Keeping busy...

Hi hi, it's a been a while, there's been a lot going on, I won't go into all of it, it's just that time of year. 

Anyway, first of all I'm excited to say that I got my height re-measured and I am 174cm, which I will happily take, I knew that going from (even an imagined) 176cm to 171cm just wasn't right, especially when I'm constantly told how tall I look!

We just had health checks at work and I was stoked to be perfectly normal for blood sugar, cholesterol and waist measurement.  My blood pressure though was 144/75.  The 144 is a tad high, so I spoke to my sister and in the new year I'll go and get a proper check up and just keep an eye on that.  My blood pressure has always been pretty fine, so it was not the thing I thought I'd have to watch! Ahhh well you never can tell these things.

So what have I been up to... well last week Trainer Nate and I attended a Cross Fit session, you basically spend the warm up going through some weight moves with a PVC pipe before moving onto the WOD (Workout Of the Day).  We had to do 5 chin ups (OK I can't do them so I got two rings I had to lean back and do 5 rows up, 10 pushups (start with man pushups until you can't do them anymore), 15 full squats and a 100 metre run.  We had to repeat that as many times in 20 minutes as we could, of course Trainer Nate chose to do proper chin ups, still, when I started to over take him I was just mucking around but by the time I was almost a full lap ahead of him and saw him struggling on the push ups I started to heckle him out of pure confusion! Needless to say we finished the 20 minutes and I was ahead.  I beat my own trainer WTF!!!  Apparently I have more muscular endurance... whatever dude hahahahahahaha anyway even though I didn't go in even trying to beat anyone, I just try to finish the workout, he now insists on a re-match!  Oh did I mention there was another guy there, who also did the rings like me and who was apparently a cop, we both smashed him out of the water!  Anyway apparently Trainer Nate was waiting for me to die at the end so he could overtake me but I stayed strong, the closer it got to almost being over the stronger I seemed to get! :D

I'll keep you updated on the re-match I'm sure given some focus he'll kick my arse, maybe next time he'll try a little harder!

I have gone and scored myself a bike for a bit.  I rode it for the first time the other day and really enjoyed it.  The aim is to use it for shortish trips and I also want to add some swimming into my routine so it would be great to ride up to the pool, swim, and ride back a nice well rounded workout don't you think?

So my year of free boot camp is coming to it's end.  The new Booty Camper of the year will be announced shortly and I am on my final session of freebies... I had forgotten that I would need to start paying in the new year... dammit!  So I've had a think about it and a chat with Trainer Nate and I've decided that if I have to pay there are some new things I'd like to try.  I'll be keeping my Saturday Boot Camps up, and I'll keep sessions with Trainer Christian in there to keep things ticking over, then in addition to running, swimming and biking, I've got a whole host of things to try or do more of.  Cross fit, Kick boxing, Pole dancing, my aim will be to try a cycle 6-8 weeks of things out and see how I go with it, and at any point I can throw a cycle of boot camp back in.

I have also officially registered for my Certificates III and IV in Fitness, so I'll need to get some prac work in and might need to join a gym to try a couple of classes (for the experience) for a few months as well.  So PLENTY to keep me busy!  I've a whole schedule of fun runs and still plan on training for the half marathon as well!

So right now I'm pretty much maintaining.  But I see further changes in my appearance and my body, so I even though I haven't seen the figure 75 on the scales I'm not overly concerned with the scale weight, now I have a better understanding of body composition, I know that I much rather be strong and sleek with muscle than flabby and weigh a light weight!  So I'm putting the scales away for the rest of the year with a strong focus on maintaining over the Christmas break and utilising all the things I've learnt over the Christmas period.  I managed to lose weight last year I don't see why it would be difficult to maintain this year.  And then in the new year I will have lots of new exciting things to try, right now I'm enjoying myself, enjoying the way I look in clothes, still trying to get the chance to wear all the new things in my closet and enjoying feeling fit and healthy and well normal! :D

Have a great week everyone! 

Run4Fun - 7th November

So completed my 5th fun run for the year.

