AMI Round the Bays

Ages ago, I blogged saying I had started running, then that I had decided to run Wellington Round the Bays and become a Heart Racer.  I left you here, with my C25k graduation.

Well, today was Round the Bays day.  And I did it!!!  I've officially done my first running race, and I loved it.  That's not entirely true, during the run, I hated every second.  But when I (finally) arrived at the finish line, I was very very happy.  All that hard work I have done for the last few months has paid off, and now, I can really RUN!

There really were times that I doubted that I could ever do it, and I've finally proven that I can actually be a runner.  Yeah, that's a pretty scary admission; I might become one of them - you know, the ones who get up at 6am on a Sunday to run up mountains?

I've learned some things in the last few months:

• despite being fat and lazy, there is actually an athletic person inside me trying to get out.  I am just one of those people who need to exercise, or I go crazy.  I have more energy when I exercise, and my mental health is much more stable.
• I can be a runner, and actually enjoy running.
• No one's laughing at me.  Today, I saw people of all shapes and sizes, and there was not one person I looked at and thought 'gosh, that person looks silly'.  Not ONE.  I bet no one looked at me like that either.
• Even if there are people laughing at me, I don't give a shit.  Running makes me feel good, and who cares if I look like I've been attacked by a bear when I've finished?  So do most other people!
• Running with music is okay.  Running listening to podcasts is okay.  Running listening to nothing is the most peaceful thing ever.
• Running up hills does actually make you stronger.  It sucks at the time, but my legs are much stronger now that they would have been if I never did the hill thing.
• Running isn't a good way to lose weight, you'll actually have to stop eating crap if you want to lose weight.  But running will make you (or me, at least) want to eat better.  What you put in is what you get out, and I'm not talking poop.
• Running, for me, is selfish.  I do it for me, and I do it to make me feel good about myself.  It's okay to do selfish things, it's okay to take time away from others to spend it doing something good for yourself.
• Doing something that you find difficult is more rewarding that achieving something that you don't find as much of a challenge.  I am more proud of running 7km than I was when I set swimming records or swam 20km.  Running is hard fucking work.  I've never found swimming such a mental or physical challenge.  It's nice having a challenge and achieving something that was hard for you.

So, what's happening next?

This period of the last 12 months or so is the first time in my life where I really haven't been training for something or being competitive.  I started ballet when I was 3 years old, and I did it until I was about 16. I used to have ballet 6 days a week.  I started competitive swimming when I was 7, and did that until I started playing underwater hockey competitively when I was 14.  I kept squad swimming until I was 17. I stopped doing races and stuff when I started doing representing Wellington in underwater hockey at 14.  

When I was playing underwater hockey competitively, I was training for between 10 and 20 hours a week, depending on when it was in the season.

Now I do nothing.  Well, I run 5-ish days a week, for 30m to an hour.  But comparatively, that's nothing.  I'm going to start training again.  I want to represent NZ at underwater hockey and underwater rugby.  And I want to run a marathon.  I'd also like to swim the cook straight, but that's probably realistically 8 years away.

To be able to do this, I need to start training at least 5 times a week for UWH/UWR, plus play twice a week (UWH) and once for UWR.  I also need to run at least 5 times a week.  I'm going to do the bridge to 10k program, then when I've done that, I'll start looking for a 1/2 marathon program.  I'd like to be able to do a 10k in June, and a 1/2 marathon at the end of the year, as well as the 1/2 marathon for round the bays next year.  Then I guess I'll start looking for a marathon to do.

Yes, I know this is 13 trainings a week and it probably sounds insane, but it's actually less that what I was doing when I was in peak underwater hockey training.  Granted, I have less free time now and it will mean that I'll have less of a social life, but I think the end result will be worth it.

