More Races

I think I must be insane!

I just entered the Joggers World Fun Run Series, which is a series of 4 races over the next 4 months.  I am in the 2km run.  The reason I went in the shorter event is that I want to use it to work on my speed and I can compare the same distance and the same course over a series of weeks.  Also, it will get me used to a race situation so hopefully I can work on some of the issues I had in the MDC.

I don't have my diary with me today and I have a vague feeling I can't actually do either the June or July one, but I only paid for 3 (if you registered for all 4 you got a discount) so it didn't cost me extra to register.

Ross is thinking about doing the 4km events.  I hope he does!

xox

MDC Official Times are In

Thank you all so much for your amazing comments yesterday.  You are all so wonderfully supportive and I do thank you for that.  So here it is...

Official Times for MDC

Kylie  -  38:43 mins
36-40 year old females  -  59/63
All women  -  495/512
Overall  -  683/708

Ross  -  22:52 mins
36-40 year old men  -  14/24
All men  -  96/196
Overall  -  219/708

I am happy with that.  Actually I am really happy.  My watch said 38:46 but I thought the official timing would be quite different which is why I said around the 39 minute mark.  And I didn't come last in ANY category!  YAHOOO! LOL

Last night was cooking class.  No photos yet I am sorry.  We made Sweet Potato & Cashew Croquettes with Tangy Salsa - SO yum! - and Sticky Date with Toffee Sauce.  We only cooked up 1 croquette to try, and I took the mix home.  I will make them tomorrow night and you can have photos then.  And the Sticky Date looks great, but we are going to do the sauce tonight and serve it up and will take pics then. 

Tonight I am walking home from work.  The way I will probably go is about 8.2kms.  I am still a bit stiff from the weekend and I won't be timing myself, this is just to get some distance in my legs.  We head off to Heyson in 5 months so we need to start concentrating on that.  I will do a few sprints on the way home too. 

My next running goal is to get to 5kms, then after that it is time to look at speed.  I am hoping the sprints will help with that.

Have a great day everyone!

xox

Mothers Day Classic 2010

Yes, that is a rare photo of just me you see to the side.  I don't usually do photos, but I figured today was a bit special.  For today was the Mothers Day Classic, my first ever fun run!  I woke up absolutely terrified.  In fact, I went to bed absolutely terrified.  LOL  Lets start with yesterday.  Yesterday we went out in the morning to do some shopping.  I wore my old grungy sneakers as I often do.  An hour or so out and I realise, they are causing blisters on the back of my heels.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I took them off and finished the shopping in true Adelaide Bogan-style, in bare feet.  Thankfully my MIL is a Registered Nurse and has a multitude of dressings and bandages, and gave me some wicked dressings to cover them up.  Add my ankle braces to the mix and no rubbing today, thankfully. 

We got there bright and early, me completely terrified, Ross seemingly calm.  I say seemingly because after it was over he admitted he was scared about his lung holding up.  He was to run his own race and since he mainly runs at my pace he was concerned that even though it is over a year since his pnuemothorax that something would happen.  Thankfully, everything was A-OK.

In the last 20 minutes I went to the toilet 3 times.  The last time I think I squeezed out half a drip, but I seriously thought I needed to go.  They asked for the fast runners to go to the front and the slow ones to go to the back, which I was more than happy with.  Unfortunately I got caught up in the crowd and ended up somewhere in the middle.

I had asked Ross to run with me for 10 minutes, but 30 seconds before we crossed the start line I told him to run his own race, then we were off and I was on my own.  I was too close to the middle of the crowd, and although I pulled right over to the left I got swept up and struggled to find my pace.  Linda had said to me to make sure I didn't start out too hard, and that was going through my head, but there were too many people and I found it hard to slow down.  I ran up the first hill (even though I had decided to walk up every hill since I have not trained on them) and I ran it too fast.  The result, 750m in and I was hurting.

Thankfully it soon started to thin out and I could drop back to my shuffle pace.  I was still hurting though but kept plowing though until the next hill, then used that as an opportunity to catch my breath.  I was constantly getting overtaken, but I kept plodding along.  Despite the lungs screaming and the legs hurting, I only walked about 3 or 4 minutes in total, and I made it through with an unofficial time of 39 minutes, which is slightly faster than my normal pace.  I think my official time will be a bit longer coz they didn't zap me at the end right away to trigger my time finishing.