So here are my results.  The average finish time was 1.05 so I was pleased to be a little under average or is I mean over, well I did better than the average, you all know what I mean right! :D  Based on the bridge run I figured I should have been able to attempt for under 60mins BUT yes I am going to throw in an excuse, I had my two week break, then took another week before I managed to get back into some running training, and then well a week passed again and the run was here.  So with my lack of training I figured I'd aim for under the 65mins and managed it.  I like the half way splits, and knew I lost it a little in the second half of the run, so at least I know what to work on! :D

Most excitingly though I finally got a couple of shots where you can see me!! Not crossing the line, but still this first one here is me sprinting for the finish line as I've just entered the stadium and hoofed it! :D  I like how fit I'm looking! :D See what progress I am making, I can see it in the picture and say it out loud! I really can! :D

These ones are from the start see how my hair is dry! 

So that's it for the year with the fun runs, next year is beating all the times from the fun runs I entered, throw in a couple of extra for good measure and train for a half marathon.  There's one on the 6th or something of January called the Resolution Run (ie, my news resolution is to get fit, for me I suppose it's fitter! :D)  They have an 11km and a 5.5km I thought it would be a great way to start the year attempting the 5.5km in under 30 mins.  It's at Sydney Olympic Park (which is where I just did my 10km one) so it's easy to get to and I already know where to park! :D

Happy hump day all!  Hope you are having a good week.

Fitness Tests

Well with time off this round of Boot Camp testing came round unexpectedly.  Considering I only just got back into a couple of decent runs, and time off from all exercise I am happy to say I PB'd on all my tests.

I had hoped to push the beep test to an 8.1 but managed a 7.7 up from a 7.5 I think, I went and checked my last report here and it was a 7.5 but I think Trainer Nate said it was 7.3.  Either way I'm encouraged that I'll reach 8.1 on the next go round.  So I did over 4 minutes on the plank and really concentrated on form I did close almost 4 minutes last time but I know my butt was higher than it should have been.  Trainer Nate even commented that it was good form, so it counts so much more then when you know you've done it right.  I maxed our 5 minute cut off for the wall squat, and did 55 girl push ups and 36 man pushups each in a minute, beating each one by 1 pushup each, frankly though I just don't see how I can do that much better in the girl pushups!  And I think it was 15cm on the flexibility, I'm not sure if that is up or down but I'm not overly fussed on that one, I'd say that's pretty fine.

So I struggled a little getting back into the swing of things, my first two sessions back saw severe DOM's and I struggled with getting out for my runs, but this week has been good and all I can do on my Sunday fun run is my best.  I need to try to knock it out in an hour because I'm supposed to be somewhere by 10ish, so extra motivation, it starts at 8.30am. :D 

We lucked out with the rain holding off until our fitness tests were over but now it's bucketing down, I don't think the next group were so lucky!

I desperately want to buy all the new clothes appearing in Target at the moment, but the bank account has run dry.  I'm using the extra impetus to push those last few kilos so that I can sit closer to a size 10, where I'm a pretty comfortable size 12 right now, although more a 10 in pants and skirts, I never thought I'd be able to say that! Actually I used to say I'll never be a size 10 if I could just be a comfortable 14-16 it would be all good.... my how I've exceeded even my own expectations, and why shouldn't we! :D

Once this fun run is done on the weekend, I am finished my fun runs for the year.  I will be sitting down and having a good look at the half marathon for next year and which fun runs will facilitate good development for that (aside from redoing the ones I want to beat my times in! :D)  And then I need to look at building somewhat of a training program for the half I need too work on both speed and endurance, but I have plenty of time to do both!  I guess I need to look at whether I should take seperate periods of times where I work on each by themselves, or whether I can work it all in together, and how I shake things up and keep it interesting!  I love love love my imapmyrun app on my iphone, it even goes so far as to tell me what my min, max and average speeds and paces are, and when I go online, I can see some lap breakdowns as well, last night's was funny as my slowest speed was 2.24 km and that's when I slowed down to fix my headphones on my iphone.... for 20 seconds or so, hysterical!  Must remember that when I feel like stopping! :D

Hope you are all doing well, the year is coming to a swift close, and I hope many of you have exceeded your goals for the year!

Rest time is over...

Yippee!!! My two week break is over.... tonight I go training with Trainer Christian.  Trainer Nate is away overseas he will be back next week, I've decided if the fill in trainer tomorrow night is not any good I will go see Trainer Christian again on Thursday night.  But we will see!  I might want to crawl into a hole after tonight.  The bruises on my knees have cleared up for the first time in months. 

