So I'm pretty sure my fitness has improved this week. But good grief I'm buggered. Boot camp Monday, Wednesday, Friday, cycling to and from work Tuesday, 8km run on Thursday. It's been a while (say, 6 or 8 months) since I've gone without a rest day during the week, and I'm feelin' it. I'm very much looking forward to being an utter sloth tonight.
I'm not sure it's the exercise itself, so much as the time and organisation. Getting out of the house at 5.20am for boot camp (or at 4am on stupid Monday with crazy work day), well that kinda takes its toll. Yesterday I slept in to 6.30, or at least I should say I attempted to sleep in. My body clock was obviously a bit confused, and kept waking up every 15 minutes or so from 4am, alerting me enough to wonder what time it was, realise I didn't have to get up, and then drifting off again. It's quite unrestful and quite annoying really. Maybe I'd be better off just getting up at stupid-o'clock every day, and doing my run on Thursday morning instead of night. The problem is I'm then limited to about half an hour if I don't want to be late for work and/or run in the dark - and I'm trying to increase my times and distances at the moment. Ah who knows, I'll work it out in time. I'll just get myself into a routine and then I'll be off on holidays, screw it all up and need to get myself sorted all over again.
The run down on bootcamp. Well, the jury is still out. The first session I mentioned before, was pretty easy. The second session was even more so, which kinda peeved me. If I'm getting up at 5am, I want to be getting some bang for my buck you know? Wednesday was mainly focussed on running technique, but there was a whole lot more watching than doing. Lucky I've decided to park my car at work and jog to and from the sessions (which is only half a km or so away, at a guess, maybe slightly further), otherwise I think the calorie burn would be negligible. It was 415 on Wednesday, including my jog to and from. Pathetic.
Today's session was a lot more hard core - just on the day I was feeling tired and sore from the previous night's run, and quite pleased about the concept of an easy one! Murphy's Law. Today we did some bare foot running, and some circuit work - lunges, mountain climbers, back extensions, pose running, gluteal lifts and 100m sprints. Rinse and repeat. Plus a few other little jogs and stuff thrown in for good measure. 560 calories for the session, and I think I earned every one of them, it certainly felt a whole lot more than 150 extra calories over Wednesday's efforts. If it keeps up like this though, I'll be happy - pushing me to do stuff that I don't do anywhere else, that's what I was after when I signed up.
Last night's run was a tough one. I mapped out an 8km circuit from work and got myself going. It was hot (not summer hot, but still 28 and a bit humid, which I'm not used to yet this year), I forgot to take chewing gum (so I got a dry mouth), my feet sweated like a warthog and I got blisters. But be damned I still finished it - I didn't walk, I didn't take any of the multitudinous shortcuts I could have to get back faster, and I really pushed it out the last half a km, getting my heart rate up into the 170's... a sure measure of when I feel like I'm going to die. 53 minutes and 730 calories later, I was glad I'd done it, but boy was it hard work. Being tired and a bit run down probably didn't help either. Meh.
Now, what's on for the weekend? As little as possible for me! The weather is looking pretty dismal actually, so I don't think much will be happening outdoors. I'm going to the basketball on Sunday afternoon, and by tradition this means that mum and dad come back for dinner at my place - so some cooking will be going on. Saturday is currently completely free, which is just awesome. The house is a mess, so I will need to operate on that a little. I'm still deciding whether I will go to the gym. I probably should, but I'll see how sore I pull up.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Random info
Here's a pile of questions, stolen from http://spunkysuzi.blogspot.com/... with my own answers of course :)
1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:50am, ready to leave to cycle to work at 6.30
2. How do you like your steak? Medium
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? It might have been Twilight Eclipse? Not sure.
4. What is your favorite TV show? The Good Wife, Glee or Grey's Anatomy. Can't decide.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Can't see myself living anywhere other than Australia, it's the best place in the world.
6. What did you have for breakfast? Guardian cereal with skim milk.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian
8. What foods do you dislike? Lots - I'm pretty fussy. Bananas and most fish would top the list.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? Italian cafe
10. Favorite dressing? Not a big fan of salad dressing, I'd prefer it plain
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Renault Megane
12. What are your favorite clothes? Comfy stuff - jeans and a jumper
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Depends on the day
15. Where would you want to retire? Probably not far from where I am now. I'll let you know in 30 years or so.
16. Favorite time of day? Evening
17. Where were you born? Adelaide, South Australia
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Basketball
19. How many siblings? One brother
20. Favorite pastime/hobby? Cooking
22. Bird watcher? No
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm more alert in the mornings, but if I'm on holidays and don't have to get up early, I get more and more into night mode.
24. Do you have any pets? No, I'm not home enough. I do miss having puppies at home though.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Uh, no.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher. This is completely laughable now, seeing as I can't stand children!
27. What is your best childhood memory? "Helping" mum and dad in the garden by taking rides in the wheelbarrow and jumping on the green waste bin!
28. Are you a cat or dog person? Definitely a dog person
29. Are you married? Nope, I'm too selfish.
30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes, my car beeps really annoyingly if I don't.
31. Been in a car accident? Yes, a couple. Nothing serious.
32. Any pet peeves? Loads, I'm relatively intolerant. Laziness, poor spelling, slow drivers. The list goes on.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pineapple
34. Favorite Flower? Oriental lily
35. Favorite ice cream? Mint
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Not a fast food fan.
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None
38. From whom did you get your last email? Can't remember - someone at work.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? It depends on my mood, but kitchen and electrical stores can be my downfall.
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Sadly not!
41. Like your job? Sigh, I'm over it at the moment. But I'm one of those live to work type people, so I'd be lost without it.
42. Broccoli? Yum
43. What was your favorite vacation? South East Asian cruise
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? My friend Lou
45. What are you listening to right now? Iron Chef Australia in the background
46. What is your favorite color? ???? Blue
47. How many tattoos do you have? None. Seriously not a fan.
49. What time did you finish this quiz? 8:32pm
50. Coffee Drinker? Major addict.
1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:50am, ready to leave to cycle to work at 6.30
2. How do you like your steak? Medium
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? It might have been Twilight Eclipse? Not sure.
4. What is your favorite TV show? The Good Wife, Glee or Grey's Anatomy. Can't decide.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Can't see myself living anywhere other than Australia, it's the best place in the world.
6. What did you have for breakfast? Guardian cereal with skim milk.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian
8. What foods do you dislike? Lots - I'm pretty fussy. Bananas and most fish would top the list.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? Italian cafe
10. Favorite dressing? Not a big fan of salad dressing, I'd prefer it plain
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Renault Megane
12. What are your favorite clothes? Comfy stuff - jeans and a jumper
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Depends on the day
15. Where would you want to retire? Probably not far from where I am now. I'll let you know in 30 years or so.
16. Favorite time of day? Evening
17. Where were you born? Adelaide, South Australia
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Basketball
19. How many siblings? One brother
20. Favorite pastime/hobby? Cooking
22. Bird watcher? No
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm more alert in the mornings, but if I'm on holidays and don't have to get up early, I get more and more into night mode.
24. Do you have any pets? No, I'm not home enough. I do miss having puppies at home though.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Uh, no.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher. This is completely laughable now, seeing as I can't stand children!
27. What is your best childhood memory? "Helping" mum and dad in the garden by taking rides in the wheelbarrow and jumping on the green waste bin!
28. Are you a cat or dog person? Definitely a dog person
29. Are you married? Nope, I'm too selfish.
30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes, my car beeps really annoyingly if I don't.
