Chase the Stars

Sunday:

We spent all day Saturday preparing for that night's cocktail party to celebrate Tim's birthday. Lots of house-cleaning. By the time the party started we were both already exhausted! But then the party got going and it was great. So much fun. Cocktails and Singstar (karaoke) and dance games. A room full of friends. Well worth all the work.

The last people left at around 1:30 which is pretty late for me these days! I lay in bed for a long time unable to sleep due to the pain in my feet, so tired from standing all day and evening (and dancing). Also my RSI flared up a bit, especially in my right hand, maybe from squeezing lemons and limes? Anyway, I had a terrible night sleep and was almost glad to get up in the morning and start the task of tidying up the kitchen, and then I went out for a walk before anyone else (other than the kids) was up.

This weekend was the first instalment of Chase the Stars - sorry I'm too tired to work out how to do a link - 10 weekends over the year when people around the world are doing 5k walk/jog/runs, organised by Kyra. I walked around the neighbourhood but only ended up doing 3.5k in 50 minutes - pretty slow! I was just exhausted and my feet were starting to hurt again. Maybe I should have had breakfast first as well. So I didn't complete the 5k but I think I did quite well considering.

I got back home to a clean house, my husband had done the second half, and had breakfast with family who had stayed the night then I pretty much collapsed for the rest of the day. I know you are thinking I drank too much Saturday night! But actually I only had three cocktails over more than five hours. I was just overworked and underslept. I had a short nap and sat around the rest of the day staring into space. It was worth it though, we had a great time at the party.

One bad thing did happen. When I was getting dressed for the party, I found that what I wanted to wear didn't fit me any more! A bit distressing. I can't start expanding out of my "fat clothes"! Back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Edit: I wasn't sure whether to award myself the medal or not. I didn't go the whole 5k. But in the end I decided to give myself one, the littlest version. I did get out there and walk 3.5k despite being unfit and tired and with various aching bits. I participated, even if I didn't finish! This is my start, and there are nine to go to improve in.

Chasing the Stars

Monday:

Monday is currently my official weigh-in day, although I weigh myself every morning, and today I was 82.2kg, back to where I was a fortnight ago. So I guess last week's jump was more time-of-the-month than anything else.

Last night a cool change came through so it's only 26C (79F) today instead of the 40C (104F) it has been for a week. So much nicer. It was so hard getting out of bed this morning, my body wanted more of that beautiful beautiful sleep in the coolness! But I had to get up because I am minding a friend's children all day. They are the same ages as my two and have been friends since the boys were born seven years ago, so I don't need to actually do anything other than feed them. The four of them should play happily together all day. I don't quite feel it would be responsible of me to go and have a nap, though.

When my dad was here and laying out all the pills he needed to take before dinner, Aiden asked him about some of them. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes medication! Last I heard he was only pre-diabetic. I asked him if his diabetes educator had advised him against some of his dietary choices (like 4 or 5 glasses of wine a day) and he looked at me sideways and said "they say all sorts of things". Obviously has no intention of changing. Dad's health started really going downhill only a few years ago, and now I have both parents to worry about. Dad was really active until he started having heart troubles, but he has always had a meat and alcohol-heavy diet, despite his heart bypass twenty years ago. Now he gets tired even on a brief slow walk, but he still consumes all the fat and wine. He has never worn a hat (or shirt!) or sunscreen when working outside all day (too cissy) so I don't know what is going to get him first: his heart, skin cancer, blood pressure, or now diabetes.

Sometimes my own self-inflicted weight problems seem petty but I shouldn't think that way. Maybe part of it is just vanity (not that self image is trivial) but health is so important. My health is important to me and my family.

I've joined a virtual 5K program:

It was set up by Kyra at http://thefitadventure.blogspot.com . She has chosen 10 weekends throughout 2014 for followers to run or walk a 5K (a "real one" if one happens to be on and you want to, or otherwise just your own) and then post their results. It's not a competition, except against yourself, but it's a challenge to do all ten. My shins hurt when I run so I may never be able to do more than break into a jog occasionally, but I'm going to do the challenge anyway. Walking is way better than sitting on the couch, and it's nice to be part of a community doing it. And there are prizes! It starts in 10 weeks (or maybe a bit less, now) to give people time to build up to it. Lucky for me, because there is no way I would do it in summer.

