In the short time I have had this healthy living (for lack of a better term) blog, I have really enjoyed writing it. Originally this was just intended as a blog that I would use to feed into Fit for a Bride, but now I find myself writing here almost every day and I really enjoy it. So, instead of having this as a secondary, shoot off blog I am going to incorporate my healthy, fitness related posts into my main blog - Licorice & Olives, pop on over and check out my post on Running clubs!
Monday 24 June 2013
Friday 21 June 2013
An hour of squats
So I missed the pump class at lunch on Wednesday but I still wanted to get to the gym to get some strength work in. I did comtemplate going home and putting our kettle bells through their paces but my motivation just wasn't there, I needed the class atmosphere to push me through.
Firstly,my food for the day. Not too bad, starting with weetbix for breakfast a delicious cheese snack then it was back on the salads for lunch! Roasted pumpkin, tuna, cauliflower and feta for the win!
After work, it was time to hit the gym! Goodness me, I have never done an ABT (abs, butts, thighs) class before but man oh man, they weren't wrong on the description. Although I won't be rushing back to this. It started out well enough, walking lunges, wall sits, squats, elevated lunges etc but then we started the floor work and did no joke 15 minutes of leg lifts. I was watching the clock and I swear it not only stopped, it must have gone backwards. Some girls in the class just plain stopped, my legs were numb at this point so I did my best to keep going until the torture was over. All that laying down meant a pretty small calorie burn but never the less I still felt it the next day and I am still feeling it!
Dinner was Penang chicken with steamed vegetables and nifty chef here made enough for dinner last night too which was a big win! This runs at around 250 calories per serve (plus an extra 100 for the half a cup of rice I like to have with it) and keeps really well in the fridge, a great bulk meal maker.
So yesterday I ate exactly the same meals. Leftover dinner was a lifesaver when I got home from running at almost 8pm. My latest obsession is clearly cupboard cheese! Look how happy the cow is! Originally I thought laughing cow was a good idea, but that is crazy hard to eat, so smiling cow is great for on the go!
Last night was a daunting night exercise wise, it was the main run of run club. I have been hesitating joining the long run at run club because I thought I would be miles too slow. Turns out I was slow but not too slow and it was great fun.
Another great part was that a bunch of people have Garmins and my lovely new friend Amy gave me some great tips on my 410! Including how to actually start a workout easily! Really need to re-read that manual! I also need to turn off the autopause, it kept stopping when I was running, according to mapmyrun, this was actually a 7.5km run... I have switched off autopause and also now know how to lock the bezel so hopefully getting some more accurate workouts from now on.
Tuesday 18 June 2013
Running in the rain
Last night that is just what I did, I ran in the rain. I am ridiculously proud of myself and I honestly cannot believe I did it. I hate bad weather and I was so tempted to head right back inside and curl up with a cup of tea and my book.
I was out of the office yesterday at a nearby hospital and so breakfast at home it was. My husband has been bored of sultana bran so jumped over to Weetbix and now I am jumping on board. These babies somehow keep me full all morning!
Then it was a day of pretty boring eats as I was at the hospital, some rice paper rolls for lunch and a peppermint tea for afternoon tea. A spoon of almond butter before heading out to my run.
The run that was... My goodness, I thought after last week I was done with the rain, but tonight it was far warmer and I dressed appropriately so it wasn't bad.
I did wear my Garmin watch for run club but unfortunately I was running late so I didn't start it until after the warm up, then I accidentally stopped it and well let's just say it really doesn't show much but it was the standard Tues run which is 5.5km.
On my way to the run, I thought this was going to hit us and I was going to have to cut the run short. No sign of it so I was quite happy with that!
Yep, I was running late and running out of battery.
Dinner was a hefty salad that I had no battery for taking pictures of.
Sunday 16 June 2013
Super Saturday Run!
Friday night was a sleep disaster. Hubs came home around 1am and I was still up watching the last episode of West Wing and going through so many emotions that I don't know what I am going to do now it is over!
Hubs was playing golf at so he was up bright and early leaving around 7:15am, I contemplated getting up and heading out for my run but I was pretty tired so I thought I would doze for a little while then head out. A little while ended up being almost 3 hours and I didn't budge again until close to 10am. I guess I was tired! I grabbed some tasty breakfast of banana, yoghurt, honey and chia seeds as soon as I could drag myself out of our toasty warm bed.
I then headed out for my "10km run" which ended up being about 3km short of 10km... I was really tired, as you can see by my speed!
It was a tough run, I headed down around Luna Park so it was a very scenic run. I just had no energy in my legs and my hips were quite sore. I think the foam roller may be my new friend again, I haven't been rolling nearly as much as I should be.
After my run it was back home for a tasty lunch of rice crackers, cottage cheese and avocado. This is the tastiest lunch, especially with a little sea salt sprinkled on top!
Then last night we headed out to see the Lions play against the NSW Waratahs, which ended up being a reasonable game. We then headed back to a house party for a while then attempted to meet friends in Paddington but it wasn't to be, there was a line and we don't really do lines. We then ended up walking miles to grab a taxi but we were home before we turned into a pumpkin!