What this will mean though is that I have to start running in the morning.  I am not a morning person at all, but UWH and UWR are at night, so that's not going to work out.  I'm not sure how I'm going to convince myself to get up in the morning and run, but I'm doing to try.  Tomorrow, I'm having a day off after my 7km run, 5km run and hard training session.  All I'm doing tomorrow is underwater rugby training, and that's only for an hour and 1/2.  On Tuesday I'll start a morning run (maybe) and also go for a swim in the afternoon.  I'm ready, and excited.  Let's fucking go.

Running and weightloss

So after some issues with a broken shoulder, I've finally reached that point in my C25K journey.  My next run will be my 'graduation run' - the very last run I need to do to complete the program.

If you had asked me on the 12 October 2010, the day I started the program, if I thought I would complete it, my answer would have been no.  If you had asked me any time in November if I thought I would finish it, my answer still would have been no.  In fact, if you had asked me in December, I would have said no.  Really, it's only been the last couple of weeks that I've considered myself a 'runner'.  I don't exactly know what that means for everyone else, but for me, being a runner is having that craving to run, and going, 'you know what, I'm going for a run'.

I am so, so proud of myself, both for finishing the program (well, nearly) and for how far I've come in the last few months.  I never ever thought I could bring myself to like running.  I used to watch people running, and they would look so peaceful and happy, and I never thought that I could be that person.

Running by numbers:

• I started W1D1 on 12 October 2010.  I will be completing my graduation run tonight, 24 January 2011. That means it has taken me just under 15 weeks to complete the 9 week program.
• I didn't run for 4 weeks when my shoulder was really painful.
• I lost 16kg during that period.
• I lost 37cm over my calves, thighs, hips, waist, boobs and arms.

Blogs along the way:

• Day one
• Day two
• Day three
• Week two - motivation issues
• Starting to take it seriously - I signed up to be a Heart Racer for the NZ Heart Foundation for AMI Round the Bays.  I'd still really appreciate any donations, and thanks lots to everyone who has already donated.
• Week 7 - an update on how things were going.

Would I recommend the C25k program?
Absolutely, unreservedly.  Anyone can do this.  Anyone.

The first week I started, I thought the program was okay.  I got through week one pretty easily, then week two was really really hard.  Week 4 was another challenge, and W5D3, a 20m jog with no intervals was hard.  W6D3 was the end of intervals, and in retrospect, it was here that I started feeling like a 'real' runner.

What's next?
I am going to do the One Hour Runner program next. It's based on one long run a week, and two shorter runs. The aim was to have the OHR program completed or mostly completed before the AMI Round the Bays, but this clearly isn't going to happen any more. I'm not too worried.



Thank you so much to my twitter family for supporting me though this whole journey, I really could have done it without you.  Congratulations also to @the_liberator, who's doing really really well with the program - today he ran 5k!!! Also to all of your who are at your various stages of your journey, please comment or tweet @ me and I'll add you to my baby wall of fame :)

The Wall of Fame:
@the_liberator
@MissNickiBee

Pizza Hut, You Suck

Tonight is day 1 of my yearly camping trip with my family. We've gone almost every year since I was born, with the exception of 2 years when we were overseas, and last year just after dad's heart attack. We always camp at the same place, DeBretts, and have the same campsites. We've seen DeBretts through 3 change of ownerships, but it always retains it's usual vibe for the Christmas/New Year period. Every year, there are familiar faces, and some new ones too. The best thing is there's a real family vibe here, and everyone is, on the most part, very friendly and well behaved.

This time, we're here for 8 nights. It's a great amount of time because it makes sense to put up a big tent for that amount of time, but also it's not so long that you run out of things to do. We arrived today, and have put up 2 tents - a double dome for Marcus and I, then the big 3 room tent for mum, dad and Daniel (my bro). The big tent is where we live, it has the kitchen, sun room and stuff, and most importantly, is where we keep the food. We've set up the tents so we have a big outdoor area in between, and have a shelter for privacy and a great lake view. There's also a couple of big trees so we don't burn to a crisp.