I've been thinking about joining the gym at Uni but I'll wait to see what my timetable looks like. I'll probably have two mornings free of classes, but on the other hand I might need that time for study, doing assignments, grocery shopping etc. I don't want to spend the money if I hardly ever use it. But back on the first hand, I need to get some exercise in some time! Now that the temperature has dropped (briefly) I can at least imagine being able to exercise again.

Biggest Loser started here last night. They are going to have the usual 14 people starting the intensive training in The House, but they are also trying to help an entire town of 11,000 people; one of the most obese towns in Australia. It will be interesting to see how that works. I know a lot of people don't like the show, saying it humiliates the obese contestants, that the training is unrealistic and divorced from the real world, that it is a freak show and voyeurism etc. Well, any reality show is voyeurism. But I don't see it as fat shaming. I see a group of people who ask for help and get it. Sure they have to go back to their real life afterwards and learn to cope with temptations, but at least they are given a start. On the Australian show they have got rid of the controversial "temptations" episodes where contestants could eat a lot of junk for the chance of getting immunity, which I think was a good move. Anyway, I know not everyone approves but I love the show. I love seeing people transform.

Even on the very first episode, they got the contestants to walk up a very challenging track (I looked it up later, the website said the walk is 3.6 km and is a 20% gradient). One guy said after 200 metres he nearly gave up. It just seemed too hard. But the trainers badgered and encouraged and every one of them made it to the top of the mountain. A lot of them were amazed that they were able to do it. But once they realised that they could do something like that, they were filled with hope for the future.

My first 5k -- done!

Saturday:

We had so much to do today I didn't think we would be able to fit it all in, but somehow we did. First was Jasmine's violin performance in a String Festival (she was in non-competitive under 10yo). Luckily for us they split her category into two groups so by 10:30 she had her medal and Tim could rush the kids off to their swimming lesson and then Jas to a party while I made my way to the race area. Luckily it was literally a block away. The 10K or maybe the half marathon was in progress, tomorrow is the marathon and ultra-marathon.

I changed and put on sunscreen, had my banana and string cheese and half my bottle of water, and sat down to play with my iPhone for half an hour. Then I checked in my backpack and got in the long line for the porta-loos. I was feeling a bit discouraged as I looked around me. In front of me in the queue was a woman with two young children (maybe 5 and 7) and also a toddler in a stroller, and I knew they were going to beat me in the race. Everyone was going to beat me. I could run a whole 15 seconds at a time, who was I kidding?

But I made my way to the starting line anyway and placed myself near the back of the large pack -- apparently there were 705 finishers today. We couldn't hear any of the announcements from back there so the starting gun came as a bit of a surprise but we all started shuffling forwards. We couldn't run yet, it was too crowded. After 100 metres or so I passed the starting line and the pack started to thin out.

I decided to put on my Zombie app, week 2 day 1, during the race. As I anticipated, I couldn't hear all of the voice-over at first due to the crowd but later it helped me get going. I was up to 30 second intervals today. For the first 10 minutes I watched a pink-haired lady in front of me, she stayed at a walk. Because I have short legs (I'm only 5 foot tall, 152 cm) I walk slower than most other people (I'm probably also just a slow walker). So this lady strode ahead and I would jog a little to keep up, then walk to recover and she would get ahead again, then jog to catch up again. At some point I passed her and then I never saw her again and had to use other people as markers.

Those first 10 minutes were the worst of the whole race. Whether it was because I wasn't warmed up properly (I did a little stretching and walking, but not much) or just the hard surface of the road when I usually run on grass, my legs were killing me. Quite bad pains up my shins. In particular, every step on my left foot sent pain shooting the front of my leg. And this was only the first 10 minutes! I still had 4 kilometers to go! But actually after that the pain eased up and it wasn't too bad at all.

After the 10 min warm up the zombie intervals began so I did those. 30 seconds of running each time, which I found managable. I found that I did 40 steps (on each foot, I always counted each right foot-fall) in 30 seconds. I was also listening to the soundtrack to Jekyll and Hyde, but couldn't hear it all that well.

When I was a couple of blocks away from the finish line on the first of two laps, the real runners started passing me on their second lap. After six or eight men had zoomed past me, a group of spectators started cheering me and yelling "go girl!" and "doing great" and similar and I smiled and sped up and then realised that they were cheering the first girl to lap me on her way to the finish line. She looked about 14.