Saturday 15 June 2013
Monday goals
I want to start getting some weekly goals happening. It is already the middle of June, this year is seriously slipping away and I will be 30 before I know it. So, time to work out what I want to aim for each week. Starting with this week:
- 3 runs
- 1 strength session
- 1 yoga or Pilates class
- plank a day
- 2L (8 glasses) water per day
- under 1200 calories per day
- try a new food/food combination - prawns and salmon = delicious!
So that's great and all but how am I going to achieve it?
Exercise:
Monday - morning walk
Tuesday - run club run
Wednesday - morning walk then pump class at lunch
Thursday - ride to work
Friday - morning run then Pilates at lunch
Saturday - group workout for charity
Sunday - run
Meals:
Monday - flying home, meal on plane
Tuesday - Tuna salad
Wednesday - Penang chicken
Thursday - pumpkin soup
Friday - out
Saturday - out
Sunday - tbd
Have to see how it goes I think! Ok, so I am already a day behind... Oops! Better luck for next week hopefully! On the plus side Monday and Tuesday are done!
Friday 14 June 2013
Full on Friday
After my rainy run on Thursday, I was determined to give this Garmin a proper first run. First I had to get my work done and get home in time for a run. Still in Melbourne after a rough nights sleep, I headed to the hospital early and got stuck into a very luxurious breakfast of yoghurt and berries:
It was then up to the airline to choose my lunch for me. I won't bore you with it because it was a very boring butter chicken wrap, delicious but beige.
Lucky for me I was able to make it home around 4pm, I had a little bit of work to do but it still left me plenty of time to head out for a nice jog. I didn't want to go too far because I had a 10km run planned for Saturday for the Strava challenge, but I did want to get my step count up and of course play with my new Garmin!
One thing about running with the Garmin is that I no longer have a reason to take my phone, so hence no photos? I didn't even bother taking my iPod for tunes, I just wanted to get out and get some fresh air and clear my head like running is so good at doing for me. That's because I find it hard to think of anything else whilst struggling to move my body.
I had a quick little run around a lovely little track around home.
Just to clarify, I mean quick as in short and not quick as in fast...
Then it was a delicious dinner of roasted vegetables with feta for dinner which was mighty tasty with some lovely in season butternut pumpkin!
Thursday 13 June 2013
Running with the Garmin
I am down in Melbourne this week for work and after I spent a lot of our long weekend doing some research on a GPS watch. After chatting with a few friends and reading a bunch of blog reviews, I finally decided on the Garmin Forerunner 210 as the best watch for me. So then started my pricematching and bargaining skills. I would routinely order these types of things online from either the US or UK. However, the online prices were no better than the RRP here in Australia. So instead I started to see the best price I could get here. It ended up being at a major retailer because they guarantee to beat any geniuine competitor by 10%. So there I was, with all my print out and ready to get my price match when I walked in and was met with a new possibility. The Garmin FR 410 was the same price as my hard bargaining would see the 210 at.
So, what did I walk out with?
Yep, after all that research, I ended up upgrading to the next model. It does everything that the 210 does, just has a few extra capabilities including wireless syncing and the ability to link it to a bike cadence thing (clearly not motivated by that one).
A new toy in hand meant that I was prepared to run in the rain! Believe me, my motivation did not last long. I walked about 10 minutes through town to Federation Square in Melbourne and then stood in the rain for 7 minutes while Mr Garmin hooked up with the satellites. Apparently the first time is the longest, or when you move a great distance so hopefully it wont take that long next time.
So, what did I walk out with?
Yep, after all that research, I ended up upgrading to the next model. It does everything that the 210 does, just has a few extra capabilities including wireless syncing and the ability to link it to a bike cadence thing (clearly not motivated by that one).
A new toy in hand meant that I was prepared to run in the rain! Believe me, my motivation did not last long. I walked about 10 minutes through town to Federation Square in Melbourne and then stood in the rain for 7 minutes while Mr Garmin hooked up with the satellites. Apparently the first time is the longest, or when you move a great distance so hopefully it wont take that long next time.
I then headed off on a quick and very wet run, I ended up calling it quits after only 2km. It was enough for me to see how the watch worked and get out and about. That was where my enthusiasm waned and I was heading back to the hotel. The track I ran on though was absolutely beautiful and I cant wait to go the whole way around when I come back down to Melbourne.
I also thought I would do a little comparison of the Garmin vs the running app that I was using (Strava) and whilst it being a good app, as I mentioned on the weekend I thought the app wasnt really very accurate. I will be interested to compare over a longer distance obviously but I thought it was about 10% off but it was only 6% on this run. So not too bad, but it was a very short distance, so over 10km, that is a good 600m!
I helped myself to a little treat I picked up from the supermarket for an afternoon of working from the hotel - a choc cherry yoghurt due. So deliciously tasty! In case you cant see the rolling away choc cherry balls, this was an attempt at an action shot.
Do you like to track your workouts?
Do you run in the rain?
Saturday 8 June 2013
Flat, fast runs
A long flat run should be fast right? Right. Excellent. Yesterday, Hubs and I headed out for a 10km time trial run to see how quickly we could do it. Hubs managed a sub-60min (58 mins speed machine) and I was 1 hr 5 mins, which saw me with an average pace of 6'30/km! I was ridiculously excited about it, particularly my 5km time:
However, when I compared it with my husbands strava he had run physically much further than me and even went down past where I finished and only just made a distance of 10km. When I looked closely at my map, it was a jagged line all the way up the coast. I have now started looking at some other options to track my running. I started by asking a few runner friends what their thoughts were and what they had. It was a universal answer of garmin and the best suited seems to be the Garmin 210:
Will have to have a bit more of a think about it and do some more research, as these bad boys don't come particularly cheap.
