For the love of running

EmH posted recently about how she doesn't really enjoy running, but whilst injured and not able to do it - she misses it. I'm exactly the same.
With my recent calf injury I've had to had a very slow and careful return to running. Just 20 secs at time, then 60 secs, then 60 sec repeats, then two minutes - you get the picture - a very slow return. I did running intervals on the weekend with cardio coach and by the end of it was feeling fairly confident and even did a little bit of speed work. Ran 12kms/hr for 1 minute - which I was really pleased about. Just before my injury I was really pleased with my speed work - feeling like I had entered a new phase - I seem to have learnt how to stride differently when running faster- I even hit 14km/hr at one stage. So getting back to running 12km/hr - even for a little bit felt good.
And then last night I decided to try slow but long. By long I mean longer than 2 mins at a time!
I ran 5 mins, then 10, 10 and then 15 and it felt FANTASTIC. I loved it . I felt like I could have run forever - but as soon as I felt my right leg working harder than my left to protect it, I stopped and walked for a while. I was only running at 8km/hr because I am terrified of re-injuring - but it felt very easy. I wish I had worn my heart rate monitor. Breathing was so easy I could almost do it with my mouth closed, (a sign I wasn't working hard enough!) and whilst the legs felt it - it was quite manageable. It was lovely to run on the treadmill again and feel the body pumping - and I'm really pleased with how I've maintained my fitness. If nothing else my aim for the City to Bay (post injury target) is just to do a slow jog and complete it. And it looks like I might manage it if I stay sensible.

Oh and by the way - i now have a chance at beating hubby - he has injured HIS calf on a run whilst in Sydney - so I'm hoping i will be better recovered than him - and finish ahead of him. What - a bit rich I hear you say? Hey - I'm never going to beat him any other way - gotta take the opportunities as they come up!!!!


PS - why so many posts lately? - I'm home looking after my sick daughter - so extra time on my hands...

Tour Down Under - Stage 4

151 days to go....
Andrew and I decided a few weeks back (ok I decided and he eventually agreed) that we would do Stage 4 of the Tour Down Under this year.
Now I'm not much of a cyclist, but we did buy the nice road racing bikes for triathlons - so why not. The choices of distance were really either 32kms or 97kms. We have been contemplating riding from home into Port Pirie (where we work) for some time now on the weekends, and this is 32kms, so the shorter distance didnt seem like enough of a challenge. So 97kms it is.

I started training for it this week - particularly as with the calf injury its another form of exercise that's low impact.

Given the weather I'm doing this at the gym. Did 5 mins on the bike and could start to feel it already - yikes - thats not good. But 5 mins on this and then 5 on the recumbent - which is much more comfortable - and then every day adding by 5 mins. The last few days I've been doing half an hour at 90 - 100 rpms - and covering 12 kms quite comfortably. I know the recumbent isn't the same as riding my bike - but at the moment I just want to get my legs used to spinning at speed over time. (An interesting side note - I'm not putting on any resistance - but I didn't think it would have such a low impact on my heart rate - it rarely goes over 100 - generally sitting at about 95). Then on Sunday - I hopped on the real thing and went for a ride.
I did 14 kms in 37mins, which is about an average of 23kms/hr. I was much faster in the first half - seeing 28/30kms/hr quite often - but in the second half I had a head wind and I was much slower. I don't know how much this had to do with the head wind - or just me tiring. At the 10 km mark I thought - gee only need to do this 10 times over on the day..... At the moment that seems quite impossible - but as you know I love a challenge

I know nothing about cycling training - but I'm just going to treat it as an endurance event, and use the same principles. I think I will train in the gym during the week at the moment due to the short days/bad weather, and then do one long ride each weekend, increasing by 3 - 5 kms each time. If I increase by 5, I can probably afford to have a maintenance week once/month to give my body some time to recuperate. I might try and put up a weekly log/table of my training distances, but I've forgotten how to do this - so if any knows - can you drop me a line?

And on the gadget front - I've decided to buy the foot pod for my Garmin -so I can measure my running indoors. I then plan to buy the cadence sensor for my bike and eventually the quick release wrist strap for quickly changing it from my bike to my wrist - but I don't really need this yet until I set another date for a triathlon. Oooh I loooove gadgets!

Thin People Are Naturally Thin – or Maybe Not

I’ve always thought there were two categories of people. Those who struggled with their weight – and those who don’t. You know the ones I mean – the ones who are naturally thin and don’t seem to worry about what they eat or drink. Most of them don’t exercise either. I’ve always envied them and wondered what life would be like to be like that.

But since losing weight, I sometimes think I’ve gained entry into a new club. A club where secrets are shared. A club of thin people who I’ve discovered actually secretly pride themselves on maintaining their weight and actually monitor it very carefully.