I did my last zombie interval just before I finished lap one, and then I was on my own with the timing but I kept trying to do the same thing ... running 40 steps (about 30 seconds) and then walking to recover. The only water station was at this point so I had a few mouthfulls and set off on lap two. I felt in pretty good shape. I started trying to pass people. My stats show that although I was slightly faster on my first lap (not by much), I was comparatively faster on my second lap in relation to others -- so I slowed down a little bit but not as much as other people. We were all either walking a bit and running a bit, or just walking. I would set my sights on someone ahead of me, run to catch up, walk and fall back, run and pass then, walk and drop behind again, run and pass them for good.

The middle three kilometres were all pretty managable; the leg pain was much reduced and I was pacing myself well. But that last kilometre was a real struggle. I was out of energy. My legs were tired. Each running interval was harder than the one before. I was dehydrated and overheated. I saw a woman point out the corner to the finish line sprint up ahead so I sailed past them ... only to find she was wrong and I had another block before the correct corner. Finally the finish line was ahead. I walked until I thought it was close enough for a final sprint and ran. Saw my husband and little son cheering me on. Crossed the line and slowed to a walk. My husband yelled at me to go on and I realised the actual finish line was about a metre further on. Lurched over it. Yay!

After collecting my backpack and having a drink of freshly-squeezed juice (man that was good!) we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for a quick lunch -- I was still all hot and sweaty but we didn't have time for anything else -- then went to pick up Jasmine from her party. Got home at about 2.15 pm after a day that felt like it went for about a week, scoffed some birthday cake, had a hot bath and collapsed into bed for an hour. Killer headache and aching legs.

But I did it. My first 5K. My dream time would have been 45 mins, the only thing I had to go by was walking/jogging around the lake about a year ago in 52 mins. I hadn't done very much training.

My official time was 49:38, and I am happy with that. I got under 50 minutes, at least.

The winner took 15:58, the first female 18:53.

I was 682nd of 705 finishers (not last! yay! but as I tell the kids, even the person who came last did really well for finishing at all. The slowest walker is lapping the person sitting on the couch), 89th of 92 in my gender/age group.

So will I do it again? Dunno. I guess so. Not anytime real soon. I am still keen on running away from zombies, and I like doing races. I don't consider myself a runner. Some people say you are a runner if you do any running whatsoever, I disagree. I'm not a chef just because I cook my family dinner, I'm not a writer because I scribble a shopping list (or even this blog). I think it can make words almost meaningless if you broaden the application so far. But I guess I am in training.

Training Goals

more Saturday:

I just signed up for a 5K (the Canberra Times fun run) -- my first 5K. So now I have two things to train for.

The Verti-cool Challenge, a 403 stair race up Telstra Tower, is on 24 March -- 4 weeks from tomorrow. As I have no continuous set of stairs to train on, it is very difficult to set a realistic goal based on my current knowledge. I nearly died doing up + down in under 10 minutes yesterday, but I should be fitter than that by race day (and won't have any "down" to worry about). I plan to be. I looked up last year's results and the winner did it in 2:47. OMG, right? The first woman (12th place overall) took 3:26. She probably wasn't over 40, but who knows. The first 100 or so people did it in 5:00 or less. So that is my goal, 5:00. That may be unrealistic, I just don't know. It is something to aim for.

To train for it I will use the library steps again at least once a week, plus climb Mt Ainslie (only 50 or so stairs, but lots and lots of "up") with Caroline on Saturdays. Which means I may never get around to doing Parkrun on Saturday mornings, but I'd rather climb with my friend. If she can't go some weeks I could do Parkrun then.

The Fun Run is on 13 April, so I have 7 weeks for that. I am going to start up my C25K training again, this afternoon I organised with a friend to run at the local oval two mornings a week, getting out of bed a bit earlier than usual. He is much fitter than me (like most people!) and has even run a marathon but we'll just be doing laps of the oval so we don't have to be going at the same pace. It's just nice to have a companion to make sure you get up and do it, and keep you company.

Unfortunately we have storms forcast all week so I'm not sure how that is going to go.

I had a look at my C25K app to see how many weeks the training course was (it's 9, I only have 7 -- and only plan to do two days a week not three, but then I don't expect to run the whole 5K) and it's been so long since I'd done it a suggestion came up that I start again from the beginning! I'd only done the first two days anyway, so I didn't have that much fitness to lose.

Last year's results for this particular fun run included the first woman in my age group of 40-49 (91st overall) with a time of 23:48. Since my best ever time is about 52 minutes, and I still can't run eight 1-minute intervals in a row, I don't expect to get anywhere near that time. I have seven weeks to train so of course I will get better ... I'll set a goal closer to the time but atm I think 40 mins would be pretty good for me.

