From Average to Athlete

With all my thinking about exercise I finally bit the bullet and did some. (thank you, thank you, please, no, you are too kind!)

Sunday I got out for a walk around the bridges circuit (pictures wouldn’t transfer from phone, still working on it) which is around 10km … in 34C heat. The FBH joined me for 3-odd km before she turned back (I thought we were halfway and wondered what the point of turning back was) until I realised we started at a different point and I’d only done 3km of 10.

Anyway, I kept going doing a little jog here and there but the heat was a tad too much so I just walked most of the way. Though I did run the inclines. And that really was an effort.

In the end the 10km took around 85 minutes. I was shocked. Though I wasn’t busting to get round, just get round.

We headed home and watched a really great movie called Angel-A by Luc Besson. A bit out there, in French and black & white but an enjoyable movie.

Then last night I got home and the FBH said “Are you going to walk before or after dinner?”

If I ate dinner I wouldn’t walk, so we changed and headed out. 6-odd km with the tempo of run a song, walk a song. And that took around 50 minutes.

So it seems I’m slowing down with the heat. I’m also trying to run slowly.

I seem to have this thing that as soon as I start a run I want to finish and it keeps my pace up, but often the pace isn’t sustainable, hence the walking. I really do need to learn to run slowly.

My Garmin 305 has an exercise where I have to run (I think it’s 2km) without my heart rate getting out of zone 1. I’m not sure I could do that and run at the same time. Walk yes. Run, not sure.

So, happy that I’ve done a couple of runs and feel a lot better for it. I also feel like the desire to run regularly might be back so I’ll look forward to that.

Watching the weight but not keeping to a healthy diet. So that is the next task. Need to plan my food intake rather than wonder what’s in the fridge/pantry.

Europe Trip, Looking for a Race

Oh, with our trip to Eurpe next year I plan to find a 5km or 10km race to run in. So if anyone knows anything about that, please feel free to contact me. We are going in July/Augsut (hottest time of the year!) so maybe runs will be at a minimum. It’d just be cool to have run the Frankfurt 10k or something! (you know: been there, done that, got the T-shirt!!)

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It’s Sunday afternoon, early. There is a mild breeze wafting through our backyard. It’s currently 29.3C and it’s a glorious spring day.

The FBH mentioned last night there was a 10km walk today and we decided to enter. I had a quick look at the ad in the paper for the Big Walk and saw that the start time was 9:30am.

Fantastic! A good lie in, a couple of short macs and then wander down to Burswood Park and a nice leisurely 10km walk. No race, no rush but a great event to support and get some sunshine and fitness in at the same time. I’m IN!

Around 8:00am I mention to the FBH that we’d better get moving if we were going to take part. She (kind of smiled and said) we needed to be there by 7:30 to register! Dammit!

So, no 10km walk this morning but we are off in about an hour for an afternoon walk of around 10kms. The weather is just too good to be inside at all today.

I thought I’d do a walk instead of a run as I have been out of the regime for a bit so I’m not going to push it too much. The 10km walk will take around 80 mins so that will be nice and as I’m in no rush I’ll stop and take a few pictures to post later today. Perth is very picturesque this time of year. Maybe a few cats (catamarans) will be out on the river to day, adding some man made colour.

Oh, interestingly, I am meeting with a guy called Sandy Gordon this week. Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned him but he is a lecturer at UWA here in Perth. He has coached the likes of the Australian and Indian Cricket teams on how they mentally approach the game. I’ve always been curious on how elite sports people think, particularly in times of intense pressure (don’t mention the current series in India please! :)  )

I’ll let you know what happens with that. I catch up with Sandy on Wednesday afternoon.

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One thing that is helping me stay focused on getting fit and staying fit is reading what others are doing about their own regimes. I read quite a few blogs regularly. Some because the writer is so different from me and others because I feel some affiliation to them, that I am contending with similar challenges to them and I am inspired by their perseverance.

The regular ones are:

Andrew is getting fit

Andrew’s Blog

Learning to Run

John is fit

Mizfitonline

Run Bulldog Run

There are other random ones that I frequent but I find myself coming back to these pretty regularly.

But as I get more and more of an appetite for this type of information, I begin to look elsewhere and I generally find good blogs via blogrolls at these sites.

And then I noticed on Andrew is Fit that he “kicks ass” and something called Alltop.

