Errands

I thought I'd ease back into the swing of things with some easy cycling. I'm feeling so much better in terms of my asthma, though I can't seem to get rid of my pesky cough. Anyway I had a few errands to run today (no work for me, I'm on leave for the next few days, woo hoo) and I thought I'd do them by bike. No rain, but plenty of wind made for some tough going all the way into the city and then along the beach. Coming home required little effort with the tailwind.

Library books returned. Check.
A dose of Vitamin D. Check.
Three pairs re-heeled boots picked up from the cobbler. Check.
Lamb shanks for the man's dinner. Check!

Commute: 2:00 | 916 KCal.

Laying low

Nothing to see here.
I visited the Doc yesterday because I had a pretty bad night with the asthma on Wednesday night. I was pretty close to making some sort of 000 call, probably a good thing I didn't because health services were over run with people just like me suffering from breathing difficulties due to the pollen & weather conditions. I can't recall having an attack quite like this and subsequently found this What do do in an Asthma Emergency page pretty helpful.

Anyway turns out I was also running a fever. So I've been prescribed some pretty hardcore medication to sort out my airways and was told to take it easy for a couple of days.

I'll be back on board Monday. Have a good weekend!

Eye happy

While I didn't get to the pool on the weekend, I did manage to splurge for new pair of goggles and bathers. I decided the gaping wasn't a great look. The goggles were an absolute pleasure, 1.6km down and they still didn't need emptying. Awesome. I went home with eyes free from chlorine sting.

Run: 39m | 6km | 06m 34s/km. Early morning run, there was a 6 involved in the time. That's pretty early for me. First run in a week was a river run. I struggled with the blisters that I'd got walking home last week and found new ones formed under and around those already there. Ugh.
Swim: 1600m | 35m | 02m 11s /100 meters. 3x 500m, 100m finger drag. The advantage of starting work early means that I can usually finish early. And thus I got to the pool before the after work rush. Still sharing a lane with 5 or so people, but no major hold ups. It's nice to know after a year of no swimming that I can still at the very least swim 500m non stop.

Morning tea

My regular morning tea snack is cranberries & nut clusters (270 cals), but I wanted to test out something a little less calorie dense. These are about 180 cal a bar, significantly less, but equally as satisfying.

I roughly used Kelsey's Muesli Granola Bar recipe, where I left out the coconut and substituted wheat germ for flaxseed and added some chia seeds. I found they benefited from an additional 5-10min in the oven after being cut, to crisp them up further.

The flavour is good, I wasn't madly in love with the texture (maybe I do need to get some flaxseed). They definitely hit the spot at 10:30am but my hunt for an even more awesome baked bar continues, especially since these ones have disappeared...

Commute: 55m | 20.6km | 22.47 km/hr. On cooler mornings I can definitely get away with a pre shower ride and a slow commute on the Gazelle. On the warmer mornings and afternoons when it's blowing a hot northerly headwind I just want to be off the bike. Hence the decision to ride Pearl again this morning. The bonus being that I got to ride to work with my man.

Bike house

Everyone's home! The man built our bike hub, it's pretty awesome. I long to paint it and put hooks on the side or back to hang our assorted bike things, but for the moment it's doing it's job. The best thing is it has a roll down plastic front that protects the bikes from the sawdust that's generated almost every weekend.

Commute: 52m 45s | 20.6km | 23.45km/hr. On "Pearl" the Specialized Dolce today (far right, above). Boy could I feel the my attitude shift. Racer mode! Though I notice when I'm on the Gazelle, drivers are more tolerant and give me a wide berth, but when I'm in lycra it's almost like I'm invisible. Somewhat scary.

Miso hungry

Yesterday was kind of tough.

I find all rest days difficult in terms of managing my food intake. There's not a lot of incidental exercise when you sit at a desk for the majority of the day, so my suggested calorie intake for the day lessens significantly. Except I still seem to eat the same. I know know know I need to be mindful, but yesterday, perhaps due to my exhaustion I just wasn't. And a calorie deficit didn't happen. And I tried not to beat myself up and that took a lot of energy. A waste of time really, because today marks an 0.5kg (1.1lb) loss from last week.

Last night the medley of baked vegetables was put on hold and instead I had a bowl of miso soup packed full of green veggies, some sweet corn and some rice noodles. It's my go-to meal when I've overindulged. I actually love this bowl of a meal and would pretty much eat it every night (oh wait I did for about 3 months back when I wasn't cooking for two, read: single) the added bonus being that it hydrates too!

