Nearly a month since my last post. That seems a while and yet, with work the way it is, it seems like yesterday. Sorry folks.
I have been focusing on a few healthy bits and the running seems to have got more regular on weekends thuough running during the week hasn’t been as successful.
The last two weekends have seen me run both the Saturday and the Sunday though with foot soreness it hasn’t been as much fun. Not sure whats going on there so it’s off to the podiatrist last week and this week. He suggested I may need new shoes so I dropped into an Athlete’s Foot store and picked up some new Adidas runners. Stupid me went for a run in them without a day or two of walking around in them to break them in. So that wasn’t much fun.
Back to the old shoes for my bridges run yesterday and still the foot soreness. This time I focused on where the pain was coming from and it’s mainly the arches. I stopped at the half way mark to re-lace my shoes in a manner that I saw to allow for high arches (which I have) and it did make a difference. Still, it was run a song, walk a song stuff.
Wiiiiiiiiiii!
My son got a pay rise that was back dated so he bought a Wii. We then went and got Wii-Fit and started ith some yoga exercises. I’m not sure how technically correct this is but it got me and the FBH stretching and focusing on our core strength so it can’t be all that bad.
10km Challenge
The FBH and I are doing a 10km run this Sunday coming so we are looking forward to that. This part of exercising together is a lot of fun and, although she walks most of it, it means I can cheer her through the finish line. Thugh, knowing her and her disciplne, it will be the other way round soon enough!
Okay folks, here’s to a few more (better focused) posts in the coming weeks. I hope everyone is well and keeping healthy.
Just remember (he says to himself) to Eat Better and Move More!
Just after I started my 12 in 12 regime I came down feeling very fatigued. Woke up tired, felt tired and hot flushes during the day (I assume I’m not pregnant!) and was quite worried that something had gone terribly wrong with my health.
So, off to the Docs and ran series of blood tests that I won’t elaborate on due to the fact it’s not that interesting and people might be eating as they read this.
Only real problems are
mildly diabetic
mild cholesterol
But nothing to cause fatigue. So I’m off for a Glucose Tolerance Test later this week and watching the diet re: the cholesterol over the next two months.
Plan is to cut back (completely) on beer and limit the wine intake a LOT to see if I can manage the fat and sugars a bit better. I also plan to eat more raw foods (broccoli etc – I love raw broccoli!) to try and get the HDL (good) cholesterol UP and bring the overall ratio DOWN!
Plus the exercise needs to be more consistent.
Anyway, the worry that something serious might be up has been allayed so, no excuses, just have to get on with it! But maybe the advice from Andrew was better than it even appeared and that is not to over push yourself and make the exercise a chore.
Plan to day is to just go for a walk of a few kms. Enjoy the sunshine after a motorbike ride to Mandurah!
Hope all is well in your part of the world.
Next week I am off to my annual pilgrimage to the Melbourne Anzac Day parade so I’ll try and post a blog or two of that beautiful city.
Firstly, an apology to everyone who received feeds titled “test” and “Angie”. I’ve been looking for a way to blog from my mobile and tried out “Cellspin“ on my Nokia N95 8GB. Works great. I just forgot momentarily that what I posted would get sent to the world! Again, if you got those 2 posts, my apologies.
It’s (almost) winter so that means field hockey has started!
Yesterday I wandered down to my old social hockey club, not convinced that I should start playing again but just to see how I felt when I got there. I took my gear (sans stick! ) and signed up for the season!
Luckily my daughter found my stick at home and brought it down, the treasure!
I also used my Polar RS200 and heart rate strap to see how my calories and heart rate would fare under these circumstances of “Stop-Go”. (I now know what “match fitness” means!)
It was good to have the run and I am sure I’ll get better as the season progresses (and they mow the fields – sheesh, it really was like a paddock!)
But my Polar told an interesting story. Good periods in some of the high impact zones and quite a few calories burnt even though I wasn’t playing the whole game as we had opportunities for substituting – which I gladly took at times.
Avg HR – 140bpm
Max HR – 176bpm
Zone 1 – 00:47
Zone 2 – 10:06
Zone 3 – 15:52
Zone 4 – 17:03
Zone 5 – 15:16
Calories – 521
I was worried that the stop-start nature of the game may not have that level of effect so I’m happy that it does. It means that, with my running and swimming, I can easily add hockey to my regime for some impact. It will be interesting to see how my match fitness affects these figures as they season progresses.
Well Day 3 was a write off. I was feeling very fatigued (more than just tired). So much so that I’ve gone to the doc to get looked at. Blood tests and all. But to distract you from my failure to complete any form of exercise yesterday, I have found this. Enjoy!
