A cool run
It was lovely to go out this morning and find that it was quite nice and cool for a change. My programme today was for a walk 2 run 8 mins x3 which is what I did. I went up to Queen's park did a loop of the whole park and then a couple of loops of the oval before walking home. Felt quite energetic at the beginning but found it quite hard after the first couple of kms and was quite glad of the legitimate walk breaks!Total was 4.35km. Total for the month 47.5km; hopefully this will start increasing now. I didn't have any knee pain but my left achilles is grumbling again so will have to go back to icing and stretching that; it should settle down again I hope.Did a 45 min GRC Pilates class after work. Really felt it this afternoon as I haven't been for over a week. FoodBefore run: 1/2 nectarine and waterB: Banana protein smoothie
MT: 1/2 protein bar and 2 crispbreads with cottage cheese
L: Berry protein shake
AT: Health bar (180cals)
After Pilates 2 crispbreads with cottage cheese
D: Chargrilled ocean trout with cauli, broccoli and snowpeas + a low fat yoghurt
Serious gym session
I don't really find the gym that inspiring, but after a day of meetings and discussing meatworkers the gym started to look very attractive! Can you do a brick in the gym? If so that's what I did. 25 mins bike36 mins (6km) on the Elliptical thingieTotal cals 600Weights session: The usual 30 mins of upper and lower body.So that's the exercise, how about the food.Well good lulu was moooostly in charge.B: Protein shake (skim soy milk and a slice of rockmelon)Morning T: (this is where it went horribly wrong, forgive me I was led astray by some meatworking types) 1 Almond biscotti and a decaf flatwhiteL: Protein shake as breakfastAfter gym: half a protein barDinner: (in the oven as I type) Grilled barramundi (150g) with preserved lemon and coriandar salsa with roasted pumpkin and zucchini.Water: lotsI treated myself to a new set of scales yesterday as my old ones were becoming temperamental. If I got on them after Mr lulu it told me I weighed the same as him and that would be horrid (It's alright on him of course!). Much to my horror the new ones are measuring 2km up on the old ones! That puts me right back to square one. It's only arbitrary number I suppose so it doesn't really matter. However, I'll re-set the weight counter from today.I think putting the food in my blog will be good actually as the thought of being given a good telling off by DJ is enough to make me think twice about over-indulging! Sadly, a disappointed meatworker who had gone out especially to get some nice things to have with coffee was more compelling this morning :)
In the park
Garth decided to be bad Garth this morning. He just completely froze and knowing that both Go Girl and Miners are Garminless at the moment I could see him being sent to Garmin hospital. Eventually though he switched himself off and then was fine. Hopefully it was just the shock of doing two runs in a row!Mr lulu accompanied me to the park and it was lovely to be running with him, however briefly. This probably accounts for why my first two km splits were 6.03 and 5.54. I was doing one of the workouts from the return to running programme that Gronk put me onto. This was run 12, walk 2, run 12, walk 2 and then run 10.Of course I had to pass Sean's squad out running at the point when I was walking. Gave Don Juan a wave and now he probably thinks I was slacking off!On the last walk 1o section up the hill I started to develop a bit of knee pain so decided to call it quits and walk home, but not until I'd reached 5km on the dot! Not as far as last week but then I did run two days in a row for the first time in ages so still up.So my plan now is to follow the return to running programme which is a 7 week programme. I'm going to start at week 2 as the first week is a lot of walk/running and I think I'm ahead of that at this stage. This will mean three runs this week with short walk breaks. This programme eventually gets me up to 55 mins in 6 weeks time with 5 runs a week. I'll see how I go and if necessary I can repeat a week or two if I feel the build up is too steep.I'm going to re-start my week count now to start this programme. Week 1 planSun run doneMon gym Tues Walk 2 Run 8mins X 3; pilatesWed Water running, gymThurs Run 10 Walk 2 X 3, PilatesFri Aqua Satan, PilatesSat; Run 12, walk 2 x2 + run 10Weight loss 0 this week (-1.5 total). I seem to have found the balance for maintaining my weight but not losing any. I'm going to start blogging my food from tomorrow so I can keep better track of it and also I'm going to have to cut out the wine I'm afraid. I'm actually running out of things to cut down on, but this week it's going to be wine and coffee. Not that I drink much of either. Normally one coffee a day and we only drink on Fri, sat and sun, (a couple of glasses) but it all makes a difference I suppose. We'll see what happens.
