Proud owner

Just when you and I thought no more bikes could be added to the stable, it happened. With just a few clicks too. Ever since we adventure raced I've wanted a mountain bike. As harrowing as mountain biking on Mt Buller when snowing was (not recapped here), it's made me more determined to master the mountain bike. Or at least skill up. Doing so would probably require a bike.

And so imagine the excitement when searching eBay we found a XS Giant Yukon mountain bike going for a very good price with no bids ending at auction on Saturday night. SOLD! To the short one. Big grin.

Took it out for a spin yesterday in Lysterfield park. Fun!

Sun; mountain biking: 1:20 | 12km | 9km/hr. Guesstimate at best. Garmin was on and off and on and off. Mainly because we were stopping and starting and stopping and starting. We did part of the trail we raced last November, I was a little tired from my 9.6km run that morning. It feels weird to thrash a bike so much and I still lack confidence. I'm not at all used to the back wheel slipping and it freaks me out. But I'll get there.

Sri Chinmoy Princes Park 9.6km

54:47 | 9.6km | 5:43min/km

Or the morning I had three breakfasts...

Last night I was so tempted to pull the pin on this run. My run training has not been inspiring of late. Melbourne put on the most gorgeous Autumn morning, I couldn't not head out. Not in my mind anyway.

Pre run breakfast: 2x crumpets with jam
Initially I'd signed up for the 15km, that had been changed to a 16km and so I downgraded to the 9.6km. Three laps of Princes park. I hate abhor laps at the best of times. So I just zoned out. I tried to pick people off or stay with them. That's what got me around. Oh and trying to run 5:40m/kms.
Turns out had this been a 10km and I'd maintained pace for another 400m, I would have run a PB.

Post run breakfast: pancake with maple syrup, water and plenty of gatorade.
I saved the banana for our post ride snack. Yea, riding later in the day.
Yay, pancakes. These races do an awesome job catering for the masses.

Walking back to the scooter I noticed a whole lot of yarn bombing. Yarn bomb a bike rack = pure awesomeness.

Post shower breakfast: Seven seeds coffee and a salted caramel cupcake.
Oh man the savoury stuff looked awesome at Besito, but the dehydration was kicking in and I just wasn't that hungry.

Getting there

Another tough week, but in a different way. A late shift and a short change over didn't set the week up all that well. I've been trying to catch up on sleep ever since. The copious amounts of rain haven't helped entice me outdoors either.

But this afternoon I took the bike out and it was glorious. I got to test out one of my new wool jerseys. I was lusting after a classic style wool jersey, initially it was a toss up between Rapha and Road Holland. In the end Road Holland won out due to colour choice (gray and black will always win over white and blue in my wardrobe). We're coming into winter, while I won't go out in the rain, it's inevitable that I'll get caught in it. Gah, road grime can be tough to get out of jerseys! My first every long sleeve jersey was white, it didn't stay that way for long.

Loved the fit and was really comfortable riding today. I think more layers will be required for middle-of-winter riding, but so far so good.

Ride: 1:11:00 | 30km | 25km/hr. Plenty of crosswind action today. Just felt good to be out there.

Not all sweetness and light

The past week has been a tough one.

• I failed an assessment. I accept that I did not plan well enough with my partner and deserved to fail. Thanks to some great teachers I have that process we botched cemented in my brain, for which I am thankful. But it was stressful and the doubt I had within myself was absolutely awful, I was embarrassed by my failure and was bitterly disappointed in myself. The support from my peers was fortifying and in the resit my partner and I got through easily. Relief.

• This is so hard to admit, but ahhh I'm going to type the words: I have been having frequent binge eating episodes again. Trying to bury or mask the anxiety I've had surrounding work and quite often the guilt I feel if I don't feel like running even though I "should".

Why is it hard to admit? Because I love eating healthy produce and honestly the majority of the time I enjoy getting out amongst it running, riding, swimming and the like. I've never regretted a run (ok one, that time my ITB went, but these things happen from time to time) but I definitely regret the overeating.

I mention running in the second dot point because I have two races coming up that I want to be prepared for. That involves training. I don't enter races to win, but to participate - that gentle reminder is useful. 

I want to nip the binging in the bud, it's gone on long enough. Possibly removing sugar from my diet triggered something. It started back then, where I started binging on nuts. At Easter time I added sugar back into my diet and didn't notice too much of a difference with regards to the bloating and gas I get on occasion, but it's since given me a wider range of products to binge on. I'm definitely more aware of sugar in products and I will attempt to minimise its presence in my diet, but not outright avoid it. 

My other issue is that usually by the time I get home from work I'm blindingly hungry. Hands down this is the danger time for binging. To avoid this I think I need to keep some kind of snack in the car/scooter than I can eat prior to going home. Sure it may be an extra 200 cals in my day, but it has to be better than an extra 1000 cals or whatever the binges add up to. Up until this very moment, that logic never crossed my mind. So there is value in (over)sharing. At least for me.

The crazy thing is apart from the occasional stress of assessments, I absolutely love the new career path, yes it's challenging, but it beats the boredom of my old job every single day. With fewer study commitments I have more time to spend with the Man which is better for our relationship. There's encouragement at work to remain fit and I have access to the most amazing gym, pool and spin bikes so training is never boring. I still have an awesome family, fabulous friends and supportive peers. Life really is good, not perfect by any means but really, really good. 

I am ready to walk down the path of healthy choices once again.

