12WBT Preseason Week 2
27 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in 12wbt Tags: 12WBT, Exercise, Running, Weight Loss
This week I reach my preseason goal of losing 2 kgs (though the chocolate I devoured tonight may not help this goal be maintained!).
I am now up to date with both preseason tasks too.
Preseason task 3 was about goal setting and setting goals for next 1, 6 and 12 months. My goals for the next month are to run to Lake Tuggeranong and back (about 11kms) and to lose 3 kgs. Both I believe are very achievable. 3 month goals are to lose 10kgs, climb Mt Tennant and to run around West Basin of Lake Burley Griffin (about 16kms). Again I think these are also very achievable.
We also had to think about how we would achieve our goals – for me this would be by following the 12WBT program, making sure I train 6 days a week and making sure that I run on at least two of these days, including one longer run a week. I am also thinking of climbing the hill behind my house – Mt Tennant is a long hard climb and so want to make sure I can do this.
Preseason Task 4 is about gearing up! Making sure you have everything you need to train successfully. As this is my 4th round I have most things I need, but each round I have bought a couple of extra things. I have my heart rate monitor, ipod, new shoes & workout clothes, as well as some DVDs for days I can’t head out. This round I am planning on buying some handweights and a couple of extra workout tops – saw some in Target today that are perfect. Just need to head down there to try them on when there are no children with me.
The other part of this task is planning where you are going to train and to be organised with that too. As in previous rounds, I will mainly be doing the outdoor workouts – in the past I have done these in my front yard, but am planning on heading to the backyard this round (my new front yard has absolutely no privacy and I don’t know if I want the neighbours to be watching.) I am also going to head up to the ovals of the school at the end of my street. I am also planning on continuing to do a Jazzercise class on Friday mornings, and may also throw in some swimming.
This week has been a bit tougher than the first week. The forums are very overwhelming on the 12wbt site & I am finding myself heading towards the 12wbt funk I was in at the start of round 1 this year. So I think I need to avoid the forums?facebook pages for a while and concentrate on myself and my goals. Do some hard work on my own to get motivated again. Food has also been tricky this week – Noos turned 12 and so we had birthday celebrations and it has been a long hard week in many ways. I found myself earth shatteringly exhausted and unable to deal with making proper meals and so turned to easy convenience foods.
Based on this week, I realise that once I am feeling more energetic I need to make some meals and put them in the freezer for weeks like these. I also need to start saying no to doing things so I can concentrate on ensuring that our family is able to function and that I will achieve the goals I have set.
Preseason Week 1
21 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in 12wbt, Exercise, Weight Tags: 12WBT, Exercise, Weight Loss
Last week I committed myself to round 3 12wbt & also to actively participating in pre season, including losing 2kgs.
This week has been a challenge – stiff muscles earlier in the week from the City to Surf, a huge blister under my foot & then the cold hit. So a week where I could have made lots & lots of excuses.
Exercise was a bit tricky - I went for a walk on Monday, needed to get the legs moving again, a jog on Tuesday and a walk on Thursday. I did plan on going to Jazzercise Friday morning, but was just not feeling well enough and able to breath well enough. Yesterday I met up with some other 12wbters and went for a walk for 1 1/2 hours. Wore my polar and burned around 400cals – not as much as a normal super Saturday, but most of the day was spent at a soccer field and the fact that I managed to squeeze any exercise into my day was a big deal!
As for food- I am very proud of myself. The temptation of biscuits was overcome & I think I roughly ate around 12oo cals most days. I did have a treat last night – some chinese, but didn’t eat much during the day & avoided the canteen at soccer.
Preseason task 1 opened & so I have been introducing myself on the forums and also spread the word about the Canberra facebook page.
Preseason task 2 on excuses was very interesting. I know my excuses for what they are and so was able to list down plenty. Ways of overcoming them – not so easy! I have been thinking about this as I feel in the previous rounds the answers are all a bit cheesy and not real. Yesterday I realised all the excuses in the world are all codswallop & really I should just suck it up & do the right thing!
Food is my biggest obstacle – I love sweet things. Lollies, cakes, biscuits & chocolate. And I love going out for a great meal too. In life I really have to focus on these things being treats, not everyday food. Just because I can eat them everyday does not mean I should! This is the one lesson I need to learn and take away from this round – and just because I know this, does not make it that easy to practice it.