The week's update
A busy week but finally I've time to update the blog!Bad Lulu decided to sabotage the week's running by leaving good lulu's orthotics at home. That's a good reason to not have two pairs of runners and only one pair of orthotics. I wasn't going to risk any set backs after my knee feeling so much better recently.I did manage one session in the pool on Thursday morning though before having brekkie with the CR Brissie gals. It was great to finally meet Hannah, Cirque and Clairie and to see Tesso again. I'll be back soon.Friday morning saw me back in the pool with Aqua Satan with a session consisting of:Warm up and stretchStrength exercisesWarm up run (5 mins)Build intervals10 x 1 min run intervals with either a jump or arm exercise in betweenThe pistol x 10 each leg ( basically a one legged squat on the stairs and without falling over)StretchCollapse.No. of black eyes; 0. I wore a running top instead of my swimming top.Saturday I decided to head out for a run and being a bit bored with Queen's park and wanting to test my knee out on some more testing terrain I decided to do the old 2 beaches route. Down to Clovelly and back up the hills and through the cemetery. A total of 4km . The knee complained only once and it was minor after we'd been running on the road for 2km but didn't seem to mind going up and down hills which is good. Considering I haven't been near a hill for months I was quite surprised to find that I could do the course non-stop and actually felt really good energy wise; could Dr Ludka's cocktail be kicking in? We'll have to see what happens.Will give it a further challenge tomorrow with another 6km on the grass in the park to see how it handles two days in a row. Since the beginning of Feb I've actually cut back on the mileage ( the second week I did nearly 20km) and I think that probably accounts for the improvement so I'm now going to try and build back up very gradually. I did 10km this week, should have been at least 14. So I'll start with doing 12 this week over three runs and see how we go. 6km tomorrow and then two shorter runs in the week.
Burn, baby burn
Good lulu was in charge again this morning, sorry boys! I woke up at 5.15, was up at 5.30 and in the gym by 6am
30 mins on the bike on levels 5-10 worked up a good sweat. I thought I was doing well until a man in his late 50's sat down on the next bike, whacked it on level 10 and pumped away. He only did about 15 mins though.. no stamina these blokes!
After the bike I did my weights programme and my poor upper body really felt the burn this morning. So a good start to the week.
Gnome has enquired why we're learning Italian. Well we are off to Europe in a few months time. I am going for a month to spend some time with the aged parents and Mr lulu is taking me to Venice for a week. We got in the mood yesterday afternoon when we went to see Casanova which shows Venice very well, and is a good romp as well. Some good acting from some classic English actors like Jeremy Irons but not particularly from our Heath, who Mr lulu as renamed Mumbles as he doesn't seem to open his mouth when he speaks. Worth seeing though as it's quite amusing.
Good lulu wins today!
"
The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and all my good intentions of doing a run and the gym yesterday went out the window when I woke up and still felt tired. Mr lulu had to drag me out of bed to go to our first Italian class otherwise I probably would have stayed there all day. In the end the Italian class was good and I did some preparation for the training I'm running next week.This morning I felt a bit better and so managed to be out the door by 8.30am. Not exactly the crack of dawn and I regretted it when I realised how hot and humid it was. Tired and grumpy lulu was whining in my ear all the way through the first km,"I'm tired, it's too hot etc etc..." but good lulu was not having any of it today. Garth was chirping away cheerfully as we went through the kms and although it was slow and hard going I managed 6kms this morning. Even better this was without any twinge from the knee apart from the hill back up along Queen's Park and this 6km included quite a bit of road or harder surface running. I'll have to see if there are any ill effects later or tomorrow.So the week in review:Week 6Monday Aqua Satan and PilatesTues: nadaWeds: run/walk pilates and PilatesThurs: Run and gymFriday Aqua satanSaturday:nadaWeight: +.5 (1.5kg) Not sure why, as I don't think I'm eating that much. I'm travelling all of next week but after that I'm going to blog my food too so you can all tell me if I'm eating too much or not!Week 7 planSunday: run 6km done.Mon: am GymTues: Bordertown run in the vineyardWeds: Brisbane Water running/some pilates exercisesThurs: Brisbane run, and brekkie with CR gals in BrissieFri: Aqua Satan and PilatesHopefully that is realistic given my work schedule and I'm hoping to have a bit more energy next week. I need to set myself some realistic goals for the year as I find it hard to get motivated and push myself when I'm feeling tired when I'm not training for anything. Mr lulu gave me a stern talking to yesterday about setting myself unrealistic goals when I'm still really a beginner runner. Last year I went from nothing to doing a half marathon and have the sore knees to prove it! This year I need to build up more gradually was his words of advice.
