In other news...

I don't think I mentioned I signed up for Ironman Melbourne 2015! How has it taken me this long??

I couldn't help myself, the timing seemed as good as any... ie the niggling desire to do another one before 40, single and time on my hands to be used productively. Training for Ironman can be hella selfish.

I am so excited that I be doing it in my home town. I'm going for a home crowd advantage!

Of course there's a couple of hurdles. Hello! Night shift and rostering. I've stretched my training plan out to accommodate the fact that I'll probably be doing minimum turnaround night shifts from September. So effectively every third week is an active rest/rest week.   

There's also the Berlin Marathon to consider, oh and Oktoberfest after that and two additional weeks of travel after that. So yeah, a few things to take on board, the aim is to get to the start line in one piece, enjoy the journey and enjoy the day.

Mon; swim: 45m | 2km | 2:15m/100m. I felt like a brick. I also experimented with breathing every 5. Tough!

Tues; rest. Bleh, I had the day of work, such was my sickness.

Excuse me ego | Zone 2 training

The week was more productive than anticipated. I was on a course for work, my second time around and there was pressure to pass - mainly from myself. The travel was long and morning shifts weren't conducive to training, let alone the exhaustion after concentrating all day.

Add to all that the start of a training plan. One that adheres strongly to training in Zone 2, 65-75% of your max heart rate. Basically a rate of training that allows you to breathe through your nose if you wanted to, one that builds endurance and encourages your body to be more efficient at what it's doing.

I've promised myself I'm going to stick with it for a month (potentially longer). It is painfully slow. It is constantly keeping my ego at bay. I know I can go faster, but I will be governed by my heart rate, not by how much faster that person who just passed me is going. The added bonus is that I can do a 2 hour ride prior to work and not be exhausted. I tend to feel ready for the next training session. So that's an early good thing. Go on body, adapt! Do your thing!

Mon: Run;  37:52 | 5km | 7:34/km. 
Steady Z2 run. Had to walk in the last 2kms to keep the HR down. This is my first real run since the Half and there was no ITB pain. Bonus!

Wed: Bike Trainer; 1:05
Majority Z2 plus 5x 3min @ Z4. Watched taped stages of the tour and listened to my fave playlist to keep the boredom at bay. Reward was my guilty pleasure 'The Bachelor'.

Fri: Run; 44:22 | 5.46km | 8:08/km
Warm up 15m @ Z2. Main 2x (4min @ Z4, 3min @ Z2). Cool down Z2.
So much walking. I let my Garmin determine my zones. I'm pretty sure it uses 220- age and as a result the numbers are a bit off because I saw 188bpm at the end of the half. I'll tweak the numbers before the next run.

Fri: Yoga; 1:00 Simply Flow. Lots of hip opening poses and ITB stretching. Felt so good.

Sat: Ride; 2:14:27 | 51.3km | 22.89km/hr
Majority Z2 plus 5x 3min @ Z4. Significantly harder to get into Z4 on the road rather than the trainer, unless of course there's a hill!

Ironman Melbourne

So Ironman came to Melbourne and it was an honor to be part of the volunteers. Hell yes, the footage made me want to compete. From all reports the bike course was amazing. I did ride Eastlink the weekend they opened it to the public back in the day and it's a seriously smooth surface, to ride 180km on that would be awesome.

Thankfully there were not too many athletes that had to drop out. It made our day easier and it meant we could keep an eye on the finishing chute to congratulate friends who'd had a massive day out on the course.

Top tips for IM watchers/supporters:
• A fully charged phone
• Plenty of water & snacks for the day, sunscreen if required and layers; it is Melbourne.
• If you're meeting your athlete after the recovery area have a designated spot to meet.
• If handing them their phone as they're running down the chute is an option, take it.
• Have a jumper/jacket handy for them once they're done. So. Many. Cold. Athletes. I remember it being the same when I was done, all I wanted was food and to be warm. Getting food was easy...

Strength: 25m. Tired after yesterday, but I figured I could do something while I waited for my mouse batteries to charge.

Sun; race volunteering: 12:30:00. Oh yeah, twelve and a half hours!

Thurs; run: 17:41 | 3km | 5:53/km. I was meant to be meeting a friend but she bailed on me, frustration galore given I'd battled morning traffic to meet her. Did a bit of a lap of the Tan, felt awful, had a stitch running from right abdomen to left shoulder. Walked the rest.

Thurs; cycle: 36:30 | 16.23km | 26.56km/hr. Ahh the luxury of riding to work. I love it!

Revisiting goals

This week marks the twelfth week of the course. We've covered a lot of the basics and from here on in it gets exciting with placements out in the real world to apply our knowledge. We've been given our work dates for up until mid September which for me, as someone who likes to plan, is freakin' awesome.