I heard about Alltop a while ago but it must have been in its infancy because I thought nothing of it. Now, however, is a completely different story. It is a veritable feast of information and, if you’re like me and want more information on fitness and health, then this is the place to go.

Alltop is an aggregator of information all categorised under relevant headings. You can search a term (fitness) as well as search by A-Z. You could get lost here by seeing so many options and I am sure I will spend a fair bit of time scrolling through this “Mega Blog Roll” - they are all blogs from what I can tell.

I searched for, and found, Andrew’s blog listed there along with the last 5 posts, as it does with every blog listed so you get a feel for what the writer writes about.

I also learned that they list blogs are regularly updated so you get fresh info all the time as well as some corporate sites (Washington Post) so they can, according to them, have credibility. That is a great plug for Andrews as he is always posting and keeping us up to date with is progress and has earned his spot on Alltop.

Anyway, have a look over there if you haven’t been before. It’s a great place to get started on new info in this context. (I still got to Google first for most of my research, but this will be a close 2nd.)

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Exercise has taken a back seat lately.

I tell the world this just for those who may also struggle. It’s rarely a physical thing. We can all walk, stagger and stumble forward. It’s just whether we want to or not. And at the moment, to be totally honest I guess I just don’t want to enough.

I do wake up at 5:30am still. I still think “don’t think, just get up!” and I continue to lay there - convincing myself it would:

• be a good idea
• I’ll feel better when I get back
• I’ll lose weight
• I’ll feel better about myself

… and I continue to lie there.

This is quite weird because today Perth is expecting 30C! Bring it on! I love the summer weather.

Yetjust a few short weeks ago, I was getting up at 5:30am whether it was cool, cold, freezing, windy, raining or fine! Go figure. I leapt out of bed back then!

Not today.

So, while exercise is fuzzy on the radar, my eating is still there so I thought over the next few days I’d track what I’m eating and consuming and deliver a tell all kind of journal.

The main things you’ll see is the amount of coffee I consume as well as the breakfast we developed (well, the FBH developed and I consume) and how that is a good start to the day. (I’ll pry the ingredients from her.) The rest of it at the moment tails off from there.

I am no longer on the Jenny Craig diet. Not that I don’t like it, it’s a good diet but I do need to do this on my own.

Okay, so the next post (tonight) will be a day’s dietary consumption with the context of weight loss / management / gain!

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Woohoo! The book (Art of Possibility) have all been dished out.

Well done to:

• Andrew E
• Andrew H
• Dave W

If you email me your postal address They’ll be winging their way to you tomorrow. (Forgot to chuck them in the backpack today - sorry about that!)

Andrew E - I obviously have your address so no need to send it again.

Andrew H and Dave W, let me know by private email (billjw zero five @ gmail dot com) and I’ll get them in the post.

I hope you get as much value, motivation and insight as I have done over the years.

Regards

Bill

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For those of you who missed it I had 3 copies of the Art of Possibility to give away and still have 1 left if anyone is keen. (Both Andrews were quick to snap up the first two copies and they are winging there way to Victoria and NZ by the end of the week.)

There’s no catch and you don’t have to do anything to get the book, apart from being the next person to say “I want one!” and give me a mailing address privately.

Why give a book away for free? It’s fun! Try it!

Been getting back in the saddle this week with a couple of runs of 5 and 5.5 km. Trying to ease back into increasing my distance but not pressuring myself to break any records.

The 5km run took around 32 mins and the 5.5 km run took over 38. I obviously walked a lot. Well, not “obviously” but I did!

I’m finding the runs harder for some reason and my feet are hurting more than I remember before the 12km City to Surf. This is with now relatively new shoes (Brooks Adrenaline) fitted with orthotics. So I’m a bit mystified and a little down that I’m not improving. One step at a time I suppose. Maybe stacking on a few kilos may also be a reason.

Another 6km run tonight and we’ll see how we go.

The weather here is picking up as we head into summer. The trees are green and the mornings are golden again and I get to ride home (motorbike, not cycle) with it still being a little bit light. Time also to get down to the beach and enjoy the scenery of the coast line for a few runs too.

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I am a huge fan of the book The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Ben Zander.

So much of a fan that every now and then I buy 5 or so copies to give away. I just bought another 5 and gave one each to my son and daughter (they would have preferred the cash but they’ll learn! )

The book is the best book on personal development I have read (and I’ve read a few) mainly because it is not a ‘how to’ on actions but a ‘how to’ on thinking. That is, think differently to create a different outcome.