Usually when we're camping, we spent the morning at the tent, then go out exploring in the afternoon. This year, the plan is to spend lots of time at the lake, and I also want to whip up to Auckland to do some shopping, and the Coromandel to the beaches up there. I haven't been surfing in ages, so I might see how I go surfing with a gammy shoulder. I also have to make an effort to go running in the morning before it gets too hot - today it was 25C, and there's no way I'd survive running in that. Tonight at 9.30pm, it was still 19C, still too hot to run really, and the path up to DeBretts isn't well lit, I don't think I'd be happy running in the dark here.

So anyway, tonight I wanted to go to the all you can eat Pizza Hut for dinner. It's stupid, I always expect to be disappointed because it's always crap, but I still want to go. Tonight, Pizza Hut followed though with consistency; I was disappointed. We arrived and there were no pizzas in the warmers, but about 5 full tables. The girl at the counter said it was going to be about a 25 minute wait for pizzas, and we decided to wait because anything else would take that long anyway. We grabbed a plate of fries from the buffet, and we noticed there was no salad bar. That really annoyed (maybe irrationally so) me because I love the thousand island dressing, and no salad bar means no thousand island dressing. Daniel and I had dessert while we were waiting for more pizzas. While we were waiting for pizzas, 3 families walked out, and 2 of them asked for refunds. I was pretty pissed off that we had paid for salad and stuff and didn't have any, even though, in fairness, I wouldn't have eaten it anyway.

Finally, pizzas started coming, and by the time we left, there were about 10 pizzas out. And no one left in the restaurant. No wonder Pizza Hut dine-in's aren't profitable; they can't keep customers in the store, and can't get their food levels right. The one waitress was totally and utterly useless, and tables hadn't been cleared. We had to specifically ask to order drinks, and they took ages to arrive. Once we had finished our drinks, she never came back and took more orders or anything, it was really annoying. Service is so easy to get right, it really pisses me off when people don't give good service. It was almost like this woman went out of her way to make our experience bad - I don't think for a second that she actually did, I just think that she's poorly trained and doesn't care about her job or customers for one second. Either way - I'm pissed off and won't be going back.

After dinner, we went down to hot water beach in search of warm feet. There were lots of ducks and swans there. I am terrified of swans. Totally, irrationally terrified. They make me cry. Luckily, there weren't any swans around hot water beach, just lots and lots of ducks. There were some baby ducks that I wanted to pat, but mother duck was not impressed with my efforts and attacked me. Luckily, they don't have teeth!

The lake level is really high at the moment, so there wasn't a hell of a lot of beach. My brother discovered that about 5 metres out, there was lots of lovely warm sand, and I ventured out. I was totally unprepared to go swimming (unlike my brother who thought ahead and put on togs!) so I stripped off to go for a swim. Just as well it was quite dark by this point, and I thought ahead enough to dring a towel. I cut my arm and foot on the sharp rocks, which sucked. Hopefully it heals up pretty quick, I think feet usually do, don't they?

Anyway, that was my first day of camping. Sorry this is so long!

My Migraine

Last night I went to the gym with my free gym membership (thanks Les Mills!). I was planning on going to a class, but decided that I'd rather do some cardio stuff so I could be a bit gentler on my broken/dislocated/totally munted shoulder.

The gym was great, I spend 20 minutes on the cross trainer warming up (which was freaking hard!). I was in the middle of two women, one had been cross training at 15km/hour for an hour, and the other was going faster than me too and she was quite heavily pregnant! After that, I moved onto the treadmill, with the intention of doing a slow jog for 20 minutes to get back into the whole running thing, and to stretch out my sore legs (yoga the previous night). Unfortunately, I'm pretty competitive and the lady next to me was running faster than me. I upped the speed, and the incline. She bet it. Dammit, we now had an epic battle on our hands. I ended up running just over 30 minutes, finishing up on 12km/h (very very fast for me!) with an incline of 9. My max heart rate when I was training properly was around 195-200, depending on the activity. Last night, my heart rate got up to 202. My chest hurt, but I couldn't give up.