I can't complain though I was very busy with my sideline hobby of cake decorating, October seems to have been the month that suddenly anyone I've ever made a cake for wanted one again!  So I would have had to do some serious schedule shuffling if I hadn't had this imposed break... that's supposed to be my silver lining right, everything happens for a reason hahahahahaha!

So in total honesty food's been a little up and down... I reigned it back in this week but with TTOM my weight shows a basic maintenance figure.... not bad for all that cake! hehehehhehe back into exercise and a bit more of a reign around the food and I expect the end of the week will be all good.

So lots of things going on... something I can't talk about yet a little deal going on with the possibility of some interesting opportunities but I can't say anything till it's all done and dusted.

I've been investigating my Certificate III and IV in Fitness.  I've decided on the place just waiting on some money to come through and I'm going to do that.  It's something I've been thinking about doing to help close the circle of information and learning that I've been doing over the last year and a half.  And I'll feel more comfortable being able to give people actually advice from a more informed place.  And who knows I could make some extra dosh as a trainer always good!

A possible job opportunity at work, I think it's something I would be REALLY good at and would enable me to effect some real change throughout the organisation in a positive way... fingers crossed... I know if it's meant to happen it will work out but there's no harm in asking for some positive vibes now is there!?

PS Did I mention I got an iphone?! I'm such a geek but I am in total infatuation with it.  My friends told me to download a game called Angry Birds and O-M-G!!!  Hours pass by in the blink of an eye with this darn obsessively addictive game! hahahahahaha

My trainers have been telling me to look at yoga and pilates, I haven't had time to investigate classes in my area, but I picked up a wii game that is both yoga and pilates, so I will endeavour to give this a go sometime during the week as long as I get my runs in!

So next goal is the 7th November, 10km Run4Fun at Sydney Olympic Park.  I'll be testing out my iMapmyRun app with my first run on Wednesday and because I'll be tracking my run with the actual GPS on me I will have truer indication on how far and fast I am running! WOOHOO!  Geekdom here I come! :P

Birthday and Dexa follow up!

Hi all!  Yesterday was my 38th birthday!  Yep I am THAT old, but I look hot! hahahahahaha.  I've been asked a couple of times how I felt about turning 38 to be honest with you it doesn't bother me, I feel like this birthday is truly a rebirth, a stepping stone for the wonderful life I have ahead of me.  And I had such a lovely day, a multitude of birthday wishes, a pedicure, lunch out, some window shopping and boot camp in the evening to finish it off!

Tomorrow there are more celebrations with family and friends lunch and then out in the evening in my hot new outfit! :D

Today I had a follow up dexa scan.  In 2 months I have basically I lost 3.3kg's of fat, gained 1kg of muscle.  My bodyfat percentage has gone from 26.4% to 23.0%!  Which I am stoked about!  So total weight today was 78.7kg's and my range has gone up a couple of hundred grams due to my muscle increase to 75.8 - 76.7kg (last scan it was 75.6 - 76.5kg).  So the plan is to aim for the 75kg mark and then maintain that, and have another scan in 6 months to make sure I am on track.  In the meantime I will have to play around with calories and exercise to work out my maintenance level.

So I had hoped for 24% body fat so I was just over the moon at 23%.  And to gain a kg of muscle in 2 months is just awesome considering I've got muscle to give away! :D  Trainer Nate has taken to calling me skiinny b*tch or beef cake! hahahahaha

So my girlfriend is coming down from the coast and she is coming to training with me in the morning to see what I go through every week!  She does exercise herself, but it will be interesting to see how she finds this, and as we've never trained together (even though we've known each other for 31 years!) it should be fun, you know in that sick exercisey way! :D

So I'll be back later on in the weekend with pictures from tomorrow! Have a great long weekend!

Running and more running....

Yesterday was the 9km Blackmores Bridge Run.  We signed up as a team to raise money for Ovarian Cancer, one of our group members is currently battling the disease, a little shy, we did it from the perspective of her dog, Artie and called it Running for Artie.  We aimed to raise $5,000 between us and on the morning of our run yesterday we surpassed our target amount. :D

Isn't Artie adorable?  The day started cloudy but while waiting to start the sun snuck out.  Trainer Nate and his brother Trainer Heath ran with us, but they didn't run for themselves, they spent the time running between the group members, and encouraging them on so as to hit any targets we had set for ourselves, (like me, aiming for under an hour) and my girl Nat (to simply run all the way her first fun run!).  I even saw Trainer Nate encouraging complete strangers, just hyped to be there and be involved.