31. Been in a car accident? Yes, a couple. Nothing serious.
32. Any pet peeves? Loads, I'm relatively intolerant. Laziness, poor spelling, slow drivers. The list goes on.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pineapple
34. Favorite Flower? Oriental lily
35. Favorite ice cream? Mint
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Not a fast food fan.
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None
38. From whom did you get your last email? Can't remember - someone at work.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? It depends on my mood, but kitchen and electrical stores can be my downfall.
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Sadly not!
41. Like your job? Sigh, I'm over it at the moment. But I'm one of those live to work type people, so I'd be lost without it.
42. Broccoli? Yum
43. What was your favorite vacation? South East Asian cruise
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? My friend Lou
45. What are you listening to right now? Iron Chef Australia in the background
46. What is your favorite color? ???? Blue
47. How many tattoos do you have? None. Seriously not a fan.
49. What time did you finish this quiz? 8:32pm
50. Coffee Drinker? Major addict.
Monday, October 25, 2010
I am SOOO tired
It's 7.20pm and I'm hanging out for bed. I've got a few things I need to do (make my lunch, pack my clothes, unload the dishwasher, that type of crap), and I'm having trouble getting up to do it. So I'm gonna blog, then I'm gonna do chores, then I'm gonna go to bed for some hard core zzzz.
And why am I so tired I hear you ask? Well an urgent project came up at 5pm on Friday, and my weekend was already full, so I couldn't get a start on it over the weekend. I also had my first boot-ee camp scheduled for this morning, so the only way to get a good start on the project was to have a frightfully early morning. I got up at 3.50 this morning, on the road to work at 4am, got working at 4.30. This gave me a good 80 minutes start time before I jogged down the road to the bootcamp session. Then I jogged back, and got back into work. 13 hours of work later, we got it done, but I would really rather not repeat this day any time soon.
So, bootcamp. Yeah, didn't need to be scared of that really. They kept saying that it will get harder as it goes along, but it was pretty easy going today. Quite a few push ups and squats, and a bit of running, but that was about it. My pushups are crap, but I already knew that. My upper body strength is suspect, plus I'm 20+kg overweight, so it's hard to push that excess lard up and down. I wasn't too bad on the push ups when I was thin, so hopefully I can work back towards that. My squats were really good, got through 70 in the 2 minute test period, which was better than most. We did a 600m time trial too, and I finished that in 3 min 14 seconds, which was in the top 10 or so. Not bad, but room for improvement.
It's a big group at the boot camp, probably 50 odd people. I wasn't the heaviest (which I was worried about) and I certainly wasn't the unfittest. I never realised how many chicks are scared of running. Like seriously freaking out scared of it. When Duncan said we had to run to the flag in the distance and then back, I thought some of them were actually going to cry. You'd think we'd been asked to run a marathon. The other thing I found weird was the attitude on some of them - just flat out refusing to even try to run, walking the whole way, and not even power walking at that. It's not like anyone is forcing us to be there, we've paid money to be there. Why not give it a go for goodness sakes. Ok, rant over. The next session is on Wednesday morning, so it will be interesting to see what we progress to next.
Trending backwards now, the weekend roundup. Friday night I did nothing much, just couldn't really be buggered with anything. Watched the basketball on One HD - I am loving the free to air coverage this year. I love basketball season. On Saturday morning, I was guilted into getting up for a run (Jess, if you're reading - I hated you for 45 minutes on Saturday morning, but after I got over that, I thought you were awesome for getting me out there :-) So I ran about 7.65km in 47 minutes, including some hills. My pace is increasing and I'm getting some reasonable distances in. I should be ok for the 10k Glenelg Classic next month, even if I'm not running that far around my usual tracks yet, it will be on the flat and much easier.
The rest of Saturday was spent at home shows (which were really pretty crap actually), a bit of shopping, and a quick walk with the pug. Oh, and the pug only lost 200g this fortnight, I guess he needs more walks. Saturday night I caught up with Lou for dinner and some board games (what a high flying life I lead).
Sunday - early trip to the markets as usual. I'm eating more fruit than I ever have these days, which I'm putting down to the fact that I'm not getting my sugar fix from chocolate and other crap. The pineapples are just devine at the moment, yum. After the markets I took my dad on the Active Aging walk around the botanic gardens and river Torrens. It was only $5 to enter, so I wasn't expecting much, but it was done really well. There would have been a few hundred people there, and loads of volunteers keeping everyone on the right track. There were little goodie bags at the end with some sample products, and free fruit, plus coffee and hamburgers for sale. I must say I was impressed. Dad seemed to enjoy himself too, but it completely exhausted him. I dropped him home then went back to my place to do some cooking and gardening at my place. I went back to mum and dad's for dinner later, and dad was really wiped out. The exercise will do him good though.
So for the week ahead... I'm having a bit of trouble planning my exercise around the boot camp stuff. Wednesday and Friday mornings will be boot camp. I took my stuff with me for boxing tonight, but I seriously overestimated my ability to get through a day as long and stressful as this one. I just need to collapse in a heap and start afresh tomorrow. I think I'll ride to and from work tomorrow. Thursday I'll be working from home while my roller shutters are installed (hooray), so I'll have to ponder what exercise I fit in with that.
Righty then, chores then bed. Ciao all.
And why am I so tired I hear you ask? Well an urgent project came up at 5pm on Friday, and my weekend was already full, so I couldn't get a start on it over the weekend. I also had my first boot-ee camp scheduled for this morning, so the only way to get a good start on the project was to have a frightfully early morning. I got up at 3.50 this morning, on the road to work at 4am, got working at 4.30. This gave me a good 80 minutes start time before I jogged down the road to the bootcamp session. Then I jogged back, and got back into work. 13 hours of work later, we got it done, but I would really rather not repeat this day any time soon.
So, bootcamp. Yeah, didn't need to be scared of that really. They kept saying that it will get harder as it goes along, but it was pretty easy going today. Quite a few push ups and squats, and a bit of running, but that was about it. My pushups are crap, but I already knew that. My upper body strength is suspect, plus I'm 20+kg overweight, so it's hard to push that excess lard up and down. I wasn't too bad on the push ups when I was thin, so hopefully I can work back towards that. My squats were really good, got through 70 in the 2 minute test period, which was better than most. We did a 600m time trial too, and I finished that in 3 min 14 seconds, which was in the top 10 or so. Not bad, but room for improvement.
It's a big group at the boot camp, probably 50 odd people. I wasn't the heaviest (which I was worried about) and I certainly wasn't the unfittest. I never realised how many chicks are scared of running. Like seriously freaking out scared of it. When Duncan said we had to run to the flag in the distance and then back, I thought some of them were actually going to cry. You'd think we'd been asked to run a marathon. The other thing I found weird was the attitude on some of them - just flat out refusing to even try to run, walking the whole way, and not even power walking at that. It's not like anyone is forcing us to be there, we've paid money to be there. Why not give it a go for goodness sakes. Ok, rant over. The next session is on Wednesday morning, so it will be interesting to see what we progress to next.
Trending backwards now, the weekend roundup. Friday night I did nothing much, just couldn't really be buggered with anything. Watched the basketball on One HD - I am loving the free to air coverage this year. I love basketball season. On Saturday morning, I was guilted into getting up for a run (Jess, if you're reading - I hated you for 45 minutes on Saturday morning, but after I got over that, I thought you were awesome for getting me out there :-) So I ran about 7.65km in 47 minutes, including some hills. My pace is increasing and I'm getting some reasonable distances in. I should be ok for the 10k Glenelg Classic next month, even if I'm not running that far around my usual tracks yet, it will be on the flat and much easier.