After my 30m on the treadmill, I did 20 minutes on the bike (HR about 180), then back to the cross trainer for another 10m for a cool down. After I finished, I did about 1/2 hour of shoulder/core work. By the time I left the gym, I was feeling pretty awful. I got picked up and had some pizza for dinner. I thought I was feeling so bad because I had only had 2 pieces of toast to eat for the whole day, and it was now 8pm. After a little bit of pizza, I was feeling worse, not better, so decided to go to bed.

Light was hurting my eyes, and I couldn't bear noise. I felt like my head was going to explode and I felt like puking. I consulted twitter, some people by text, and phoned my mum. Apparently, this was a migraine. They run in my family - I'm the only one who doesn't (didn't?). Apparently, the only thing I could do was sleep it off, and hope I didn't puke my guts out. It's 2010, and we don't have treatment for these? Insane.

I'm still in two minds whether is was caused by stressing my body too much, or if it was an actual migraine. I hope it wasn't a real migraine, especially if it means that this is going to be on ongoing thing.

I still don't feel 100% today, but I feel much better than last night. I slept for about 15 hours too, which must have helped!

My near death experience

After my roaring success with hot yoga earlier in the week, I decided to try out Pilates. I've never done Pilates before, and had no idea what to expect. Someone on twitter told me it was easy - easier than yoga, so I went in feeling very confident.

I sat on my nice squishy yoga mat and chatted to another lady who was doing pilates for the first time. She, like me, was a little overweight, but carried her weight in her tummy rather than her hips, thighs and chest like me. We had both done hot yoga earlier in the week and loved it, so were back to try something new. We were still chatting when our instructor walked in. She was one of those 'yoga types', you know, the women who are really skinny, but muscular at the same time, but not bulky muscles, rather, very long, lean ones. Her stomach was totally flat, and she didn't even have that little bulge in her tummy when she bent over.

She's pretty much my body idol - she still had curves (little boobs though :( ). Every time I go to one of these sort of classes, I see the instructors and truly believe that the yoga/pilates stuff works. They all look amazing, but I guess the gym probably wouldn't hire chubby instructors!

Anyway, the first 15 minutes of the class was great. We went over how to stand and breathe, then got onto the floor for a warmup. By god, that warmup alone made my abs hurt - I was sure that this must be it until our lovely instructor announced that we were going to work on our 'powerhouse'. My new friend and I exchanged horrified looks - and just got worse and worse! I could to about 5 reps of everything before I was sure that my abs/thighs/butt was going to explode, but managed to finish (albeit sloppily) pretty much everything.

The highlight of pilates for me was definitely the rolling on the floor. We had to sit on the floor with our legs bent up, then put our arms between our legs and grab the outsides of our opposite legs. That probably doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, so just picture a very chubby frog. We had a rounded back, and just had to fall backwards then roll forwards again. It was fun, and pretty much the only thing during pilates that I could do without feeling like one more rep was going to kill me.

When the class finished, I looked around at everyone else. There were about 8 people in the class - one was an elderly man, probably at least 65. He approached the instructor and informed her it was his first class. You should have see the looks my neighbour and I gave him! He was probably 30,000 x stronger than me!

All in all, pilates was freaking hard. @Kassh must be superwoman if she thinks pilates is easy!!! In saying that, I think I might have to go back next week! I'm back tomorrow for another hot yoga class which hopefully won't be as hard as my pilates!

Hot Yoga

A new yoga/Pilates studio has opened upstairs in Porirua City Fitness called Abundance. A few years ago, I was a member of PCF, but quit after I stopped going to the gym. You can get a separate membership to Abundance only (without being a member of PCF). They offer mat pilates, machine pilates, basic yoga and hot power yoga.

I've done yoga classes a few times before (nowhere near a regular, but more like once a week for 6-8 weeks), and I grew up doing ballet, so I was quite flexible. I'm finding as I do more swimming and running, I'm getting less and less flexible, and I think flexible is very important for many reasons. I also found yoga quite relaxing when I've done it in the past, so I thought it would be a great thing to do alongside the C25k program.