Despite having run 14km in August, I really struggled, Trainer Nate identified that I've been over training and once this week is done (last week of Hypoxi) I'm being ordered to take some rest time.

But even despite my struggles and pratically needing to be pushed and pulled down the last kilometre particularly after discovering what we thought was the finish line finding that it wasn't and me nearly both spontaneously about to burst into tears and vomit at the same time, managed to cross the finish line in the time of 54:22.  Beating both the hour I hoped for and my 8km Mother's Day Classic Time of 56:09.  Estimating that I was running on average almost 10km an hour (holy ****!!!!)

This has spurred me on for the 10km run in November at Sydney Olympic Park knowing that with some rest and better training I will likely have a better race day and be well aimed to do it in an hour or hopefully less. It's supposed to be a relatively flat course so fingers crossed.

I suppose after reading about how you can have bad race days it was a good experience and further understanding of how hard I can be on myself, see I achieved my goals but I was disappointed, I suppose I was thinking if I'd been in the right frame of mind I could have done better, so I suppose I need to suck it up and get over myself!  hehehehe

All of us finished under the hour which was awesome, most of us around that 54 minute mark, the others were only 15 or so seconds ahead of me, with Trainer Nate and Trainer Heath both almost physically pushing me over the finish line to both come in one second after me!  

I've booked my next dexa scan in for the 1st October, so with a second lot of Hypoxi done and having gone into the 70's I will be curious to see what the comparison results are from the August one.

I've started to think about maintenance and to look at a goal for that I've asked Trainer Nate if it's realistic to look at training for a half marathon while working on maintenance and he thinks it's a good goal to aim for.

I also want to redo the Menai fun run that I did at the beginning of the year, a very hilly 8km course, it was my first one and I was lucky to run half of it, so I'd love to give it another crack and see what my improvement on it is.  And then of course, I will likely attempt the Mother's Day Classic again in a bid to run the entire course (which  by then should be easy peasy) and totally smash my time.  These I imagine will make good training events for a half marathon.

So goals achieved and more goals to come and aim for a good bid to help me keep maintenance on track.  A good way to start off another year seeing it's my birthday next week, I've achieved so much since my last birthday and am excited about the prospects that lay ahead!

No rest for the wicked....

Trucking along, still learning, figuring stuff out and letting stuff go hahahahaha it's such an ongoing process!

Last night went to Trainer Christian, this is what he made us do.  He started by explaining the three moves he wanted us to do.  He paired us up with an olympic barbell which weighs about 20kg's.  Then showed us that the moves were a squat with the bar on our chest, a squat and press up, and a press up from the chest, using our legs as needed.  Our aim was this 100 reps of each. WTF, that's the look on all our faces.  This was the plan, one person started and did as many reps as they could, when they could do no more they dropped the bar and went for a shortish jog while the next person started.  So the more reps you could get out the less runs you had to do.  We could do them in any order.  My partner and I decided the squat and press was the worst and we'd get that out of the way followed by the press and then pump out the squats, unfortunately by the time we finished the squat press she could barely lift the bar, so she went onto squats and I went straight into presses, my arms were dead by the end I tell you and then lucky her by the time she finished her squats Trainer Christian took pity on her (so unlike him) and gave her a smaller bar.  Bugger that will teach me!

You'd think that would be it wouldn't you but guess what.... it wasn't.  After that he had one more thing instore for us, partnering us up slightly differently in pairs we had a rowing competition.  10 x 100 meters, with 15secs of rest in which we swapped with our partner so each of us doing 500 meters each in total.  Then the average would be checked and a winner announced! EEEEKK!!!  I have difficulty getting out of the stirrups in a hurry but my partner was great and helped me, when he got on the rower he rowed so hard, it started to hop across the room! hahahhahahhaha It was like death but guess what me and my partner won! hahahahahahhahaha woohoo!  VOMIT! hahahahahhahaha

OK that was it finally, stretch and then the next hour spent trying to get my arms to stop shaking and back to stop burning.  God there's something so incredible about it you want to die when you are doing it, but you feel so awesome when you are done.