The rest of Saturday was spent at home shows (which were really pretty crap actually), a bit of shopping, and a quick walk with the pug. Oh, and the pug only lost 200g this fortnight, I guess he needs more walks. Saturday night I caught up with Lou for dinner and some board games (what a high flying life I lead).
Sunday - early trip to the markets as usual. I'm eating more fruit than I ever have these days, which I'm putting down to the fact that I'm not getting my sugar fix from chocolate and other crap. The pineapples are just devine at the moment, yum. After the markets I took my dad on the Active Aging walk around the botanic gardens and river Torrens. It was only $5 to enter, so I wasn't expecting much, but it was done really well. There would have been a few hundred people there, and loads of volunteers keeping everyone on the right track. There were little goodie bags at the end with some sample products, and free fruit, plus coffee and hamburgers for sale. I must say I was impressed. Dad seemed to enjoy himself too, but it completely exhausted him. I dropped him home then went back to my place to do some cooking and gardening at my place. I went back to mum and dad's for dinner later, and dad was really wiped out. The exercise will do him good though.
So for the week ahead... I'm having a bit of trouble planning my exercise around the boot camp stuff. Wednesday and Friday mornings will be boot camp. I took my stuff with me for boxing tonight, but I seriously overestimated my ability to get through a day as long and stressful as this one. I just need to collapse in a heap and start afresh tomorrow. I think I'll ride to and from work tomorrow. Thursday I'll be working from home while my roller shutters are installed (hooray), so I'll have to ponder what exercise I fit in with that.
Righty then, chores then bed. Ciao all.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Slackness, then Cycling
Friday! Roll on weekend. It's gonna be a busy one, but at least it won't involve being locked up in this office. I seriously need to look at my work attitude at the moment, I couldn't give a rats about this place right now. The work is piling up around me, and I'm making holiday plans, training plans, writing blogs, doing anything other than being productive. Hmm, think I really need that holiday... 4 weeks to the day and counting.
So, Thursday - sloth. I woke up to my alarm and thought No Freaking Way am I getting out of bed right now. My upper body was caning (the increase in weights at Pump on Tuesday obviously had their effect), and the circuit just wasn't going to happen. So I went back to sleep and ended up being late. Meh. I also made myself slightly later by grabbing my HRM, putting it on and going back to bed to redo the fitness test. This came back with a reading of 40 ("good") instead of the 29 ("low") I got on the weekend, so that's better. My calorie burn this morning looks better too, so hopefully that's fixed the problem.
Thursday night I was planning on either doing the spin class at the gym, or doing a run from work. Given I was planning on cycling to work on Friday, I thought the spin class might be overkill, so I settled on the run. Got myself all changed and ready... then realised I'd left my sneakers at home. Dumb ass. So that was cancelled, and I went home and made dinner and watched Glee and The Good Wife instead. Really jacked that Alicia didn't hook up with Will by the way. Sorry about that tangent.
I made sure I was nice and organised last night, so this morning I was ready to hit the road. I haven't ridden Matilda (the road bike) for ages so I thought I would struggle. I did struggle on a few of the hills, but less than I thought I would - I did the 15km in about 40 minutes, including traffic lights etc, and I didn't die. My legs certainly felt it, and I know they're out of condition for cycling, but I'm sure I'll pick it up again in a reasonable time. Calorie burn was 430 for the ride, which is roughly what I would have expected - happy with that.
Now, for the weekend. It's going to be pretty busy with the home shows, dinner with a friend, markets, family amble, travel show and pug walk. Not sure that any dedicated exercise is going to fit in there. I'm half considering getting up early tomorrow morning to do a run before I head to mums to pick her up for the home shows. The other half of me is thinking about whether I'm going to want to get out of bed super early on a Saturday morning, and I think I have my answer. Barring devine intervention, I'm thinking my exercise total will be down this week.
Next week I'm starting bootcamp. I was looking forward to this until now - and now I'm just scared. They won't actually kill me right? It'll just feel like it at the time? Eeek. If I don't post next week, ring the hospitals, stat.
So, Thursday - sloth. I woke up to my alarm and thought No Freaking Way am I getting out of bed right now. My upper body was caning (the increase in weights at Pump on Tuesday obviously had their effect), and the circuit just wasn't going to happen. So I went back to sleep and ended up being late. Meh. I also made myself slightly later by grabbing my HRM, putting it on and going back to bed to redo the fitness test. This came back with a reading of 40 ("good") instead of the 29 ("low") I got on the weekend, so that's better. My calorie burn this morning looks better too, so hopefully that's fixed the problem.
Thursday night I was planning on either doing the spin class at the gym, or doing a run from work. Given I was planning on cycling to work on Friday, I thought the spin class might be overkill, so I settled on the run. Got myself all changed and ready... then realised I'd left my sneakers at home. Dumb ass. So that was cancelled, and I went home and made dinner and watched Glee and The Good Wife instead. Really jacked that Alicia didn't hook up with Will by the way. Sorry about that tangent.
I made sure I was nice and organised last night, so this morning I was ready to hit the road. I haven't ridden Matilda (the road bike) for ages so I thought I would struggle. I did struggle on a few of the hills, but less than I thought I would - I did the 15km in about 40 minutes, including traffic lights etc, and I didn't die. My legs certainly felt it, and I know they're out of condition for cycling, but I'm sure I'll pick it up again in a reasonable time. Calorie burn was 430 for the ride, which is roughly what I would have expected - happy with that.
Now, for the weekend. It's going to be pretty busy with the home shows, dinner with a friend, markets, family amble, travel show and pug walk. Not sure that any dedicated exercise is going to fit in there. I'm half considering getting up early tomorrow morning to do a run before I head to mums to pick her up for the home shows. The other half of me is thinking about whether I'm going to want to get out of bed super early on a Saturday morning, and I think I have my answer. Barring devine intervention, I'm thinking my exercise total will be down this week.
Next week I'm starting bootcamp. I was looking forward to this until now - and now I'm just scared. They won't actually kill me right? It'll just feel like it at the time? Eeek. If I don't post next week, ring the hospitals, stat.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
General life, general whinge, and hatred of HRMs
Hi ho, nothing much to update in my world, but I do fancy having a bit of a whinge, so here I am. Nobody in the non-online world wants to listen, so I might as well burden the blog community with my lunatic ravings.
My legs hurt. And my arms hurt. My back and chest do too. Let's just say I'm a ball of hurt today. The trouble is, I know it's going to get worse from here as the DOMS sets in from last night's pump class. Fortunately my legs weren't too sore when I first woke up this morning, or there's no way I would have gone out for a run. I'm still in that trying-to-talk-myself-out-of-everything mode at the moment. Nevertheless, I did go for a quick jog around the neighbourhood this morning, and I can now happily report that the remainder of today will be exercise free. Well I might take the weight-loss pug on a quick jaunt around the block if I get to mum's early enough for tea, but that doesn't really count.
I'm not entirely sure where my last blog left off, so hopefully I don't repeat. Monday night I went to boxing, and it was good. I'm feeling it more in my middle back than anywhere else, but I'm happy to get some good muscles happening there. My skipping is also improving out of sight, and that's an awesome cardio workout.
Tuesday morning was the circuit, which was ok without anything fabulous to report. Last night was a 10 minute cardio warm up, then the pump class. I upped my weights last night, hence the soreness today I suspect. Weights last night were 15lb for warm up, biceps, and triceps; 10lb for shoulders and lunges; 25lb for squats; 20lb for chest and back.