And on in-between days, I'll keep on dancing at home!

Occasional 5K training

Saturday:

I'd had some thoughts, earlier in the week, about doing Parkrun today. They have a casual (but timed) 5K by the nearby lake every Saturday morning. I am totally not ready to run a 5K and haven't done any training for it for months, since it got hot, but I knew we were going to have one cool day in the middle of this heatwave and I could just walk most of the 5K. Then every subsequent time would be a new PB! But anyway I then forgot about it and slept in, but decided it was still good weather to do a training run.

I did Week 1 Day 2 of C25K -- it's only my second try at this program but I had done some of a different program before that -- and again I couldn't do the whole thing so I think I'll be on Week 1 for a while! Of the eight 60 second intervals, I did the full minute only on laps 1, 6 and 8. That last one was hard! I really pushed myself. The other laps I only did about 30 seconds of the running interval. You get 90 seconds recover in between and boy does that go quickly.

As well as having a voice in my ear I keep track of how many intervals I've done by changing which lane I'm in, I start in the outside lane and move in one each time. It also boosts my perception of how far I've run because each lap is a little bit shorter than the one before. Everything that helps me get through it is worth doing.

I find myself much tireder after running than I have been after dance.

Fun run and golf balls

Tuesday:

Well, I just registered for the fun run. It is actually 3.4 km, and I have only 13 days to prepare. My training isn't going that smoothly so I don't feel ready at all, but I'm going to do it anyway.

My goals are 1) to finish and 2) to run as much as I can. I do not expect to run the whole thing.

Yesterday I woke with my shoulder aching -- my right shoulder, which I injured 12 years ago, not the left which was only damaged two years ago. The right rarely hurts now except when I am sick or overuse the computer. I haven't been feeling well the past few days and I assume it was a combination of that and sleeping on it wrong. It washed out my plan to do BodyPump and I just did some gentle walking.

Today was a run-training day. Luckily my shoulder was fine but I still wasn't feeling great this morning so I put it off until after lunch when I was feeling much better. I had to walk/run 2.41 km. I found the instructions a bit confusing, previous sessions of this length were "slow run or brisk walk" and as I can't run far yet I just did the brisk walk except for the first day when I did my own run/walk intervals. But then I had an training session with actual planned intervals so I felt like I shouldn't be doing them on the other days. But it was confusing doing so many walking sessions -- I already know how to walk. Then today's session said "If you can't run the whole way yet, run as much as you can". So that sounds like I should have been putting in my own running intervals all along. And I haven't been. Only a week and a half into this and already I feel off track.

Ha. If I can't run the whole way yet?! Not even close.

I went down to the local oval, using half of the walk there as a warm up then doing a little run, but I was only a quarter of my way around my first lap of the running track imprinted on the grass when I saw a golf ball in the lane. I nudged it gently off the track, to next to another golf ball. Huh? Why would someone leave golf balls here? A couple of metres further on there were another half a dozen. I looked around and saw a woman standing over in the shade with a golf club, some distance away. "You worked out what I am doing yet?" she called. At the time I though she said it in a friendly way, but now I wonder if she was being a bit snarky because I was in her way. "I was wondering why there were golf balls all over the place," I laughed, moving on.

So the running track was now out of the question, with golf balls flying around, and I moved onto the footpath and wandered around the suburb. But it was far from ideal, running on the path makes my shins hurt (which is going to be a real problem in races and I don't know how to resolve that) and quite often I didn't even have a footpath; I had to walk on unmown grassy nature strip or in the gutter along the side of the road. I got in three little running intervals all together. Not a good session at all.

The evils of salad dressing

Thursday:

After yesterday's rest I woke today all refreshed and ready to push myself! ... ah, actually no. I wanted to take another day off! My feet & legs weren't sore anymore, but it is that TOM and I just wanted to sit around and feel grumpy.

But it was a training day so I eventually managed to bully myself out the door. The schedule called for a 2.4 km steady slow run or brisk walk. There is no way I can run for 2.4 km so I decided on a brisk walk in a big loop of the suburb. To be honest, I bribed myself with a promise that I could stop at the corner store near the end and buy a little packet of Doritos and make nachos for lunch. A small serve, not too much cheese. Not healthy at all, but it got me out the door.

It was cool and cloudy this morning, it looked like it was going to pour down rain any minute, so I kept my jeans on instead of changing into gym shorts. Of course the moment I got out the door the sun broke though the clouds and it became quite warm. I got a bit hot in the jeans but it wasn't too bad -- after all I was just walking -- and after I got going I rather enjoyed my time outside.