With all the running and walking around yesterday, I also managed to meet my "beat my best" target for the global corporate challenge mini milestone:
Lucky I got it in yesterday as around 7pm it really started to rain, throwing out any hope I would have had to get another PB done today! Also, my legs are pretty tired.
Sunday has proven to be a bit of a rest day for us, with a great sleep in until 9:30am this morning followed by breakfast of champions - weetbix. Then it was a quick walk down to the local shopping centre to check out the sales (pathetic) and some Mexican lunch before heading back to our apartment to rest up before heading out for our amazing (belated) anniversary dinner tonight!
Runs and travel
So it has been a busy couple of days and being away from my laptop so a little hard to keep up with blogging. The next few days posts will be brought to you from iPad/iPhone blogging!
Thursday started off well enough with a delicious breakfast eating the last of what was in the fridge before heading away.
I then got a bunch of work done before heading out for a big run around North Sydney, setting a new pace record of 7'06/km!
It was an 8km run according to strava, then a few stretches took me to the full hour. This is where things went downhill. I lost track of time in a bad way and ended up racing to the airport in an absolute mess. I made it in time, but I still feel quite anxious just thinking about it. I am never late to the airport! That is why I prefer morning flights, no time to get delayed!
Anyway, we then headed up to the Gold Coast and Friday morning was a beautiful long walk along the beach;
A quite decent 2 hour walk to start the day but boy oh boy did I pay for it. I had 2 very large blisters on my second toe that were actually extending out sideways to the other two toes. It made our walk down to lunch a little tricky... Although the view from lunch alleviated some of my pain.
The lunch at the surf club was also delicious! A calamari salad with a dressing that would really make any salad a winner, a mix between honey and sweet chili sauce. I will be trying my best to make some when I get home that's for sure.
We then had a bit of a relaxing afternoon in our apartment and I finished my book on the kindle before we walked up for a great Italian dinner (that I forgot to photograph) and my annual cold rock icecream - cake batter and sprinkles all the way. Great first day of holidays if you ask me.
Tuesday 4 June 2013
Run club
I have joined a running club.
I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to do it.
I absolutely love it!!
So far, I have only done 2 short slow runs and one interval session and the slow runs have been great cruising along and making sure that I run the full distance and adding a little fartlek (I just learned that term) at the end.
Then the intervals, that session very near killed me. Looking back over my heart rate monitor for the workout, I hit a new highest heart rate of 192 and my average was 158bpm!
It nearly killed me, except that it didn't. I made it back, I made it home and I feel like me legs wouldn't quite carry me up the stairs at work but I did it. I went out of my comfort zone and even though I wasn't quite in the "magic" area, I am a lot closer than I was a month ago!
The run club is amazing! These are the sessions they have each week;
Monday - intervals
Tuesday - slow run or tempo run
Wednesday - morning tempo run and evening hill run
Thursday - tempo main run
Saturday - long run
Sunday - long intervals
There is just one membership fee to join up - a grand total of $60. That's not $60 a month, that's per year! It works out st $5/month. So even one session a week and it is less than $1.25/session! Amazing! I guess a group of people running together doesn't have a lot of overhead costs.
There are a bunch of running clubs all over the world, a quick google search showed up a whole bunch!
Thursday Check-in
Here we are again for our last weekly Thursday check-in! I have come to the realisation that I am losing weight quite slowly, which is nothing to shy away at because it is most definitely still coming off. However, I am doing wonderfully according to my dietician so I am more than happy. With a total weight loss of 4.7kg over 5 months, it makes for some boring updates. So this is what is happening; I will now do montly updates at Eating the Olives and Fit for a Bride. You will probably see a few more posts on FFAB about what I have been up to though, with run club, online weight loss groups and other things I come across that I think might be useful!
So what new things have I done this week? Highlight workouts included:
Wednesday 29th May - Only had half an hour to workout between a meeting and dinner, this was more a mental barrier that I had, so I was ridiculously proud of my 250 calories I burned with cardio and a quick strength session.
Friday 31st May - Rode to and from work and smashed out 1250 calories. I will need to pick up some more lights for that last little bit of my ride when it is starting to get pretty dark now.
Monday 3rd June - I did my first interval training session with NRG running and I loved it. I was definitely the last member on the team making it up and down that hill, but I went out of my comfort zone and I ran the full 2.5km there, plus ran about 90% of the 5 hill repeats I did, then ran about 90% of the 2.5km back to the start! Amazing! I am really looking to improve my running and that is one thing that will get me there!
Now for weight loss. Now that we are going monthly, I think I can give a good summary here to kick that off:
Starting weight (04Jan2013): 82.7kg/181.5lbs
Current Weight: (05Jun2013): 78kg/171.2lbs
Weight Lost: 4.7kg/10.3lbs
I have also had a great change in my mindset. I am definitely on board with the thought of "it is a lifestyle" because it truly is. Being fit and healthy is now really starting to feel like it is just the way that we live now, not a temporary measure.