My HRM is showing really low and pathetic calorie burns at the moment. So I hate it. I've worked out that this has happened since I did the fitness test thing on the weekend. It came in at a really low value which I thought was weird at the time - my fitness isn't brilliant yet, but it isn't awful either. I had my exercise level set to moderate when it should be high, and I did the test sitting up and with some distractions happening, so I think I need to do it again and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't I think I'm going to throw the stupid thing from here to next week - it's certainly not acting as a motivator with what it's spitting out at the moment.
OK enough complaining from me. I'll be back to whinge again soon - it seems to be my mood of the moment, apologies for that.
My legs hurt. And my arms hurt. My back and chest do too. Let's just say I'm a ball of hurt today. The trouble is, I know it's going to get worse from here as the DOMS sets in from last night's pump class. Fortunately my legs weren't too sore when I first woke up this morning, or there's no way I would have gone out for a run. I'm still in that trying-to-talk-myself-out-of-everything mode at the moment. Nevertheless, I did go for a quick jog around the neighbourhood this morning, and I can now happily report that the remainder of today will be exercise free. Well I might take the weight-loss pug on a quick jaunt around the block if I get to mum's early enough for tea, but that doesn't really count.
I'm not entirely sure where my last blog left off, so hopefully I don't repeat. Monday night I went to boxing, and it was good. I'm feeling it more in my middle back than anywhere else, but I'm happy to get some good muscles happening there. My skipping is also improving out of sight, and that's an awesome cardio workout.
Tuesday morning was the circuit, which was ok without anything fabulous to report. Last night was a 10 minute cardio warm up, then the pump class. I upped my weights last night, hence the soreness today I suspect. Weights last night were 15lb for warm up, biceps, and triceps; 10lb for shoulders and lunges; 25lb for squats; 20lb for chest and back.
My HRM is showing really low and pathetic calorie burns at the moment. So I hate it. I've worked out that this has happened since I did the fitness test thing on the weekend. It came in at a really low value which I thought was weird at the time - my fitness isn't brilliant yet, but it isn't awful either. I had my exercise level set to moderate when it should be high, and I did the test sitting up and with some distractions happening, so I think I need to do it again and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't I think I'm going to throw the stupid thing from here to next week - it's certainly not acting as a motivator with what it's spitting out at the moment.
OK enough complaining from me. I'll be back to whinge again soon - it seems to be my mood of the moment, apologies for that.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Fake it til you make it
I'm well and truly in "fake it" mode at the moment. I just can't be bothered. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to work. I don't want to eat well. I don't want to look after my dad and mollycoddle my mum. But that's life, all of the above are non-negotiables and I just need to get on with it.
For the most part, I've been doing ok. On Saturday I went to the gym and did back to back classes in Step and Body Bar. On Sunday I jogged to mum's place (with a detour to make it longer) - about 7km trip, with the nasty hills at the end of the run, argh. Monday morning I skipped my usual run and was incredibly unmotivated in the evening, but I made it to boxing anyway, and I really enjoyed myself. This morning I had issues getting out of bed, but managed to drag myself along to the circuit. Tonight the plan is for body bar, and a bit of time on the cross trainer.
As for the rest of the week, I'm planning on doing a jog tomorrow morning, a circuit Thursday morning, spin Thursday night, and a jog Friday night. No rest day during the week, because the weekend is looking a bit full to fit any exercise in. Saturday is home show day (there's two on in one weekend - seriously, Adelaide has no idea how to organise itself. We could go 2 months with no events, then everything gets crammed in at the same time). Sunday is the Family Amble, which I think is going to be a slow wander through the botanic gardens. I'm taking my dad to give him an outing and a bit of exercise, it's organised by Active Aging Australia, so hopefully it should be non-confrontational enough for him, surely there will be some other Alzheimer sufferers there too. There are 1.5km, 3km and 4km options, and I've entered us in the 4km, which I'm now not sure was a good idea - the old Pa is slowing down pretty rapidly at the moment. Oh well, if he has to stop and sit on park benches along the way it won't matter, it's an amble not a race after all.
The travel show is on this weekend too. I'm thinking we might call in on the way home from the family amble if Pa isn't too knackered. Not that we need to book in any more holidays, we certainly don't, we've got Bali and the Pacific cruise already booked in. It would be good to pick up a couple of brochures on New Caledonia and Vanuatu though, so we can start thinking about what we might like to do on days in port on the cruise.
Speaking of holidays... I haven't really been too excited about the approaching Bali holiday thus far (it is about my 8th trip there or something stupid). However, yesterday I did some reading up on the Bali Forum and Trip Advisor, and it's got me excited. It's 4 weeks and 3 days til we fly, and all of a sudden I'm hanging out for it. It's more that I need a break from work than anything I think, but whatever, I'm looking forward to the holiday. We're staying somewhere we've never stayed before (or even looked through), which is always a bit of a risk, but the Trip Advisor reviews have been awesome in the last few months. We'll be at the Febri's this trip, in Tuban. It's not on the beach, but I never go to the beach anyway - lily white skin and burning hot sun do not a good combination make. It's about 5 minutes away from Discovery Mall, which could be a problem... blueberry bread from Bread Talk, I can taste it already! We need to start making some plans of what we're going to do, at the moment all we've got scheduled is shopping and massages. Who knows, that might be all we end up doing, relax, relax relax. I'm not sure there's any day trips we want to take, having done a lot of them in the past. We've been elephant treking, we've been to Kintamani in the mountains, we've been to the bird park, the safari park, the zoo, we've been parasailing and banana boating. Personally I'd like to do the white water rafting and village cycling, but it's just not practical with the parents in tow. I need to find a Bali guide for old people lol.
Ah well, better try and get some work done, seeing as I did bugger all yesterday. 4 weeks, 3 days and counting...
For the most part, I've been doing ok. On Saturday I went to the gym and did back to back classes in Step and Body Bar. On Sunday I jogged to mum's place (with a detour to make it longer) - about 7km trip, with the nasty hills at the end of the run, argh. Monday morning I skipped my usual run and was incredibly unmotivated in the evening, but I made it to boxing anyway, and I really enjoyed myself. This morning I had issues getting out of bed, but managed to drag myself along to the circuit. Tonight the plan is for body bar, and a bit of time on the cross trainer.
As for the rest of the week, I'm planning on doing a jog tomorrow morning, a circuit Thursday morning, spin Thursday night, and a jog Friday night. No rest day during the week, because the weekend is looking a bit full to fit any exercise in. Saturday is home show day (there's two on in one weekend - seriously, Adelaide has no idea how to organise itself. We could go 2 months with no events, then everything gets crammed in at the same time). Sunday is the Family Amble, which I think is going to be a slow wander through the botanic gardens. I'm taking my dad to give him an outing and a bit of exercise, it's organised by Active Aging Australia, so hopefully it should be non-confrontational enough for him, surely there will be some other Alzheimer sufferers there too. There are 1.5km, 3km and 4km options, and I've entered us in the 4km, which I'm now not sure was a good idea - the old Pa is slowing down pretty rapidly at the moment. Oh well, if he has to stop and sit on park benches along the way it won't matter, it's an amble not a race after all.
The travel show is on this weekend too. I'm thinking we might call in on the way home from the family amble if Pa isn't too knackered. Not that we need to book in any more holidays, we certainly don't, we've got Bali and the Pacific cruise already booked in. It would be good to pick up a couple of brochures on New Caledonia and Vanuatu though, so we can start thinking about what we might like to do on days in port on the cruise.