I was quite worried about doing hot yoga, yoga is hard enough as it is, and I'm not a person who suffers in the heat well. I tweeted about it, asking if anyone had done it before and got lots of replies saying that the room would be about 40degrees, 40% humidity, and would get very very hot. Apparently, the purpose of it is to loosen your muscles and make you sweat out all the toxins in your body.

Understandably, I went into the class a little bit wary of how hard it would be. The first class is free, then you can buy 2 classes for $10 to see if you like it. They have done a major upgrade to the gym since I was a member, and the upstairs area has totally changed. I spoke to a couple of the ladies while we were waiting outside for the class before ours to start, and I was quite relieved to hear that they hadn't done hot yoga before either.

The class was really great - tiring, and very hard on my weakling arms, but I felt stretched and relaxed. The heat did make me sweat a lot, but it wasn't unbearable. I'm definitely going to go back. Today my shoulders are really sore, they have that nice 'I've exercised' feeling which is good because I haven't been getting that from running.

I'm going to be going to mat pilates tomorrow. I've never been to pilates before and I have no idea what to expect. Initally, I thought it was a really good deal to join, but when I worked it out, it's not so great. It's $18/class if you're not a member, or if you are a member, it's $14.40/class + $19/month. If you go to two classes a week, that's $135 a month. Most other yoga classes are about $15/session.

So how's the running going, huh?

Last night I completed W7D1 of the C25k program. I ran for 29 minutes without stopping. The program says you only need to run for 25, but I kept running through my cool down. I'm secretly very surprised that I'm still going after this long, usually I give up after 2 weeks or so. I've had some lovely ladies (and more recently, guys) who have been doing the program too, and I feel like I can't give up. It's pretty good motivation to keep running, especially because I was exactly a week ahead of @missnickiebee - I had to keep running so she didn't catch up. Unfortunately, she has had to stop for the moment as she's having knee problems.

Anyway, I'm doing well on the C25k program. The first week was the hardest for me in terms of getting my breathing sorted. The second week was hard to retain the motivation. The next really hard week was W5 - W5D3 was a 20 minute run which was a huge mental hurdle. I found it much, much easier than I thought I would, and I got through it really well. Once I got though that run, I realised that I could really complete the program. I have found 5k runs that are held every Tuesday night along the waterfront, so I'm hoping once I 'graduate' from C25K I will start doing them every week. I have also committed to doing the Wellington Round the Bays. As I said in my last blog, I have signed up to be a Heart Racer, where I will be fundraising for the Heart Foundation. The Heart Foundation is a really great cause worth supporting.

The Round the Bays is a 7km race in February, so I'll have about 2 months after I finish the C25K program. I plan on starting the One Hour Runner program after that which should build me up to approximately 10km. The most exciting thing about my running it that I've convinced some other people to run too!

These are the people who I know are running the Round the Bays:
@the_liberator
@simon_w
@jethrocarr
There are some others that I'm trying to convince too.

I'm very surprised, I never thought I would LIKE running, but after about W4 of the C25k program, I fell in love with it. It really helps to clear my mind which is obviously awesome. The best thing about the C25k program is that it steps up quite slowly, almost so it creeps up on you. It allows you to build your confidence before getting harder so you move onto the next run or week knowing that there's not so much of a big change. Most people can push themselves to run an extra minute, and before you know it, you're fitter and it's getting easier, you're building confidence, then it gets a little bit harder. There are no huge jumps. I'm finding the further though the program I am, the more I'm craving exercise.

The running has been good for me. I've lost about 8kg in the last 6 weeks. I've been eating better because I'm craving 'good' food. I've lost a total of 20cm (upper arm, chest, waist, hips, thigh and calf) over that time too. I know this is quite good weight loss compared to other people, but I'm quite lucky in that while I put on weight very quickly, I have a naturally muscular build, so I can loose weight quickly too. It will probably be another 12 weeks, then I'll be back to the weight and tone that I'd be happy with.