One concept they offer is to ‘give yourself an A’ in regard to a significant achievement as you set out on it - at the beginning of your quest. That solves the problem of striving in a sense and you relax a little. You’ve got your grade, now get on with the job - just work to keep the grade.

The next task is, once you accept you have achieved your goal and earned your ‘A’, to write down how you achieved it. The context is looking back on what you had to do, rather than just planning ahead. Kind of like reverse planning I suppose.

The key difference is this allows you/me to walk through all of the tasks, efforts, emotions and frustrations we might have felt but still come out on top - genuinely earning the ‘A’.

Ben Zander applies this to his music classes at the beginning of the year. He gives them their ‘A’ and asks his students to write a letter to him outlining how they achieved their ‘A’ - not how they plan to achieve it.

It helps you think differently and I have used it with all sorts of things. I don’t always get to the goal (the world is not perfect) but if you take the time to sit down, reward yourself with the ‘A’ and then reverse plan you may find a whole lot of energy and enthsiasm that may have been hidden without doing it.

This is probably similar to Stephen Covey’s “begin with the end in mind” which I also like.

So, my current three goals are:

• 76kg
• 18% body fat
• increase my running distance to 13km

I now have to accept that I have achieved those goals and write down how I did it. I’ll do that today and post the result tomorrow. I’ll also write up a couple of examples from the book.

Oh, and I have 3 copies still I my bookshelf. First in, best dressed if you want a copy.

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After my hiatus on everything healthy and a 9 day break from work I am back to the office today. Really looking forward to all those “unread” emails and flashing messages on the phone. Luckily I put up an “Out of Office” message so the emails won’t be too enormous but I am sure there will be enough to keep me busy for a couple of hours - maybe the whole day.

There are plenty of ways to deal with an overstuffed email inbox, the best I have come across are:

• 43 Folders - Merlin Mann’s site that I have been quietly following foe a few years now.
• David Allens’ Getting Things Done - I emailed David years ago when (to me) he was just starting. I didn’t realise he was the Productivity Guru!
• Priority Management’s Working Smart with Outlook

I’ll probably go with David Allen’s today as he has a great work flow model which is really easy to follow and gets things moving quite well.

Yesterday I re-started my exercise focus with a leisurely 5km run/walk. It’s amazing how unfit one can get within a month of less focused effort. The 5km took me 32 minutes with a “walk a song - run a song” tempo through my Nokia N95. (Great phone by the way!)

Exercise (and a plan!)

Today is a rest day and tomorrow is a 5.5 km run. I read somewhere that you should increase your run distance by no more than 10% each time. Knowing better than any professional I ran whatever I felt like and, maybe, my last month’s inactivity is a result of not taking good advice. I have just felt very flat.

So I’ve now written down a plan for the next 3 weeks that allows me a rest day every other day and a 10% increase in distance each day I do run. It’s quite interesting how quickly you can increase you distance through such a simple method - by Day 21 I will be running 12 km.

I’ve also included the Push Ups as well so I hope to be doing 3 sets of 30 by that time too. It’s not quite Steve Speirs’ program but I am still aiming to get to the 100 eventually.

Well, I’ve deferred long enough, time to get ready for work.

Have a great day.

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What happens when you have a smallish breakfast, spend the rest of the day out and about and drink only a couple of coffees?

You eat! A lot!

I spent the day out in Fremantle yesterday and just whiled away the hours doing a spot of reading, not really feeling like food but had a couple of my favourite short macchiatos (topped up, no foam). I did feel hungry but as I’d gone off the healthy food diet I thought a day of no food was in order.

Noooo!

I came home and tried to finish off the home made pasta and sauce of the night before. That’s two plates, on toast, with butter, and a slice of (very nice) steak!

Tastes good, but!

Oh well, on to the jogging track and the stationery bike for a “few more” minutes.

I am having a hankering for food.

Good food. European food which is a downfall of mine. I love pasta especially and it is one of those foods you can make quite easily. Tossing in an ingredient as you think of it and drinking a nice wine while conversing in the kitchen with the rest of the family. Slow food, I think it’s called. Very relaxing.

Only problem is you enjoy eating it and the weight gain ensues.

The alternative is the very well behaved Andrew who went to a party and had very little food and his pictures support his perspective. If you look at his before and after photos you will see how well he has done. It really is amazing.

Anyway, I am taking Andrew’s advice and getting back on track “one day at a time”.

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