The rest of the week is Boot camp and Hypoxi followed by the 9km bridge run on Sunday.  No rest for the wicked! With only 4kg's left to goal I really want to try to knock it out rather than stretch it out.  And Hypoxi definitely seems to help out there, so watch out birthday here I come, you might not be a significant number but it's definitely a re-birth of the new, better and healthier me. :D

Running for Artie

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/running_for_artie

Artie is the crazy little cavoodle whose owner is one of the 1200 women in Australia who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year.  His owner is the cousin of one my boot camp girlfriends.  We all know how pervasive cancer is in our lives, and once touched by it, it seems every time you turn around someone else you know is being touched by it.

A group of us have banded together to do the Blackmore's 9km bridge run on the 19th September, we are raising money for this cause, so if you are interested in helping us raise money and awareness for this cause, please click the link and donate!

Thanks for your time!

Making a plan....

OK, so after a night out to the AFL with the girls and a rest day on Sunday, I've decided to go ahead with another round of Hypoxi, it's only four weeks and will finish with still a week or so to go till my birthday.

So I've decided to include visits to Trainer Christian on Mondays, for the 4 weeks as well for that extra push.

So my schedule will look like:

Mon: Trainer Christian

Tues: Boot camp

Wed: Hypoxi

Thurs: Boot camp

Fri: Hypoxi

Sat: Boot camp & Hypoxi

Sun: Run

It looks full on I know I can trade out a boot camp or the Sunday run for rests where needed, and some boot camps may involve an additional running session with the girls in training for our 9km, some sprints and the like.  Hypoxi days if I do nothing else are relatively easy almost like rest days! It's only for four weeks and I feel really motivated to get as close as possible to goal before my birthday as I can, it would be a great way to ring in another year!  Also if I do similar cm results that should quite easily result in another dress size.

I like having a schedule to run with, since I've been back from the snow I've had no particular routine so to speak, and it leaves me feeling unfocussed!

The session with Trainer Christian last night was at his new studio I haven't seen before, it boasts a nice hill up to the end of the cul-de-sac that he likes to send us up and down inbetween sets of pushups, squats and sit ups!  He and Trainer Nate would get on so well they are both sadistic bastards sometimes hehehehehehhe!  But it felt good to really work hard, and with no one else there that I really knew I could just focus and get on with it.  At one stage we had to do the hill 3 times, I tell you I had to keep saying in my head over and over if you did the City 2 Surf you can do this!  He said if we needed to walk so be it but damn it I wanted to show him and myself I could run it, so I really pushed myself to keep running at the top of the cul-de-sac I kept saying get your breath back here on the down hill run.

I also realised despite my excessive picture taking I'm still not quite caught up in how I really look (I even took a pic of myself in my workout gear, to see how I looked, and was surprised to find my hips weren't as big as I expected them to be! Weird hey!  Still some work to do on my thighs though bahahahahah!).  One of the other girls in my class had also done Hypoxi and was showing us her results, and I was shocked that our measurements were so close, because in my head I saw myself as bigger than her, but I was forced to really look at her and see that I was of a similar size (chunkier thighs!) it was eye opening but hard to process at the same time. I still cringe a little inside before I see a photo expecting to see the 130kg I used to be I suppose.  I mean I think I dress like someone who realises they've lost weight, I just can't always seem to see it! It's definitely an ongoing process!

PS My shirt says Your Life Begins Now!  I have about 4 of them that all say different things, they look like Lorna Jane shirts but cost 10 bucks from Big W! hehehehehe

Building a bridge....

So guess how much trouble Trainer Nate is in.... I seriously wanted to give him a couple of head bashes last night!  He was telling us this story on Wednesday about a fight he was watching where this guy just sat on the other guy and punched him like 300 times and the guy just took it... that's the kind of thing I was imagining last night!  BUT at the same time I have to accept my own personal responsibility, I knew from the beginning and I didn't push to get him to double check. 

WTF you are all saying, well we discovered that along with not being able to count, Trainer Nate, can't measure! :P  He had been measuring the beep test length incorrectly, which seems fair seeing he just takes 20 steps instead of using a tape measure.... so basically all my beep test results since the February have been false :(  (See it's all still about learning what you are willing to let yourself believe and what you are willing to face up to! :P)

Those extra three and a half extra feet don't seem like much until you are trying to beat that damn beep and you feel that the return shuttle is on a slope!  I'm whinging I know I'll build a bridge in a minute and get over it.