Speaking of holidays... I haven't really been too excited about the approaching Bali holiday thus far (it is about my 8th trip there or something stupid). However, yesterday I did some reading up on the Bali Forum and Trip Advisor, and it's got me excited. It's 4 weeks and 3 days til we fly, and all of a sudden I'm hanging out for it. It's more that I need a break from work than anything I think, but whatever, I'm looking forward to the holiday. We're staying somewhere we've never stayed before (or even looked through), which is always a bit of a risk, but the Trip Advisor reviews have been awesome in the last few months. We'll be at the Febri's this trip, in Tuban. It's not on the beach, but I never go to the beach anyway - lily white skin and burning hot sun do not a good combination make. It's about 5 minutes away from Discovery Mall, which could be a problem... blueberry bread from Bread Talk, I can taste it already! We need to start making some plans of what we're going to do, at the moment all we've got scheduled is shopping and massages. Who knows, that might be all we end up doing, relax, relax relax. I'm not sure there's any day trips we want to take, having done a lot of them in the past. We've been elephant treking, we've been to Kintamani in the mountains, we've been to the bird park, the safari park, the zoo, we've been parasailing and banana boating. Personally I'd like to do the white water rafting and village cycling, but it's just not practical with the parents in tow. I need to find a Bali guide for old people lol.
Ah well, better try and get some work done, seeing as I did bugger all yesterday. 4 weeks, 3 days and counting...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Grumpy
I haven't posted much of late, because honestly there hasn't been a lot to say. Eating and exercise is still going pretty well. I've been eating on or under my calories every day this week which is good. The downside is that I've gotten back into that head space of thinking about food all day long, and when the next meal or snack is coming along. Sigh, counting calories has this effect on me, but it's also the only way I lose weight. So I think I'm going to have to suck it up for a while.
On the exercise front, I've done a couple of runs on Monday and Thursday, a circuit and body bar on Tuesday, and boxing on Monday. Today was scheduled to be a run, but Harvey Norman are having a VIP sale, and it's raining, so I'm going shopping instead. I've been through the guilt phase with missing my planned exercise, and I'm now at the acceptance stage. When I started getting healthy again, I knew that I didn't want to get so obsessed that any small deviation in plans put me into a spin. I'm getting close to that stage already, and it's time to step back. My life is not as free and easy as it was last time I was on a health bender, and I need to accept that "stuff" will come up and interrupt my plans. I might be able to sneak a run in on Sunday to make up for missing today. If not, too bad, this is a journey not a race to the finish.
On to the title of the blog - I'm grumpy. For no single reason, just grumpy in general. Lots of little things are niggling at me and giving me the cranks. One I have just dealt with, I just changed my home and contents insurance from RAA to Allianz. I got my policy renewal in the post this week, and it went up like $10 a month. I called them about it and they said my internet policy honeymoon rate had run out and there's nothing they can do about it. So I very politely told them there's something I can do about it, and cancelled the policy. The woman was quite shocked, but seriously, why would I pay $850 with RAA when I can pay $650 with Allianz for the same cover? Sheesh.
What's on for the weekend? Tonight I'm shopping at Harvey Norman (for stuff I don't need), then watching the NBL season opener on One HD. Huzzah for the basketball season, I love it. Saturday is reserved for the gym and housey stuff (cooking, cleaning, gardening - assuming it doesn't pour all day). Sunday is for the markets, a bit of me time, hopefully a run, then the first 36ers home game at 4.30. I haven't quite thought what we're going to do about dinner after the game - maybe I'll put something into the slow cooker to have when we come home. Hmm, ponderances.
Have a good weekend one and all xxx
On the exercise front, I've done a couple of runs on Monday and Thursday, a circuit and body bar on Tuesday, and boxing on Monday. Today was scheduled to be a run, but Harvey Norman are having a VIP sale, and it's raining, so I'm going shopping instead. I've been through the guilt phase with missing my planned exercise, and I'm now at the acceptance stage. When I started getting healthy again, I knew that I didn't want to get so obsessed that any small deviation in plans put me into a spin. I'm getting close to that stage already, and it's time to step back. My life is not as free and easy as it was last time I was on a health bender, and I need to accept that "stuff" will come up and interrupt my plans. I might be able to sneak a run in on Sunday to make up for missing today. If not, too bad, this is a journey not a race to the finish.
On to the title of the blog - I'm grumpy. For no single reason, just grumpy in general. Lots of little things are niggling at me and giving me the cranks. One I have just dealt with, I just changed my home and contents insurance from RAA to Allianz. I got my policy renewal in the post this week, and it went up like $10 a month. I called them about it and they said my internet policy honeymoon rate had run out and there's nothing they can do about it. So I very politely told them there's something I can do about it, and cancelled the policy. The woman was quite shocked, but seriously, why would I pay $850 with RAA when I can pay $650 with Allianz for the same cover? Sheesh.
What's on for the weekend? Tonight I'm shopping at Harvey Norman (for stuff I don't need), then watching the NBL season opener on One HD. Huzzah for the basketball season, I love it. Saturday is reserved for the gym and housey stuff (cooking, cleaning, gardening - assuming it doesn't pour all day). Sunday is for the markets, a bit of me time, hopefully a run, then the first 36ers home game at 4.30. I haven't quite thought what we're going to do about dinner after the game - maybe I'll put something into the slow cooker to have when we come home. Hmm, ponderances.
Have a good weekend one and all xxx
Monday, October 11, 2010
Body idol
As a result of the blog from Jess over at http://www.tri-thatshowiroll.com/ today, I have been on the hunt for a body idol. A fit, healthy, not super-skinny body to aspire to. And here's who I have decided on - Sarah Varco, a celebrity trainer. Now THAT'S something to aim for.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Bit slack on the updates
Okey dokey, I've been a bit slack on the updates for a few days. I'll cram it all into the one blog - life hasn't been so exciting that it can't be summarised in a few decent paragraphs methinks.
So where were we up to last blog? Friday somewhere I assume. I didn't run on Friday morning, but I did do a 5.75km circuit from the office on Friday night, even though I really really didn't feel like it. It's the same route as I used a couple of weeks ago, and I knocked 90 seconds off the time, so that was a good sign. I struggled pretty much the whole run though, my heart rate was high, my shins hurt, and I just wanted to finish it. I think I burnt 620 odd calories in under 40 minutes, so the body was definitely protesting on some level.
After the Friday run, I came back to work and finished off some stuff that had been bugging me, and ended up getting home about 9.30. There were some bananas left over in the fruit box at work last week, so I took them home and baked with them. 3 dozen banana biscuits and a loaf of banana bread was baked on Friday night. I love baking with bananas - I hate them, so I'm never tempted to eat the goodies lol.
Saturday morning was an early start for "carpark caper", a gardening type expo thing at the ABC building. Seriously, could my life get any sadder, getting up at 7 on a Saturday to wander around plant stalls. It was good though. I didn't buy anything, but I did aide and abet my mother in choosing several plants and other accessories. It was damn heavy to carry it all back to the car mind you.
The plan after carpark capers was for mum to head for home, and me to head for the gym. I just wasn't in the mood, so I followed her straight back to her place. I had a cooking lesson from mum on how to make bread pudding, an old family recipe made by the women on my mum's side. Mum is the last remaining person who can make it properly, so I very considerately told her recently that I had to learn to make it before she died. She took this in good humour (bless her) and gave me a good lesson. It's a bit tricky because there isn't a recipe as such - it always uses roughly the same ingredients, but the quantities vary, and you just have to go by look and feel. I think I've got it though. The finished product was unfortunately too good, I couldn't stop eating it. More on this later.