When the little voice told me the workout was over I was about midway between the corner store and home, a couple of blocks each way. Strongly influenced by the fact that I really needed to pee, I ditched the idea of nachos and just went home.

Caesar salad! Excellent idea. A bit calorie laden, yes, but lots of crisp cos lettuce and a bit of salty bacon and a perfect soft-boiled egg... not too bad, right? I love Paul Newman's creamy Caesar salad dressing. I didn't read the nutritional label. Well actually, I did glance at it to check the carbs and they were very low so it seemed like a good choice, a fine choice. I didn't look at the calories. I meant to have one tablespoon. You know when you are trying to drizzle something out of a bottle and it goes nothing ... nothing ... nothing ... half the bottle? I scraped a lot off and even washed a few pieces of lettuce but still ended up with a lot more than I had planned. I guesstimated 2 tablespoons. And after lunch I plugged everything into CalorieKing.

A whole head of baby cos lettuce, excellent. Bacon; well I knew that would have calories, ok. Egg, fine. Bread, hmm should have had a bit less bread maybe. Oo, forgot the olive oil that I tossed the bread in to crisp it up. A few more calories there. And the 2 tablespoons of creamy dressing OH MY GOD 218 CALORIES!!!?

Yeah, not so good. 218 calories just for the dressing, on an already quite high-calorie lunch. Maybe I need to pre-track.

I mentioned that I got that email yesterday from Diabetes ACT saying I should manage carbs and watch my blood sugar levels, well last night was D&D supper. I didn't think I had too much; two TimTams (chocolate biscuits with chocolate cream enrobed in chocolate) and a few apricot delight (about 50% dried apricot and the other 50% probably sugar). A couple of hours later I was feeling kind of light-headed. Could have been just tired and I have no idea if high blood sugar has a dizzying effect, but I went and tested my blood. 10.4 mmol/L, which I think is the highest I've ever seen it. Higher even than during the glucose test after 75 g of carbs!

I've calculated around 45g of carbohydrate, mainly sugar. Did it go up so high because it was a different time of day to the fasting test? Or because I had supper only about two hours after dinner? Or because I tested a bit less than 2 hours after starting to eat supper (about 1 hr 45 mins) instead of exactly 2 hours?

Or am I getting worse already?

Now there is a scary thought.

It is two months since my glucose tolerance test. I haven't lost any weight -- I've crept up by nearly a kg. I have good intentions every day and fail to follow through. This is so important.

I called Diabetes ACT and I've organised to go along to a couple of information sessions soon. I hope that will be of some help. But I know what I need to do, and it's me that needs to do it, not them. What will it take to make me take this seriously enough to be consistent?

This is it. I am serious. Now.

Intervals

Tuesday:

I had been looking forward to doing my interval training today out in the lovely spring weather but when I woke up a bit sore this morning (from BodyPump yesterday, maybe there is a reason 5 k training is only every second day!) I started to feel a bit scared that I wouldn't be able to do it. The brief was to run for 1.00 minute eight times with 1.30 walk in between. Could I even run (jog) for a whole minute? I had no idea. I probably had done it, but eight times in a row?

After taking the kids to school I faffed around at home for a while, putting it off, but finally drove to the lake around 10.00 am. Warm day with a lot of cloud cover and a little breeze, perfect. Had my iPhone, hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.

After a 5 min warm-up walk RunKeeper beeped and I started on my first run. Quick short steps, trit-trot-trit-trot. There was a sculpture of Whitlam, a politician, beside the path a bit ahead of me and I thought it was about the right distance. I wasn't far off, I was nearly there when the beep notified me my minute was over. That wasn't too hard. I could do that eight times, surely. I worked on my running rhythm and style, taking slightly longer more relaxed steps. Third interval was hard. Fourth interval was really hard. I'm sure this would be ridiculously easy for anyone used to running -- a minute at a time?! So slow it was barely faster than my walk! Ha! But it was hard for me.

Fifth interval I somehow suddenly hit my stride. It felt much better. I could have gone further instead of slumping back to a walk. And the final three intervals were the same. Not easy, never easy, but they felt much right-er than the first four. I did my eight intervals without stopping. So I just have to learn to keep that up for 30 mins straight ...

I was 2 km around the 5 km lake loop and kept walking, having the occasional drink from the bubblers (public drinking fountains). The breeze was blowing seeds off the trees, each one buoyed up by a wisp of white fluff. It was like walking through a warm blizzard. I got back to my starting point feeling strong.