Sat; strength: 20m. Hand weights @ home.
Commute: 40m | 14.8km. Slow ride to the footy and back.

Thurs; strength: 20m. Mix of hand weights, body weights & machine.

Wed; strength: 20m. Mix of hand weights, body weights & machine.


Tues; agility: 48m. Fun! Lots of run drills and agility work.
Bike trainer: 40m spin class.

Mon; swim: 29m | 1400m | 2:09m/100m. Set involved 400, 500, 3x (50 easy, 50 hard), 200. No rhyme or reason, just good to be in the water.

T.I.T.S

Time in the saddle, people, time in the saddle. T.I.T.S. Somehow it transpired that last week I worked one day. I had the rest of the week off. I am not complaining because even though I worked Thursday we started the day with a bike trainer session. Friday saw gorgeous blue skies and I decided to get in the saddle for real. I decided that there would be no nutrition fail as I aimed for 50km or two hours, whatever came first.

Sun; run: 1:11:43 | 11km | 6.31m/km. This was meant to be 14km, but at 11 I had to stop and walk home. All sorts of GI issues and I felt so ill that there were moments I thought I was going to lose my breakfast. I'm hoping to get up to 14km prior to my April 29, 15km race.

Sat; cycle: 54:22 | 22.8km | 25.16km/hr. Just a short one to Williamstown. Flew down with a tail wind and battled home in the head wind. The bike is much improved after the cable tightening.

Fri; cycle: 2:05:30 | 49.44km | 23.64km/hr. By no means was this a speedy ride, 40 mins of this is stop/start and extra safety precautions due to trucks. I wasn't tired per se, just a little sore in the lower back, which is a reminder to activate my glutes sooner rather than later. I stopped in at the LBS on the way home, the chain had been catching and it's due for a service. Cable was tightened and the bike is booked in for tuesday.

Thurs; bike trainer: 40 min

Wed; run: 50:11 | 8km | 6:16m/km. Vibram trail run in yarra bend park. Undulations and slightly softer footing were the go. Fitness wise 8km was ok, foot wise I could have pulled up a kilometre short, my feet were starting to hurt. Next time 7km vibram run!

Easter recap: Saturday & Sunday

Sun; ride: 45m | 9.8km | 13.1km/hr. There were ambitious thoughts about riding up the Mt Buller road. However the more I thought about it, the less likely I thought it possible. I'm no where near bike fit. Let alone fit enough to climb for 1:40. So I made a deal with the Man and my friends that they'd give me a head start and pick me up along the way. It was perfect timing. I probably would have made an hour climb, but I was pretty tired at the 40m mark.

Sat; run: Mt Buller Mountain high Fun Run: Buller Breaker 8.9km.
1:09:17 | 9.4km | 7:22m/km. Both P and my Garmin measured 9.4km, I'm taking it! Oh man, the hills, they kill me! It's an improvement, two years ago I did the 6km course and averaged about 10m/km. This year there was still plenty of walking, but clearly a little less and over a longer distance. I felt ok up until the 5km mark and then really struggled. I certainly could have been dressed warmer and I will remember gloves for next time, it was super cold! And the gloves would have been a big help when I tripped and supermaned along the ground, leaving a fair chunk of my palm on the mountain.

Easter recap: Thursday & Friday

Fri; horse riding: 3 hours. This was so much fun. The last horse riding I did was between vineyards on the peninsula and was a little slow going with horses that knew exactly when the trot was coming. This was "Man from Snowy River" country and the views were breathtaking, we climbed and descended steep hills, trotted and cantered (when my horse wasn't being lazy). I'm so keen to do a 5 day horseriding tour, but will need to strengthen my inner thighs and remember to stretch them!

Thurs; jog/run: 54:14 | 8km | 6.47m/km. I was lucky enough to snag a girlfriend who's back from San Fran for a lap of the lake. We took it slow and chatted the whole way. I did an extra 3km at the end at around the 5:40m/km pace as per the session dictated.

Monthly totals: March 2012

 

 It was good to get back on the bike and maintain the swimming, now I just have to pick up the running!

Bike: 1:49:57 | 48.69km

Run: 4:00:15 | 38.82

Swim: 3:01:07 | 8200m

Strength: 1:22

Bike trainer: 1:10

Fitness test: 15m

Massage: 1:15

Race Volunteering: 12:30

Tennis: 40m

 

Weight: +1kg. 62kg. I struggled with my eating this month. I don't eat a lot during the day due to the discomfort it causes, I then find myself lacking energy to workout after work/class and I go home and eat far too much.

While I found cutting sugar out did help some of my bloating issues it certainly didn't entirely rid me of the problem and I'm finding it difficult to pinpoint what is actually causing the bloating. One day I'll eat something and I'll be fine, the next day exactly the same thing and I'll be in all sorts of discomfort. A trip to the doc is in order. Something needs to change.

Reward and stats

Oh yeah!
Not only did I get an extra hour sleep due to daylight saving finishing but my long run is done. Ok, long run was 12km, but I tell you that's the furthest I've run in quite some time. When I looked at the program it suggested a 6:40/km pace. I scoffed, then a kilometre in retracted scoff and figured I'd be lucky to maintain the pace. Also a good reminder to myself that one cannot improve ones running if one does not run.

Pretty happy coming home that there was a cold coconut water waiting in the fridge for me. It went down a treat!

Run: 1:18:25 | 12km | 6:32/km. No ITB issues apparent. That's a win.