Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne

Sometimes it's just nice to walk. And that's exactly what we did, through the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne. I've been meaning to get there for years and I'm so glad I finally did. It's beautiful and well worth the visit. There's quite a bit of development/new planting going on I can't wait to see how it all pans out.

Gumboots were handy, an umbrella was a must. I can't wait to go back in springtime when everything is in bloom and the weather is that much nicer to be out and about in. Bikes are also allowed on certain paths, but jogging is not permitted.

And next time I will take a dSLR!

Tues; strength: 15m. Planks & squats
Tues; walk: 30m

Westgate Park

Sunday we jumped in the car and popped over the bridge to explore the bike path/mountain biking under the Westgate bridge. Described elsewhere as "craptacular" we didn't hold high hopes.

It wasn't that bad. But then we hardly had to travel very far to get there. The tracks were muddy, very narrow and winding. And overgrown with weeds, so not quite as pretty as other tracks. We probably wouldn't rush back, but given it's almost on our doorstop I wouldn't be surprised if we return.

Sun: 45m | 10km | 13.33km/hr

You Yangs

Just because I'm on nightshift doesn't mean I've been doing nothing, I swear!
We spent as much time as we could mountain biking. Which, let's face it, wasn't a whole lot of time. Our preference would have been Lysterfield park, but the paths are currently shut due to all the rain that's fallen recently, so we headed to the You Yangs for our second visit. This time exploring the harder Stockyards part of the park. It was certainly more challenging than the Kurrajong Plantation.

I stuck with the blue run and thoroughly enjoyed going down and even coming up it. The man tested himself on a black run and found it to be slightly beyond his skill levels. It'll be a while before I head down a black run!

Sat: 35m | 8.5km | 14.57 km/hr. Knowing I had to work until 2:30am didn't entice me to absolutely exhaust myself!

Monthly totals: June 2012

Bike: 9:05 | 128.5 km

Run: 3:25:02 | 32.82 km

Swim: 8m | 400m

Strength: 7:50

Bike trainer: 50m

Mountain bike: 57:12 (I've started logging my mtb adventures with bike)

Rock climbing: 30m
Stretching: 45m
Walking: 1:10

Weight: +0.3kg. 62kg. Still with Fitday. Still eating too much, but again fewer binge eating episodes. I'm happy with that. Really my intake needs to be as close to 1500 cals as I can. I find posting my daily eats helps with that and gives me ideas of tasty things to eat!

I saw a personal trainer three times this month to work on my form in the gym. It certainly helped cement the fact that I need to work on glute strength.

I set myself a challenge of doing 75 minutes worth of planks in June and I did it. I'm thinking of upping it to 80 mins for July.

I'm reasonably happy where my exercise is sitting considering my schedule has been all over the shop. It repeats again in July but with added night shift, my first time doing night shift at that. The key for me will to make sure I'm getting enough sleep and I'll go from there!

1587

 

These are Monday's eats.

Instead of moaning about my weight gain (I'm up a kilo or two) it was time to do something about it. Everyone knows what they need to do, it's just a matter of knuckling down and for me; eating less. 1500 is my target range.

Breakfast: coffee and a huge piece of toast with jam and cottage cheese.

I was on an afternoon shift, so I had my 'cooked' meal at lunch: salmon with dukkah, steamed veggies with a horseradish/mayo dressing and baked sweet potato chips. Protein at lunch works so well for me.
Dinner: I opted for a wrap so I could essentially eat on the run.

Snacks: gluten free bar, popcorn, tea and an almond milk hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Mon; run: 36:59 | 6.02km | 6.08m/km. It was cold and windy, but satisfying nevertheless.

Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail

5:00:00 | ~78kms | 15.6km/hr

Somehow I missed the fact that this trail was somewhere between 38-40kms ONE way...

I digress.

Last Wednesday I had the whole day to entertain myself, my one day without any plans/appointments/catch-ups. So I decided to head out to Lilydale station, the start of the rail trail. It's well signposted, but for those that need to know, the trail starts at the end of the station car park.

The trail is pretty flat and for the most part, gravel. Not really suited to road bikes. I took the (new to me) Giant Yukon MTB. I passed through forest, farmland and via the old original platform stations which were pretty cool.

There's a couple of toilet stops along the way, as well as places to fill up with water. There's also a couple of cafes on the track, but they're only open Thurs-Sun and I went along on a Wednesday. Super disappointed! I would have happily stopped for a coffee. Multiple times over.

The trail is set up quite well for road crossings, there's only a couple of places that didn't have pedestrian lights.

I didn't love the section from Yarra Junction to Warburton. Partially because I was battling at this stage and partly because you're riding parallel to the Warburton Highway, so it's not quite as peaceful as the rest of the ride.

It was a fairly big relief to reach Warburton. I'd thought about turning back earlier, but then questioned when I'd have time to tackle the ride again, so I persisted.

I was pretty underdone on nutrition. I'd eaten two trail bars in 2.5 hours of riding. Not quite enough for me. I smashed a cauliflower and broccoli pie, a vanilla slice and half a bag of mint leaves at the Warburton bakery and felt a little better.

The ride home took a whole lot of mental energy. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I was dehydrated. By no means was it a hot day, but I'd failed to drink enough. I took my hydration pack so there was no excuse. On the road bike I'm used to sipping on water every 10 mins. But I forgot to do it during this ride. I need to install an odometer, that will act as a visual cue for me.

I also started to get quite uncomfortable, 4+ hours is a long time to be on a bike that you've only ridden a handful of times! I missed the luxury of tri bars and a different hand position.

But I made it and I'd do it all over again knowing that I need to fuel and hydrate a whole lot better than I did.

Tues; run: 50:10 | 8km | 6:15m/km. I'm not quite as exhausted from work as I usually am. Took the opportunity to run, but gave myself permission to go as slow as I needed to, to get the job done. In the end not unhappy with the pace given I've not been running much.
Strength: 25m.

Thurs; personal training/strength: 1:00:00. Focus on good form for upper body/back workouts. Squeeze the scapula!

Lazy ass

One of the first things I organised for my week off was a personal training session. Increased time in the gym has showcased my lack of knowledge when it comes to lifting. I want to learn good form so that I don't injure myself.


Apart from work's gym, I've not stepped inside a gym for years. Mainly because I prefer the outdoors, and partially because I hurt myself many years ago on the rowing machine which took a hell of a lot of rehab. My physio suggested instead of the gym I take up running. Which I did.

 But I tell you what, during winter, training indoors is rather appealing the older I get!

I didn't get a huge training effect from the first session I did, but I was keen to give it another go and booked another session later in the week. The PT I worked with has a strength and conditioning background and the two sessions focused heavily on engaging my glutes - which are super lazy. Some of the exercises also showcased the weakness in my hips, so it's back to these exercises.


By the end of the second session I was barbell box squatting and doing rack deadlifts. I was pretty happy about it. I'm looking forward to the time that I have another opportunity to book a session.

Strength: 35m. A mix of upper body, lower body and abs. Motivation levels were a touch low, but I'm glad I did something.