Monday 20 January 2014

Monday motivation

Right its monday afternoon, its just started raining and I'm meant to be going for a run, so this Monday motivation is mainly for my benefit.

Its actually one of my favourite running quotes, I believe its an old african saying of unknown origin but was quoted by Roger Bannister (the first man to break 4 minute mile) and then again in the book Born to Run:



Tuesday 14 January 2014

Interesting little read

Heres an interesting little read from a blog I follow called Oceanswims, about the changes in ocean swims, the price increases, the shorter distances being introduced and the marketing more at the beginner. http://oceanswims.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/making-swims-special-again.html
As a fairly new comer to the sport I'm undecided as to whether this is a good thing or bad, i'm sure there is plenty of room for debate on the subject.

Monday 13 January 2014

Monday motivation.....or thoughts

One of my Facebook friends posted this and it really made me think. For a while now (since my sister in law got a job in a health food store) I have been thinking more about where food comes from and the importance of organic food.
This link is full of little thoughts that really make you think!

Heres an example:


Saturday 11 January 2014

Smoothie moothie

My smoothy interest was originally piked by this website greenmonstermovement.com/ and recently I've really been embracing green smoothies.
Much to Michael Cleases irritation I have been making one a day for him and myself. He has his with breakfast and I take mine to work in a plastic bottle for a mid morning snack.

Many people like to make fresh juices in the morning and, as much as I love a carrot, apple and ginger one, I cannot bear to throw away all the pulp thats left! Think of all that great fibre you are missing out on.

We already have a banana with our brekkie so I make mine a little different to how Angela at Green Monster Movement makes hers.

Serves two:
Three spinach leaves or two handfuls of baby spinach (i'm lucky that I have spinach growing in my garden at the moment so I can just run out and grab a few leaves)
Teaspoon of chia seeds
One apple or pear, cored and quartered
One cup (or so) of liquid, I quite like coconut water but apple juice or regular water are great too
A couple of dates if needed for sweetness

I find if I use an apple and water its not sweet enough so I add the dates, pear and apple juice are sweet enough.

Blitz it all up in a blender, often I add extra water at the end if its a little thick.

This morning as it was the weekend I decide to make a slightly more filling one for breakfast. This one had:
Spinach
Banana
Ground chia and flax seeds
A couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt
One teaspoon blackstrap molasses
One teaspoon coconut oil
One teaspoon honey
A sprinkle of cinnamon
And a pinch of salt

I had it after my run and it was pretty tasty, I could taste the coconut quite strongly so next time I might not use quite so much. As you can see it made a large glassful and filled me up well.


Go go turbo trainer

Yesterday this guy arrived. Please say hello to my new turbo trainer, I'm going to call him Tommy.

I ordered it online not really knowing what to expect. Although i've read a little about them online i've never chatted to anyone about them, how they work, how to set them up and whether they are worth it.

As I said in my last post I bought a cheap one, about $70 I think this was including postage. I did expect it to be smaller, possibly when you pay more you get a more compact unit??
Its also heavy!! About 8kg I think it said on the box which made it tough getting it from work to the station and station to home! But I decided to put a positive spin on that about the arm workout I was getting.

Well this morning after my run (not park run unfortunately as my training schedule has down but a run none the less) I put it together and went for a spin.
 I must say I'm quite impressed. It was simple to put together, the instructions weren't the clearest but it was pretty logical. Taking out my skewer and replacing it with the one that came was easy enough and it pretty much did what it was meant to. I just hopped on, clipped in my shoes and off I went.
As I missed my weekly 30min bike ride on Wednesday I decided I should do 30mins today. Its a hot day and I found it tough and worked up quite the sweat. It will be interesting to see how I go on a cooler day, whether the tough was due to the weather at all or just that its harder to ride on than the rode, a little of both I suspect. Still I'm happy for this to be a tougher workout, my reasoning is always that if I train in tougher conditions it can only benefit be in a race.

That cable you can see in the bottom image goes to a gear control that you fix to the handle bars, you are meant to be able to up the resistance. I tried it from 1 to 7 and I didn't notice a whole lot of difference but I'll keep playing around with it.

Tomorrow I have my Sunday long ride. It's meant to be one hour and I think i'll still do it outside. I'm keen to keep up my road riding and just keep this for bad weather or when I'm feeling lazy and need the promise of tv to motivate me.