To illustrate, my husband and I were talking of what we planned to do during our weekend away and somehow two 10km time trials made it in there! Mainly because it is really flat where we are going.
Stay tuned for next month!
Friday 31 May 2013
Bike to work Friday
That really doesn't have any ring to it does it, anyway I did ride to work today and I managed a new PB on my step challenge - 17000 steps! Plus I did 28km of riding. Turns out a clean up day at work really has me moving around a lot.
One issue on my ride this morning was my glasses. I think I need some help with this one. I had the same trouble on Tuesday nights run. I am fine while I am riding along, but put a traffic light up and I have to stop and I can't see!
Also, I massively overdressed this morning. Hence the very sweaty face! I wore a cotton t-shirt with a wicking long sleeve shirt, then my fluro vest. I think just the long sleeve one will be enough for my next ride. Or I may consider arm warmers?
It was a good day, clocking up 659 on the way to work and a round 600 on the way home. It was really tough riding in the dark on the way home so I may have to set an alarm to make sure I am leaving work by 4pm so I get home before dark!
Thursday 30 May 2013
Longest commute
Today I flew to Melbourne, an 800km journey or 75 minute flight, for the day. I have not done a one day trip in quite some time. I woke up at 5am and didn't arrive at my "place of work" until 9am. I will then had to leave before 3 to have any chance of making it home before 7pm. Needless to say, there was no workout time built in there. I also found myself crazy hungry, so had to try to stay really hydrated to curb those hunger pains but they did get the better of me around 11:45am so I caved and grabbed a delicious salmon and avocado sandwich.
Washing it down with a very high calorie but full of delicious goodness Emma and Toms juice. I am usually a karmarama girl and I don't usually stray because I indulge in these juices quite infrequently ($4.50 and 188 calories, they aren't cheap no matter how you look at it) so I tend to go with what I know and love. The extreme C definitely surprised me though, it was so tasty and filling! I drank half with lunch and saved the rest for my 2pm slump.
The half a juice didn't quite hit the 3pm slump, so a sweet little treat was on hand to save the day! Salted caramel, oh goodness these are so good!
Tomorrow it is back on my bike to get a good workout in before working all weekend, feel free to "Booo"! I would, even though I got myself into it by volunteering to go to the meeting. In reality it will be super interesting, I just wish it wasn't on the weekend...
Monday 27 May 2013
When weather gets in the way
Tonight I was crazy excited about my first interval training session with NRG running club. I had my outfit laid out (light coloured tops for running at night) and my pants that definitely weren't see-through. Then this happened:
It is really really hard to take a photo of rain at night but it was absolutely pouring. I sat in our landing for around 15 minutes waiting for it to clear enough for me to run to the car but by then the walkway had flooded, awesome.
I was all primed and ready to hit those sprints even with a little drizzle, with my lovely fluro bike riding jacket but walking through a downpour was not on my list of acceptable weather conditions for running:
I guess you will need to wait until next week to hear about my adventures in running intervals!
Friday 24 May 2013
Walking challenge
For the next 4 months this will be my new best friend!
I am participating in the global corporate challenge and day 1 didn't go so well with only 6678 steps (my aim was 10,000). Considering I was working from home and did no exercise on day 1 that actually wasn't too bad!
Although I have done much better after that first day! I have hit my 10,000 steps every day and on the weekend I managed 15,000 and 13,500. It does go to show though, I am really sedentary in my day to day work days. I drive to work and get lunch from our canteen and I really don't move around all that much? In order to get to the 10k steps I will need to make sure I get a 20-30 minute walk in even on my rest days!
Although I have done much better after that first day! I have hit my 10,000 steps every day and on the weekend I managed 15,000 and 13,500. It does go to show though, I am really sedentary in my day to day work days. I drive to work and get lunch from our canteen and I really don't move around all that much? In order to get to the 10k steps I will need to make sure I get a 20-30 minute walk in even on my rest days!
Anyone else doing the global corporate challenge?
Thursday check in!
What a week! I managed to do a massive workout on Sunday, in the morning it was a 10km fun run starting at Manly Beach and up a mammoth hill and then ending back in Manly. Worst part was when my Nike+ told me 10km completed but I still couldn't see the finish line. I got there in the end though.
My pace wasn't exactly anything to write home about although it is a starting point! It is also a lot better than I thought I would do! Part of my goals this year were to improve my 10km time and get it under 1 hour. My next 10k race is in July and I am still 17 mins away from that goal. So, I joined a running club! I did some research and found a great club who have a beginners run on a Tuesday and hill runs on Wednesday, other runs on Thursday, Saturday, some Sundays, and finally sprints and strength on Monday. I think I can figure out some days to join at least a few of those sessions to help improve my speed!
After breakfast and because I am a glutton for punishment, I headed over to play a game of OzTag. I was more than a little weary on the legs but otherwise had a good game!
After the 10k on Sunday it was a delicious hearty breakfast to refuel! My gosh those eggs were the best I had ever tasted! Probably because I was do hungry but I'll take it!
Weight loss this week is steady, it is the time of the month when I usually gain so I am crazy excited that I am steady!