So the results sit like this:

Beep test: 11 (really going from last real test 5.5) ------------- 6.5 smaller improvement than I'd hoped (gonna try again in two weeks and aim to hit 7.1)
Pushups one minute: 54 ----- 53 (girl pushups - once you get over 50 it's a bit whatever! :D)
Wall sit: 315 secs ----------- 330 (5 mins 30 secs)
Plank: 140 secs ------------- 201 (3 mins 21 secs - last time was a bit pitiful, if I remember correctly my previous best is around the 3 min mark so I think this is a PB)
Flexibility: 16 --------------- tbc (I think I might have gone a little backwards on this but then again this was the first time he used a proper tape measure and not a guestimate on the paper pad - yep that's another dig at you dude because I can!)
Pushups one minute: 28 ----- 33 (guy pushups :D)

So no use whinging a lot about it really the beep test stuff goes back on the goals list I'd eventually like to build up to a 10, but have a way to go. 

Yes I admit it was somewhat demoralizing, only because it was such a huge drop and we all felt it almost immediately.  See sometimes this is why I like my smaller incremental improvements, I don't question those! hehehehe  BUT at the end of the day it's a mistake right!?  We are all human and it does not take away from the achievements I've made including the City 2 Surf, the fantastic dexa scan results, or how good I feel in my clothes right! :D

So I'm having a little sulk and tomorrow it's back to Balmoral and a busy weekend ahead with my nephews birthday lunch and a friends birthday dinner! 

Have a great weekend folks!

City 2 Surf 2010

So today was the big day, and I come to the end of it with a huge great big tick!  

The City 2 Surf!  A major end goal for me this year, here I am with my girls and our medals, red and sweaty faced, but totally proud because we did it, we got to the end.

Initially I was sure what to expect, when Trainer Nate said he wanted me to run it all, I really didn't focus on speed, but a couple of weeks ago, just before my trip to the snow I ran a 14km training run in around 1:45, so I figured that was a good goal. 

We didn't end up running the whole race together, because one of my main aims was to run the whole thing, I pulled away from the girls slightly on heartbreak hill when they paused to walk.  But in the last kilometre with me in their sights they caught me and we hammered it home, grabbing hands and raising them with a cheer as we crossed the finish line together, and the bonus as we grabbed hands I spied Trainer Nate to the right of us cheering us on! (He started in a group behind us but quickly overtook us to finish the race in 68:30).  Our finishing time 1:38:and tbc seconds (will check the paper tomorrow).

Here we are with him, dubbed by him the Smurfettes after registering in the blue group, we went so far as to have t-shirts printed and then on the back we paid hommage to Trainer Nate, with our slogan "We love to hate, Trainer Nate".  Hehehehe He loved it!  Oh and that's not my bare arse in the photo it's a pink bum bag! hahahaha

So lots of big ticks for me, run the whole race, TICK, finish in under 1:45, TICK! Simply finish TICK! Do it for my mum, TICK! Make trainer proud, TICK!

So let's have a little recap this year:

1. I did my first ever fun run
2. I participated in the Mother's Day Classic
3. I completed (and ran the entire) City 2 Surf
4. I joined a running group
5. I reached 100 pounds (over 45kg's) lost
6. I've bought clothes in sizes 12 AND 10!
7. I appeared in a magazine
8. I have another magazine appearance pending
9. I had a dexa scan with great results
10. I had my dream trip to the snow!

I mean wow that's a phenomenal year!  Now I need to look forward to some new goals.  The things I have left to do are reach 50kg's lost and that's not far off, go horse-riding again (cause I can), try indoor rock climbing (because why not?) but what else now what do I face?

Possibly a half marathon?  Work on increasing my running speed. Get to my goal weight (or happy body shape), learn how to maintain!  Look at doing my Cert III and IV (even if it is just for me).  Lots of things still to do or aspire to! The sky really is the limit right?

Busy busy busy....

Firstly thank you for my awards! I know I have some things to do in receiving them, it may have to wait till I get back from the snow and have more time up my sleeve, but thank you so much, I'm honoured! :D

So this is the last week for Hypoxi, I finish up on Saturday and will have some results to post. 