The end was awesome, all the walkers and those who had already finished the race were along the sides cheering, and Ross was there and ran along the edge with me for the last 50m telling me how awesome I am (gotta love hearing that!)  The marshalls were giving encouragement at every turn which was also great.  When I finished I truly couldn't breathe, but I recovered in quite a short timespan so I was happy with that.

I stretched out a bit, grabbed some water and some fruit a sat down to enjoy the morning.

Watching the walkers leave was amazing.  Check out the photo below,  If you make it bigger and have a look you can see the line of people all the way up along the river.  The last walkers were still going through the start line when the front walkers were on the other side of the river at the 2km mark.  It was an incredible sea of pink and purple surrounding the river and it was a truly awesome sight.

I am so glad I did this.  It was a 'safe' event for my first run because no one was taking it too seriously.  I learnt a lot (particularly to start at the back next time) and feel really proud that I completed it. 

Thanks so much to everyone for their support over the last few months.  I think you all believed I could do it long before I did.  And I really appreciate that.

xox

PS - I should add Ross did the 4km in somewhere around 20-25 minutes with very little training at his real pace.  My husband ROCKS!

She-Wee

Last night I finally got my She-Wee.  What is a She-Wee I hear you ask?  Well, a She-Wee is a "portable urinating device for women". 

I got it for long rides in the country and for when we hike the Heyson Trail in October.  The idea is you can pee standing up like boys.  One of the guys in my office called it a Girlie Doodle.  It is a very bizarre little contraption, and I believe I will need to practice with it before I go...  I will keep you updated!

I have been think a lot about my fitness and how far I have come in the last 3 months.  Once the MDC is over I don't want that to stop.  I am enjoying my new found fitness and energy levels and want to continue to improve on that.  So I have worked out an exercise plan for the next month.

Cycling - 80kms per week

Running - 60 mins per week

2 other exercise sessions a week

I am riding about 60kms just commuting to and from work, so need to add longer rides home or an extra ride.  The plan for running is to get myself up to a 5km run (nearly there) and do that on the weekends.  Thursday night I will have my Start Running Group.  And Tuesday night I am going to walk home from work and do a few sprints within the walk.  No other running, just a few 30 second sprints.  There is also one bridge I want to run up to start getting used to running up hills.  As for the other exercise sessions, they can be anything - swimming, yoga, football with the kids, boxing, hiking, whatever comes my way.

I have started reading the Intuitive Eating book and so far it has some good messages.  So as far as eating, I am going to start trying to listen to what my body needs, rather than what my head wants.  There is a difference, I just need to be able to identify it. 

Daily Goals

1)  Drink 1.5 L of water

2)  Add an extra few kms to my ride home

3)  Listen to my body with regards to food

4)  Relax tonight, and sit down and knit in front of the TV

5)  Try not to go insane at work considering I am the only one in the office today

Have a great day!

xox

Working and running and cooking

Yesterday was a horrible day.  Work was nuts.  All the yucky clients we have had a problem, the banks were going berserk, the Real Estate Agents and Conveyancers were cranky, and the guys in the office were not doing things they should have which made my job more time consuming and frustrating.  I also had a personal situation come up that was scary and worrying that was (and is) consuming my thoughts.

By 5pm I wanted a Strongbow and a couch.  The thought of going for a run was mortifying.  But it was the absolute last chance I had to go for a run before the MDC so I geared up and headed off.  From the first step I knew it was gonna be yuck.  I couldn't find a rhythm and everything hurt.  I was really hoping I could find a good rhythm and the motion would help ease the stress of the day.  But no such luck.  It was cold, it was windy, and 2/3 of the way through, it started raining.  The good thing about the rain is it made me want to get inside, and the quickest way to do that was to keep running.

The result, I ran the entire 4.2km course with no walk breaks.  It took 43 minutes, 30 seconds.  It hurt.  There was no runners high, and although it is the absolute best I have done, I did not feel good at it.  I tried really hard on the ride home (in the wind and rain) to get excited about my run, but it just wasn't there.  I guess sometimes that just happens.  Sometimes the runners high and the joy just ain't there.

Today I had a training course off site for the morning.  I didn't learn a lot as most of it was stuff I was already doing, but I came back with a couple of improvements I can implement.  I didn't get back to the office until 1.30pm, of course with a full day of work on the desk.  Thankfully the cranky clients were nowhere to be seen, so I just worked through what I could and I will deal with the rest tomorrow.