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Monday 24 June 2013
Same idea, more fun over at Licorice & Olives
In the short time I have had this healthy living (for lack of a better term) blog, I have really enjoyed writing it. Originally this was just intended as a blog that I would use to feed into Fit for a Bride, but now I find myself writing here almost every day and I really enjoy it. So, instead of having this as a secondary, shoot off blog I am going to incorporate my healthy, fitness related posts into my main blog - Licorice & Olives, pop on over and check out my post on Running clubs!
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Friday 21 June 2013
An hour of squats
So I missed the pump class at lunch on Wednesday but I still wanted to get to the gym to get some strength work in. I did comtemplate going home and putting our kettle bells through their paces but my motivation just wasn't there, I needed the class atmosphere to push me through.
Firstly,my food for the day. Not too bad, starting with weetbix for breakfast a delicious cheese snack then it was back on the salads for lunch! Roasted pumpkin, tuna, cauliflower and feta for the win!
After work, it was time to hit the gym! Goodness me, I have never done an ABT (abs, butts, thighs) class before but man oh man, they weren't wrong on the description. Although I won't be rushing back to this. It started out well enough, walking lunges, wall sits, squats, elevated lunges etc but then we started the floor work and did no joke 15 minutes of leg lifts. I was watching the clock and I swear it not only stopped, it must have gone backwards. Some girls in the class just plain stopped, my legs were numb at this point so I did my best to keep going until the torture was over. All that laying down meant a pretty small calorie burn but never the less I still felt it the next day and I am still feeling it!
Dinner was Penang chicken with steamed vegetables and nifty chef here made enough for dinner last night too which was a big win! This runs at around 250 calories per serve (plus an extra 100 for the half a cup of rice I like to have with it) and keeps really well in the fridge, a great bulk meal maker.
So yesterday I ate exactly the same meals. Leftover dinner was a lifesaver when I got home from running at almost 8pm. My latest obsession is clearly cupboard cheese! Look how happy the cow is! Originally I thought laughing cow was a good idea, but that is crazy hard to eat, so smiling cow is great for on the go!
Last night was a daunting night exercise wise, it was the main run of run club. I have been hesitating joining the long run at run club because I thought I would be miles too slow. Turns out I was slow but not too slow and it was great fun.
Another great part was that a bunch of people have Garmins and my lovely new friend Amy gave me some great tips on my 410! Including how to actually start a workout easily! Really need to re-read that manual! I also need to turn off the autopause, it kept stopping when I was running, according to mapmyrun, this was actually a 7.5km run... I have switched off autopause and also now know how to lock the bezel so hopefully getting some more accurate workouts from now on.
Tuesday 18 June 2013
Running in the rain
Last night that is just what I did, I ran in the rain. I am ridiculously proud of myself and I honestly cannot believe I did it. I hate bad weather and I was so tempted to head right back inside and curl up with a cup of tea and my book.
I was out of the office yesterday at a nearby hospital and so breakfast at home it was. My husband has been bored of sultana bran so jumped over to Weetbix and now I am jumping on board. These babies somehow keep me full all morning!
Then it was a day of pretty boring eats as I was at the hospital, some rice paper rolls for lunch and a peppermint tea for afternoon tea. A spoon of almond butter before heading out to my run.
The run that was... My goodness, I thought after last week I was done with the rain, but tonight it was far warmer and I dressed appropriately so it wasn't bad.
I did wear my Garmin watch for run club but unfortunately I was running late so I didn't start it until after the warm up, then I accidentally stopped it and well let's just say it really doesn't show much but it was the standard Tues run which is 5.5km.
On my way to the run, I thought this was going to hit us and I was going to have to cut the run short. No sign of it so I was quite happy with that!
Yep, I was running late and running out of battery.
Dinner was a hefty salad that I had no battery for taking pictures of.
Sunday 16 June 2013
Super Saturday Run!
Friday night was a sleep disaster. Hubs came home around 1am and I was still up watching the last episode of West Wing and going through so many emotions that I don't know what I am going to do now it is over!
Hubs was playing golf at so he was up bright and early leaving around 7:15am, I contemplated getting up and heading out for my run but I was pretty tired so I thought I would doze for a little while then head out. A little while ended up being almost 3 hours and I didn't budge again until close to 10am. I guess I was tired! I grabbed some tasty breakfast of banana, yoghurt, honey and chia seeds as soon as I could drag myself out of our toasty warm bed.
I then headed out for my "10km run" which ended up being about 3km short of 10km... I was really tired, as you can see by my speed!
It was a tough run, I headed down around Luna Park so it was a very scenic run. I just had no energy in my legs and my hips were quite sore. I think the foam roller may be my new friend again, I haven't been rolling nearly as much as I should be.
After my run it was back home for a tasty lunch of rice crackers, cottage cheese and avocado. This is the tastiest lunch, especially with a little sea salt sprinkled on top!
Then last night we headed out to see the Lions play against the NSW Waratahs, which ended up being a reasonable game. We then headed back to a house party for a while then attempted to meet friends in Paddington but it wasn't to be, there was a line and we don't really do lines. We then ended up walking miles to grab a taxi but we were home before we turned into a pumpkin!