Commute: 1:15 | 20.6km | 16.48 km/hr. I totally had planned to run, but I need to scamper out of work early to make an appointment so I worked through lunch- my usual running time.

It's times like these

...that I am thankful that I have a fridge full of fresh veggies. I got about 2 hours sleep last night, for some unknown reason the land of zzzz's was just not forthcoming. I did get a lot of my book read, but I'm paying for it today. I'm exhausted and I'm only halfway through the day!

It was too easy this morning to toast some pepitas/pumpkin seeds, grate a carrot, grab a couple of handfuls of lettuce leaves, the purple is baked beetroot & ricotta mix left over from the weekend and dress with a seed mustard vinaigrette. And ta-da a healthy & nutritious lunch is born. Dinner will be a medley of baked vegetables. Followed by a very early night. I can hardly wait.

Best laid plans

I timed my afternoon snacks perfectly. Or so I thought. I left work an hour and a half later than anticipated. I got 30 minutes into my run home before I started walking. I'd run out of energy. Literally.

Run: 33:15 | 5km | 06m 39s/km.
Walk: 55:00
Wed; commute: 1:15 | 20.6km | 16.48 km/hr. Had company. Man, the Gazelle garners its fair share of attention. Single ladies take note? An expensive way of attracting the menfolk perhaps...

That old chestnut

I ran on the other side of the river today. I almost never do. I don't know why, I just like the old out and back. Today I opted for a loop. Conditions were awesome about 17C and (clearly) overcast. My asthma on the other hand wasn't. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, I can barely go four hours without some puffer relief in this hayfever weather and then I go out an run. I do not miss the tightness in my chest. Lesson learned.

Commute: 1:15 |20.6km | 16.48 km/hr
Run: 36m | 5.6km | 06m 32s/km. I felt so much better than anticipated considering I haven't run since Thursday. Had to hold back because, well being able to breathe is important right?

A wet weekend

The weekend looked a lot like that. Usually on the horizon we can see the city, no such luck with all the rain that fell. Time to take training indoors, or undercover at least.

Sat; bike trainer: 40m | 148 HR Avg. Caught up with the latest episode of Survivor. The merge makes thing interesting and Marty survives another week.
Sun; swimming: 1200m | 30 min | 02m 30s /100 meters. First swim since February - yeah that's how much I love swimming. Couldn't find my good goggles so had to suffer with my old leaky ones. As a result there was a bit of kicking today. 200 warm up, 500 kick, 5x 100m.

When something better comes up

Pretty happy to get my commute in, because an impromptu dinner with friends has put paid to my evening run. I'm not that upset, it's such a balmy evening, hopefully we'll find some space in the beer garden.

Commute: 1:15 | 20.6km | 16.48km/hr. Quite cool this morning, but hot and windy on the way home.

Recent eats

I've only very recently begun to cook meat - not for me, but for the man in the house. When he has chicken, I have fish. It's about once a week if he's lucky. I made this marinade for his chicken and my trout and served it with a lower fat satay sauce. On the side, raw capsicums and home grown snow peas! I definitely see this being repeated in the future - maybe with tofu?

Run: 1:06 | 9.8km | 06m 41s/km. I was incredibly close to talking myself out of this run to work. I've had a couple of late nights in a row, I'm tired, it was hot and windy. I could do my run later - you know, when the showers roll in. But I sucked it up and headed out after all I'd been super organised yesterday and taken in my lunch, snacks and clothing. There was nothing stopping me, except me. And to be expected it was a little slower than usual. I've come to the realisation that I need to run in something other than all black clothing because it was hot!

A kindred spirit

Shopping totally used to be my sport, uh, until I took up sport. I don't love it so much anymore, there are so many other things I could be doing. But I had some time to kill before meeting the man for dinner on Friday night and I was in desperate need of some new sports bras, because I'm pretty much wearing them everyday. Anyway I made my purchases (three!) 25% off thank you very much, and walked out of the store. The security barriers beeped instantly, so I went sheepishly to the nearest counter and asked the girl there to check my stuff.