There's a couple of less awesome things. The May Sri Chinmoy Running and Fitness Festival has been canceled this year due to organisational changes. Major bummer because this 21.1km was fitting in nicely with the schedule. Run Melbourne falls on a weekend where there's a 99.8% chance I'll be on night shift. And the half associated with the Melbourne Marathon falls right when I need to be available for any rostered shift. I feel it's a little to early to be making availability requests just yet.

Instead I've enter two races I've never run before. Sri Chinmoy Princes Park 15km in April and in May The Great Train race, that involves racing Puffing Billy over a hilly 13.2km. For both the aim will be to average 5:41 per kilometre.

I'm also looking forward to returning to Mt Buller over Easter to take on Mountain High Fun Run and take in the spectacular scenery.

So it remains to be seen whether I'll run a half marathon in 2012, let alone a sub 2 hour one!

Bodyrock: 12 mins. Glad you Came workout. Mountain Climbers set 1:59 set 2:51 Squat Lunge Back & Side Lunge set 1:12 set 2:14 Ugi Jump (using scooter helmet!) set 1:49 set 2:40 Push Ups (ladies version) set 1:24 set 2:25 Straight Arm Plyo-metric Jump set 1:24 set 2:26 Tricep dips (was meant to be Reverse Pull Ups) set 1:25 set 2:30.

The plyometric jump caused me the most issues today. Feel the quad burn!

Rambling

I am all for goals. With my new vocational training I am constantly filled with self doubt and continually achieving things I didn't think possible. I seriously doubted my ability to study effectively for exams, on Monday I'll sit my 5th, with an average of about 90% so far. Just quietly the average may well be lower come Monday afternoon...

Anyway I'm seriously questioning my goal of running a 2 hour half marathon. I kind of just picked the time because it's nice and round. I'd never really sat down and thought about the actual minutes per kilometre. I consider myself relatively new to the 5:xx/km bracket, I'm not sure I can sustain it for 21.1kms! Ahh doubt, I've seen plenty of you this year and it's only February.

I like the idea of actually solidifying the goal; this pace is what I'm aiming for. I guess I shouldn't be afraid of the failure. I have no about that that if I actually run a solid half marathon I'll probably run a PB. Perhaps I should focus on a sub 2:11:02 half marathon and go from there before focusing on the 2 hour 21.1km...

I don't want to go easy on myself and give myself too much leeway, but additional pressure is not what I need either. It's about finding a balance.

Run: 48:33 | 8.64km | 5:37/km. River run in the city. I forgot how unrelaxing it is running while there's rowing coaching going on. It can also be dicey with their bike handling skills. <- Grumpy much? In essence I found maintaining this pace pretty tough.

Fri; swim: 18:22 | 900m | 2:02/100m. Short and fast session. All I had time for between classes.

Thurs; boxing: 30m. Technique. This was all sorts of useful and somewhat cleansing to punch stuff.

Wed; swim: 22:12 | 1km | 2:13/100m. I was not feeling it in the pool today at all.

Tues; stretching: 45m. Oh yes.

Looking forward to this weekend

With no exams scheduled for next week, this weekend is shaping up to be a big, rather than one full of study. There's celebrating of 1st and 61st birthdays to be done. And I decided to add a triathlon into the mix. Only a mini one 250m/8km/2.5 so I can cheer on friends (brothers, no less) competing for glory in the bigger event. Very much looking forward to it.

Bike trainer: 30m.
Run: 14:24 | 2.4km | 6:00/km. Run off the bike. I'm hoping to run a touch faster than this on Sunday.

Monthly totals: January 2012

I swear I just did December's monthly totals. Where did January go??
I can tell you it wasn't exactly spent getting active, it really was a lacklustre affair. On a positive note my academic average isn't suffering, just my stress levels.

Run: 2:57:57 | 29.7km
Swim: 2:01:27 | 5500m
Bike Trainer: 1:55
Boxing: 25m
Strength: 1:10
Stretching: 20m
Race Volunteering: 5:30

Weight: Hovering around the 61.5kg mark and exceptionally bloated - which is a good indication that I'm eating too much. Not only does Feb see me tackle a month of discarding/donating one item per day (one of my goals for 2012), but I see a February full of Fitday ahead.

Hit it

Last week I promised myself I would get in an additional three sessions to the PE sessions that were timetabled (of which there were two). I made an effort to stay back late a couple of nights and was able to use a spare class for exercise, I felt a million times better for it.

Now I have to decide on a health/fitness magazine subscription! Suggestions welcomed.

Tues 17/01
Swim: 33m | 1500m | 2:12/100m. 3x 500 sets

Wed 18/01
Bike trainer: 30 mins. HR avg 133 HR max 158
Run: 6:48 | 1.2km | 5.40/km. Quick run off the bike.