Task 3 should be opening today – this one will be about goals. I think I have most goals mapped out in my head, so it will be great to commit them to paper.
City To Surf!
14 Aug 2011 3 Comments
in 12wbt, Exercise Tags: 12WBT, City to Surf, Exercise, Running
What an interesting weekend! I headed up to Sydney after watching the Smallest Boy’s soccer game, and feeling very guilty about missing the biggest boys. It was a really really easy drive until I hit the City. I had booked a hotel in Kings Cross, and hadn’t really looked on a map as to where it was. I was figuring on following the directions that Wotif has provided on the booking confirmation – big mistake!
After turning up onto Darlinghurst Rd, I then turned into another street & ended up down at Rushcutters Bay, drove back into the main part of the Cross (driving past the hotel, which did not seem to have a name on that side) and then all the way across to Oxford Street, going past St Vincents Hospital. Turned around again, ended up back in Rushcutters Bay & in desperation rang the Hotel. Very easy to find – straight across the road from the iconic Coca Cola sign (duh!).
Checked in and waited around for my friend Di to show up. I was on the fifth floor of the hotel looking down into Darlinghurst Rd – a place I didn’t really want to spend any time in. Di arrived and we headed into the city to meet our other buddy Sal and her family for dinner – a carb loaded dinner, which was very lovely.
Then the plan was for an early night, followed by an early morning run. Plan did not work! We found the local Coles, stocked up on energy high food for breakfast and went back to our rooms. I had an enjoyable evening curled up in the very comfortable large bed, watching bad TV & reading before falling asleep at 10pm (and there is a point to this story).
At midnight the Doof doof doof started. I lay in bed miserable that a night club near by had started playing very loud music at this time. I lay there listening to cars, sirens, girls screaming, men yelling and the doof doof doof. Then the doof doof turned into a bloke yelling about how he was a busker and needed to earn a living from this. By now I was awake enough to crawl out of bed and look out the window. And there he was, my enemy, with his microphone and amplifier pointed at my room beatboxing. I have never disliked anyone so much! Surrounding him were girls in short dresses (and ladies, if you must wear barely covering dresses with towering heels, then tights or stockings are a good look – your legs are generally not that great to be so bare in winter!), blokes chatting and police wandering around. I called reception to ask what time the buskers stopped making noise in this area – apparently they shouldn’t be making any noise at all, and they would call the ranger. I continued to listen to Doof Doof Man – MC Hammer owes me, I have never heard Can’t Touch This so many times in one night, and it wasn’t a good song when it came out.
Calls of “Check This Out” and “Give me all your change” continued from Beatbox man. Then country music man started playing which annoyed Beatbox Man, who was yelling at Country Music Man to go away. And then crowing about the $100 note some random bloke gave him, telling Country Music Man that he couldn’t stop him – well I wanted to beatbox them both. After 3 hours of this I finally managed to sleep. Goodbye good nights sleep before run!
Di & I headed off to meet Sal at about 7.30ish. As we walked out of the hotel it began to pour with rain – not an auspicious start! Sal made the very wise choice not to run, but to save her damaged knee and so Di & I lined up with the Blue Group. Beachballs were being tossed about & there was a little bit of jostling to get a good start before we headed off at 8.30am. And the rain stopped!
The start was very smooth, no pushing and we were able to run at a decent pace fairly quickly. As we ran through the William St tunnel young boys started zig zagging through the crowds to get ahead. We ran along together, enjoying the music, and the harbour views. And then we hit Heartbreak Hill – it did break my heart! I managed to get about half way up, before watching Di run on ahead of me and I slowed down to a quick walk. It was really exciting to see that 7km flag at the top. The rest of the race was fairly good – one more stretch of walking on another hill, and jogging the rest of the way.
At the 11km mark, I was really starting to enjoy the run & how I was feeling. My foot was sore and rubbing on the inside of my shoe, but I was able to ignore this. At 1km to go it suddenly became really tough – running along Campbell Parade in Bondi, with all the people who had finished watching. I began to question whether I could make the end of the race and my mind started playing games. I tried to lift my pace towards the end, didn’t really manage it, but still crossed the finish line in under 100 minutes (I think).
Was very very pleased to see Di at the end, and we went off looking for drinks, food and buses. The bus service out of Bondi was brilliant – the queue looked really scary but it moved so quickly. And the train back to the Cross was brilliant as well. We changed out of our wet, sweaty clothes and jumped in the car and went off to do what everyone finishing the City to Surf should do – headed to Ikea!
