Five Fingers and Mind clearing!

Today is my first day of Christmas holidays, I have to say a big thank you to my boss for not making me work this Christmas eve unlike last year. I decided not to waste the time and got up early and went for a run.

For my birthday Michael-clease bought me some Vibram Five Fingers.

Have you heard of them? The idea is that they are like bare foot running but without the dangers of hurting your feet on glass, sharp rocks etc. I have the classics, they are good for all sorts of activities but I think if you are after something purely for running something like the sprint is good but these seemed a good place to start. I love the idea of bare foot running and it is apparently much better for you but I have mixed feelings on my five fingers.
Every time I have run in them so far I have scrapped my toe. The top of my toe! I seem to drag my foot at some point, something I am never aware of having done in my regular running trainers. It means that I have a hole in both the big toes of my five fingers and bruised my toe. I'm pretty sure it is to do with my running style rather than the shoes so I will perceive. Anyway once I was running along the sand it was great and i could go in and out of the water which is not so pleasant in trainers.

At the end of my run I decided to sit on a rock at the little local beach near us and meditate. I really don't know how to meditate but I think I will get a book from the library about it. Anyway I sat there and tried to concentrate on my breathing and the movement of the waves and clear my mind. It seems there is a real skill in mind clearing, something I need to practise!

Well tomorrow is Christmas day, have a lovely day and be grateful for all your presents no matter how crappy!
Chubby Katie.x

A year of racing

I wasn't anticipating writing another blog entry until Christmas day but I have just discovered this http://runfortheblingofit.blogspot.com/  A blogger I follow called  Racing It Off has just set it up with the aim of completing 12 races in 2011 and I am planning on joining in!

As you know so far I have only entered the Cole Classic and have a few other races in my sights but as yet nothing for January. Its not really a good start to the challenge to not race in the 1st month so I need to have a bit of a browse and see whats about.

I did stumble across this one http://revesbyworkersfunrun.org/ but I would need to have a car for that and its on Australia day so we might have other plans although given my aim to give up alcohol for January maybe doing a race on Australia day might be wise.

Anyway if you know of any good races let me know :)

Chubby K.x

Christmas is no time to celebrate the destruction of your endothelial cells

January is a great time to start things new isn't it. Michael-clease is convinced that his years go in groups of three: good, ok and bad. This year has apparently been a bad year which, I think, means that next year is going to be a good one! Which is exciting.

I always plan to be healthy in January and begin my new healthier diet but by December I am usual back to the coke and chocolate! With the plan being to do a fair few races this year it is more important than ever to stick to the healthy lifestyle.

I have just been reading this article http://tiny.cc/vtr84. I don't think it is a coincidence that they published at the end of the year when everyone is thinking about their new year resolutions. I have for a while now toyed with the idea of vegetarianism and veganism but not really put much effort into it.  Now I have not really thought this thoroughly or discussed it with anyone but I am considering not drinking or eating meat in January.What do you think? Is it crazy to give up both at the same time? Or will I feel so amazing that I will never go back?

Natalie Portman is apparently a vegan, she was a vegetarian until she read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer http://tiny.cc/5tfja and then converted. I am quite a fan of his writing and having read the reviews it seems the book is really about the research into the meat industry rather than his own views and judgements. I intend to get myself a copy of the book and read it over the Christmas holidays. I am really looking forward to the time to relax, read, do a little exercise and catch on on a few chores.

Finally I have entered the Cole Classic, my housemate Neil and I did it with about 10 minutes to spare before the end of the early bird entry price. Although I have just realised that the early bird has been extended, obviously they haven't had many entries! So there is no backing out for me now.

Not sure if I will get a chance to blog again before Christmas so have a lovely one what ever you are doing. If its not raining Michael-clease and I might attempt to attach his new pedals, photos to follow...

Katie.xx

I started this post a few days ago and didn’t manage to finish it but finally here it is:

15/12/10

It is a very important day today! It is Michael-cleases birthday! He is the grand old age of 28 today. Unfortunately my training has been and is likely to be a bit slack. I was up at 6am this morning baking birthday cup cakes and will have birthday and work drinks for the next few days.