Tonight I wanted to make the Parsnip Soup from Monday nights class.  I had sent Ross out for supplies and I got cooking as soon as I got home.

Now I am not really a soup person.  I like it well enough, but it's not something I get excited about.  I also don't necessarily like parsnips.  But can I just say, this soup ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is SO yummy and filling and absolutely devine.  The recipe is meant to serve 6, but the 3 of us all had a serve and there is only enough left for 1 more.  :o)  Ross is taking it for lunch tomorrow.

That's it for me today.  I just read back over this and realised the beginning is quite negative.  I was going to apologise, but then I realised that would be apologising for my own feelings and I don't do that any more.  I am sure things will be back to normal next post!

xox

Thinking About Food

Last night was our first Cooking Class for this course which is the Gourmet Vegetarian class.  As with the last one we did, week 1 was a demonstration and information night.  Natalie made Parsnip Soup (which I plan on making tomorrow night), a Ricotta Flan with honey roasted vegetables, and Dreamy Pavlova.  We got to have a little taste of it all and everything was SO good!  Next week we are doing 2 recipes on our own - a sweet potato croquette with a tangy salsa, and sticky date and toffee pudding.  Ross is going to do the pudding, and I will do the croquettes.  I can't wait!

I have actually been thinking a lot about food lately.  While I am content with my plan to not focus on my weight, I am interested in being fit.  And part of fitness is what we eat.  In the last 2 months or so I have been getting out of control with my eating again.  Not all day like I used to, but in the mornings.  I have a good breakfast, then about 9.30ish I lose it.  I am not hungry but I start eating crap.  It finishes at lunch time when I am so full.  Then I don't eat in the afternoon, have a healthy dinner and go to bed.  The hours between 9.30am and 1pm are really ruining things for me.

I want to eat good whole foods - not crap.  And I want to be in control of my eating.  Not control it as in calorie counting, but be in control of myself.  So I am going to start slowly.  The one thing I have noticed I have started doing again is using butter.  I hadn't used it in a couple of years, now all of a sudden everything is slathered in it.  So the first thing I am going to do is stop with the butter.  The other thing is to stop visiting the bakery.  If I can do those 2 things I think I will be well on my way to starting to get this under control.

I have a book called "Intuitive Eating" by Evelyn Tribole at home.  I think I will dig that out and start reading it.  It teaches you to be aware of your bodies hunger signals and to eat what your body needs, not stuff it full of crap.  I really want to get control of this as I know that if I fuel my body right, my fitness will benefit.

Daily Goals
1)  Drink 1.5L of water
2)  Go for my final run before the MDC
3)  Dig out the Intuitive Eating Book
4)  Try not to get too annoyed at work
5)  Don't binge this morning

xox

I Know I'm Not Perfect, But I'm So Close It Scares Me

That is what it says on my new soup mug.  I saw it in the Post office on Friday and just couldn't resist.  I used it this morning for my oats with honey and cinnamon.  It was so delish, and I am sure it tasted even better coz it was in such a cool bowl.

I have had a great weekend.  Yesterday was long and exhausting, and so much fun.  It started with a trip to my new favourite shop - Smiggle!

Em introduced me to Smiggle several weeks ago, but this was my first little splurge.  I had so much fun, and of course, everything has to be pink!

From our shopping trip we got on the bus up to Gumeracha, and headed off to the Medieval Fair.  Rather than tell you everything, I figured the best way to show you what we got up to is with photos.

The portrait at the bottom there is meant to be of us.  I think it is a good likeness of Ross, but not so much of me.  My lips are NOT that plumped unfortunately.  But it was fun to have it done, and look at my boobs and my upper abs!  Hot hot HOT!  LOL  We did have an amazing day as you can see.  There was jousting, and dancing, and sword fighting, and food, and art, and shopping, and everything else you can imagine for a medieval fair.  A great day.

Today was errands, and shopping and housework.  Plus an afternoon of relaxing and cooking.  I wanted to make pasta cups, but I couldn't find the big pasta shells I wanted.  So I decided to use similar ingredients and make my own version of a ricotta and summer veg lasagne. 

It tasted really good and I will definitely be making this one again.  The only thing I might do a bit differently next time is perhaps add a bit of fetta.  It didn't necessarily need it, but I love fetta! 

That's my weekend in a nutshell.  This week I start my next cooking class, I have my last run before the MDC, some cycling, cooking, the MDC, and who knows what else.

xox