Life right now

Gosh, between NaNoWriMo, exams and being generally slack, I haven't blogged in ages.

I'm up to 7751 words on my NaNo. By now, I should up up to 16,000-ish, so I've got a bit to catch up on!!! I'm liking the way my novel is going, which is the important thing.

Blog 3: Look at me
How many photos of you are there on Facebook? (Tagged – it shows when you go to your profile). Post one – not the one that makes you hottest, but one that shows you having the most fun.

I am only tagged in 14 photos. I'm glad, I don't really use FB and I sure as hell don't need my face plastered all over everything.

Here's the pic of me having the most fun.

Me on the left.

This was my friend's birthday dinner where we had an awesome time, drank too much, then went bowling and to the pub to watch the football. It was an awesome night. I'm jealous of how tanned I was there - no idea why, it was the middle of winter!!

In other news, I am up to W3D2 in C25K. I'm thinking about signing up for around the bays in March - it's 7k and I would have 2 months to train up to it. I'm not sure why I'm so uncertain; I think it's fear of failing, rather than anything else. I think I'll have to find a buddy who's wanting to tag along with me (Twitter, I'm looking at you!)

Shoes, shoes, so many shoes

Blog 2: Shoes
How many pairs do you have? Breakdown into dressy, sporty, casual. Post a photo of your favourite pair and say why.

This blog is about shoes. Shoes...a subject close to my heart. At my worst, I had over 100 pairs of shoes. That didn't even count jandals (12 pairs), slippers (3 pairs) or running shoes (3 pairs). Oh, or gumboots. I have 4 pairs of gumboots. I have since down-graded my shoe collection (mainly because I moved house and had to share a wardrobe). I currently have approximately 60 pairs of shoes. Again, this is not including jandals, slippers, running shoes, work boots or gumboots.

It's funny how I have so many shoes yet I usually only wear 2 or 3 pairs. I guess that shows what I silly obsession I have.

Most of the time, when I'm not at uni or work, I wear either jandals or slippers. Slippers if I'm at home, and jandals if I'm out.


These are my favourite jandals. Yes, they're yellow, and no, I don't care that they clash with my green nail polish. I got them from the warehouse. They were $5.94, and I got them on clearance for 50% off, then I got 50% off that. Mmhmm, these are my $1.50 jandals. Sorry if you don't like feet.



These are my absolute favourite flats. I saw a pair very similar in the US about a year before I bought these. They were US$350. Then I found them in shoe connection, but they were about $200. At the time, I could not justify that amount of money on shoes, so sadly passed them by. About a month later, I happened to be going past another shoe connection and saw them on clearance. For $40. WTF. They had one size left; MY size! I bought them, and since then, have loved them to pieces. Literally. I've worn down the heel of one, and it leaks when it rains. It's sad, and usually, I would have thrown them out way before it got to this point, but I love them so much that I can't make myself do it.


These are my favourite heels. The picture is quite deceiving, but they're actually 6 inch heels. They're very comfortable, perfectly balanced, and because they're black and white, you can wear them with anything. I wear them quite often but don't usually wear them on days I have to walk too much, as they're high enough to be a pain when walking down slopes (girls who wear heels will know what I'm talking about!), and Wellington is full of them.




These are my everyday shoes. They have medium heels (about 6cm), but they're quite chunky, so great for walking in. I tend to wear these most days as they're good for both uni and work, and comfortable enough to walk a couple of km in if I have to.


The other notable shoes in my collection are my running shoes. These were really expensive when I bought them about a year ago (I think about $270, from memory). Because I haven't been running much up until now, they're still almost brand new. I love them because they're so confortable, and give my feet great support. Prior to doing the C25K this time, I have avoided running because I usually get excruciating cramp in the balls of my feet and the arches. These shoes have fixed that, and I also feel noticeably less impact in my knees. Reducing the impact has helped my back pain, and this means that running isn't painful. This is a huge change from what I've experienced other times I've gone running. Now my biggest focus is getting my breathing right, rather than coming up with a million excuses to not go out. I'd really recommend getting fitted with good shoes if you're going to run, and keep an eye on your shoes to make sure they're still giving you enough cushioning and support.