Andrew has offered some good advice if I want to enjoy my runs: train only 3 – 4 days per week. Good advice, I agree. (Andrew should know, he’s the one running 30+ kms these days! )
Therefore my 12 in 12 will remain but I’m taking the pressure off myself for times and calories etc. It will be 12 exercise days (still a minimum of 5kms per day) but only 3 or 4 of the days will be “time trials”. The others, like today, will be casual walk and run as I feel, just to keep the heart rate “up” but not exhausting myself.
So, on to today’s stats:
Location: Lake Monger, Perth (3.5km path) x 2
Distance: 7km
Pace: about 8.5mins/km
HR Avg: not recorded (battery ran out on Garmin)
HR Max: see previous point!
Calories: see previous point!!
Push Ups: 50 (1 x 20; 3 x 10)
Clearly I must remember to charge my Garmin overnight. How sad to discover when I get to my destination that it has run down! (as opposed to discovering before I leave the house!)
Anyway, the circuit was good and I dropped the iPod off at the car for the second lap to allow my self to hear the sounds of the world on the last 3.5km. It was a cool and windy day, no rain, alas but it was simply good to get out and not have nay pressure to get any where at any particular time.
Finished off with 50 push ups (1 x 20 and 3 x 10). I’ll do the sit ups later today, but I WILL do them!
OK, I got off my A$$ and headed outdoors for a long overdue run and the beginning of my 12 day challenge.
April has been unusually warm in Perth and even now at 6:26pm my weather gizmo on my status bar says 33C. And it feels every bit of it. So I headed out (with good intentions of taking pictures and running the whole way – how could I not after my past post) and it started off okay, albeit a tad warm.
The Run
I ran 2.25km but the rasping in my throat from the dryness was getting to me so I thought I’d walk the last 250m out and run the way back. Needless to day I didn’t and ended up walking the last 1km without even trying to run. I was sweating enough and my lack of a healthy diet (aka sugar and chocolate) was getting to me, I started feeling a little weak and light headed so I think walking home was a good idea. (I must learn how to carry water with me.)
The Stats
Anyway on to the stats (which will improve, I am sure)…
Distance: 5km
Time: 35:03.47
Pace: 7min/km
Calories: 397
HR Avg: 145
HR Max: 172
Push Ups: (20 x 2; 1 x 10)
Sit Ups: (2 x 25)
Okay, tomorrow they are forecasting rain, hopefully with a lot lower temperature.
Finally got around to publishing my results from last week. I was pretty happy with the time even though I missed out in breaking the 55 minute target by a couple of minutes. I was happy I ran all the way even though the only picture of me is just before the finishing line and looks like I’m about to fall sideways!
Some things I’m realising about my training:
It’s about having run (i.e. completed) not the run itself. As soon as I start I want to have it done with and I rarely enjoy the run itself.
I run, I don’t train to run. To me this is an important distinction. I know running frequently is a sort of training but I won’t run slower to run faster. I don’t try and run further either. Take a look at Andrew’s running regime where just recently he ran 31km! But he has persevered with a training program to do this. He didn’t just decide to run 31km!
I am not focusing on my diet and I don’t drink enough water. Even now I have a faithful can of Pepsi Max next to me not a bottle of water. Even though earlier today I decided to drink after only today (bev du jour!)
What all this means is I am not heading towards my goal of becoming and athlete from average. I’m being very average in fact!
I have to change further. I can count the following as wins from over a year ago when I started this blog:
I can now run 10kms non stop (better than the light pole to light pole start!)
I have completed a triathlon (I nearly died, sure, but I completed it)
Running is not an issue any more (doing it more often might be)
I guess I could say I have the basics down but I also have to conclude that running is still something I do rather than, in my view better perception, that I AM a runner.
This second year of “Average to Athlete” is to become a runner and an effective runner. To be an effective runner means I fuel my body appropriately and maximise my exercise to get the most out of my runs.
I’ve reviewed the training program in my Forerunner 305 software and note there are a few I could do it improve my running effectiveness so this will be my plan over the next few weeks.
In the meantime I need a regimen until I go to Melbourne on the 24th April for my annual pilgrimage to the Anzac Day parade.
12 Runs in 12 days
Starting today (12th April) I plan to run every day and for the runs to be a minimum of 5kms.
I’ll also take different routes (local, West Coast Drive, Lake Monger etc) to create variety.
Each day I’ll grind out at least 50 push ups and 50 sit ups (not in one go, give me a break)
I will endeavour to take a photo on each run to try and slow down and “smell the roses” of enjoying the run itself.
I’ll post each day to let you know how things are going. A post may only consist of what I did with a little commentary on how it went.
Regards to all and I hope the speed at which we consumed all that chocolate is exceeded by how quickly we all work it off!
Got a great surprise yesterday when the FBH rang me at work to say she has signed up for the 10km walk version of the Asics Bridges run this Sunday. She decided to do it with one of her friends from work. That is awesome and it also spurred the kids into it as well. My son will do the run with me and Olivia will do the walk with her Mum. Woohoo!