The plus is though that I bought Michael-clease some sporty presents and I can now tell you about them and hopefully review them soon.

So his main present was some shoes for his bike. He hasn’t ridden with clipless ones yet, hopefully we can get the pedals attached on Sunday and he can have a go. I got him dhb R1 Road Cycling Shoes in black.

They were pretty cheap ones but I thought they would be good for a first pair and had got really good reviews on Wiggle.co.uk

I also got him these shorts:

Usually he wears board shorts for running and cycling and I decided it was time he got some dedicated ones for the job. These have a little key pocket which I find essential and are apparently quick drying. I think Michael is more comfortable with the longer board short length rather than those short shorts that some runners wear. I swear he got a few present that he actually wanted rather than things I wanted him to have!

From his parents Michael-clease got a bbq. I do love eating bbq food so I think we will be having it quite often. It can easily turn into an unhealthy meal though, beers, crisps, cheese and tomato sauce all seem to go hand in hand with bbq’d meat. I need to start thinking of some healthy dishes I can prepare, things like veggie skewers and big salads work well and I love love love corn on the cob. Ooh and fish on the bbq is so goooood, I will definitely be doing that next week plus it means the house doesn’t smell of fish afterwards. Yep getting hungry just thinking about it!

17/12/10

I am hoping to book a few events in this weekend. The Cole Classic (eep should have booked it already and the early bird finishes today) and the Elite Energy Huskinsson triathlon. I think I am going to try the sprint distance, they have an enticer but I have already done that length.

I have just been reading a little about cyclecross, I think I would like to give it a go. Anyone know of any clubs for beginners? Also I can’t afford to buy a new bike for it especially as there is a fair chance I will try it and decide its not for me.

I noticed recently that I have put on a little weight, to much partying I think. I fear I might not do anything about it till January, Eep!

Well thats it for now.
Even Chubbier Katie.x

Whats in a name

Yesterday Michael-Clease (as he has requested is his blog name be) and I got up earlyish, well for Sunday anyway. We put on our running stuff and did a quick 20min before getting to the ocean pool near us and jumping in for 10 laps. It was already getting stinking hot so the swim was very welcome.

I love breakfast, I think it might be my favourite meal of the day, especially at weekends. After our run and swim we made ourselves come avocado, tomato and scrambled egg on toast, with a coffee on the side. It was mighty tasty and I am loving eating on our new balcony.

In the afternoon my housemate Neil came home and asked if I fancied a swim. I did! There is a tiny beach near us, it doesn’t get very crowded as there is a much bigger one down the road and it’s a little steep to get to. And off this beach is shark island. Now when I was in Thailand we canoed into crocodile cave, the guide assured us that a crocodile hadn’t been spotted there in the last 60 years! I am assuming that this is the same for Shark island as Neil and I decided to swim to it.

As I mentioned in the last post I am not that strong a swimmer and this was really my first ocean swim but I really enjoyed it. Neil is a trained life guide so that was reassuring and I think we only really swam about 200 metres but I am quite pleased with my first attempt.

Next up I want to swim around the island. I reckon its probably about 500/600metres round the island which should be really good training for the Cole Classic. There is also a race around Shark Island which might be worth considering http://res.au.eventdirector.net/CSLSC/SITES/1139/default.asp

Thats it for now.

Chubby Katie.x

Front crawl Freestyle Tomato Tomato

I had a great swim last night! I have decided that as soon as January arrives I am going to start properly training for the Cole Classic, at the moment I am just doing swims when I feel like it and the amount of laps that I can fit in.

Before I go any further I really need to complain about something! In Australia and USA they call front crawl freestyle. This really winds me up. Surely freestyle means whichever stroke you want? Now I presume that in a freestyle race people tend to use front crawl as it is fastest but somehow the stroke as become known as freestyle. I am pleased to find that Wikipedia agrees with me but still it irritates me.

