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!

Well, finally received my photo of crossing the finish line - so I have digiscrapped it and here it is for you to see. Its not a very glamorous or flattering photo, but I like it for a couple of reasons. If you can enlarge it you will see that I have muscle definition in not only my arms, but also my legs, and I'm very proud of that. Didn't know I had so much "boob movement", and the ear growths are attractive (headphones) but ahh well - who cares, at least it shows me being athletic and achieving - and I'm happy with that! I will have to post a photo soon showing a much more glamorous side of my new bod - to balance this one out! BTW I bought a slinky red evening dress the other day - I have absolutely nowhere to wear it - but it was size 10, fitted beautifully and only $35! To me it was symbolic of what I have achieved, so I bought it. It will be there ready for any occasion that might arise, rather than panicking when being invited out somewhere formal that I have nothing to wear! I also thought I might surprise my husband with it. Perhaps when I reach goal we can go out for a romantic evening for two, and I can don the dress then.

Speaking of weight - yes I am still losing but very slowly. About 300gms a week now. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly - despite teh fact that I exercise for 1 - 2 hrs/day, my lower weight and increased fitness mean that I burn much fewer calories - about 300/hr instead of 500 -600. Plus I have applied my low heart rate training to all areas of exercise, which has meant giving up higher level cardio (combat, step etc) and have replaced them with more Body Balance/yoga/pump (plus lower level cardio on the bike/rower). I am also really starting to focus on building muscle. I am obsessed with all the fitness mags, and am working towards a clean diet with heaps of protein, and am now taking protein supplements. The more I build muscle of course, the slower the weight loss.
I'm actually a bit perplexed by my current body fat status - getting different messages. My scales tell me I am still at 39% body fat - which puts me in the obese category! GRRHHH. I have cheap skin calipers at home - and they suggest body fat is around 30% - one of the gym instructors said he would guess at about 30% - but what I really need to do is go in and get it tested for real. Otherwise its really hard to see what improvement I am making.

Either way I definitely need to strip more fat - particularly around the tummy - cause guess what I can under the last layer of fat......the makings of a six pack! Yep - you heard it - a six pack. I have been doing abs exercises almost daily now for almost a year - so something should be happening there! I have been able to see the vertical definition of the rectus abdominus muscles for some time, but yesterday I proudly showed off to hubby that if I tense my abdominals - you can see two pairs of curved horizontal lines at the top of my abs! Of course you can't see them normally cause there's too much fat - but they are defintely there! I read that you need to get your body fat down to about 20% to be able to see them - so I am aiming for that.

Running is still happening and going ok - will fill you in more about that next time.

Cheers

Thin vs Fit

Well, I'm officially a Fifties girl now. I saw weights in the fifties all week, and on my official weigh in day I registered 59.7, not bad after a day off yesterday and eating Barnacle Bill's and cheescake for lunch for my Dad's birthday! It was a somewhat surprising 1.5 kg loss for the week. Last week's weigh in saw me at 61.2 and I thought I was lucky it wasn't more as I didn't eat particulary well in my week of holidays after the big race. But I had been hovering around this weight for a few weeks before this and eating well, and it just reinforced for me that consistency of diet wins at the end of the day. I've also decided that my job is very good for weight loss - I have no time to eat!!! NO temptations to snack on undesirable foods - I am way too busy and tied down in meetings so it just can't happen.

Thin vs fit - I've had some new insights regarding this. At a family dinner on Sunday night I found out that my sister-in-law and I weigh exactly the same - 59 kilos. But she is a bit taller than me (not hard!) I reckon about 8 - 10 cms. So in my head I was processing this and thought - well this means she must be thinner than me. But I looked at her, and then reviewed the picture of me I had in my head and thought - I could have sworn I looked thinner than her - but obviously I must be wrong. It is really hard to be objective about the way you look - so I asked my husband the same question on the way home. And guess what - he thought I looked slimmer too. But how can this be you ask? As I did myself? The only explanation I can come up with is "muscle". I have spent the last 10 months exercising intensely and have definitely built muscle: I can see it in the mirror, in the photos from the City/Bay - even the kids have commented on it, and we all know muscle weighs more than fat. So whilst we weigh the same, I think my body must be more compact from the muscle and showing a slimmer shape. How cool is that! But there was more that occured to me about this. I spent quite a while reading "Oxygen" (fitness mag for women), and what I realised was that I prefer these mags to slimming ones, because they show a fitter healthier looking body shape - one'es with rounded shaped shoulders and athletic looking thighs - and I love this look. I've always hated my saddle bag thighs and yearned for those sleek stick thin ones - at least I thought i did. But now I realsie I'd much prefer to have athletic looking solid thighs - and thats definitely achievable. I think I may just learn to love my thighs afterall! It just reiterated to me that I am no longer looking for slimmer and slimmer versions of myself - I want to look fit and athletic, toned and not fat - all quite different from skinny! I think the female stars of the world have got it all wrong. Instead of starving themselves to be thinner and look more glamorous in their evening gowns, they should be exercising more to accentuate a curvy toned body - now that would look fab - and what guy doesn't love curves!

Well its only 4 weeks now until the anniversary of my weight loss journey, and I am determined to reach goal by then, so my posts will probably focus more on weight than fitness over the next few weeks, then it will be full on fat loss (changing my body composition/building muscle).
BTW - I ran 8 kms this am, then turned around and ran back down the street to buy a morning drink (just because I can!). And then, as it was such a beautiful day and I wanted to head out again, I went off to the gym and rowed 1km, cycled 5 kms and did my weights - just because I can!!! What a beautiful life!