Thurs 19/01
Swim: 43:27 | 2000m | 2:10/100m. Pyramid swim 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200, 10. The time flew

Sun 22/01
Strength/Conditioning & Boxing: 1hr

One thing off the list

On Sunday the 15th of December I got up earlier than I usually would to get to work (that's saying something these days) to volunteer at the Two Bays Trail Run. And I'm so glad I did, because dare I say I had as much fun as the 28km & 56km runners!

Initially disappointed that I wasn't placed with a friend who was also volunteering, I had a ball once the runners started coming through. I had my music going and tried to make eye contact and give a big smile and words of encouragement to every runner.

During our break we were able to head to the 28km to see P finish and then make it back for our second shift to cheer the 56km runners back home. The bonus of volunteering means we have a free entry for next year, I will be doing all in my power to be fit enough to run the 28km.

2012: The year of the 2 hour half marathon

I dubbed 2011 The Year of the Marathon. It was all about 42.2kms on the Gold Coast and I had a blast training and running it. It was disappointing to not be able to back it up for the Melbourne Marathon, but the ITB injury has allowed me to step back from distance to focus on slightly faster speeds.

The other big life goal was to pursue a new career and after starting the application process at the start of 2011, late December I started on a new vocational journey.

As I've mentioned I don't do resolutions per se, but I do like to set myself goals for the year. There's 12 on the list for 2012 funnily enough (some left over from last year!). However half of them are fitness/health related:
• Run 2 half marathons
• Ultimate goal: A sub 2 hour half marathon (I'll happily take 2 hours flat!)
• Race volunteer
• Obtain level 10 in the beep test
• Weigh 55kgs
• Ride 1000kms

Advent Challenge recap

Cast your minds back to the Advent Challenge...
I thought it was time for a recap. I hit 20 days out of 25 or 80% of my target, I wasn't too disappointed in that at all given the season. I 'earned' myself $40 towards a health/fitness magazine subscription. If I can hit 3 additional sessions to the 2 Physical Training sessions we have scheduled this coming week, that magazine subscription will be mine!

Advent Challenge: Day 10- 11

Day 10. Saturday
Rest: I shouldn't have, but I did. Lots of errands run. All in preparation for Sunday.

Day 11. Sunday
10km race: It was windy, but the rain held off. Waiting for official time, but it was sub 60m and I was happy enough. Raced home to host the girls for a gluten free pre-Christmas catch up breakfast. Corn fritters with avocado, feta & lemon, mini chili polenta-men, and spinach & ricotta brownies. Served with plenty of coffee and a Skype with one of our girls in San Fran.

Swim: 35m |1700m | 2:05/100m. Met J at the pool, who promised me his homemade lemon lollies as post swim treat. Mixed it up today and threw in some efforts. There was noticeable shortness of breath! Said lollies were pretty good.

Considering I did a double, I'm going to bag a rest day for later. Might be sneaky and try and do the same tomorrow!

Advent Challenge: Day 07 - 09

Day 07. Wednesday
Strength: 15m. I was so close to not doing this, we got home late after hanging out in the city, checking out the forest of Christmas trees in Fed Square and the light projections on St Paul.

Day 08. Thursday
Rest. Today was exhausting, of the emotional variety. I pretty much spent my last day at work in tears. Three days short of 11 years - my first real/professional job! While the work could be highly disturbing the people I worked with are freakin' awesome and I'm going to miss them dearly. But I am so excited for the next phase of my career.

Day 09. Friday
Bodyrock: This session was 7 mins of huffing, puffing and plank burn. I might do a beep test later if it cools down and bank a rest day! I can do that right? It's my challenge.

In other news I was pretty excited to step on the scale this morning and see a flat 60kg. My clothes fit better and I feel better. I've lost 4.5kgs since mid October, for some reason I find this time of year the easiest to lose weight. Really all I've changed is portion size and aiming for calorie deficit 5-6 days out of 7. It's working!

Advent Challenge: Day 05 and 06

It's handover week, essentially I'm at work just to answer any last minute questions and finish off some design work. I found myself with time to kill, so I went walking at lunchtime, in highly inappropriate footwear, but it was glorious.

We also finally got our Christmas lights up.

Day 05. Monday
Kickboxing: 45m. With 4x 100 skipping sets. Ahh my calves, ahh my heartrate!

Day 06. Tuesday
Vibram Run: 18:26 | 3km | 6:08/km. Not feeling the whole running thing today. Should have gone out at 6:30am rather than in the pm.

Advent Challenge: Day 02-Day 04

The proof is in my diary. And devastated that aviators will not be making an appearance in my new work wardrobe anytime soon. Unless they make them for people with teeny tiny faces.

Day 02. Friday
Run: 1:10:27| 11km | 6:24/km. This was tough, but more so because I didn't take any ventolin prior to running and my chest felt tight. Still, I'm not expecting a PB at next weekend's 10km!