Bouncing in the pool
Back to Aqua Satan this morning for some more torture!This morning it was the usual warm up stretch, strengthen and then some running.Progressing this morning to the shallower end of the pool, increasing the weight bearing and significantly increasing chest bounce factor!! I'll have to wear something a little more supportive than a skimpy swimsuit or risk serious blackeyes, not to mention the risk to the older gents heart conditions :)I will run tomorrow and try and fit a second session in the afternoon at the gym, energy and time permitting.Have a good weekend y'all.
Being positive!
I'm still here, alive and kicking, but when I put together my schedule for the week I didn't really take into account the fact that I've got a busy work life at the moment, or that I was going to feel absolutely shattered for most of the week. I was hoping Dr Ludka's cocktail would start kicking in but I was being a little too optimistic as she said 3-4 weeks and I have only been on them for a week. I never said I was patient!!
So what have I been up to. Today I went to fantastic morning's conference with Martin Seligman who is the leader in positive psychology research and whose work I use quite a bit in my practice so that was very positive :) and I came away with lots of stuff to use on my poor old clients!
Oh yeah, I did some exercise too:
Monday evening Pilates didn't happen, too tired.
Tuesday I woke up in a panic remembering I had to be in the office early to do a couple of sessions and then get to the airport to fly to Brissie to deliver a half day workshop. Got home at 10pm and collapsed into bed.
Weds: Managed to drag myself down to Queen's Park but my stoopid body wasn't co-operating this morning so I ended up running about 1km then calling it a day and walking the other 3km's on the basis that walking was better than nothing. PM went to Pilates.
Thursday: Ran 4km Yay! no knee problems and that included about 2km on the pavement so maybe things are looking up! PM pathetic attempt at doing a gym workout. Lasted about 10 mins on the bike and then did my weights programme but it was not with very much enthusiasm. I'm now off to bed to try and regain some energy. I'm beginning to sound like DJ, all this complaining about being tired! I wouldn't mind being tired if I was actually training hard like he is!
In with Bill
The hydro pool was very quiet this morning and it was just me and a lovely old gent called Bill who celebrated his 80th birthday last week and he was very charming company. After my run on Saturday I was a bit sore in the right knee and so yesterday I had a day off. This morning's session at the pool was the usual:Warm-upStretchStrengthening5 mins warm up run6 mins run intervals with leg strenthening in betweenBuild intervalsCollapse in corner.I found this quite hard this morning and I'm probably still not 100% after last week's cold.Week 5 review
Sunday 3.7km runMon, Tues, Weds ; lost to the dreaded lurgyThursday 4km and PilatesFri Aqua SatanSat ran 6 kmWeight loss 0 (2kgs). Not really surprised as i was a bit slack this week and I have really stalled at this weight. Will focus on diet this week and step up the exercise and see if I can get it moving again.Week 6 planSunday: rest (did that; lovely!)Mon: Aqua Satan, PilatesTues: runWeds: am Water run, pm gym Thurs: Run, PilatesFri: am Aqua Satan; pm PilatesSaturday am Gym; pm Water runWish me luck!