Anyway I have always been a breast stroke swimmer. When I was younger I swam 5k using breast stroke and always concentrated on that stroke. I never really perfected my front crawl and now my parents no longer pay for my swimming lessons (and I am a bit too poor to pay for them) I am trying to teach myself.

So last night we got home, quickly got changed and went down to the ocean pool. By the time we got there I the wind had picked up and I was quite worried that the water was going to be freezing. Luckily it wasn’t and I really enjoyed the swim. I managed 16 lengths so 480 metres, which is really annoying as at the time I thought I had done 500!

I reckon ocean pools are good practise for ocean swims, you get used to the salt water and there is a bit of movement from the waves but not as hard core as being out in the wide ocean with all the sharks and jelly fish!

Ocean swimming is something I want to improve eventually but I think I need to get stronger with my stroke first.

As you have probably suspected I didn’t manage to get up this morning at 6am. Some serious methods are needed I think, I might move my alarm clock away from the bed so that I have to get up anyway. So no run today and tonight I need to do some Christmas shopping so no run then either. I saw something on tv the other day that said you should try and do your exercise in the mornings as life tends to get in the way the rest of the day. That’s definitely true for me, I am easily persuaded to go shopping/go for a drink/watch a film rather than go for my run so I really need to get these mornings sorted. As always I shall set my alarm for 6am tonight and endeavour to get up!

Chubby Katie.x

Beautiful morning for a run!

Well I finally managed it. After weeks of attempting to get up early and failing I finally made it this morning. At 6:00am my alarm went off and managed to haul my body (and Michael's) out of bed! I only managed a 20 minute run, and I struggled with that, but it was so nice to be up and about at that time. The esplanade was chocka but the sun was shining and the ocean looked very inviting!
Michael went for a swim in the ocean pool and after a few minutes running I was gutted I didn't have time for a dip too.

Tomorrow morning I plan to go for a swim, especially with the Cole Classic being a scarily close 63 days away. If google maps is correct the ocean pool is 30 metres wide, so I just need to manage 33.3 and I should be set for the Cole classic. EEP!

Well as I said in a previous post it only takes something like 60 days to get into a routing so only 59 left till early mornings will be easy.

Just a short post today as I don't have a lot of interest to say but i'll let you know how my swim goes tomorrow.
xx

Poor Bloggy

Ooh my poor blog has been very neglected recently! The reason being that I have just moved house. Now they say that apart from babies and weddings moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, I haven’t really found this to be the case but it has meant I haven’t had a lot of time for exercise and therefore not a lot to write about.

However I am now settled in, got my bearings (kinda, I’m not that navigationally minded!) and into the swing of life in my new home. This means the training must start again.

My New Years resolution last year was to “get hot” and I am afraid I have not really done that well, I haven’t got uglier I don’t think but I pretty much look the same as this time last year. I’m going to carry on the resolution to 2011 as well I think. We shall see how that goes.

So Sunday morning I woke Michael up at about 7:30am. The great thing about our new place is the light, it streams through our bedroom window first thing in the morning and, so far anyway, makes it easier to get up early. We got dressed and went out on our bikes. I loved it! We did 22kms to Kurnell and back, it took about 1 hour. The road to Kurnell is long and straight and has some great bike paths so I see myself doing the route a fair bit.

There were lots of professional looking people whizzing past us, I’m not sure if there was some sort of time trial happening but it was pretty interesting to see them all in there team outfits, putting in so much effort, definitely not a casual Sunday pedal.

We also have a pool in our apartment block so I need to make use of that, even it is just jumping in and doing a couple of lengths before my morning shower. Mustn’t forget running! We are pretty close to the beach so I plan to do some morning runs along the esplanade. I need another schedule I think, will keep you posted on that. In the mean time just to make this entry look a little more interesting here is a map of the Kurnell route I took. 

 

Until next time, which hopefully won't be as long.

Chubby Katie.x