I’ve been getting back into a more regular schedule too so I am really looking forward to the run on Sunday. I managed a 57min run around the same course last Sunday with only a couple of dips of walking. I am sure with competitors around me there shouldn’t be any walking and hopefully around a 55 minute time. Have to break the 1 hour mark.
10km Ride for Asthma
I also completed in a 10km bike ride the Sunday before. It took only 21 mins so I was a little disappointed I didn’t enter the 30km ride. But it’s good to get out and about anyway. 21 minutes seemed hardly worth it. Glorious day though, no headwind, bit of a soft ride really!
PushUps
I’ve been getting back into the push ups as well but not the official 100 push ups by Steve Spiers. I’ve started off doing just 30 per day (1 x 20 then 1 x 10) just to get me going. I may re-start the official version once I’ve done a couple of weeks worth this way.
Life has been hectic lately and I am sure glad March is over. A wedding (which I MC’d), a twenty first birthday (daughter) and our own 25th wedding anniversary (Dinner and Phantom of the Opera) has left me a little drained. Plus being an HR Manager in the current economic climate means you really need to be on your toes with requests coming from everywhere about all sorts of things – many times the issues are avoidable in the first place so that only adds to the pressure – knowing you shouldn’t have to be dealing with some of the crap in the first place. (mini rant over)
I’ll write up a report on the race this Sunday. I love what Andrew’s done with his graphs of his results here.
As many people now know I’ve completed my first triathlon. (Go me!)
But what many don’t know is that, the day before, it could all have gone horribly wrong. I was trying on my singlet over my swimming top to ensure I didn’t have to remove the swim top in transition, just to get a faster transition. It tried the singlet on in the bedroom and then thought I’d put it in my backpack once I was happy that it did indeed fit.
No problem so far.
I walked into the lounge room and ripped off the singlet by extending my arms upward – into our ceiling fan on it’s highest speed!
I though I had just hit the fan blades but the fan was stopped. I was then a little horrified to see the blades spinning fast enough that they were a blur.
My hand was in pain and and I felt the sting of sharp pain in my fingers. They were either off or broken and all I could think of was “Crap, no triathlon tomorrow!”
My son was in he room and he jumped up immeduatelt anto see if I was oky, to mop up the blood and get me to a doctor.
I am pleased to say (and a little chagrined) that there was no blood, no break and all I got for my trouble was a blood blister on the end of my left index finger. Which did hurt mind you!
Anyway, I am either superhuman or, as the Mythbusters have already proven, you cannot do serious damage to a limb by stupidly sticking it into a ceiling fan.
Completed the triathlon itself. There were a couple of places where I was thinking “How do I affect my team if I pull out?” But it ended up being a moot point by finishing.
Generally happy with the run time. It’s not fast but I walked a (fair) bit of it due to good old exhaustion. I can improve that next time with something called regular and consistent training.
Happy with the swim time. Would have like to have been a bit quicker but I never got to swim in the river or the ocean prior to the day and I think I was just a little surprised about the feel and how long 400m can be when there are no rests (like at the end of the pool!).
Happy (content) with overall time. I was thinking of doing it in an hour but as I got closer to the day, I was thinking with the lack of training and not being a strong swimmer maybe 75 mins would be a better first target. Beating that by 5 mins was great, especially as the technology failed and I had no idea how I was going. Fixing my bike speedo and having a waterproof watch on with a timer (my Polar) would have helped. Apparently my Garmin 305 is not intended for swimming so I wasn’t going to risk that.
What I’m not happy about
My own lassaiz faire attitude. For some reason I thought I’d just turn up and complete this (not easily) but well. I came up short! Even my colleagues at work were saying: “Aren’t you in a triathlon this weekend?”
Technology didn’t work. I have a bike speedo that for some reason did not want to play (and I think I JUST realised why! OMG – I took the front wheel off to put it in my car and I bet I put it back on reversed! Sheesh! LOL. Oh dear.) Anyway, because I wasn’t getting any readings my pace fell off and that is partly the reason for the slow time on the bike – tiredness and lack of training being the other other two.
What I really liked was the atmosphere. Here were 2,200 people all competing but being very supportive as well. If all of life was like that I am sure we’d all be in a better place. The course marshals also played a great role in encouraging you when you went by them which was great.
My recovery is still going (20 hours later) so I need to look into recovering quicker. I’m not sore but feeling a little weak and flu-ey, if that makes sense.
Where to from here?
Planning on taking a break this work week (Mon – Fri) and then back into the running on the weekend. Plan on joining a swimming club to get my freestyle working and improving my swimming performance, which will also help my overall stamina I’ve never had a “big tank” and it obviously affects my results.
Also planning to get back into the 100 Push Ups and 200 Sit Ups.
Firstly, an apology to everyone who received feeds titled “test” and “Angie”. I’ve been looking for a way to blog from my mobile and tried out “
) and signed up for the season!