Here are a few stories

Friend One on a sporting weekend shared late one night, how she loves to be thin, and loves the way clothes look, and is terrified of gaining weight. She weighs herself every day, sometimes more than once, and carefully makes sure she never eats too much. She only has fruit for breakfast, then nothing till lunch, a healthy salad role, and a what ever the family are having for tea – but only a very small serve. Nothing after tea, no treats during the day. Oh - and of course she doesn’t eat things like pizza or other takeaway if that’s what the family are having– she cooks herself up some veggies instead. And she exercises (on a moderate level) daily. She says if she eats any more she gains weight. She is worried about passing on her eating obsessiveness to her daughter. She is my age, and has always been a size 8. I’ve never really noticed what she ate, apart from knowing that she liked to make healthy choices. And I’ve always assumed she was naturally this way.

Friend Two – always been a size 8, and very petite. We were at a BBQ one night and I noticed she was eating soup that she had brought with her. Why I asked? It turned out that whilst on an overseas holiday she had gained 4 kgs, and on her return, she set about losing it as quickly as possible. Of course, those around scoffed – because you couldn’t see it, but she whispered to me that she knew she had, because her jeans felt tight. And as soon as this happens – she cuts back on her eating until they fit well again. She doesn’t weigh herself all the time – but she always wears fitted clothes and uses the fit as a guide to modify her eating. I always knew she went to the gym regularly – but I thought it was for her bad hip. I’m not so sure now.

Friend Three – always been a size 8 (I seem to have a lot of these don’t I?) In talking about how much weight I had lost and how fabulous I looked (in her opinion). We got to talking about what she eats. “Oh I never eat much more than a vegemite roll during the day – and then I can afford quite a bit of wine at night”. Interesting that at the same height, she didn’t think that I needed to lose any more weight – despite being about 10 kgs heavier than her!

Friend Four – yes, another size 8 (well in my head anyway) Turned to me in a meeting the other day when we stopped for the catered lunch and said – “oh I really can’t have any of the sweets today – I’ve put on weight this week” “This week?” I puzzled to her. “yes” she whispered, “I normally gain weight on the weekend, and then lose it again during the work week” but last week I didn’t lose it like I normally do.” So she obviously weighs herself regularly to stay within some sort of limit, and then changes her eating accordingly.

These friends are all over 40 and I have known them for many years. They have ‘successfully” maintained their weight all their lives, and I have never noticed any gain. But I always assumed it was easy for them. I never realized that they were secretly – well at least not openly – checking their weight regularly and restricting their eating when necessary. And I didn’t realize that they actively worked at eating small quantities. Not all their behaviors are healthy, are some are bordering on obsessive, but I never realized that perhaps thin people (or at least some) enact some sort of control over their behaviour, that those who gain large amounts of weight perhaps don’t. I know for me there were probably years when I refused to step on the scales, and I always wore elasticized trousers so I didn’t have the same bench marks to monitor my gains. All I noticed over the years was that my clothing sizes kept creeping up and up.

Maybe there are still two groups of people, but rather than the naturally thin and not so naturally – maybe its about those who monitor and react to the checks and balances, and those who don’t. And maybe our disillusioned view of how much easier we thought maintenance would be, is based on not realizing this.

Pushups equal Pain

I never thought pushups could cause so much pain.

I’ve just finished Week 3 of the 6 week program but it is taking me longer than its meant to as I’m having to have 3 days between each session as I haven’t recovered sufficiently.

Today I did a total of 113 pushups over 5 sets (30, 22, 22, 20, 25) oh – yes – that should add up to 114 shouldn’t it.

But I didn’t quite make it.

Each session I look at the figures ahead of me and shake my head. I don’t think I can do it. And then I remember that I think that every time and somehow just manage to make it.

So today was no different. Except I had to increase my rest time between sets from 2 mins to 3 mins, and on the last set, I collapsed at number 24. Wooss – I told myself, get back up there and do the last one. So I got back up to the full plank, lowered myself to the ground and could not for the life of me push myself more than half way back up again. Collapsed again.

You know the test kids do – where you stand in a doorway and push your arms outwards on the door frame and hold for one minute – and when you let go your arms feel like they are floating upwards? Well that’s how my arms feel – for hours afterwards. They ached and throbbed so much that I had to take nurofen at lunch time just to get over myself! And I’ve noticed at work that my hand shakes if I try and write something rather than type – because the fatigue is so intense. Who would have thought that a little old pushup could reek such havoc!

But I wont give up.

I will be a 100 pushup girl!

August Fitness Update

Nutrition
As I mentioned on my previous post- I've had a weeks leave of absence from clean eating - and its been lovely. I'm a bit scared to step on the scales tomorrow - but I don't really care. Its only one week out of normal routine -and whatever the damage I know I can turn it around - and it was worth it. Interestingly I noted that I seemed to want to eat more and more as time went on, and it wasn't until the long drive home that I finally realised that I wasn't eating because I was hungry- in fact my body seemed to have stopped responding to hunger - I was eating out of interest (hey that looks good) and boredom/fatigue (i'm tired - lets stop and eat/I'm bored with all this driving - what can I eat next). I wasn't experiencing any hunger and and I hadn't realised it. I guess thats how I used to feel all the time and thats why its so easy to overeat when you don't eat well. I'm looking forward to returning to good eating, and really enjoying all types of food, rather than just the indulgent ones that become blander and blander over time.