After the cooking adventure, I took Dad out shopping. We looked at some paving places for some ideas for my backyard (far out they're expensive), then went to the shopping centre. Lunch, grocery shopping, a couple of other odds and ends, then home. Dad was exhausted, he's not looking that well at the moment.
I took the puppies for a nice walk, then got back to mum's and cooked dinner. I tried out the fake-KFC chicken recipe someone posted on CK last week, but using chicken breast rather than drumsticks. It was a resounding success, all 3 of us enjoyed it. We watched some of the Commonwealth Games, and I eventually called it a night. Sometimes I think I should still live in that house, I spend enough hours there.
Sunday morning - another early one, down to the markets at 6.15 for lovely fresh fruit and veg, and a leisurely wander of trash and treasure. I was lacking any real motivation to do anything after the markets, so I spent an hour or two lazing about, and eventually got moving. Lots of house cleaning, little bit of weeding and gardening, little bit of cooking - all the usual Sunday stuff.
Late in the afternoon the bloke who is going to build my verandah came around to go through all the finer details, so that he can draw up the sales contract. He's coming back on Wednesday evening for me to sign off and get it underway, which is very exciting in an I'm-spending-$9,000 kind of way.
I was really tired last night after a few late nights and early mornings, so I made sure I headed to bed nice and early. I read for a bit too long, but still managed a reasonable amount of sleep thankfully. Slightly off topic, but I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love - the movie has just come out. Well, it's boring. I'm giving it one more night's reading time to prove that something is actually going to happen, then I'm sacking it.
This morning I tried everything to talk myself out of going for a run (it's windy, I'm tired, my knee hurts, my ankle hurts, my shins might hurt), but eventually sucked it up and went out. I ran 5.5km, which again was not comfortable. Interestingly enough, I didn't feel like I had a rhythm until about 4km in when I was coming back up a hill. Not sure what's going on there, but anyway I'm definitely glad I didn't manage to talk myself out of going altogether.
We're just about up to date. Something I alluded to above, talking about the bread pudding, was eating a lot (too much). Saturday was not good, I ate way too much. It could have been worse, but still not good. I still have that mentality of "I've already blown it today, may as well keep on eating". This makes no freaking sense whatsoever, and I would think I was a nut case if I didn't see so many other people on weight loss and binge eating blogs dealing with the same thing. It looks like this will be a struggle for a time to come.
Another discovery with my eating on the weekend, is just how bad I get when I'm at mum's place. The cupboard is always full of tasty evils, and the minute I'm in the door I'm thinking about food. Something in my mind connects that house to eating with reckless abandon. I grew up in that house and truth be known I ate with reckless abandon through much of my youth and early adulthood, so on some levels it makes sense. The thing that doesn't make sense is that I also managed to lose 35kg and get fit and healthy in that house only a few years ago. Why did I have willpower then but not now? Is it just the effect of having none of that crap around me at my house, and then it's like a buffet going to mum's place? I'm sure other places I go have the same level of unhealthy temptations, the difference being I suppose that I can't go to the cupboard and help myself anywhere other than home. I think those cupboards need a padlock to protect me from myself.
Hmm, I shouldn't have blogged about food after lunch, I'm hungry again already!
So where were we up to last blog? Friday somewhere I assume. I didn't run on Friday morning, but I did do a 5.75km circuit from the office on Friday night, even though I really really didn't feel like it. It's the same route as I used a couple of weeks ago, and I knocked 90 seconds off the time, so that was a good sign. I struggled pretty much the whole run though, my heart rate was high, my shins hurt, and I just wanted to finish it. I think I burnt 620 odd calories in under 40 minutes, so the body was definitely protesting on some level.
After the Friday run, I came back to work and finished off some stuff that had been bugging me, and ended up getting home about 9.30. There were some bananas left over in the fruit box at work last week, so I took them home and baked with them. 3 dozen banana biscuits and a loaf of banana bread was baked on Friday night. I love baking with bananas - I hate them, so I'm never tempted to eat the goodies lol.
Saturday morning was an early start for "carpark caper", a gardening type expo thing at the ABC building. Seriously, could my life get any sadder, getting up at 7 on a Saturday to wander around plant stalls. It was good though. I didn't buy anything, but I did aide and abet my mother in choosing several plants and other accessories. It was damn heavy to carry it all back to the car mind you.
The plan after carpark capers was for mum to head for home, and me to head for the gym. I just wasn't in the mood, so I followed her straight back to her place. I had a cooking lesson from mum on how to make bread pudding, an old family recipe made by the women on my mum's side. Mum is the last remaining person who can make it properly, so I very considerately told her recently that I had to learn to make it before she died. She took this in good humour (bless her) and gave me a good lesson. It's a bit tricky because there isn't a recipe as such - it always uses roughly the same ingredients, but the quantities vary, and you just have to go by look and feel. I think I've got it though. The finished product was unfortunately too good, I couldn't stop eating it. More on this later.
After the cooking adventure, I took Dad out shopping. We looked at some paving places for some ideas for my backyard (far out they're expensive), then went to the shopping centre. Lunch, grocery shopping, a couple of other odds and ends, then home. Dad was exhausted, he's not looking that well at the moment.
I took the puppies for a nice walk, then got back to mum's and cooked dinner. I tried out the fake-KFC chicken recipe someone posted on CK last week, but using chicken breast rather than drumsticks. It was a resounding success, all 3 of us enjoyed it. We watched some of the Commonwealth Games, and I eventually called it a night. Sometimes I think I should still live in that house, I spend enough hours there.
Sunday morning - another early one, down to the markets at 6.15 for lovely fresh fruit and veg, and a leisurely wander of trash and treasure. I was lacking any real motivation to do anything after the markets, so I spent an hour or two lazing about, and eventually got moving. Lots of house cleaning, little bit of weeding and gardening, little bit of cooking - all the usual Sunday stuff.
Late in the afternoon the bloke who is going to build my verandah came around to go through all the finer details, so that he can draw up the sales contract. He's coming back on Wednesday evening for me to sign off and get it underway, which is very exciting in an I'm-spending-$9,000 kind of way.
I was really tired last night after a few late nights and early mornings, so I made sure I headed to bed nice and early. I read for a bit too long, but still managed a reasonable amount of sleep thankfully. Slightly off topic, but I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love - the movie has just come out. Well, it's boring. I'm giving it one more night's reading time to prove that something is actually going to happen, then I'm sacking it.
This morning I tried everything to talk myself out of going for a run (it's windy, I'm tired, my knee hurts, my ankle hurts, my shins might hurt), but eventually sucked it up and went out. I ran 5.5km, which again was not comfortable. Interestingly enough, I didn't feel like I had a rhythm until about 4km in when I was coming back up a hill. Not sure what's going on there, but anyway I'm definitely glad I didn't manage to talk myself out of going altogether.
We're just about up to date. Something I alluded to above, talking about the bread pudding, was eating a lot (too much). Saturday was not good, I ate way too much. It could have been worse, but still not good. I still have that mentality of "I've already blown it today, may as well keep on eating". This makes no freaking sense whatsoever, and I would think I was a nut case if I didn't see so many other people on weight loss and binge eating blogs dealing with the same thing. It looks like this will be a struggle for a time to come.