Day 03. Saturday
Rest: Miraculously, I didn't wake up with a hangover. I think I should have given we had a work Christmas lunch that involved plenty of Rose and a stop at Lord of the Fries on the way home. Hello, mini (vegetarian!) burger.

Day 04. Sunday
Strength: 15 min. The plan had been to swim, but the pool had fed the internets the wrong info, and we were well and truly misinformed, so there were only 3 lanes available inside. Ugh, inside! We walked the lake instead and then while I was waiting for dinner to cook I did my strength. Hips, hammies, core & shoulders.

Advent Challenge: Day 01

I was up early and took advantage, pumping out 15 mins of strength. I managed to source the Man's weights from the garage, because 2kg is not quite a challenge anymore, but 4kgs certainly is.

Strength: 15 min

Advent Challenge

Hot potato Kate is running an Advent challenge. It's exactly what I need this silly season. I'm cheating a little, because I don't actually have an advent calender, instead I'm going to use the stickers + my diaries. I'll switch over to the new diary two weeks in.

Anyhoo, there's 25 stickers each with an exercise task, there are a couple of rest days, because hey, there are Christmas parties to attend, there's some light days, and there's certainly encouragement to get moving. Obviously I won't have the chocolate, but I thought for every sticker in my diary I'd put away $2 - and at the end I'll treat myself to a Women's Health magazine subscription. Or something like that.

I finish work at the end of next week, I'm looking at another Interstate mini break, I then enter the Academy the week before Christmas, for a week! The next three weeks are going to throw up their own set of challenges, so at least I'll have one focal point!

Big and little

Little activity. Big news!
There may have been a champagne or two to celebrate.

I resigned yesterday. I will finish up three days short of 11 years. 11 years! It blows my tiny mind. I've documented more injury and disease (and absence of injury!) than I ever thought possible. I've loved my time in forensics, but it's time to move somewhat sideways. I've sat numeracy & literacy tests, been deemed medically, physically and psychologically fit, sat a panel interview and finally after many months of obsessively checking the mail, been accepted as a new recruit to enter the police force. I am so very ready for a new challenge. I am so excited to have a huge opportunity before me.

I said I'd make a career move this year. And finally it's done!

Run: 54:30 | 8.6km | 6:20/km. Ran sans Garmin. No feedback at all. I battled a little. Dehydration is the most likely contributor. Nice along the foreshore without the wind.

All week; strength: 10m. Just punishing my triceps with dumbbell kickbacks.
Mon; kickboxing: 45m. Another hard session, this one involving kettlebells.
Mon; commute: 1:10 | 20.6km | 17.66km. Heh, I wore my HRM. I wanted a rough estimate of calorie burnt. About 220 cal each way. Riding the Gazelle is a mix of strength & cardio. To say it's not light is an understatement.

Weekly goals revisited

1. 12,000 steps per day
The average over the week sees me hitting the target. Getting back into some longer rides helps!

2. Two kickboxing sessions (I haven't been in weeks)
Went Mon & Sat. Just have to get to Wed session.

3. Three runs
Yes. Or maybe 2 1/2? Does a small run off the bike count?

4. One bicycle commute
Two bicycle commutes. And two long rides. Bonus!

5. Five days of calorie deficit.
This was easily the toughest. Thursday I missed the mark, and I came pretty close yesterday to going over. The caramel slice was not a wise choice. But you've got to live a little, right? I usually wouldn't track weekends, but I think that's been detrimental in the past.

An hours ride does wonders for the calorie burned values. Riding to work on the fast bike is looking more enticing all the time.

Ride: 1:20 | 35.7km |26.7km/hr. Glorious day for riding. Found some additional road in which to take on a few extra km on my usual Williamstown ride.

Run: 11m | 2km | 5:50/km. Run off the bike. I forgot how much this hurts.

Swim: 39m | 1700m | 2:17/100m. I am ever thankful to J who agrees to meet me at the pool most Sundays. I'm not sure I'd have the motivation to go if it wasn't for him. 3x 500m. 2x 100 kick.

Sat: kickboxing: 45m. Seriously awesome class. One of the guys who trains with us during the week took the class. He's a machine and pulled out the moves on Sat morning. Best workout in a while. More Saturday classes, yes please!

10000 steps

This is what I'll be wearing for the next however many weeks. It's 10,000 step challenge time at work again and there's already some smack talk being bantered around. No one wants to be the person on the team who didn't record their 10,000 for the day. And as a team captain, I'm aiming to go higher.

Getting through yesterday's fitness test has taken a weight off my shoulders. I feel as though I'm ready to get back into an exercise routine, rather than having a fear of aggravating my ITB.

Goals this week:
1. 12,000 steps per day
2. Two kickboxing sessions (I haven't been in weeks)
3. Three runs
4. One bicycle commute
5. Five days of calorie deficit.