Saturday 15 June 2013
Monday goals
I want to start getting some weekly goals happening. It is already the middle of June, this year is seriously slipping away and I will be 30 before I know it. So, time to work out what I want to aim for each week. Starting with this week:
- 3 runs
- 1 strength session
- 1 yoga or Pilates class
- plank a day
- 2L (8 glasses) water per day
- under 1200 calories per day
- try a new food/food combination - prawns and salmon = delicious!
So that's great and all but how am I going to achieve it?
Exercise:
Monday - morning walk
Tuesday - run club run
Wednesday - morning walk then pump class at lunch
Thursday - ride to work
Friday - morning run then Pilates at lunch
Saturday - group workout for charity
Sunday - run
Meals:
Monday - flying home, meal on plane
Tuesday - Tuna salad
Wednesday - Penang chicken
Thursday - pumpkin soup
Friday - out
Saturday - out
Sunday - tbd
Have to see how it goes I think! Ok, so I am already a day behind... Oops! Better luck for next week hopefully! On the plus side Monday and Tuesday are done!
Friday 14 June 2013
Full on Friday
After my rainy run on Thursday, I was determined to give this Garmin a proper first run. First I had to get my work done and get home in time for a run. Still in Melbourne after a rough nights sleep, I headed to the hospital early and got stuck into a very luxurious breakfast of yoghurt and berries:
It was then up to the airline to choose my lunch for me. I won't bore you with it because it was a very boring butter chicken wrap, delicious but beige.
Lucky for me I was able to make it home around 4pm, I had a little bit of work to do but it still left me plenty of time to head out for a nice jog. I didn't want to go too far because I had a 10km run planned for Saturday for the Strava challenge, but I did want to get my step count up and of course play with my new Garmin!
One thing about running with the Garmin is that I no longer have a reason to take my phone, so hence no photos? I didn't even bother taking my iPod for tunes, I just wanted to get out and get some fresh air and clear my head like running is so good at doing for me. That's because I find it hard to think of anything else whilst struggling to move my body.
I had a quick little run around a lovely little track around home.
Just to clarify, I mean quick as in short and not quick as in fast...
Then it was a delicious dinner of roasted vegetables with feta for dinner which was mighty tasty with some lovely in season butternut pumpkin!
Thursday 13 June 2013
Running with the Garmin
I am down in Melbourne this week for work and after I spent a lot of our long weekend doing some research on a GPS watch. After chatting with a few friends and reading a bunch of blog reviews, I finally decided on the Garmin Forerunner 210 as the best watch for me. So then started my pricematching and bargaining skills. I would routinely order these types of things online from either the US or UK. However, the online prices were no better than the RRP here in Australia. So instead I started to see the best price I could get here. It ended up being at a major retailer because they guarantee to beat any geniuine competitor by 10%. So there I was, with all my print out and ready to get my price match when I walked in and was met with a new possibility. The Garmin FR 410 was the same price as my hard bargaining would see the 210 at.
So, what did I walk out with?
Yep, after all that research, I ended up upgrading to the next model. It does everything that the 210 does, just has a few extra capabilities including wireless syncing and the ability to link it to a bike cadence thing (clearly not motivated by that one).
A new toy in hand meant that I was prepared to run in the rain! Believe me, my motivation did not last long. I walked about 10 minutes through town to Federation Square in Melbourne and then stood in the rain for 7 minutes while Mr Garmin hooked up with the satellites. Apparently the first time is the longest, or when you move a great distance so hopefully it wont take that long next time.
So, what did I walk out with?
Yep, after all that research, I ended up upgrading to the next model. It does everything that the 210 does, just has a few extra capabilities including wireless syncing and the ability to link it to a bike cadence thing (clearly not motivated by that one).
A new toy in hand meant that I was prepared to run in the rain! Believe me, my motivation did not last long. I walked about 10 minutes through town to Federation Square in Melbourne and then stood in the rain for 7 minutes while Mr Garmin hooked up with the satellites. Apparently the first time is the longest, or when you move a great distance so hopefully it wont take that long next time.
I then headed off on a quick and very wet run, I ended up calling it quits after only 2km. It was enough for me to see how the watch worked and get out and about. That was where my enthusiasm waned and I was heading back to the hotel. The track I ran on though was absolutely beautiful and I cant wait to go the whole way around when I come back down to Melbourne.
I also thought I would do a little comparison of the Garmin vs the running app that I was using (Strava) and whilst it being a good app, as I mentioned on the weekend I thought the app wasnt really very accurate. I will be interested to compare over a longer distance obviously but I thought it was about 10% off but it was only 6% on this run. So not too bad, but it was a very short distance, so over 10km, that is a good 600m!
I helped myself to a little treat I picked up from the supermarket for an afternoon of working from the hotel - a choc cherry yoghurt due. So deliciously tasty! In case you cant see the rolling away choc cherry balls, this was an attempt at an action shot.
Do you like to track your workouts?
Do you run in the rain?