She did, saw the above purchases and then we got talking about running. She'd just gotten into it, having just run her first half marathon, how it helps her clear her mind, how it's a huge challenge. I think I was there for 15 mins, talking about our races and training. It's so nice to meet like minded people. Randomly at that!

Commute: 1:15 | 20.6km | 16.48 km/hr. First commute of the week. Very cool this morning, but a very warm ride home.

Cow up a tree

The run home isn't particularly beautiful. It follows the bike path along a highway. But I do get to run through the Docklands and past the cow up a tree sculpture.

Run: 1:03 | 9.8km | 06m 28s/km. First run of the week - home from work. With two days since the last run I kinda felt this was a little tough. It was pretty warm and I could have been better hydrated. I played tag with another runner who would walk until I passed her, then she'd run much faster than me for a bit and start walking until I'd passed her again. It's awesome to see another runner heading home, but I find it puts me a little off my game!

Hold 'em good

When I ordered my new running shoes I also ordered a Spi belt. While my running capris have a pocket, they don't fit my phone and my keys/work pass. It's one or the other, which isn't ideal. I'd read good things about the spi belt over at cool running. I really dislike holding things while I'm running.

I ran to work this morning with half my wallet and a calico shopping bag stuffed inside and it was pretty comfy. There was a bit of bounce noticeable after a stop, but in the end it didn't drive me to distraction. I've run without it stuffed to the brim and it's not bothered me at all. It certainly makes running to and from work just that little bit easier in terms of the flexibility of what I can bring to work/take home.

Run: 1:03 | 9.9km | 06m 26s/km. Run to work. At the 5km mark I did 10x 30s efforts/30 sec rest. I felt a bit tired so I was surprised to see I was faster than my run home on Wednesday.

Tracking Part II

However I didn't need FitDay to tell me the time in which I would consume the majority of my excess calories. That would be on arrival at home after work. I'm usually ravenous. I could eat a (tofu) horse. And I'd usually have a fair crack at doing so. I had to change this habit and fast. Now my go-to snack after work on warm days is:

• frozen banana, frozen berries (less cals) or a mix
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1 tsp to 1 tbs honey (depending on my sweet craving)

Whiz! Usually rendering a very thick smoothie that is sometimes best eaten with a spoon! ~230 Cals for something I find tasty and filling.

Otherwise it's a piece of raisin toast and not the entire cupboard contents. Far less time consuming when you're logging food and really, far better for me.

Tracking Part I

Let's talk FitDay. I started using it (again) at the end of September and have managed to track consistently since then. I've lost 2kgs (4.4lbs). Excitingly I've lost 4cms off my hips and 3cms off my chest. My clothes are certainly feeling and fitting better. I'm now 2kgs off my goal weight for the 10km I've signed up for on Dec 12.

There are two major things that have worked for me. It's the most obvious and sometimes the hardest; calorie deficit (almost) every day. I was certainly overeating prior to tracking - like, everyday. Hands down my biggest downfall is food intake on days I don't exercise. It's not many days, but a few certainly creep in over a month. Tracking has taught me I just have to be really mindful on those days.

Stay tuned for part II tomorrow...

Run: 1:04 | 9.8km | 06m 29s/km. Ran home from work. A light sprinkling of rain, but nothing too bad. I felt pretty good, or better than I was expecting.

Climbing walls

So with another dreary day on the cards yesterday and the first signs of cabin fever, we decided to head into the city to try our hands at some indoor rock climbing. I was excited, but also a little apprehensive. You know, in case I fell or truly realised my fear of heights.

After a little safety intro, we were climbing. I managed it to the top on some super easy climbs, but found myself stuck in the middle on many others. I need to climb with my legs more and resist the temptation to pull myself up by my non-existent biceps. I definitely need to not look down.

Undoubtedly keen to have another crack at this, but maybe on a weeknight. Rumor has it it's less busy then.

Bike trainer: 35m | HR Avg 139. With my weekend continuing I was keen to get out for a run. Turns out we may have tidied up too much over the weekend as I could not find my runners anywhere. WTF?? Instead I caught up with Survivor while sweating it out on the trainer.

Run: 59m | 9.5km | 6m 16s/km. I found my runners and in the afternoon treated myself to a run along the beach. When I say treated it means I took the car and drove myself to the foreshore rather than just heading out the door. So glad I did, had an awesome run from Port Melbourne to Middle Park and back. Felt well hydrated, fueled and strong. These days are what I love about running.