C25k

So I completed W2D2 of the C25k program tonight.

I'm finding it really tough to have the motivation to get out there and run - it's hot, I'm tired, I hate having to shower afterwards, my legs are tired, my dinner's almost ready...you catch my drift. I find once I'm out there, I enjoy the exercise, and when I get home, I feel fantastic. It's really only 30 minutes, which is nothing. By the time I've warmed up and done a couple of minutes of the workout, my iPhone churps up that it's 1/2 way! I find those reminders fantastic, they help to refocus me. I only wish they had one extra alert at the 3/4 mark, it's usually around then that I find my enthusiasm waining again. And yes, I know it's a matter of 5 minutes later!

I knew motivation was going to be an issue right from the beginning. I asked Marcus to be my motivator - the idea being that when I lost internal motivation, he would bug me to go until I got sick of it and caved. Unfortunately, I overestimated his motivation for motivating me. He's a bit of an exercise-drop-out enabler. I've decided that means it's up to me. I've met a few people on twitter who are also doing C25K. Seeing their tweets saying they have completed another run makes me feel behind and guilty. It's a pretty good motivator to get outside and run.

I'm also doing well with the 200 sit-ups challenge. I completed week 2 tonight, and have been able to consistently do more than the maximum number of sit ups required in the last rep. I feel really great about going forward to next week.

Initially, I had thought that I wouldn't do the test at the beginning of week 3 as I'm pretty sure approximately how many I can do, and was just going to go for the hardest column anyway. However, I've decided it will be a good marker, 1/3 of the way though, to see how many I can do. In theory, I would want to be able to do almost 1/3 of 200 - about 65. I can currently do 40 after the other reps, although it is a push. I think that I'll be able to 65, or maybe even 70 if I'm fresh and rested. So that's the plan for tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to blog again tomorrow with awesome news that I aced it!

W1D3 of C25k tonight

I completed week 1 of C25k today! It was a great time out tonight; I did a bit extra as part of my warm up, I wanted to run mostly flat and downhill today, so I walked up a big hill to warm up. It took about 15 minutes; a whole lot longer than I anticipated. However, I also ran 2.5 minutes twice, so I feel much better about graduating onto jogging for 90 seconds and walking for 60 seconds.

I also took my measurements today so I can see change; hopefully I remember to take them somewhat regularly and make an effort to eat better to help lose weight.

Tonight, I just need to do W1D3 of the sit up challenge - I'm finding it quite easy so I'm thinking of skipping a week, or maybe doing each day twice to help build my strength quicker.

I've convinced my whole family to join in but it remains to be seen if they actually will.

Today we bought Charlie (my kitten), some new food and it came with a blanket. I'm not entirely sure why cats need blankets, but it did make an awesome cape for her. Here she is sleeping.

Not a great weekend...

On Friday I did half of W1D3 as I got up late and didn't have time to do all of it. I was planning on going out on Saturday morning before it got warm, but I slept in again, so did nothing on Saturday.

Marcus' parents came over on Saturday night, which was, as usual, pretty quiet and awkward. I drank copious amounts of gin and midori with lemon juice, which made the whole evening much more pleasant. We also watched Boy (not usually a fan of NZ movies, but I thought it was fantastically well done!) and Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton version). I though it was a bit odd - I didn't like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory either, so I'm not sure why I thought I'd like it!

Today was Sunday, and I had work all day, then played underwater hockey for about an hour tonight. It's not a hell of a lot of exercise, but it's better than doing nothing. Work was a total clusterfuck, full of annoying staff members and customers who want to drive me insane. I'm so glad I only work retail 1 day a week now, sitting behind a desk is much better for my blood pressure!

Tomorrow night I have underwater rugby for the first time, which should be interesting!