And then I went around again, to achieve my personal goal for the month of walking 10 km straight. I started to need to pee after the first lap, but Floriade had just finished on the weekend and there were fences all around the park while they dismantled stuff so I had to go a fair way. After that brief stop I was suddenly tired and sore. And my feet started to really hurt. I wasn't bothered by the tired legs, but the balls of my feet were so sore that I was trying to walk on the outside edges of my feet for the last kilometre. Not so fun. I used to get sore feet doing 5 km walking, now at least I get to about 8 km. Presumably the wicking socks are helping. But that last bit was miserable. They are still quite sore now, a couple of hours later after a shower, but at least I can walk.

The school day is nearly over and I haven't got anything done! Except exercise. I've got my exercise done today.

First training run

Sunday:

I did my first training run today. (Well, "run" in the broadest sense of the term.) I was a bit confused as to whether I was supposed to do it today or tomorrow as the information differed on different pages of the site but decided to start today and the program accepted that when I selected it on my iPhone. We were busy this morning and then it turned into a warm day so I waited until 4 pm.

I did a 15 min brisk walk first, then started the session. It consisted of a 5 min warm up followed by an easy 2.41 km at my own pace. I assume 2.41 km makes sense in the original miles of the creator. I was told by a friend to take it very easy at first, but after all I know that I can walk 2.41 km, or 5 km, or even 10 km. I needed to do more than that. I figure my best previous attempt was 5 km around the lake when I jogged about every 5th 100 metres.

I walked to a nearby oval that has a 400 metre circuit measured on the grass and did laps. I'm not sure exactly how much jogging/running I did but I slow-ran every straight and walked around the curves. I started off thinking I was running half, every second 100 metres or so, but it was probably more like a third. I'm happy with that. My calves were burning by the end of each run.

I realised quickly that my jogging/running style (as I've mentioned before, I don't think anyone calls it jogging any more, it's a slow run nowadays) leaves a lot to be desired. I slump forward and watch my feet. So I made a conscious effort to straighten up and look forward. When I got home I looked up running techniques and an upright form is definitely recommended.

The amusing bit was near the end. I was listening to music but RunKeeper would interrupt every so often saying how far I'd gone and my pace etc, so I knew I didn't have much further to go. Another run, another walk, but it still hadn't told me to stop. Another run, another walk. What the? Surely I'd finished by now. I'd actually decided that it wasn't going to give me a "done" cue and I was walking off the oval fiddling with my iPod when it finally told me the workout was over. And I realised that I hadn't taken into account the distance I had walked during my warm up. I had to do warmup plus 2.41 km.

I was tired and hungry when I got home but managed to not eat everything in sight, I just started making dinner. My calories have been great today.

I'm really feeling it in my back and legs, so I guess it was a successful first training run!

5K Fun run

Sunday again:

I just had a look and it turns out that there is a regular Saturday morning (8 am) 5k fun run around the lake near here (Lake Ginnandera, not the bigger lake I like to walk around). They started in April this year and have an average of about 50 runners each week, last week 63 with 26 new people. They post photos and results on their website. Sounds good. But the average time is under 30 mins and my best is over 50! Hmm, definitely train for it first. The fastest guy has done it in 14 mins. He'd be zooming back past me when I had barely started. But I am just a beginner.

www.parkrun.com.au

Grooving to Gaga

Sunday:

We spent the weekend in Sydney visiting family. I didn't make the best food choices, but at least I went for a 45 min walk with Tim this morning and then a 30 min walk by myself when we got home. I listened to Lady Gaga remixes which were perfect to get me moving along quickly. I only have about eight albums loaded on my iPhone, I really need to put some more on.

My RunKeeper now has some free training programs, so I've decided that next week (after I'm sure my ankle is up to jogging) I'll start beginners 5K training and I've set a goal of actually participating in a 5K by the end of June next year. That gives me 9 months to get myself organised. I'll probably start looking for one before then. The training program is 8 weeks long. School holidays start here next week, so it's going to be tricky working in lots of exercise but I do have the treadmill at home now and of course I can take the kids out for bike rides and walks, and use Kinect games. Club Gecko only has one long session per week in the holidays but the gym has a creche in the mornings, so lots of options really. My mum will be visiting, and my dad (separately, they are divorced), and probably Tim's dad too and his brother at various times. I'll have to get everyone moving!