All in all it was a fun weekend. Thank you Di & Sal – it wouldn’t have been fun without you two.
I know this run was a milestone for many people in the current Michelle Bridge’s 12 week body transformation- well done to all of you who made it. And for me, it kicks off the start of round 3 2011. Tomorrow I get started into preseason and I am feeling excited.
Climbing back on the 12WBT wagon
11 Aug 2011 5 Comments
in 12wbt, Exercise, Health, Weight Tags: 12WBT, Exercise, Weight Loss
After eating & sleeping my way through winter, I am going to jump back onto the Michelle Bridge’s 12WBT wagon for round 3 2011.
I did round 1 & 3 in 2010 & also round 1 2011 and achieved great results when I actually put my mind to it. Preseason for round 3 starts on Monday & I can’t wait!
This time I am going to make sure I participate in the preseason tasks & head back to where my mind was at the very first round. I committed myself then to doing what Michelle told me & I achieved great success – 14kg (roughly) gone. I need to get my head back into the program and start to put myself first for a while.
Round 3 last year I blogged through the 12 weeks and I am planning on doing it again this round - keeps me on track and on task.
My preseason goals are thus:
- Complete the City to Surf (14km) on Sunday – my training has been nearly non existent and at this point I will be happy if I manage to crawl across that finish line.
- Climb out of bed to exercise 6 mornings a week during preseason – in the program Mish specifies Sunday as a rest day. However, I have been finding Wednesdays very difficult – I have to be at work at 8.30 & get two boys organised and off to my Mum’s before that. To exercise first means getting up at 5 or 5.30 – very very difficult in a very very cold Canberra winter. So I will be having Wednesdays as a day of rest, unless I can fit in a run after work.
- Stop eating cake & biscuits – these are my biggest downfalls. I love cake & I love biscuits & they are so full of calories. Even if I don’t change anything else with my eating, I will lose weight through exercising & not eating cake!
- Complete all preseason task, even the ones I feel I don’t need to do. I do need to set some new goals as after the City 2 Surf I will have achieved all the running goals I set myself for this year. Will need to think through these. I also do need to clean out my kitchen cupboards too & stop buying junk.
- Lose 2 kgs during preseason
At the moment I haven’t thought about how much weight I want to lose during round 3 as I am in denial as to how much weight I have put on over winter. I will start weighing myself on Monday morning – just need to take that step to weigh myself once & then get moving!
I think part of my preparation will also be to work out a list of meals I can cook for the boys which will be quick for the nights when they won’t eat the 12wbt meals – and that seems to happen a lot!!
So excited to start!!
Spring is coming (or so I thought)
09 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Garden Tags: garden, home, Spring
Last week we had unseasonally warm weather – beautiful days above 20 degrees and I was at work. On the weekend, the day when I spend a lot of time standing at soccer fields, it rained – heavily and it was cold. The top temperature was around 8 degrees at 8.30am, and then it just got colder.
But in the hope that spring was coming we started to get the garden ready. I feel very blessed by the garden that has been left to me by the previous owner of this house. While the front yard is a blank canvas, that I am currently trying to ignore, the backyard is well established. There are a couple of large decidous trees and the neighbour’s peppercorn tree towers over all my yard, providing some frost protection.
So far there has been something in flower constantly, so while the trees are bare, there are flowers popping up. At the moment I have flowering in the garden camellias (which have been going since autumn, each tree after the other), daphne ( though a little bit beaten up by the frost), violets both purple & white, daffodils, and azalea, and hiding in a sheltered spot is an iris. Other shrubs are looking pregnant with buds – they are just ready to burst.
This is the camellia I view as I sit in the sunroom. It is full of blossoms and they are the most soft pink.
The daphne that isn’t looking too crash hot. It has the most gorgeous flowers, and its smelling so sweetly, but the middle of the bush is shrivelled & brown. It amazes me that the same bush can be so very ugly and so very beautiful.
Violets tumbling over the rocks. There are violets all through the garden – maybe too many.
One of the more than 30 rose bushes we pruned into submission. There are roses with the most amazing thorns in this garden – definitely not friendly roses at all. Once they flower I will be able to determine whether some of the old thornys really deserve their spot in the garden.
There is lots of cleaning up & weeding to do, but they are jobs they make my heart fill with joy as the beauty of this old garden, and the hidden gems, become apparent.
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