A good'un
I had an aborted mission with Aqua Satan yesterday as after doing all my stretches and strengthening I was going to do 20 mins of running but after 5 mins we pulled the pin as my itb on my right knee ( the dodgy one) started to complain. AS did some quick pulling and poking around and managed to losen it up but we decided not to continue with the water running. I'm not sure what triggered that as I've hardly done much all week due to the lurgy.Anyway last night I was trying to work out what to do this morning and decided 'stuff it, I'm going for a run and nothing is going to stop me'. So this morning Mr lulu walked me up to the start of Queen's Park and then headed off and I started trotting down to the park.It took me a 1km or so to warm up but then I felt pretty good so headed around an inside loop of the park and then back to Queen's Park. My taping came off my knee at about 3 km as the sweat made it loose and I should have put it on last night. Still it didn't seem to make much difference. I started to feel a slight niggle at about 4km but walked briefly and then started again and it seemed all OK. I walked/ran up the hill where Mr lulu appeared and we walked back home as I'd done 6km and he was very firm that that was enough... good thing one member of the family is sensible.So far no ill effects but I'll see what it's like in the morning. Lots of ice, rolling on the rolling pin and some anti-inflam cream has been applied and so I'm Hoping that I can do another short run tomorrow. I might be pushing my luck here but I'll just make it a very short one to see what happens and only if nothing is painful.. promise!I feel much better having run 6km and I was feeling pretty good for most of it, got into a good rhythm and ran most km in around 6.15 pace which is not too bad; for me anyway. If I can do that few times next week I'll feel as if I'm making some progress.
She rises!
After three days of battling a horrid cold, strangely last night, after a couple of glasses of wine, I suddenly started feeling a lot better. So when Mr lulu got up this morning to go down to the park for his return to SWEAT I decided to go with him.I walked for about 500 metres and was passed by the SWEAT group heading off to do a few laps fo Wild Wally and the I started running. My knee didn't feel great at the start and after about a km I stopped and walked again. When I started running again it felt fine so I carried on. Once I'd done a lap of the park I stopped at the McKay Oval and got my water out of the car and then did another 4 laps of the oval to take my total run up to 4km. A small improvement on Sunday's run and I could have carried on except my chest was starting to really wheeze and I was feeling quite tired. Tired after 4km.... it's going to take me a while to get my endurance back! Still at least it was a run and with limited knee pain so things are looking up. I had a chat to Sean and the SWEATers when they came back from Wild Wally and Sean was checking what exercises I have been doing for my knee. He suggested a couple of other things I could do so I'll see how they feel too.I'll go off to Pilates today and then back to Aqua Satan in the morning so hopefully that is the end of illness and injury for the rest of the year.
I'm going to take my race schedule off the side bar as I'm not likely to do anything in the next few months. I put it back up once I'm back training solidly and I can plan a race or two.
Service suspended
Normal service will be resumed in due course. Currently the author of this blog is hiding under the duvet with a nasty bug. In the meantime here is something for your amusement! Make sure you follow the instructions carefully.
Sweaty and disappointed
I walked up to Queen's Park with Mr lulu who then sprinted off into the distance and I started my plod around the park. As I reached the Centennial Park end I heard my name being called and there was the lovely Kit and companion who were just reaching the end of their 30 km run! I ran with them back to the play area where Deanne and her companion were already stretching and drinking coke. I wished I had just finished a 30 km run but that seems somewhat unlikely to happen anytime soon.I managed a massive 3.7km before my knee decided to complain. I was tempted to keep going but thought that it was stoopid to undo the work I'd done. Actually this seemed to be in a differnet place and more itb related. Either way best to stop I suppose. I'm disappointed that I seem to be going backwards at the moment and not making much progress. One consolation is that at least generally the knee feels better and doesn't ache when I'm walking around as it did a month ago so I suppose that's something. I'm also disappointed that for the second week in a row I haven't lost any weight. This is usual pattern I have found when I've tried to lose weight over the last few years. A few kilos come off easily and then nothing else despite sticking very well to my eating programme and keeping up some good exercise this week. Hopefully this week they'll be some progress in both the knee and the weight loss. I'm picking up my prescription from Dr Ludka's apothecary on Weds so hopefully this will get my thyroid up and running as it should be and I'll have a bit more energySummary of week 4:Sunday and Monday: nothing :)Tuesday Pilates and 5.5km runWeds Aqua Satan, Weights and Spin classThursday 4km run and PilatesFriday Aqua SatanSaturday Pilates and SpinWeight loss 0 (2kgs)Week 5 planSunday Run 3.7km (tick)Monday: am Aqua Satan; pm weights and cardioTuesday: Run and PilatesWeds: am Water run; pm Weights and spinThurs: Run and PilatesFri: am Aqua Satan and pm Pilates mat classSat: Water run or spin class or run depending on knee.