Thursday 9 January 2014

A mid week update

So I am four days into my new training programme and things are going ok, there is good and bad news. The bad news is I have successfully gotten out of bed early to train zero times!
The good news is so far I have exercised Monday and Tuesday evening instead. Of course this is allowed in my training schedule but it doesn't bode well for the days that I am meant to train morning and evening.

On Sunday (although my training hadn't officially started) I cycled for an hour and then went for a (very tough due to heat and wind) 50min run.
On Monday evening I went for a 30min swim with Michael Clease in our local ocean pool, it was really nice apart from the casual swimmers getting in our way!
On Tuesday evening I did a 30min run.
Yesterday I decided to take as my rest day but that means Friday won't be. Today I once again failed to get up to do my bike ride so I will have to do that tonight.

Exciting news is though that I've bought a turbo trainer! Its a machine that you can hook up to your bike and allows you to get some kms in inside.
I've just bought a cheap one for now, i'm not really sure what the deal is with them and whether i'll keep using it but i'm keen to give it a try.
My thinking is that on days when I have to do 2+hours of cycling I can do an hour outside and an hour inside or for when the weather is bad. I must be careful though to still get outside and rack up the kms.
In my view race day is a cross between indoor and outdoor cycling. Of course its the same weather conditions, similar undulations and road quality but most races won't have the traffic complications (the main factor that makes me less confident cycling outside).
When it arrives I'll do a little post on it.

CK.x

Monday 6 January 2014

Upping my training

As I mentioned in my new year resolutions I am going to start training for an Ironman triathlon. I'm still not sure which one I am going to be able to do, there are a few factors to consider:
Money to enter
Money for new bike, wetsuit, new triathlon suitable cycling shoes
Location for flight costs
Location for days off work (I am running out already!)
Upcoming events (hard to train with upcoming out of town weddings plus my own)

But in the mean time I am just going to train like I am doing one, I figure at the worst I'll be thinner, healthier and fitter with a good base when I do manage to lock one in ;)


So I have set about making a training schedule. I've used this one as a basis and modified it to fit my needs. This is what I have so far:



The header is a little reminder of the distances when I start questioning if this is really all necessary.
Michael Clease is keen to join me on Monday and Thursday mornings (he surfs on the other mornings) so I would switch some days round so he has variety.

As part of Jantastic I have committed to 3 runs a week, I've added the 2km runs on Monday and Thursday to up my running weekly total, plus the pool is about 1km away!

This morning was tough, it was the first day back at work, I wasn't looking forward to it, I slept badly and ended up not doing my swim. The good thing is I will swim this evening, the schedule starts off slowly to get me used to 6 days of exercise, if I fail to get up in the morning I still have lunchtime and evening to complete it.

I have mocked up the next couple of months, I'll see how I go with these first before I show you.

Sunday 5 January 2014

Monday motivation

I saw this the other day and man it really struck a cord with me. As someone who suffers with anxiety I know the effects exercise can have on your mood and well being. 


Thursday 2 January 2014

New years resolutions

I'm excited for 2014, as I said in the last post I am excited to grab it by the horns and jump right in. I've been thinking about my resolutions and I have soooooo many!! No doubt I won't fulfill them all but I do plan to take a stab at least.

Exercise
  • Complete Jantastic
  • Aim for Park run every week (unless valid reason to not)
  • Train for Ironman Cairns - entering and completing will be budget dependent but I figure there is no harm in training anyway!
  • Make motivation wall 
Diet
  • Take diet in hand - reduce alcohol intake, plan meals more effectively, eat more fruit veg and raw food
  • Drink less coffee - I know this isn't just a stop coffee kinda thing, I plan to reduce my coffee intake over a few weeks and then switch to a green smoothie as a kind of substitute drink
Life
  • Work towards better career - have action plan and choose course by end of January
  • Get married - put together plan so I know what needs to be done each month
  • Do things I have been putting off - book in doctors, dentists and financial matters
  • Be more tolerant and kind to others and work on being friendlier - I was looking for a great quote i've seen before but in the end this seemed to sum up my thoughts well “Don't fucking make judgments about something you know nothing about.” 
    ― Cecily von ZiegesarBecause I'm Worth It The other quote I had planned said we shouldn't judge people for the glimpse of their life that we see, we do not now what came before or after, which kind of means the same thing. 

Okey dokey, I have those down and out in the open. This weekend I intend to adjust things so that I can jump right in on 6th Jan (especially training for Cairns Ironman and getting a grip of my diet). I'd ask you to wish me luck but I know it is will power not luck I need.
Happy New Year.
Chubby Katie.x