I think I'll do the sit up challenge W1D3 tonight to get it over and done with so I can start on week 2 tomorrow. I've got my whole family involved, so hopefully that should create a bit of competition!

Rest day

Not much to report today - I toyed with the idea of going for a night time run, but decided to say home instead. I regret it now; I had the energy and was feeling good, so I should have gone. I will go tomorrow. Promise!

W1D2

Today I went on my second C25k run tonight. It was really great, I felt like I was more prepared having done it last night, and also knew better how my body would react. I've decided to try to run in the hilly areas around my house. I figure running on inclines will get me stronger and fitter more quickly.

I also started the 200situpchallenge today. I'm somewhat concerned that it's going to me too much too soon, but it's nothing I can't handle. My biggest struggle is going to be being consistent with it - I just need to get up every day and do it.

It's interesting how quickly my focus has changed from losing weight to getting fit. I realise now that if I focus on my fitness, the weight loss will come.

I also realise this isn't going to be easy, but like they say; all good things take time.

Couch To 5k

I'm thinking of getting into running again. I did a programme similar to the couch to 2k program a couple of years ago, and buy the end I could run 5k. I'd love to do it again, I love the idea of the freedom that comes with being able to exercise whenever, wherever I am.

Swimming is great, but you need togs and towels and goggles and a pool...it's all a bit much. If I learn to run, I can do it anywhere. I don't need to worry about a certain location to be able to run - I just need shoes (which I already have!) then I'm ready to go.

The C25k programme looks really good; you do interval training to help get your fitness up more quickly, and each week run longer intervals.

I think if I can do this program (3 days a week) as well as play underwater rugby on Mondays, underwater hockey on Sundays swim one more day a week, then this will be perfect. I'm going to go out tonight and do it. You've got to be in to win!

What I'm going to do tomorrow:

Tomorrow, I am going to go to the pool in the morning before I go to uni. That means I'll pack my bag tonight, and when I get up in the morning, I'll put on my togs. Once my togs are on, I have to go to the pool, right?

I'm going to force myself to exercise. I want to get fit again, and I want to lose weight, and be healthy. That means I have to get up, and make an effort.

Tomorrow, I am going to the pool in the morning before I go to uni.

Monday, Monday

Today’s Monday. My weekend of eating well did not go as planned. On Saturday, I was planning on eating lunch at home, but ended up going to McDonalds AND forgot my water bottle. I chose a McChicken, but had L&P with it, so hardly a great meal. That night I was out at a sports think and had sausages from a sausage sizzle for dinner – also not great for me.

Sunday, however, was a bit better. I took a packed lunch from home as well as a fruit bar, and had omelette for dinner.

Marcus and I bought a bench top water filter/chiller to help encourage us to drink more water. It’s working well, I think. It’s really great to have unlimited (well, as long as we remember to top it up) fresh, chilled water on tap. I’m definitely on top of my target water bottles per day – I think I had about 6 or 7 on Saturday and about the same amount yesterday too. You know, it’s right what they say about you having to pee less when you’re hydrated – those first couple of days where you drink and drink and pee and pee are horrible. Now I’m waterlogged, I pee about the same number of times as I did before, but I feel better, and less hungry.

In regards to my 5 fruit and veg a day, it’s been a bit of a fail, I have to say. Today I’ve had 2 servings, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have anything in the way of veges at home, so I might have another 2 servings of fruit tonight and that will be it. In saying that, I don’t want to get upset about it or feel like I’m behind – any effort I’m making is better that how I was this time last week, and I need to be proud of myself for that.

I’ve also done no exercise since my walk on Friday, but I do plan on doing at least a little something tonight or tomorrow. I really need to get into a positive mindset where any little effort I make is worth it – I think it’s so easy to get into that trap of ‘oh, but I have no time this week to exercise, so why even bother trying to eat better?’. Reality says of course eating better is worth it – nothing happens overnight, it all takes time!

So here we go, I’m taking baby steps to be a bit healthier, a bit fitter, and a bit happier.