Sharing My Story

About a month ago I was asked by some staff at work if I would provide a brief presentation at our divisional planning day about my "inspirational "weight loss achievements. I work in a leadership position in a health service, and my weight loss has been fairly high profile given my position. Our planning day had a "healthy lifestyles" theme, so although I already had to present on more serious stuff earlier in the day, I agreed to "go public" and in 5 minutes share my story. As I prepared the presentation I became somewhat nervous. I knew that people really wanted to see before/after photos, but to be honest, knowing I was going to put up all my "fat" photos for 130 staff to see, many of whom had never seen me at my heaviest, was not an easy thing to do. However I remembered how inspirational I had found so many other peoples stories/blogs and thought, well even if it just inspired one person to lose weight, it would be worth it. So I did. Since then the rest of the organisation (we are only 1 division of 4) have also wanted to see it, so it is now hosted on our network for all staff to view at their leisure (eekk - more really bad nerves - be brave Lisa) The response has been phenomenal though. I won't go into all the responses I have had, but I have even had staff members ring me whom I barely know to congratulate me, and tell me how motivating they have found it.
So I thought that since its already done I might as well share it with you guys too. It is a large file so it will take a while to download - and you will need to have powerpoint to view it.
http://d.turboupload.com/d/1022837/Transformations.ppt.html

Also - I have uploade the Hadd document that I mentioned in an earlier post about low HR training
http://www.sendmefile.com/00467813

Ciao

Need I say more???

59.9!!!!!!

The New Training Schedule

I have made a discovery… I am very unfit aerobically. What you say – how can that be with all the exercise you do? But its true. Read on to be enlightened…

Now when I look at all the exercise I have done over the last 8 months since I joined the gym and ditched walking, I have NEVER exercised within my aerobic capacity – I have always pushed myself so hard that I am exercising at about the 90% level. But at the end of the fitness challenge that I was involved in (end of August), I was very disappointed to find that my fitness had only improved minimally. A friend who was on the winning team suggested that I really should have been on their team so that I could have been a part of the winning prize – assuming that I must have improved significantly, and was shocked when I told her my results “But you do so much more than the rest of us – that can’t be possible” At the time I thought that it might have been related to the fitness test being done on a bike, because I don’t do any bike riding. But looking back – the test that was done required me to keep my heart rate at a low level whilst the resistance to the bike increased, and I had trouble with this.

From some of the runners’ forums I have listened to people discuss the Hadd approach to low heart rate training – which involves running below your maximum aerobic threshold (usually talked about as 85% of max hr) to train yourself to run aerobically and utilizing body fat as the primary source of fuel, instead of glycogen. Apparently when you run anaerobically (over 85%) you use glycogen (the sugar/energy you currently have in your system) but once you have depleted this, runners hit “a wall” when their bodies try to switch to burning body fat, and they aren’t used to it/very good at it.

But it also talks about how if you always run anaerobically – you will build fast twitch fibres in the leg muscles, but these are no good for endurance runs – you need to build slow twitch fibres, and this ONLY occurs when you run aerobically.

So how much training have I done within my aerobic capacity? NONE
I have always pushed myself hard in an effort to be super fit – and I know it has made a difference (eg I now have a low resting HR level, I can achieve much higher levels of activity in classes, I can run and at a reasonable level etc) but I think I’ve really developed those fast twitch fibres, giving me lots of spring and “go gettum”, but I haven’t been improving my base aerobic fitness. I think I have pushed myself too hard too fast to meet my City/Bay running goals, and missed a few important steps along the way.

The Hadd method requires regular long runs, whilst keeping my heart rate below 138 bpm at all times. Eeek – 138 bpm – I didn’t think that was possible! And I was right. When I first headed out to try this, within 10 metres my HR was up to 155 and I had to stop and walk to get it to return to a lower level. And I continued to have to walk/run every 10 metres or so. Apparently, when you have good aerobic fitness – you can run at a reasonable pace at this level. REALLY? I have to say if that’s possible, then I’m all for it. Because when I stopped to walk there was no need to catch my breath and the run really required no effort. At that level of effort I could run for hours…..Did I say hours? Is this how the distance runners do it?
Because all of my running up until now has been very hard work (hence the high HR!), I often don’t look forward too it because its so much effort! If I can follow this technique (and the plan is that if you keep yourself within this HR threshold, after a minimum of 6 weeks the mitochondria and slow twitch muscles will begin to grow) and continually increase my pace without increasing my HR – this would be fantastic! I might actually enjoy running!

I think my difficulty running within an aerobic capacity shows how much I need to learn to do this! Out of interest, the first day I trialed it – I had to walk as much as I ran (very frustrating), but with practice I have changed my running technique to require far less thigh movement and far more calf/ankle movement which is more efficient and allows me to run more without my HR going up . I trialed this on the treadmill on Thursday – and basically I’ve had to drop my speed to about 7.5km/hr (from 10!). (and if you can call it speed because it doesn’t really feel like running – more like a shuffle). But on Saturday when I ran 6 kms – I ran most of the time, and averaged over 8kms/hr. Now I don’t think that’s from building the right muscle fibers (too soon) but I think I’ve learnt to be far more efficient – and that’s a good thing in itself. Its very frustrating (and embarrassing – running so slowly on the open road!) but ultimately, if it will provide me with some real gains, I think it will be worth it. I will keep you up to date with my progress, am entering every thing into the “cool runners running log”, and it keeps track of every little detail.

I haven’t done justice to Hadd’s methods – have left heaps out, and the article is well worth a read, particularly for those aspiring runners who read my blog (eg Trisca, Jessie, Girl Running) so I will try and attach it.

Here’s to all the slow twitch muscle fibres I’m going to develop over the next few months….WOOHOO!