So I'd increased to 10km on my running, decided to try a 12-13km on the weekend, got to about 12km and thought why the heck would I not try to do an actual 14km (which is what the City 2 Surf is).  So I just did!  So now I've hit that target I'm happier in my mind, especially seeing next week I'll be down the snow, and then the week after that I'm supposed to be tapering my training.  So I know I can do it, I have a nice set of hills and undulations in my course that I run, so I think I'm set.  Just need to pull up good on the day! :D  I found sipping gatorade good, and will down a gel at about the 10km mark to push the last few km home.  Now I just need to figure out what time I need to get to Bondi Junction that will allow me enough time to get the train into the City! urgh I hate public transport!

A busy week, and more PB's....

So let's see it's been a pretty good week.  I had my Hypoxi sessions, Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, I get there early and try to do a 25-30 min run (Friday I only got 10 minutes but went hard keeping it over 9km/hr and getting a few minutes in at 10km/hr (I can't run at speed for long periods of time but it's all about building up right?!).  Also the skirt thing they put on you comes in different sizes (which I did not realise) and I went down a skirt thing already, today is my 6th session the half way point I think I get measurements done on Wednesday before the start of the 7th session to see how I'm travelling.

Write a book????

Hidee hoedy.... I'm still here training away, I had boot camp on Saturday followed by Hypoxi again, (yes Saturday boot camp is at Balmoral beach just at the bottom of Awaba St, come and find me and say hi, I don't think my trainers would mind people coming by it's $25 for the session!).

Sunday complete rest day it feels a bit weird to not do anything but last week and the next 3 weeks are flat out so I knew it was important to take the rest. 

Monday I put on my work pants, and was very surprised to find them already looser, so I'm completely fascinated now to see my results at the end of this four weeks with Hypoxi, coupled with my trainer telling me that the snow will also make me drop some weight (just walking to the ski lifts is an effort apparently! :D), and then my Dexa scan I'm excited to see what the next few weeks hold, and how far away from goal I'll actually be.

So the funniest thing at the moment is a bunch of people telling me I should write a book! bahahahahahah funny right?  Apparently my story is not snoozable to all around me... just me hehehehehehe, Trainer Nate is already brainstorming names for it! Wanna hear something even funnier.... last night I wrote the dedication in my head.... hehehehehehe.

I am legend... kind of....

So do you wanna know how funny Trainer Nate thought he was last night?  Maybe I should back up for a minute, see I thought telling him about my bruised knees and my copious amounts of burpees and man pushups from Tuesday might have him feeling a little sorry for me.... gosh could I have been more wrong.  It seems he felt the need to go and do more research on some more exciting things he could make me do.

So first of all we had to run down a flight of stairs and up a hill twice but heck he thought it would be funny to hand me a 12kg kettlebell to run with..... WTF!

Then he proceeded to show me some new moves he has planned for me, one being take the 12kg kettlebell and do a swing, control it on the way back down, when it touches the floor balance on it and proceed to do a burpee, once legs are outstretched and you've managed to not tip the kettlebell over do a pushup and then pop back up.... so the last thing he made everyone do was 5 burpees (mind you during boxing I already had done 5 that no one else had to do but whatever! hehhehe), so I told him I would do 3 of his fandagaled moves, to which he agreed, so both of us were surprised when I managed to do them including the close grip pushup ontop of the kettlebell, so I did 5 cause he said come on you can do 5, so I do what I'm told and I did.

Training training training....

Ok so busy week, I finally took a proper run... despite hitting an 11 on my beep test last week, I hadn't done a proper run since before I got sick, so I headed off on Monday night headphones blaring and did my 5.5km circuit and I was OK! hehehehehe

Tuesday I was off to my sisters and Trainer Christian, I haven't seen him for a while with all the upheaval of boot camp in the evenings and so on.  And yes Trainer Nate was OK with me trading out his session because it's the start of a new cycle and so all the newbies were being tested anyway.  He and Trainer Christian have a little bromance going on via me, they seem to get big kicks out of hearing how hard each of them push me! Bastards! hehehehehehehe

Scary, Exciting and Honest....

So I just did something really scary and exciting all at the same time, I filled in my entry for the City 2 Surf.  So now that I've entered it's no longer a possibility of something I might do, it's a... I'm really gonna do this sucker type thing! 

Trainer Nate is adamant I run it all, so I'm really going to focus my training on endurance rather than speed, and try my best.