Another discovery with my eating on the weekend, is just how bad I get when I'm at mum's place. The cupboard is always full of tasty evils, and the minute I'm in the door I'm thinking about food. Something in my mind connects that house to eating with reckless abandon. I grew up in that house and truth be known I ate with reckless abandon through much of my youth and early adulthood, so on some levels it makes sense. The thing that doesn't make sense is that I also managed to lose 35kg and get fit and healthy in that house only a few years ago. Why did I have willpower then but not now? Is it just the effect of having none of that crap around me at my house, and then it's like a buffet going to mum's place? I'm sure other places I go have the same level of unhealthy temptations, the difference being I suppose that I can't go to the cupboard and help myself anywhere other than home. I think those cupboards need a padlock to protect me from myself.
Hmm, I shouldn't have blogged about food after lunch, I'm hungry again already!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Feeling meh
I've been feeling a bit blah the last couple of days. Yesterday I could have eaten every carb known to man kind. I resisted pretty well all day, but had a small encounter with the cereal packet when I got home late last night. It's all good, my weekly cals will still be under, and I've been OK today. Thinking about food literally all day, and would have liked to eat all day, but I haven't given into that impulse thankfully.
What is interesting is that I don't really know what I'm craving. I just want food. I'm pretty sure this is a boredom thing, because the project I'm working on at work is driving me completely insane. I was also up really late last night, which was stupid considering I was having a ravenous day. I think I need some good sleep, so it will be an early one tonight methinks.
Exercise wise things are going OK. I got up and went to the curcuit this morning, despite being tired and really not inspired. Yay me. Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll do a run after work, around the eastern suburbs where it's nice and flat, rather than getting up for a morning jog in the hills.
I ordered a new electrode strap for my HRM today, which with any luck will be delivered tomorrow (thank you Jess for saving me a couple hundred $$$ and not replacing the whole unit). This will give me a better idea of what I'm burning with my current regime, and then I can tweak it as necessary. In my mind I'm thinking 3500 exercise calories a week would be a good aim. I suspect I might need to up the ante on what I'm currently doing to achieve that. Now the weather is nicer, it would be a good idea to dust off Matilda the bike and ride to work one day a week. That used to give me an 800 odd calorie burn I think (although I did live further away from the office now I come to think of it). That will be on next week's to do list - get Matilda serviced and back on the road.
Is 8:30pm too early for bed? I don't care if I'm a granny, I'm buggered. Zzzz.
What is interesting is that I don't really know what I'm craving. I just want food. I'm pretty sure this is a boredom thing, because the project I'm working on at work is driving me completely insane. I was also up really late last night, which was stupid considering I was having a ravenous day. I think I need some good sleep, so it will be an early one tonight methinks.
Exercise wise things are going OK. I got up and went to the curcuit this morning, despite being tired and really not inspired. Yay me. Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll do a run after work, around the eastern suburbs where it's nice and flat, rather than getting up for a morning jog in the hills.
I ordered a new electrode strap for my HRM today, which with any luck will be delivered tomorrow (thank you Jess for saving me a couple hundred $$$ and not replacing the whole unit). This will give me a better idea of what I'm burning with my current regime, and then I can tweak it as necessary. In my mind I'm thinking 3500 exercise calories a week would be a good aim. I suspect I might need to up the ante on what I'm currently doing to achieve that. Now the weather is nicer, it would be a good idea to dust off Matilda the bike and ride to work one day a week. That used to give me an 800 odd calorie burn I think (although I did live further away from the office now I come to think of it). That will be on next week's to do list - get Matilda serviced and back on the road.
Is 8:30pm too early for bed? I don't care if I'm a granny, I'm buggered. Zzzz.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Musings of a maniac
I've just got thoughts buzzing around in my head randomly at the moment, so I thought I'd spit them all out here. Probably not logically or with any consistent flow, but blogs are like that sometimes.
Firstly, I'm an idiot. A down right fool. If I was on CK and saw someone complaining that they're not using their calories, or wondering if it was OK to not eat their calorie limit, I'd grumble to myself about how annoying it is. Yet here I am doing exactly the same thing. It's times like this that make me realise just how much of a head game weight loss is.
So I sit at my desk half the day thinking I'd like something extra to eat, but then convincing myself that I don't need it. Great for the concentration while working on some pretty complex accounts, I might add. I'm just terrified of eating too much earlier in the day and running out of calories at night. But then I want to get out of the habit of eating after dinner. Can't have it both ways, dumbo. Seriously, this is not brain surgery, the logical person in me can see the answers right in front of my face. But can I take my own advice? Not often. I seriously need to work on this.
Now, about the aftermath of my 10k on Monday. I'm thinking I probably shouldn't have done so much so soon, but it's done now, and it does make me want to do more - running is like that. I hate taking off for a run, and I don't much like it while I'm doing it most of the time, but I LOVE the feeling afterwards. It's such an achievement. But should a 25kg overweight person who is 3 weeks back into a fitness regime be going out running 10k on the pavement? Well my knees, ankles, hips and lower back are suggesting perhaps not.
I was reading something the other day (I can't remember where off hand...) about the power of muscle memory, and how people returning to exercise can have much more rapid results than those doing it the first time. The article was talking more about weight bearing exercise and body building, but I think this must apply to running, and probably other cardio based exercise, as well. I doubt whether many people at my current weight and in my current level of conditioning (i.e. very poor) could have pushed on for a 10k run, particularly in the hilly sections. I'm certain I didn't do so much so soon when I was first getting fit a few years ago. It's not because I'm so tough now, or so immune to pain - I'm a pansy really (I stood up in the middle of bottom half squats last night in Pump, it hurt *cry baby*). So the only answer that really makes sense is muscle memory - my body knows it's done this before, and it knows it can do it again.
Along a similar line of thought - my body seems to adapt to certain exercise really fast, which is kind of annoying. I've got my HRM back out of the cupboard, and in part I can see why I stopped using it to start with. The stupid thing flashes a heart rate of 00 at random intervals, which is particularly annoying and stops me focussing on what I'm supposed to be doing. It might be time for a new one. Do I go Polar again, or do I go Garmin? Advice gratefully accepted! Anyway, it seemed to be working fine in Pump last night, I didn't see any 00 readings. But I burnt about 220 stupid calories in 55 minutes. My heart rate is low, particularly if I'm laying down. So laying down with the chest and tricep tracks, despite lifting weights and feeling the burn, my heart rate was about 60. My max heart rate for the session was 130, even with squats etc. Now the realist in me knows that I don't do pump for the calorie burn, I do it for strength and muscle conditioning. But I find it damn annoying seeing that little calorie number at the end of a tough workout. Hmph.
Just quickly before I sign off and find somewhere else to waste my time - weights for pump last night: 10lb warmup, lunges and shoulders; 15lb chest, bicep, tricep; 20lb squats and back. An increase for a few tracks.
Firstly, I'm an idiot. A down right fool. If I was on CK and saw someone complaining that they're not using their calories, or wondering if it was OK to not eat their calorie limit, I'd grumble to myself about how annoying it is. Yet here I am doing exactly the same thing. It's times like this that make me realise just how much of a head game weight loss is.
So I sit at my desk half the day thinking I'd like something extra to eat, but then convincing myself that I don't need it. Great for the concentration while working on some pretty complex accounts, I might add. I'm just terrified of eating too much earlier in the day and running out of calories at night. But then I want to get out of the habit of eating after dinner. Can't have it both ways, dumbo. Seriously, this is not brain surgery, the logical person in me can see the answers right in front of my face. But can I take my own advice? Not often. I seriously need to work on this.