Saturday 8 June 2013
Flat, fast runs
A long flat run should be fast right? Right. Excellent. Yesterday, Hubs and I headed out for a 10km time trial run to see how quickly we could do it. Hubs managed a sub-60min (58 mins speed machine) and I was 1 hr 5 mins, which saw me with an average pace of 6'30/km! I was ridiculously excited about it, particularly my 5km time:
However, when I compared it with my husbands strava he had run physically much further than me and even went down past where I finished and only just made a distance of 10km. When I looked closely at my map, it was a jagged line all the way up the coast. I have now started looking at some other options to track my running. I started by asking a few runner friends what their thoughts were and what they had. It was a universal answer of garmin and the best suited seems to be the Garmin 210:
Will have to have a bit more of a think about it and do some more research, as these bad boys don't come particularly cheap.
With all the running and walking around yesterday, I also managed to meet my "beat my best" target for the global corporate challenge mini milestone:
Lucky I got it in yesterday as around 7pm it really started to rain, throwing out any hope I would have had to get another PB done today! Also, my legs are pretty tired.
Sunday has proven to be a bit of a rest day for us, with a great sleep in until 9:30am this morning followed by breakfast of champions - weetbix. Then it was a quick walk down to the local shopping centre to check out the sales (pathetic) and some Mexican lunch before heading back to our apartment to rest up before heading out for our amazing (belated) anniversary dinner tonight!
Runs and travel
So it has been a busy couple of days and being away from my laptop so a little hard to keep up with blogging. The next few days posts will be brought to you from iPad/iPhone blogging!
Thursday started off well enough with a delicious breakfast eating the last of what was in the fridge before heading away.
I then got a bunch of work done before heading out for a big run around North Sydney, setting a new pace record of 7'06/km!
It was an 8km run according to strava, then a few stretches took me to the full hour. This is where things went downhill. I lost track of time in a bad way and ended up racing to the airport in an absolute mess. I made it in time, but I still feel quite anxious just thinking about it. I am never late to the airport! That is why I prefer morning flights, no time to get delayed!
Anyway, we then headed up to the Gold Coast and Friday morning was a beautiful long walk along the beach;
A quite decent 2 hour walk to start the day but boy oh boy did I pay for it. I had 2 very large blisters on my second toe that were actually extending out sideways to the other two toes. It made our walk down to lunch a little tricky... Although the view from lunch alleviated some of my pain.
The lunch at the surf club was also delicious! A calamari salad with a dressing that would really make any salad a winner, a mix between honey and sweet chili sauce. I will be trying my best to make some when I get home that's for sure.
We then had a bit of a relaxing afternoon in our apartment and I finished my book on the kindle before we walked up for a great Italian dinner (that I forgot to photograph) and my annual cold rock icecream - cake batter and sprinkles all the way. Great first day of holidays if you ask me.
Tuesday 4 June 2013
Run club
I have joined a running club.
I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to do it.
I absolutely love it!!
So far, I have only done 2 short slow runs and one interval session and the slow runs have been great cruising along and making sure that I run the full distance and adding a little fartlek (I just learned that term) at the end.
Then the intervals, that session very near killed me. Looking back over my heart rate monitor for the workout, I hit a new highest heart rate of 192 and my average was 158bpm!
It nearly killed me, except that it didn't. I made it back, I made it home and I feel like me legs wouldn't quite carry me up the stairs at work but I did it. I went out of my comfort zone and even though I wasn't quite in the "magic" area, I am a lot closer than I was a month ago!
The run club is amazing! These are the sessions they have each week;
Monday - intervals
Tuesday - slow run or tempo run
Wednesday - morning tempo run and evening hill run
Thursday - tempo main run
Saturday - long run
Sunday - long intervals
There is just one membership fee to join up - a grand total of $60. That's not $60 a month, that's per year! It works out st $5/month. So even one session a week and it is less than $1.25/session! Amazing! I guess a group of people running together doesn't have a lot of overhead costs.
There are a bunch of running clubs all over the world, a quick google search showed up a whole bunch!
Thursday Check-in
Here we are again for our last weekly Thursday check-in! I have come to the realisation that I am losing weight quite slowly, which is nothing to shy away at because it is most definitely still coming off. However, I am doing wonderfully according to my dietician so I am more than happy. With a total weight loss of 4.7kg over 5 months, it makes for some boring updates. So this is what is happening; I will now do montly updates at Eating the Olives and Fit for a Bride. You will probably see a few more posts on FFAB about what I have been up to though, with run club, online weight loss groups and other things I come across that I think might be useful!
So what new things have I done this week? Highlight workouts included:
Wednesday 29th May - Only had half an hour to workout between a meeting and dinner, this was more a mental barrier that I had, so I was ridiculously proud of my 250 calories I burned with cardio and a quick strength session.
Friday 31st May - Rode to and from work and smashed out 1250 calories. I will need to pick up some more lights for that last little bit of my ride when it is starting to get pretty dark now.
Monday 3rd June - I did my first interval training session with NRG running and I loved it. I was definitely the last member on the team making it up and down that hill, but I went out of my comfort zone and I ran the full 2.5km there, plus ran about 90% of the 5 hill repeats I did, then ran about 90% of the 2.5km back to the start! Amazing! I am really looking to improve my running and that is one thing that will get me there!
Now for weight loss. Now that we are going monthly, I think I can give a good summary here to kick that off:
Starting weight (04Jan2013): 82.7kg/181.5lbs
Current Weight: (05Jun2013): 78kg/171.2lbs
Weight Lost: 4.7kg/10.3lbs
I have also had a great change in my mindset. I am definitely on board with the thought of "it is a lifestyle" because it truly is. Being fit and healthy is now really starting to feel like it is just the way that we live now, not a temporary measure.