Exercise
Well - although I've been eating a lot - and I've had no normal exercise routine - we've had a very active week, walking or hiking all day every day. I'm hoping this will help me with the scales, as apart from sitting down watching 3 movies, and meal times, I've spent every other waking minute walking in hilly areas - which is much more active than my normal days at work, although minus the high intensity exercise routine.

Injury update: I went back to Combat last week to try out my calf muscle. Told myself I'd stick to low impact - but some things you just cant do...... By the end of track 2, I had pulled the calf again (but not nearly as badly) but of course I couldn't just chuck it in - could I? Good thing I am pretty fit and strong as I realised I could do just about everything - as long as I did it on one leg - and I have a good strong right one to fit the bill. So I finished the class - still doing a lot of the high impact stuff, although rather frustrated. And the next day I was back to limping around.....
It was only a minor set back though - and I had discovered in the class that I could do practically anything as long as I only placed the ball of my left foot on the ground. So when climbing stairs in the blue mountains I "toe stepped" them, and when I went up steep inclines, as long as I only took weight through the toes of my left foot - no worries. And of course for the bridge climb where you have to declare injuries - what injury???? Needn't have worried - I could have done that one legged too if needed(LOL). Running is still an issue though. I tried Thursday morning - and last 20 secs before feeling the strain - so I'm not sure if I will be able to run the City 2 Bay - I think its only about 6 weeks away....If nothing else - I will at least be able to walk it, or maybe run/walk - but I won't be able to focus on a PB like I had hoped. Ahh well.

100 pushups - had great intentions of keeping up with this whilst away - but left the caravan the minute we awoke each day (ok we did get dressed first) and only returned in time to climb into bed late at night. And sizing up the caravan - I couldn't really see how I was going to do it without pushing Andrew out the door - so I did NONE. Will start again tomorrow - am up to week 3 I think - maybe my week off has given me time for great muscle growth! (wishful thinking I know)

Oh - and I'm going to try Combat again tomorrow night - trust me the calf feels much much better, even better than it did last time I tried!

All Things NSW

This must be the year of NSW for me. I've just returned from my third trip there in about 5 months, but this time it was all pleasure, no work. Andrew and I were invited to a wedding in Katoomba so we decided to take a week off work, leave the kids behind and have our first holiday on our own after 23 yrs of marriage! We decided to drive and take the van, as it would work out a lot cheaper - and allow us to put the money saved to much better use -which we certainly did - I hate to think how much money we spent!

The wedding in Katoomba was lovely although very cold, as it was outdoors in about 5 deg! but with a beautiful backdrop of the misty Blue Mountains. The next day we went to Scenic World and did the whole tourist thing seeing the 3 sisters etc. Wednesday we had planned on a couple of big hikes, however it was pouring with rain, about 0 degrees (well at least thats how it felt) and blowing a gale. Not really good or safe hiking whether, so we decided to give it a miss and head to Sydney a day earlier. We had a lovely time in Sydney, doing lots of shopping, going to the movies (saw The Bank Job, The Square, and Mamma Mia), eating anything I felt like (had a holiday from clean eating too) We enjoyed Darling Harbour, walked around the Opera House and surrounding areas at night - and did the big Bridge climb - twice. well almost.

We booked in to do it on Thursday - and after an hour of "gearing up", and brief walk and climb, and then 30 mins of sheltering at the mezzanine level of the bridge whilst 3 electrical storms made their way overhead, our climb was eventually aborted and we returned to base to "de-gear" and rebook. Well that wasted 3 hrs- and we still had to return the next day to do it all again. This time we went up no probs. Whilst I am thrilled to have done it - to be honest it was a bit frustrating. There is all the hype about it being challenging - but it really wasn't - I would describe it more as a walk in the park. Apart from one section of ladder climbs which takes you up past the road level to the arch - and wouldn't take more than 5 mins to climb - the rest is gentle stairs. and the really frustrating part was that the group stopped about every 5 mins for tourist info about the bridge and Sydney. As Andrew reminded me - most people were probably very interested - but for me it was all about the climb - and I think I could have done it in half an hour, rather than the one and a half hours that they dragged it into. In fact - I reckon I could have run most of it - now that would have been fun! Of interest to us fitness fanatics - the first guide said you burn approx 900 cals on the climb - and the second said 600-800. My take on it - I would have been lucky to burn 300! Not once did I breathe hard, and I spent more time standing resting, than climbing. If I compare it to a combat class - I would be lucky to burn 500 cals in an hour of this high impact aerobics - can't see how the effort required for the "climb" came anywhere close to this! Anyway - it was great to do it, and I have a Tshirt to prove it!

Here we are - looking particularly glamorous! It was so cold that all I cared about was dressing warmly!

Two other lovely things whilst we were away - Friday night we went on a Salsa - dinner cruise which was a lovely night with lots of dancing - and Andrew decided it was time to buy me an eternity ring - since we were practically on a second honeymoon. He bought me a lovely white gold ring with a pink saphire and diamonds. Luckily we found a shop that was closing down and was selling everything half price. Even at half price it was a little above our price range any way!

HEREs where the photo of my ring should be - but someone's taken the batteries from the camera - so I can't put one in GRRRH! Maybe next post.