Now, about the aftermath of my 10k on Monday. I'm thinking I probably shouldn't have done so much so soon, but it's done now, and it does make me want to do more - running is like that. I hate taking off for a run, and I don't much like it while I'm doing it most of the time, but I LOVE the feeling afterwards. It's such an achievement. But should a 25kg overweight person who is 3 weeks back into a fitness regime be going out running 10k on the pavement? Well my knees, ankles, hips and lower back are suggesting perhaps not.
I was reading something the other day (I can't remember where off hand...) about the power of muscle memory, and how people returning to exercise can have much more rapid results than those doing it the first time. The article was talking more about weight bearing exercise and body building, but I think this must apply to running, and probably other cardio based exercise, as well. I doubt whether many people at my current weight and in my current level of conditioning (i.e. very poor) could have pushed on for a 10k run, particularly in the hilly sections. I'm certain I didn't do so much so soon when I was first getting fit a few years ago. It's not because I'm so tough now, or so immune to pain - I'm a pansy really (I stood up in the middle of bottom half squats last night in Pump, it hurt *cry baby*). So the only answer that really makes sense is muscle memory - my body knows it's done this before, and it knows it can do it again.
Along a similar line of thought - my body seems to adapt to certain exercise really fast, which is kind of annoying. I've got my HRM back out of the cupboard, and in part I can see why I stopped using it to start with. The stupid thing flashes a heart rate of 00 at random intervals, which is particularly annoying and stops me focussing on what I'm supposed to be doing. It might be time for a new one. Do I go Polar again, or do I go Garmin? Advice gratefully accepted! Anyway, it seemed to be working fine in Pump last night, I didn't see any 00 readings. But I burnt about 220 stupid calories in 55 minutes. My heart rate is low, particularly if I'm laying down. So laying down with the chest and tricep tracks, despite lifting weights and feeling the burn, my heart rate was about 60. My max heart rate for the session was 130, even with squats etc. Now the realist in me knows that I don't do pump for the calorie burn, I do it for strength and muscle conditioning. But I find it damn annoying seeing that little calorie number at the end of a tough workout. Hmph.
Just quickly before I sign off and find somewhere else to waste my time - weights for pump last night: 10lb warmup, lunges and shoulders; 15lb chest, bicep, tricep; 20lb squats and back. An increase for a few tracks.
Monday, October 4, 2010
10k, 10k, 10k!!!
Sit back, relax and prepare yourselves, this could be a long update :)
1st things 1st (which is completely out of order for the weekend round up, but it's foremost in my mind for now)... I mapped out a 10k route... 10.35km to be precise... and did it today! I walked one hill in the middle-end section, but in total that was only about 200m of walking in a 10.35km circuit. And it was hilly too - 107m ascent and descent according to buckeye outdoor. The pace was slow (1:14:30 to complete), but I'm freaking proud of myself for making it, and for taking on all but one of the big hills. I have come a seriously long way in the space of a few weeks, and I look forward to more improvements to come.
OK, now a retrospective of the long weekend gone by. Not really sure what I did on Friday night, not much I suspect. Oh, I made a chicken rose pasta sauce. It was pretty good, but not fabulous. More attempts required to perfect it. Philadelphia cooking cream is a marvelous invention though, it's making creamy sauces possible calorie-wise again.
As for Saturday - I slept in til 9 or so (well I was awake, but tooling around on the net in bed). Then I got up and had to hurry through a few things before heading to the gym at 10. Even in the space of a week I could see the improvement in fitness - last week I had intended to do step followed by pump, but died toward the end of step and just could not face staying for the second class. This week I certainly felt the work involved in step, but was quite comfortable staying for pump as well. The squats track is still killing me ATM, but I'll toughen up in time.
Actually, now I think of it, I wanted to record my current (embarrassingly puny) weights that I'm using for each track, so I can see the changes over time. Here they are:
1st things 1st (which is completely out of order for the weekend round up, but it's foremost in my mind for now)... I mapped out a 10k route... 10.35km to be precise... and did it today! I walked one hill in the middle-end section, but in total that was only about 200m of walking in a 10.35km circuit. And it was hilly too - 107m ascent and descent according to buckeye outdoor. The pace was slow (1:14:30 to complete), but I'm freaking proud of myself for making it, and for taking on all but one of the big hills. I have come a seriously long way in the space of a few weeks, and I look forward to more improvements to come.
OK, now a retrospective of the long weekend gone by. Not really sure what I did on Friday night, not much I suspect. Oh, I made a chicken rose pasta sauce. It was pretty good, but not fabulous. More attempts required to perfect it. Philadelphia cooking cream is a marvelous invention though, it's making creamy sauces possible calorie-wise again.
As for Saturday - I slept in til 9 or so (well I was awake, but tooling around on the net in bed). Then I got up and had to hurry through a few things before heading to the gym at 10. Even in the space of a week I could see the improvement in fitness - last week I had intended to do step followed by pump, but died toward the end of step and just could not face staying for the second class. This week I certainly felt the work involved in step, but was quite comfortable staying for pump as well. The squats track is still killing me ATM, but I'll toughen up in time.
Actually, now I think of it, I wanted to record my current (embarrassingly puny) weights that I'm using for each track, so I can see the changes over time. Here they are:
- Warm up, bicep, tricep, shoulders, lunges - 10lb
- Chest, back - 15lb
- Squats - 20lb
On Saturday afternoon I went grocery shopping and spent some time cleaning, tidying and washing - exciting stuff. I also had a minor incident with a packet of sultanas, evil things. They're now packed in the bottom of a big tub in the pantry so I have to go hunting to find them next time I'm on the path to going crazy.
Sunday morning started at 6 for the markets, it was beautiful (i.e. not freezing) for the first time in recent memory. Then we came back to my place for scrambled eggs and good coffee for breakfast, then headed for mum's. I played with the puppies for half hour, then we ventured out on our shopping adventures. First stop Ikea, where I managed to spend $50 despite not planning on buying anything, duh. Next it was to Freedom for the awesome cannisters I wanted for my pantry - $150 later, but they rock, and the pantry is looking much more organised for them. Next a quick dash across town to the Plaza, for our massage appointments. I had a neck, shoulder and back massage, which bloody hurt, but was much needed. I didn't realise how impacted my lower back had gotten. Lunch (from a little Asian cafe that makes great sandwiches), more shopping, and another trip to another shopping centre, finally calling it a day as the shops were shutting. Man we can shop when we're on a mission.
Back at mum's place, I took the dogs out for a longish walk. Bazil the pug has been officially put on a diet by the vet - he weighed in at 15.7kg last week! He has a small growth on his tail which may need removing at some future time if it continues to grow, but he's currently too overweight to have an anaesthetic. So, his food has been reduced by a third, and exercise is on the agenda. He walked about 2km before giving up the ghost (which is actually a really good effort for him), so I bundled him into the dog pram, and Kali and I kept going for another 2km or so. They were both exhausted after that, definitely good for all of us. Last up was roast pork for dinner (delicious), then off home.
This brings me to holiday Monday. I had planned to do my run first thing in the morning, but I couldn't face it this morning. In fact I tried to talk myself out of it all day, but I'm SO happy I eventually did it. Other than that, I did some cooking, cleaned out the pantry, did some gardening and weeding, painted the bird bath and painted the graffiti off my shed. Busy day!
I'd really rather not be going back to work tomorrow, there was some extra stuff I wanted to get done around the house this weekend, but such is life. Time for some goals:
- Finish the big project at work (spectacularly failed at that last week, ahem)
- Eat at 1500
- 2 runs and 2 gym sessions
- Take my dad out on the weekend
- Clean out the junk drawer and the t-shirt drawer
Have a great week everyone!
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