Meat head or meat loaf
Off to the gym this morning as the weather didn't look particularly appealing for a water run. An hour's pilates mat class followed by a Spin class.The spin class was led by some big beefy meathead instructor who played heavy metal all through the class. Not really my cup of tea under normal circumstances but I found it strangely appealing to spin too. Don't tell Mr lulu otherwise he'll be getting out his Rose Tattoo CDs and playing them in the house whilst I'm in, instead of when I'm out, which are the current rules :)I've got the resistance right on the bike now so that work hard enough but without putting too much strain on the knee and I certainly felt like I'd had a good workout. Meathead said we were going to do a rolling hills session. It didn't fit my definition of rolling hills as there was no downhill that I can remember. My glutes have been well and truly exercised today, particularly on the 8 min track where we stood and climbed the whole way through. I was quite glad when that particular torture ended. Running tomorrow! Yay!
Aqua Satan ups the ante!
Off to see Aqua Satan this morning and I can announce that doing a 70 min session with him is as good a cure as any for a thick head, induced by a night out with the Evil Twin Sister. She was in good form and I soon had a beer in my hand when I arrived at her place. Shame I don't like beer but it was such a hot evening it seemed like an appropriate start and it was quite refreshing. I had to move on to wine then though.Anyhoo enough of the drinking, back to the exercise.I did my normal warm up and strengthening and run warm up but then a tougher run section.I did the build interval of 30 secs 45 secs, 1 min, 1.30 and back again which was 8 minsThen a new little workout involving 24 reps of 20 secs med pace 10 secs sprint. Ever tried sprinting in water; you certainly feel it.A couple of new bounding exercises which put several old dears in danger of toppling over in my wake and then I was able to stretch and collapse in the corner of the pool.I think that's all I'll manage today.
Wet blanket!
I woke up feeling about as energetic as a wet blanket and then went outside to discover that Sydney was in fact covered with a wet blanket; a yucky humid morning even at 6.30.I walked a few 100 meters and then started a gentle jog up the road to Queen's Park. Down onto the park and I picked up the pace a tad. Knee grumbled at about 1.6km so I stopped and walked and then started again. No problems, so I did an extra loop of the flat playing field section. This is probably the best surface to run on as it's relatively short grass and quite even. I think really long soft grass is a bit unstable and seems to put more pressure on my knee. I then ran back down the road and past the house to get to 4kms. All in all not too bad and the knee was feeling pretty good even on the harder surface. However, now my left achilles, which has been a long term niggle is complaining again. I don't know, some days I think I shall just curl up in a ball and accept my fate as a lardy couch potato. If I was meant to be athletic I would have been given a better body! Then I remembered that one of the old gals at the hydro pool said to me yesterday " If you wake up in the morning and none of your joints or anthing are aching.....you're dead!" Onwards and upwards then!Edited to add: I stumbled into an advanced Pilates class at lunchtime which certainly tested my abs strength which is not as good as it was a few weeks ago. More pilates required I'm afraid. At least one of the exercises I have struggled with in the past came together though which was good.
A gold star day!
Someone give me a gold star; I've been such a good girl today!amAqua SatanA good hour workout consisting of:warm-up StretchStrength exercises5 mins warm up running15 mins intervals interspersed with jumpie things and arm exercisesStretchAqua Satan is not too worried that my knee hurt yesterday but wants to try and get to the bottom of what happened, so I'm off again tomorrow for another slightly shorter run. I suspect I just went a bit too far. Anyway at least I can run again tomorrow!pmI can't believe it's been about 3 weeks since I did my weights workout, don't know what I've been up to. Did my normal workout but found I had to go back to my original weights. That's what happens when you don't do it I suppose. Followed this with a 45 min Spin class which was a great workout as usual although I had to keep the resistance down a little so I didn't put too much strain on my knee.All in all a good day's exercise!