To illustrate, my husband and I were talking of what we planned to do during our weekend away and somehow two 10km time trials made it in there! Mainly because it is really flat where we are going.
Stay tuned for next month!
Friday 31 May 2013
Bike to work Friday
That really doesn't have any ring to it does it, anyway I did ride to work today and I managed a new PB on my step challenge - 17000 steps! Plus I did 28km of riding. Turns out a clean up day at work really has me moving around a lot.
One issue on my ride this morning was my glasses. I think I need some help with this one. I had the same trouble on Tuesday nights run. I am fine while I am riding along, but put a traffic light up and I have to stop and I can't see!
Also, I massively overdressed this morning. Hence the very sweaty face! I wore a cotton t-shirt with a wicking long sleeve shirt, then my fluro vest. I think just the long sleeve one will be enough for my next ride. Or I may consider arm warmers?
It was a good day, clocking up 659 on the way to work and a round 600 on the way home. It was really tough riding in the dark on the way home so I may have to set an alarm to make sure I am leaving work by 4pm so I get home before dark!
Thursday 30 May 2013
Longest commute
Today I flew to Melbourne, an 800km journey or 75 minute flight, for the day. I have not done a one day trip in quite some time. I woke up at 5am and didn't arrive at my "place of work" until 9am. I will then had to leave before 3 to have any chance of making it home before 7pm. Needless to say, there was no workout time built in there. I also found myself crazy hungry, so had to try to stay really hydrated to curb those hunger pains but they did get the better of me around 11:45am so I caved and grabbed a delicious salmon and avocado sandwich.
Washing it down with a very high calorie but full of delicious goodness Emma and Toms juice. I am usually a karmarama girl and I don't usually stray because I indulge in these juices quite infrequently ($4.50 and 188 calories, they aren't cheap no matter how you look at it) so I tend to go with what I know and love. The extreme C definitely surprised me though, it was so tasty and filling! I drank half with lunch and saved the rest for my 2pm slump.
The half a juice didn't quite hit the 3pm slump, so a sweet little treat was on hand to save the day! Salted caramel, oh goodness these are so good!
Tomorrow it is back on my bike to get a good workout in before working all weekend, feel free to "Booo"! I would, even though I got myself into it by volunteering to go to the meeting. In reality it will be super interesting, I just wish it wasn't on the weekend...
Monday 27 May 2013
When weather gets in the way
Tonight I was crazy excited about my first interval training session with NRG running club. I had my outfit laid out (light coloured tops for running at night) and my pants that definitely weren't see-through. Then this happened:
It is really really hard to take a photo of rain at night but it was absolutely pouring. I sat in our landing for around 15 minutes waiting for it to clear enough for me to run to the car but by then the walkway had flooded, awesome.
I was all primed and ready to hit those sprints even with a little drizzle, with my lovely fluro bike riding jacket but walking through a downpour was not on my list of acceptable weather conditions for running:
I guess you will need to wait until next week to hear about my adventures in running intervals!
Friday 24 May 2013
Walking challenge
For the next 4 months this will be my new best friend!
I am participating in the global corporate challenge and day 1 didn't go so well with only 6678 steps (my aim was 10,000). Considering I was working from home and did no exercise on day 1 that actually wasn't too bad!
Although I have done much better after that first day! I have hit my 10,000 steps every day and on the weekend I managed 15,000 and 13,500. It does go to show though, I am really sedentary in my day to day work days. I drive to work and get lunch from our canteen and I really don't move around all that much? In order to get to the 10k steps I will need to make sure I get a 20-30 minute walk in even on my rest days!
Although I have done much better after that first day! I have hit my 10,000 steps every day and on the weekend I managed 15,000 and 13,500. It does go to show though, I am really sedentary in my day to day work days. I drive to work and get lunch from our canteen and I really don't move around all that much? In order to get to the 10k steps I will need to make sure I get a 20-30 minute walk in even on my rest days!
Anyone else doing the global corporate challenge?
Thursday check in!
What a week! I managed to do a massive workout on Sunday, in the morning it was a 10km fun run starting at Manly Beach and up a mammoth hill and then ending back in Manly. Worst part was when my Nike+ told me 10km completed but I still couldn't see the finish line. I got there in the end though.
My pace wasn't exactly anything to write home about although it is a starting point! It is also a lot better than I thought I would do! Part of my goals this year were to improve my 10km time and get it under 1 hour. My next 10k race is in July and I am still 17 mins away from that goal. So, I joined a running club! I did some research and found a great club who have a beginners run on a Tuesday and hill runs on Wednesday, other runs on Thursday, Saturday, some Sundays, and finally sprints and strength on Monday. I think I can figure out some days to join at least a few of those sessions to help improve my speed!
After breakfast and because I am a glutton for punishment, I headed over to play a game of OzTag. I was more than a little weary on the legs but otherwise had a good game!
After the 10k on Sunday it was a delicious hearty breakfast to refuel! My gosh those eggs were the best I had ever tasted! Probably because I was do hungry but I'll take it!
Weight loss this week is steady, it is the time of the month when I usually gain so I am crazy excited that I am steady!
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