There is another cracker of a post today by Craig Harper, hop on over and read it, it's called What's your food issue?  But it's the talk about honesty with oneself and other's that really struck my chords.... see if I have to come down to some definitive point about what it is that has worked for me this time when nothing did before it really is about me, me being honest with myself, being honest with others, calling myself out on my own bullshit, not getting upset when those around me call me out on my bullshit (luckily I have some great people in my life who do so and thus I am able to learn from it!) and getting out of my own damn way so I can move forward. 

This is something that really drives me in my training too, see I'm a little bit of a nazi when it comes to my reps, if I'm told to do a certain number, then I have to do every single one I'm told to do, even if it means watching other's short change themselves to finish quicker, even if it means I'm last to finish even if it means like on Saturday I was a full exercise behind everyone else.... I know that if I want the results I have to put in the effort 110%, and man I get it done.   

I still struggle and that's OK too, I've learnt different ways to deal with these things when they arise, to be able to look at them and see them for what they are, I might sulk for a day or two but I don't let things derail me, it's been a HUGE learning curve and continues to be, but by god it's been worth it! :D  And there's still more to come, I'm excited now to see what the future brings!  And there's certainly a big future out there waiting to embrace me, I'm sure of it! :D

Another 6 weeks, and more improvements

Can you believe it's been six weeks again already!!  Despite missing a week and a half (of work out only 2 boot camp sessions) from being sick I still managed improvements on all my tests including an additional one we all threw in for the heck of it.

So my trainer said mainly he was only interested in the beep test and push ups, he did throw a 12 out there for the beep test but it was just too much, I was very close to vomiting! ;D  11 is still good right! hehehehe

Six weeks ago: ------------- Six weeks on

Beep test: 10.1 --------------- 11
Pushups one minute: 47----- 54 (girl pushups)
Wall sit: 181 secs ----------- 315 (5 mins 15 secs)
Plank: 187 secs ------------- 240 (4 mins)
Flexibility: 16 --------------- tbc

Pushups one minute: 0 ----- 28 (guy pushups - this one is new!) 

Have an opportunity to try out something new, will be blogging more about it later, need to check it all out first and once I know what's involved I'll be sharing.  Trainer Nate feels it will really help me push on to my goal quicker and it's being incorporated into my current regime so we will see. 

Might just keep doing the beep test and man push ups and find some other way to measure improvements, the rest seem to be becoming a little redundant and it's hard to push the plank and wall sit over the 5 minute mark without blowing the session out by the time we do everything else and warm up and cool down, on top of with both my trainers have found the wall sit to be pretty redundant.  

Any way, hope you are all having a good week and that exciting doors and opportunities are also opening for you as the seem to be for me at the moment!

Endurance...

As promised I took a picture in my new dress, with my boots, hehehehehe I think I'll ask to be buried in my precious boots, anyway I like the picture better than my one from 2 days ago, so I'm adding it as well! :D

Had a really hard double session yesterday, Trainer Nate truly hammered me, I had a 1300 calorie burn a max heart rate of 95% and an average of 80%.  While somewhat disappointed as there were times the word vomit entered my head so I thought I had maxed my heart rate I was pleased with the average, and just general pleased with my ability to complete the sessions, with boxing up second and several sets of burpees, I even impressed myself with my endurance, I guess! :D

Tomorrow we are boxing first and second session is a circuit so I shall see how that makes a difference and what new series of torture Trainer Nate can consider for me!  It's an interesting change but I am hoping my morning classes will be back soon.

Happy hump day all, hope you are all eating well, exercising hard, and working through those issues one step at a time!

Finally thanks to all the lovelies who left comments on my blog at CK and the lovely Berys who even commented twice!  You are all MY inspiration! :D

Over the 42 mark....

Now that I've hit over 42kg lost (that's 93.3 pounds!) I decided it was time for a new photo, I've kept it casual but my top is a $7 bargain buy from K-mart hehehehe I love the sale racks these days as there is often stuff I can find that fits.

While the scale weight has been slower of late, I'm still losing cm's I notice it in my clothes, in fact I had to go out and buy new pants in 12's my 14's were just feeling too loose! (Drama! hahahaah NOT!).

I also got myself a pair of skinny jeans, whilst I always thought I'd never buy a pair I didn't realise they are the best jeans to wear with knee high boots!  Don't mock me about it OK..... I never had knee high boots before either! :D  I have a new dress too I may take a photo of it later in the week!